Clean install of Windows 7 Ultimate on Dell Inspiron 7520

My Dell Inspiron 15R Special Edition (a.k.a. Inspiron 7520) comes with Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium with SP1 pre-installed.

Moreover the hard disk drive is just one super-large partition of about 1TB. There's NO partition - logical or otherwise - for data only.

I am thinking of reformatting the HDD and carving it up into three partitions: one for Windows 7 Ultimate, one for Linux while the last is for data only.

My requirement is that the HDD should be able to take advantage of Intel SRT (Smart Response Technology).

Has anyone been able to successfully reformat, partition and do a clean install of Windows 7 or other OSes with Intel SRT enabled?

 

Hello Innogen ,

My name is Vargesh and I work for the Social Media and Community Team at Dell. You may not be able to use Intel SRT (Smart Response Technology) as it needs Solid State Hard drive. Detailed information for system requirements is mentioned on this http://alturl.com/87ffh.
It seems you want to do a Dual Boot
You can use Windows 7 ultimate Disc and go in boot menu Select Custom Option while installing windows when you will be prompted to select the partition, select the option which says Advanced right at the bottom.
You can assign the space you want to provide for both operating systems here.
This Solution should work for you .

Thanks & Regards
Vargesh
Technical Training Analyst

 

Hi Vargesh,

You haven't answered my question in my original post. It is: "Has anyone been able to successfully reformat, partition and do a clean install of Windows 7 or other OSes with Intel SRT enabled?"

 

Here's what I did:

1. In the BIOS setting under "SATA Operation", I noticed that "Intel Smart Response Technology" had been selected.

2. I inserted a retail copy of Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate with SP1 into the DVD drive.

3. I rebooted my laptop, pressed "F12" for boot options and chose "CD/DVD" as the boot drive.

4. It rebooted into the Windows installation environment. I accepted the license agreement, blah, blah.....

5. The Windows setup presented me with a menu. Under normal circumstances, one would be able to see a list of hard disk drives and their accompanying partitions. In my case the menu was blank.

6. There was an error message stating that there were missing drivers and I was prompted to load them.

7. I noticed that all four USB 3.0 ports were non-functional.

Has anyone any idea how to fix the above issues?

 

Hello innogen,

Make sure that your Win7 Ultimate DVD includes Service Pack 1.

Make sure the SATA mode is set to either IDE/Compatible or AHCI in the BIOS. I do not own this laptop, but these are the terms usually used. Win7 installation should reconize your hard drive with either option. The Inspiron 7520 is IvyBridge, I own an Ivy Bridge based computer and Win7 SP1 detects any hard drives connected to his SATA ports in AHCI.

For USB3.0 support, you need to install Intel xCHI driver. In the BIOS, you should have an option to set the xCHI controller mode. Smart Auto, Auto, Enable, Disable are the usual available options. Make sure it is to Smart Auto, then install Intel's xCHI interface controller drivers in Windows.

 

If you set the SATA mode to AHCI, you won't be able to switch SATA mode back to "Intel Smart Response Technology".

Anyway I am still waiting for someone who is the owner of Inspiron 7520 and who wishes to do a clean install of Windows 7 with Intel Smart Response Technology and Intel Rapid Start enabled.

 

Hi innogen.

Did you ever figure out how to do a clean install on this system? If so can you post here about how you did it? I am running into similar issues as you did including the non functioning USB and ahci / SRT issues.

 

In my opinion the best option is to just forget about installing Windows 7. You should opt to upgrade to Windows 8 instead.