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    Installing my own Windows Xp Pro on Vostro 1500?

    Discussion in 'Dell' started by wk1989, Aug 13, 2007.

  1. wk1989

    wk1989 Notebook Enthusiast

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    Hi, I haven't received my Vostro 1500 yet, but I heard some people talking about some driver issues (how it's a hassle to install xp). My vostro comes with xp home edition but I want to install WinXp Pro. Anyone done this before? Do I need to mess with anything like drivers and stuff?
     
    wk1989, Aug 13, 2007
    #1
  2. DoubleBlack

    DoubleBlack Notebook Deity

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    This really needs to be PINNED because I post this same exact thing (written by me) at least once a day here...

    That problem is because the OS can't see the drive, but it does because you installed it...right? Typically, you assign RAID drivers and stuff so you can install on that drive because it doesn't see it...but this gets confusing, because it actually sees it. When it asks you where to install, you'll see an option to load drivers - you want to go to support.dell.com and download the Intel Matrix Storage Manager and load the drivers in there prior to installing. The problem is you need a special AHCI driver, and not the generic Microsoft one. Yes, this is really frustrating and I was the first person to post about this in the forums - I called Dell and they had no idea what I was talking about, I had to figure all of this out on my own...

    If you don't know how to do this, or anything like that...and don't mind taking a *small* performance increase for ease just go into your BIOS and see the HDD operation mode from AHCI to ATA and then you can install Vista using ANY disk!

    The direct download link for Intel Matrix Storage Driver is here:

    http://support.dell.com/support/dow...1&impid=-1&formatcnt=1&libid=41&fileid=205611

    Oh, and this applies to the 1420, 1520, 1720, m1330, and I assume the m1730 as well ;)
     
    DoubleBlack, Aug 13, 2007
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  3. wk1989

    wk1989 Notebook Enthusiast

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    Thanks for the reply, I think I'll just change the hard disk operation mode to ATA (I had SATA to beign with, I think).
     
    wk1989, Aug 13, 2007
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  4. GloStiX

    GloStiX Notebook Evangelist

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    You can do what I did and get all those drivers: Intel Matrix AHCI, Sigmatel Audio, nVidia Graphics, Ricoh Card Reader, Intel GM965 Chipset, Intel WiFi, etc. and SLIPSTREAM them using nLite to make your own Windows disc that will install everything for you, even automated.

    I reformat every 3 days or so so it's quite handy.
     
    GloStiX, Aug 13, 2007
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  5. akunyer

    akunyer Newbie

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    akunyer, Oct 17, 2007
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