Solved Windows 7 on Dell XPS 9350

I'm trying to install Windows 7 on Dell XPS 9350. To be able to do that, I needed to install the usb 3.0 drivers (the laptop doesn't have any usb 2.0 ports and the usb 3.0 can't be change to usb 2.0 from the bios) into the Windows 7 installation on my usb stick.

The problem is that Windows can't identify the ssd. So I figured it was the motherboard chipset drivers that I needed to install, so that it could identify the nvme controller itself. The problem is that when I extract the driver, there are no .inf or .cab drivers. There are a lot of files without any extensions and basically the driver seems to be installable only on a functional installed operating system.

Any ideas how I could get a readable driver that I could browse to during the Windows 7 installer?

Thanks!

I don't see anything on the Dell downloads for this model for Win 7. They have Win 10 and Win 8.1 drivers. Even if you get Win 7 installed I doubt that all the devices on the laptop are going to work.

I've seen other try to install Win 7 on a new system that is not designed for Win 7 and of the ones I've seen none have been successful and give up and keep their original OS.

Best option, if you can return the Dell, is to buy one that has Win 7 or that you can backward install Win 7 on it (and all devices work).

Got it working on XPS 8910.

How to install Windows 7 on Skylake Dell XPS 8910

XPS 13 9350 Install Windows 7 Pro - Video - Laptop - Dell Community

1. You first need to update your BIOS to version 1.1.7 at http://downloads.dell.com/FOLDER03452316M/1/XPS_9350_1.1.7.exe Then set Secure boot "Disabled", SATA Operation Default (RAID on), Advanced Boot Options to "Enable Legacy..." and Boot Sequence to "Legacy".

2. Then make your USB stick USB3.0 compatible with the Windows 7* USB 3.0 Creator Download Windows 7* USB 3.0 Creator Utility

3.Then download and extract these NVME driver at http://downloads.dell.com/FOLDER03273188M/1/9350_Serial-ATA_Driver_WV03M_WN32_14.5.2.1088_A00.EXE to your USB stick.
Boot it and browse to the folder where you have put your drivers and enjoy."

DELL XPS 13 9350 Laptop Windows 7, Windows 8.1, Windows 10 Driver, Utility, Update | Notebook Driver & Software

If you need the SATA drivers already extracted: View attachment DELL-XPS9350-SATA.zip

Thanks a lot SIW2. Really helpful posts. I knew very well it could be done, but I just couldn't find it. I'll try it on Monday (I don't have access to the laptop till then).

@fireberd What annoys me about your answer is not only that you were wrong in two instances (Dell does have Windows 7 drivers for the laptop, you were just too lazy to search well enough and I've heard a lot of people claiming they got it done and there was absolutely no reason for them to lie - see SIW2), but also that it would normally deter others to answer, thinking that the subject is basically closed.

Sorry about that. I looked at 9530, not 9350.
The Win 7 driver list includes the Intel motherboard chipset driver for Win 7

Support for XPS 13 9350 | Dell US

But, I've seen posts from others, on this forum, that wanted to install Win 7 on a new Win 10 PC and the drivers were not available. People tried to help them but ultimately those users gave up and went back to Win 10.

What I will say, keep the Dell hard drive as is, with what it was delivered with. Install a new hard drive and install Win 7 on that. If you ever want to go to 10 or want to sell it with the original OS all you have to do is swap the hard drive. This is something I've seen many (on the Dell forums and other forums) do this or have it recommended to them.

What I did was to install the drivers with dism into the install.wim and boot.wim - which might have been the same thing as SIW2 said, i.e. browsing for drivers during the installation of Windows 7. Anyway, after including the sata drivers (I'm not sure why they say they're sata, because it's actually pcie, and it's not the same thing), I was able to see the ssd with all its partition. Then I started to delete all the partitions, but then when I tried to install Windows it said that it couldn't be installed, because the operating system might not be bootable because of the host controller (referring to the ssd). So now I deleted all my ssd and can't install Win 7. I did make a full back within Windows 10 together with a system image so I suppose I could restore the ssd as it was with a bootable Windows 10 stick.
The reason why I'm trying to install Win 7 is that I already have a Professional license and I need to join a windows domain. Whereas this laptop came with a Windows 10 Home Edition and I wouldn't want to waste the money on an upgrade.
fireberd The laptop being under warranty, I couldn't take it apart (it so happens that just last week the motherboard was completely replaced, because it wouldn't boot anymore after changing from raid on to ahci.) in order to use another storage. It would have been ideal, I know.

To add injury to insult, the ssd hasn't been identified since then, i.e. since the first restart. I downloaded several drivers, I could choose the exact controller (ahci, raid sata, whatever), but to no avail. The only way I know that the ssd does work is that I can still see it in the bios in the boot sequence (although I'm not 100% sure that that's not simply a generic name - I'd really have to test it with another OS, maybe linux or something). Windows 10 doesn't identify it by default either, so it's hard to do a restore. I hope the driver for Windows 10 on Dell's site works.

There's also a Windows 10 image I can download directly from Dell and I hope that is going to work - just want to make sure that I can restore it any time I want before I go on trying to install Windows 7. But any advice regarding Windows 7 or 10 or welcome.

All right, I was able to restore the original Windows 10 Home by downloading the iso provided by dell (it might have a worked with a regular iso, too, to be honest, I'm not sure). The weird thing was that the 'format and erase disk' (or thereabouts) box was greyed out, so I couldn't check it or not, but I could choose to exclude some disks (only the usb stick showed up; the hdd where the system image was didn't show up for obvious reasons).

So I restored it all, but I had forgotten that I had set it to ahci instead of raid on and I got bsod, then it kind of stopped working altogether for a while, then I powered it on again, I set it again to raid on and it booted correctly.

So again I'm at stage 0.

The driver that you offered, SIW2, as I was saying, didn't work. I could browse it - was identified as compatible, but the ssd still wouldn't show up. Tried it several times (only once did it work, after installing in into the .wim files - it's still installed there, but I have it separately too). So the fact that Windows 7 said that it might not identify the ssd later on doesn't make much sense, given that I could actually erase it. I'm stuck. The exact message is "Windows cannot be installed to this disk. This computer's hardware may not support booting to this disk. Ensure that the disk's controller is enabled in the computer's BIOS menu."

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

Install Windows 7 on dell XPS 9343

I Have windows 10 on this laptop but all the software i need to work with do not install on windows 10
please give me a step by step instruction on how to prepare for installation of windows 7 on this laptop