There is nothing in the Dell that is preventing you from installing a non-Dell OS. What we need to find out is what exactly is going on here.
When you format you erase everything on the hard drive... including your drivers. Windows will put basic drivers with most things... enough to run, but not at its best. It is always smarter to find the drivers you will need beforehand, download them, and put them on a thumbdrive or a CD.
you keep saying something about "the driver". Which driver? If you are attempting to use the driver disk that came with the laptop, it won't work. You will have to download the correct drivers for the laptop separately from that disk.