What to Do with Your New M6700: Windows 7 Clean Install and Minor Tweaks

Interesting, when i did my clean install today, i ended up with the screen at 800x600, but i could set it to 1920x1080 even without the display driver.

 

Yes, I've observed that as well. Seems to all depend on what Windows decides the default resolution should be at the end of the install, not what the maximum available is. If it decides the default should be 1920x1080 (or some other high resolution, not sure what the cutoff is) — which it probably will, if it can load a graphics card driver — you'll get the higher default DPI.

 

Thanks for chiming in, i'll add that when i add about the DPI. I also noticed most manufacturers tend to set the DPI to 125% at 1920x1080 which drives me nuts. I want as much real estate as i can get.

 

Guide on how to destroy the annoying first and second partition on original Dell laptop HDD.

The Win7 partition is originally located at 3rd partition of the hardisk. 1st and 2nd partitions are hidden for recovery purpose. In order to destroy them and move the OS to first partition, you will need the following:-

0) Uninstall the Dell Recovery software.
1) Create Windows Recovery CD from within windows 7. From Mx700 onwards Dell does not provide any CD for installation/recovery, you have to eat yourself.
2) Backup the OS partition into another hardisk using Image maker like Acronis True Image or some other softwares. Ignore the 1st and 2nd partition.
3) Optional - if you have another PC or laptop with Image maker software, skip this step. Otherwise, create a Bootable Recovery CD from the Image maker software.
4) Delete all partitions. This is easy if you have other laptop/PC to help.
5) Remove all other irrelevant HDD in the laptop if there is (unless the backup image is stored in that HDD).
6) Create a partiton of the size you would like the OS to be installed, i.e. 100GB. ALIGN THE PARTITION for better performance if SSD is used. If Windows 7 is used to create the partition, it is automatically aligned with 1024MB offset. If other software is used to create the partition, make sure you know what to do.
7) From other laptop/PC, use Image maker to transfer the backup image into that partition. Otherwise, use the bootable CD from Image maker to carry out the job.
8) Try if you wish, but that new partition will not boot at this moment because it is no longer located at 3rd partition of the HDD.
9) Boot Using Windows Recovery CD and select repair the windows installation.
10) You may need to repeat step 9 again until you see the list of OS partition. Select repair.
11) The system should be working now.
12) Let it boot into windows for once.
13) Shutdown and connect other HDD if there is.

**** I could not remember if i have uninstalled the Dell Recevory program before or after i did the partition transfer. At the end the Dell Recovery tray icon keep appear after Win7 startup, i have to disable by editing the Registry. Disable with msconfig does not work.

Note: I use Acronis True Image as backup method all the time, and I have no knowledge about the Windows and Dell Recovery method. I disable both Windows and Dell recovery, so i am not sure what will be the windows/dell behaviour after transfering the partition if they are still active.

 

I have been having some difficulties with reinstalling windows 7.

1) I do not see the IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers in my device manager in order to install intel rapdi storage.



2) when I go to install the NVIDIA driver, downloaded from the Dell site - it comes back with the following message:

NVIDIA installer cannot continue. Files are missing.

I have tried from scratch several times now and with drivers from both Dell and NVIDIA - but no luck. My computer has a K4000m and IPS screen so I am not sure if IPS has something to do with it. Any thoughts?

 

The Intel disk controller shows up under "Storage controllers" (which I see on your list). But I've never installed it through the device manager. It comes with a setup.exe that installs the driver and also the Intel Rapid Storage utility which is useful to have.

 

Yes, if you download the .exe package, no need to install through the device manager. I went with only the driver file since i wasn't planning to use RAID and the IRST software doesn't do much aside from telling you the status of your disks if you don't use RAID. If it looks like it's too much trouble, go with the .exe instead.

If your system is set to RAID, the driver will show up where Aaron said it would be, i set my M6700 from RAID to AHCI in the bios when i reinstalled Windows, that's why it shows in ATA/ATAPI controllers got me.

 

Has anyone tried to install a SanDisk SSD on your M6700? I have two of these laptops with two SSDs. I have had issues on both laptops. At first I thought the issue was with the SATA mode being set to RAID, but I have set to AHCI and am still having major issues. When I boot, I intermittently get "A Disk Read Error Occurred"

More information:

The M6700 has two drive bays (Disk 0 and Disk 1).

If I install the SSD drive into the Disk 0 bay, I get read errors on the SSD drive. Most of the time the laptop won’t boot. (I’ve attached screen shots).



Now, if I move the SSD drive to the Disk 1 bay, the drive appears to work perfectly. I am rebooting it over and over again not problems. Same drive without a re-installation of Windows.

Ideas???

 

please excuse the nubness...

i have a m6700 coming with a 1TB drive with intention of adding the following aftermarket

256GB mSATA (crucial m4)
samsung 840 256GB SSD
and probably will use my 1TB to store my files...
32GB ram

my main applications are:
Corel Draw
Photoshop
Lightroom
Sketchup
and of course, Office for excel, word...

where do you pro's recommend installing windows 7? on the SSD or mSATA?

thanks in advance.

 

The main bad is SATA III, the mSATA is SATA II, that is why i'd personally install the OS on the 2.5" SSD. That said, it will be screaming fast regardless of whether it's on the mSATA or the 2.5" SSD. If you have applications that benefit from fast sequential writes/reads and you are short on space, I would prioritize that over the OS if you make a living from it though. That's just my .02 though.