Chromebook 13 (7310) SSD Upgrade

That model is reaching End of Life. Support was supposed to be ended this year but has been extended to 2021. Use it as is and forget about upgrading --which is not even possible. That model was never meant to be used as your main computer. Repairs- not upgrades- are only possible if done by Dell Certified Techs.

https://www.notebookcheck.net/Google-extends-the-EOL-of-140-different-Chrome-OS-devices-by-up-to-a-year-each.441396.0.html

it does not support NVME and reason is that it was never meant to be your main computer upgrades are not available repairs are available only if not upgraded that by dell.tech

@BraddahCuz 
The slot is M.2 SATA and doesn't support NVMe, but there are LARGE capacity SSDs available that work with this system. I'm running a 2TB Sabrent 2242 M.2 SATA in the 7310 I'm posting from.

Contrary to the naysayers, I think these are amazing systems and the fact that the storage is upgradeable makes me recommend them over almost every other Chromebook out there. The battery and screen and DC jack are also EASY to replace, and they were sold in large numbers to schools and businesses, so there should be a steady supply of second hand parts for a couple years still.

My current plan when they finally reach EOL is to remove the Write Protect screw, enable Developer Mode, and install Linux in a dual boot with either Chrx or maybe replace ChromeOS completely by using the MrChromebox script to enable full UEFI so they become a "normal" laptop. If I miss ChromeOS much I'll try out Neverware CloudReady or Project Croissant or Brunch.

@spoelstraethan

I 100% agree with you!

I'm running mine with a 128GB SSD and have installed Windows 10 on it. I have the i3 with 4GB RAM and it runs it like a champ. 

If you want to run Linux on it, GalliumOS is not only made for Chromebooks, but the developer's used a 7310 when building it. GalliumOS 2.x runs flawlessly on it. 

I have windows 11 running on mime and I didn't know the capacity I could use so I used the 128 gb I had from my acer c720 I had put windows on did the same to my 7310 it's been amazing so far and the mine has touchscreen so thx for letting us know what it can use

@spoelstraethan​ Pretty much agreed, these are great little machines, no point in dumping them as long as they can run a decent operating system.

I have removed ChromeOS and installed a full-blown, modern Linux on it.

I removed the write protection screw from my 7310, put it into Developer Mode and installed the MrChromebox full UEFI BIOS.

With this the machine became an ordinary x86/x64 laptop, an easy target for Linux distributions.

I have installed Debian 12 on it from a USB thumb drive (first, I tried OpenSUSE Tumbleweed but that was fairly stuttery/slow).

Debian 12 is fairly stable and battery life seems to be as good as it was with ChromeOS.

I am using it with KDE Plasma 5 and it even looks great.

I am also thinking about upgrading the SSD to a bigger one because I currently only have the original 16 GB one so I had to put a 16 GB SD card it in to have a useful Linux install (internal SSD >> Linux system partition, SD card >> user home folders).

Note: With a clean Debian 12 + KDE + Chrome install, I have ~5 GB of free space left on the 16 GB SSD. (the wonders of Linux)

I gained the initial inspiration from: https://wiki.debian.org/InstallingDebianOn/Dell/Chromebook7310/bullseye

I should have done this long ago.

@w2tpmf​ @Tristan_1​ how did you install windows? Just remove the write-protected screw and install windows ? Or you also had to update the BIOS too ?

Please give a text guide