Guide : Install windows 7 in MBR (or GPT) for UEFI on a XPS 9550 with M.2 PCIe drive

This is a mix of things I read here and my personal experience.
Feel free to comment if you find any mistake !

BIOS SETTINGS
- update your BIOS to the latest version (1.1.9 at the time of writing)
- set Secure boot "Disabled",
- set SATA Operation Default (RAID on),or AHCI if you have SATA drives instead of M.2 PCIe.
- set Advanced Boot Options to "Enable Legacy..."
- set Boot Sequence to UEFI

USB CREATION
- Insert a USB Stick in the fastest USB port you have and make a bootable W7 USB stick with RUFUS. Config : MBR for UEFI (or GPT for UEFI), FAT32
- make your USB stick USB 3.0 compatible with the Windows 7* USB 3.0 Creator Utility at https://downloadcenter.intel.com/download/25476
- put the NVMe driver « RST AHCI RAID Controller » from https://downloadmirror.intel.com/25165/eng/f6flpy-x64.zip to your USB stick.

BOOTING ON THE USB
-Insert the drive on the XPS, boot and press F12 to select the USB in UEFI mode. If you can’t see your USB listed in the UEFI section, go to the bios in boot sequence, add a boot option, set « UEFI USB » as name, select USB in the list, and browse for \EFI\BOOT\BOOTX64.efi, reselect USB if it deselected.

INSTALL WINDOWS
- Start the windows installation. Be careful, if you don’t see the windows version selection screen, remove the file sources/ei.cfg on the key and relaunch the installation.
- At the drive selection screen, browse to the NVMe driver folder and you should see your drive.
- If you can’t install on your partition, you will need to remove all your partitions and create a new one, it will be automatically set to MBR or GPT mode regarding the type of Key you made with RUFUS.
- When the installation reboots your computer, remove the USB key

INSTALL DRIVERS
- Install the drivers from my package below or from the Precision 5510 ( http://www.dell.com/support/home/us...t/precision-m5510-workstation/drivers?os=w764), in particular :

- Intel 100 Chipset (extract it and launch the installer)
- Intel Management Engine
- Dell Command Update (will install Net Framework 4.0) then you will have to download net framework 4.5 to install the intel Rapid Storage drivers.
- Intel Rapid Storage Driver
- USB 3.0 , then 3.1 (extract and install)
- Thunderbolt Controller driver (extract and install) then install the update
- Realtek Audio
- Dell Touchpad
- Realtek Card Reader
- USB GBE Ethernet Controller
- Intel graphics
- Dell Command Power Manager and Monitor

For the Wifi and Bluetooth install ONLY :

- Dell Wireless 1830 (Communications_Driver_936KN_WN32_1.400.66.0_A01)
do not install the other communication packages
- then install Dell WLAN Hotkey (extract it and launch the .msi) this is for enabling/disabling the wifi with the keyboard shortcut.

and the manufacturer drivers for:

- Nvidia GTX 900 series graphics

The wifi modem may crash sometimes, so you must update the drivers. You can use « iobit Driver Booster Free » or « SlimDriver » to update them.

I did a package using SlimDriver with the full up to date drivers that you can use to install your drivers in one shot :

https://mega.nz/#!cV02SRDQ!PLS0AJz8DEgjUPgu79ldnEXY6YgqzwzPlRRD3kmpfg8
unzip the package, install SlimDriver and click on Restore.


Hope that helps !

 

Thanks for the Guide!

I had to blow away the factory partitions but other than that the Windows 7 Professional 64 N installation went smoothly. Unfortunately I'm stuck at this point. The installation doesn't find any network adapters and the USB controller says "drivers for this device are not installed".

With no USB or network I can't install the proper drivers.

Any ideas?

 

Was able to get USB working. Looks like the Windows 7* USB 3.0 Creator Utility doesn't add the USB 3.0 drivers to the install.wim, just the boot.wim.

I added the correct drivers from here:
https://downloadcenter.intel.com/download/22824/USB-3-0-Driver-Intel-USB-3-0-eXtensible-Host-Controller-Driver-for-Intel-8-9-100-Series-and-C220-C610-Chipset-Family

using this technique:
http://codeabitwiser.com/2014/03/how-to-install-windows-7-with-only-usb-3-0-ports/

USB ports are working and I've started updating drivers - Thanks again for the guide.

 

Hi Kind Sir!,

I have tried your method and by the moment I load the intel RST driver, BSOD appears, have also tried other methods posted in this forum but did'nt work.

My XPS15 (9550) has the following config:
- i7-6700HQ
- FHD screen
- 32GB RAM (16x2 Kingston - self upgrade)
- 256 NVme SSD (toshiba PCIe model:THNSN5256GPU7)
- win10 home edition

My main issue was I was not able to get the win7 installer to show the SSD drive - despite setting the BIOs to what was prescribe above.

Any advise/help would be greatly appreciated =)

 

I have spent 4 days trying to find a Win7 driver for that Toshiba SSD, so here is what I found, thanks to Shadow_Buddy on Reddit:
The Toshiba THSN5256GPU7 is an XG3 class SSD sold to OEMs, and now that Toshiba own OCZ, they have started rebadging some of these drives as OCZ drives. Go to this page:

http://www.win-raid.com/t29f25-Recommended-AHCI-RAID-and-NVMe-Drivers.html

and under the section "OCZ (Toshiba) NVMe Drivershttp", download the "pure 64bit OCZ NVMe driver v1.2.126.843 WHQL" driver.
When installing select the xg3 driver and you should be able to see the toshiba drive.

I haven't yet tried this during a clean Win7 install, but I successfully switched my XPS 13 9350 from SATA RAID to AHCI using this driver without having to reinstall Win7. Dual-boot Linux beckons!!