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Fresh format of a Dell m1330: Solving Vista Install Issues Tutorial

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My apologies for this very geek-specific post. If you don't have a Dell m1330 laptop, you can ignore it!

My Dell XPS m1330 is my favorite laptop yet (I think it's my 10th in 10 years!), but Dell and Microsoft have made it far too hard to re-format it cleanly without Windows Vista Blue-screening on every second boot (caused by the AHCI setting in BIOS, but not providing AHCI drivers during install). It took me awhile to figure out how to do this properly, so I thought I'd share to help the rest of the Internet figure it out.

1) You have to download these drivers from Intel:
http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?agr=N&ProductID=2101&DwnldID=14848&strOSs=150&OSFullName=WindowsVista*64&lang=eng

2) Run the file with a "-a" from the Windows commandline, which will put those files into the "C:Program FilesIntelIntel Matrix Storage Manager" directory

3) Copy the files from the "Drivers" or "Drivers64" (64-bit Vista) directory onto a USB Key

4) When you install Vista from the DVD, pick the "Custom" option, then click "Load Drivers"

5) Click "Browse", and point to your USB stick. Load the drivers from it.

6) Oops! You may then get a strange error "windows could not determine if this computer contains a valid system volume" -- you'll need to change a setting in your bios to disable USB booting which you can-reenable later (More info: http://www.dashken.net/index.php?/archives/204-Windows-could-not-determine-if-this-computer-contains-a-valid-system-volume.html) This happened to me this time, but not the last time I did this.

And then you'll be on your way. This kind of step-by-step would have saved me hours, so I hope it'll help others too!

P.S. I'd highly recommend a 64-bit install - you can get excellent help for this here:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=158277

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Comments

cherrie Cherrie
May 5, 2008 | 5:27 PM
are you speaking english???
:P mfurdyk Michael Furdyk
May 5, 2008 | 5:30 PM
I'm so sorry! However, if this saves just one person the immense frustration of my experience, it will be worth the shame! :) cherrie Cherrie
May 6, 2008 | 4:33 AM
lol i know. I'm just teasing!! I'm sure I would love this information if I ever got a Dell m1330. :)
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