Ryan's site is down, or at least you can't download his stuff right now. Sucks, as I just got my new HD and was ready to try this install. Guess I'll muck through how I usually do it.

You can get Xable's update pack from HERE. It's basically the same thing as Ryan's, just only integrateable with nLite. I've used it, and it works just as well as Ryan's.

Ryan will likely be releasing a new update pack after December's updates, due out today, 12-11-07. To have the freshest, cleanest install, I'd recommend waiting for his December update pack. But, if you can't wait, use Xable's.

Thanks Tony. I may wait a few more days for Ryan's updated pack then. I've also got another upgrade soon to come for this 1710.

So I just got my new M6300 (Win XP) in today. Am I correct in understanding that the general recommendation (for those comfortable doing so, of course) is to re-format the hard drive and install per this guide?

Very much so. Dell installs A LOT of crap with their factory Windows install. The only way to get rid of it all is to do a clean reinstall.

This guide is great Tony! I just think you should add that for the Vista Integration Tool you need .NET 3.0 and if you can tell me what do you think about the RightMark CPU Utility in Vista?

Thanks

Several questions related to this. First, I presume if we change to ATA we will not be able to change back to AHCI once Windows XP is instaled. Correct? If so, what (if anything) are we giving up by running in ATA mode versus AHCI. If we can change back to AHCI please explain how as I haven't been able to find a way.

Secondly, is there a way of loading the AHCI drivers during the re-installation? It doesn't seem like the "F6 method" will work for those of us installing Windows XP and we do not have a floppy drive. What about integrating the necessary drivers through Xlite? Again, it doesn't seem like this will work as the drivers are probably not loaded early enough in the process.

From the reports I've read, you'll lose very little with not having AHCI mode enabled. If you want to re-enable AHCI mode, you can, from what I've read, but you have to install the Intel Matrix Storage Manager driver (available from the Dell downloads, for both Windows XP and Windows Vista) BEFORE re-enabling AHCI. Unfortunately, from what I've read, this has a 50% success rate.

I don't know of a way to re-install Windows (either XP or Vista) with AHCI enabled, but I also don't own a laptop capable of AHCI (nor do I have access to one). If anyone's found a way to do it, I haven't found it. But, like I said, disabling it, from what I've read, has no real NOTICEABLE impact on performance at all.

I've been wanting to start from scratch with mine too lately. Maybe I'll wait for Ryan's update also. Great guide. Now my laptop will be running faster than new.

Grrr. Honestly if I new it would be this much of a pain I simply wouldn't have bothered doing a fresh install.

There are two major omissions from the original post that relate to my M6300:

1) You simply cannot install the modem and audio drivers. There is a bug in a Microsoft update that causes the audio driver to fail. The modem driver also fails. In order to resolve this, go into the Device Manager and locate an unknown PCI Device. Reinstall the driver allowing Windows to install it automatically and it will find a Microsoft UAA device. Only then will the audio driver and modem install properly.

2) I have a fingerprint reader. It's not as simple as installing a driver. It requires a couple of BIOS changes and the installation of additional software that I could only find on the Dell resource disk - not online. I'm not going to go into detail simply because I'm not sure if what I did worked in the end (see below). But just a warning for those with a fingerprint reader that there are additional steps.

And in the end, I have a blank screen with a flashing cursor. Dead. Not a hard drive issue so Dell is sending me a new motherboard for my brand new machine. Sucks. Looks like I have to start from scratch but I'm hesitant to install the security software as things were working just fine until then (cause or coincidence I don't know, but still).

Two other points:

1) I was able to integrate the AHCI drivers through Nlite. There is information on their website specifically related to re-installing Windows on this type of drive. No issues.

2) When I was re-installing Windows I, of course, had to first delete and then format the partition. I noticed that there were, in fact, two partitions. The primary one (C occupied a majority of the storage space and was NTFS. The other partition did not have a drive letter associated with it, was about 75MB, and FAT32. Any idea what this smaller partition is? Should it be left alone or should I delete it and use the space in the usable partition?

can i use this for my M170?

For the most part, yes. However, driver wise, I'm not sure what works and what doesn't as far as that is concerned.

Off the top of my head, I do know you should be able to use (from the list above, download the appropriate version for Vista or XP):

Notebook System Software - Dell Notebook System Software
Motherboard Chipset - (Dell) Intel Mobile Chipset Driver
Video - Download the latest (or your preferred] Dell, LaptopVideo2Go or NBF MobileForce driver.
Others - Dell QuickSet and I8kFanGUI 3.1


The rest, I'm not sure about. You'll have to ask others with M170s to find out, or to be safe, just use the Dell drivers available for your laptop.

As far as the rest of the guide, everything should be the same.

That smaller partition holds the software for Dell's Pre-Boot System Analysis Tool. You may feel free to delete this if you like, but I would not recommend it. If you have issues in the future and Dell asks you to run their testing suite, it will be kind of hard to do if you have deleted it.

Granted there are testing software sucks to say the least, it tends to be a necessary evil as Dell will surely ask you to run it regardless of the problems your system is having.

*note*

Even after deleting this partition, you should still be able to run the primary testing software, as this is encoded into the BIOS and cannot be deleted. The software on that small partition is for the advanced batch of tests.

Aaaaaah. I was wondering about that extra partition.

I accidentally deleted it, but I could still run the diagnostics. Now I know why.