Attempting to install W7 on Dell XPS

[WVMontani]

My wife purchased a new Dell XPS which came with Windows 10 Home Edition. She doesn't like W10 so I'm attempting to install W7-64bit Professional.

I can boot from the W7 CD OK. It does copying files with with the white bar, then at the first screen where you select the language, etc. the installation appears to freeze; the mouse cursor disappears and the keyboard does not work either.

I read something about having to change some BIOS setting to do like a Legacy Boot and to turn off Safe Boot, but so far it does not work for me. Maybe I'm not setting the right combination of settings.

Also, the Dell factory partitions are still on the SSD C:\ drive but I don't know how to reformat/repartition.

Any thoughts? Thanks!

 

[samuria]

Welcome to the forum. Can you post a screenshot from disk manager showing all the partitions as there are a few option and we need to know the disk layout as it may be gpt or mbr disk

 

[WVMontani]

Welcome to the forum. Can you post a screenshot from disk manager showing all the partitions as there are a few option and we need to know the disk layout as it may be gpt or mbr disk

Well, that's a problem. I can't run Disk Manager because there is no working OS on the hard drive.

Right now I am burning an Ubuntu CD and I downloaded an app called GParted which I will try to use to look at the partitions.

Stay tuned.

 

[SIW2]

You can borrow this boot media:
17514x64-v3.iso

 

[WVMontani]

Attached is the partition listings using that utility GParted.

 

[Megahertz07]

My suggestion is to create the factory recover disk as you still have the recovery partitions.
Even better is to do a factory recover. Once you have Win 10 back, do a image of the entire disk and save it on an external disk.
You can launch the recovery from BIOS.
Use Macrium Software | Your Image is Everything.

You have a M.2 nvme drive. Do you have another drive?
The installation seems to freeze because you don't have USB3.x.
Win 7 installation disk doesn't have USB3.x and nvme drivers. You must add them to the installation disk.
So fist you have to find out the brand and model of the M.2 nvme drive so you can get the drivers.
Read my tutorial Create a Windows 7 USB flash installation with new drives for new MB's - Windows 7 Help Forums

SIW2 has recently helped to install win 7 on a Dell XPS

 

[WVMontani]

My suggestion is to create the factory recover disk as you still have the recovery partitions.
Even better is to do a factory recover. Once you have Win 10 back, do a image of the entire disk and save it on an external disk.
You can launch the recovery from BIOS.
Use Macrium Software | Your Image is Everything.

You have a M.2 nvme drive. Do you have another drive?
The installation seems to freeze because you don't have USB3.x.
Win 7 installation disk doesn't have USB3.x and nvme drivers. You must add them to the installation disk.
So fist you have to find out the brand and model of the M.2 nvme drive so you can get the drivers.
Read my tutorial Create a Windows 7 USB flash installation with new drives for new MB's - Windows 7 Help Forums

SIW2 has recently helped to install win 7 on a Dell XPS

Wow! Sounds like some of this is a little out of my league.

Why can't I just delete the existing partitions and create one big partition?

Suppose I replace the drive and start from scratch?

 

[fireberd]

You should return it to the original Win 10 configuration - use the recovery partition as previously noted. As its new, if a problem develops Dell support may (and from experience working the Dell forums on some problems likely will) not do warranty support if it has something other than Win 10 installed on it. If you want to (try) run Win 7, install a different drive and install Win 7 (iffy if you can get all the hardware devices working) on the new drive. Then if you ever need warranty support you can swap the drives back to the Win 10, for Dell warranty support.

Another potential issue. If it came with an M.2 drive there may not be hardware (cabling and holder) to install a hard drive or full size SSD. Only option in that case is another M.2 drive. I have that exact problem on a new Dell Inspiron 15 (5577) that I just got. It came with a 256GB M.2 drive (a Sandisk X400 M.2 2280). As I will be using this for my recording studio I need a larger drive, but as it came from the factory with the M.2 SSD as standard for this model, the cabling (SATA and power) for a hard drive or full size SSD are not there. My option is to install a larger M.2 2280 drive.

 

[WVMontani]

So the bottom line is I need to create a bootable USB drive and copy the Windows 7 installation files from the CD to that USB drive, and copy USB3 drivers as well. Correct?

 

[Megahertz07]

What we are telling you is that installing Win 7 on it isn't an easy task.
- Does the XPS came with only the M.2 drive or it has a HDD?
- You should, as I wrote on post #6 and Fireberd also suggested, restore win 10 (factory restore) and do a M.2 disk Image on an external disk. If something goes wrong, you can restore as it came from Dell.
- To create a Win 7 installation disk for a M.2 nvme drive isn't a simple task. Read my tutorial.

 

[WVMontani]

What we are telling you is that installing Win 7 on it isn't an easy task.
- Does the XPS came with only the M.2 drive or it has a HDD?
- You should, as I wrote on post #6 and Fireberd also suggested, restore win 10 (factory restore) and do a M.2 disk Image on an external disk. If something goes wrong, you can restore as it came from Dell.
- To create a Win 7 installation disk for a M.2 nvme drive isn't a simple task. Read my tutorial.

Thanks.

 

[fireberd]

The Dell backup reinstall drive (Flash Drive) procedure that came with my new Inspiron Laptop with an M.2 drive allows restoring to the M.2 drive if needed.

 

[SIW2]

Dell Windows 7 32 Bit and 64 Bit PSP2 guide