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#11
It's funny how I got from a very bad situation where I thought I'd take the blame for the damage the laptop might have received (don't understand how that could be possible, though) to a much better one :) I was finally able to install Windows 7!
What I did was to create a bootable usb stick with rufus where I chose mbr with UEFI (although gpt with UEFI might be worked too, because the hdd's partition scheme remained GPT) and a Windows 7 Professional x64 (x64 is essential, x86 doesn't work).
Then I installed the usb 3.0/3.1 drivers and the nvme drivers (provided by SIW2 or by intel rapid storage technology on the dell site - don't remember which one worked, but I think both do) using dism (How to Install Windows 7 with only USB 3.0 Ports). The nvme I think can be browsed to later on, but the usb 3 driver needs to be installed before hand, so that the usb stick (or wherever you're installing the OS from) can be identified when the laptop bios/uefi hands the storage to the windows installer.
So it's important to note that I booted the uefi stick (not legacy, as I used to) - this is essential. Otherwise, you'd get an error telling you that windows cannot be installed to this disk, because it won't identify it later on, etc.
Now I'm already updating it through windows update and I'll have to see if the drivers are ok. I've already downloaded them from the dell's site.
So at a first glance, it seems to be a success :)
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