Dell Precision M90 Windows 7 upgratde & 2nd HD questions

You can't really upgrade - only Vista can truly be upgraded to 7.  You do a clean install, then migrate your data from  a backup with XP. 

You can use any 2.5" 9.5 mm SATA notebook drive - there are 500 G units at 7200 rpm readily available.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148374

For windows I'm planning to go for a clean installation. but does windows 7 support all the drivers for the M90?

For the HD do you think 500 GB will be enough space or should i go for a higher one?

You should be able to find drivers for 7 on this system without problems.  You can't go over 500 G unless you get a 5400 rpm drive - 500G is the max at 7200.

If you DO go over 500 G, be careful - there are some 12.5 mm drives that won't fit.  You need a 9.5 mm drive.

Kraouf, I have a Dell Precision M90 as do a number of people where I worked.  Our IT people got my "mobile workstation" up and going on Win 7 Pro (after many hours of trying!) and now all the M90's there are running Win 7 Pro.  It works just fine and looks very similar to XP Pro after using Godmode carefully.  Some features I run: 4GB RAM and the M90 is fully optioned, i.e., bought with ALL options ex Dell originally about 3 (if not 4) years ago.

I run it with swappable hard disks (only one at a time of course, and cold swapped for sure) so I can use it with any of three, 7200 rpm, XP Pro HD's and now also I use, and indeed are using now, one 128GB SSD drive which has revolutionised the notebook for speed.  The M90s will run 32 bit Pro E, ANSYS and NX7 in Win 7, but Cool Edit Pro 2 for example will not run fully in Win 7 (on anything) and probably there are a number of other "best" legacy programs which don't like Win7?

Re HD capacity, I run an external 500GB eSATA drive for HD storage more or less permanently connected on the M90 and occassionally add external USB drives too.  Seems adequate.  If you really want to upgrade your notebook though, go to a Win 7 x64, 16GB, SSD'd and twin Radeon video'd, ASUS G74SX: absolutely marvellous!

The notebook is able to use TRIM on my 128GB Corsair Force 3 SSD, which is important and the Video is the NVIDIA Quadro FX 3500M and it updates just fine ex NVIDIA auto updates.  A few features don't work in Win7 on mine like the Dell "Quick Set" (I think it's called) power saver routines (but Win 7 allows you to set up roughly the same things any rate) and things like some of the blue 'Fn' keys dont function, e.g., it will not open/eject a CD for example.  Having sort of gotten used to Win 7 Pro, I find I am now using it on the M90 most of the time.

To the best of my belief, Win 7 32 bit & is XP Pro hidden behind a "modern" GUI and doesn't have Windows Picture and Fax viewer!  Godmode allows you to set up Win 7 so it is virtually identical to an XP box.  Took me about a 1/2 day to do it though!

I found it impossible to get additional HD carriers for the M90 other than somebody else had a M90 scrapped and I recovered an additional M90 carrier.  It's a bit of a pain having to change HD's on an M90 HD carrier, but only takes a minute or so however.

I may be able to get for you the whole conversion process if you still need it?  I think lots of M90 users would love to know it?

Peter 

Hey Peter,

Not sure if you're still monitoring this post but I would love to get the procedure.

I want to upgrade from xp pro 64  to Windows 7 64.

Hoping it's do-able.

Thanks,

Phil

You can't directly upgrade any version of XP to Windows 7.  You must back up your data, do a clean install of Windows 7 and then restore your data and then reload all your application software.

You CAN use the upgrade version of Windows 7, but you cannot do an in-place upgrade of the OS.

Windows 7 64 doesn't require more the 4G of RAM - it'll run just fine in two (I have it running on my office desktop in 2G of RAM, which it's been happily doing for several years now).  To access MORE than 4G, you do indeed the 64-bit version (just as with XP).

This system does have a hardware limit of 4G, since it's an older model.  

The thing about ALL versions of XP is that Microsoft support for XP ends in ten months (April 2014) after which there'll be no further security updates for it.  At that point if you want to keep the system and use it on the Internet, you've basically no choice but to upgrade it - as insecure and OS as XP is now, it'll be a wide-open sitting duck after April 2014.

Since I posted that last bit I've been told that I won't be able to install Windows 7 on this machine at all because this unit was set up for xp and thereby can only take a max of 4 gb of ram according to the spec sheet. Windows 7 can take up to 8gb. 4gb won't cut it with the programs I need to run if it's even do-able to install Windows 7 64 with 4gb of ram.

Sounds like I'm dead in the water cause there is no $$ for a new machine in my immediate future.

If it's running a core 2 Duo or better CPU it should run the 64-bit version of 7 just fine -- a Core Duo or lower, however, lacks EM64T and will not.

Still works fine!  Can't buy HD cradles though!  I use a 120 GB Corsair FORCE SSD and run the M90 with an external 500GB eSATA drive. My M90 has the NVIDIA graphics fitted.  Can't "Upgrade" to Win 7 x32; simply have to buy a brand new SSD drive and Win 7 Pro x32.  (M90 will not run x64!)

So YES, you can certainly get your M90 to run Win & x32 Pro on a Dell Precision M90!  Yes, you do have to reinstall all your programs of course!  It's like buying a new laptop!

 I do not like Win 8 however no matter how much I try to "convert it" to Win 7 x64 which I have done on my ASUS G74

PeterLJ

I have a dell M90 that has windows 7 pro ,1tb hard drive 4gb of ram and it works great

I have a M90 as well. Been running Windows 7 Professional 32 bit on it for quite some time. No issues whatsoever. I upgraded to the max of 4gb of ram, and it has a 500gb hard drive in it. I also upgraded to the Quadro 3500 512mb video card. It does everything I want until recently. I now can no longer play World of Warcraft on it due to them stopping support for the video card and increased graphic demands the game now requires.

If someone checks this thread - I need help.

I have a Dell Precision M6300 and a Nvidia Quadro FX 3500M.  Isn't that weird - most of the M6300 have the 1600M.  But I do have the 3500M.

The driver info above lists 3500 but not M.  I am running this driver version 7.15.10.9746 and so far it is the only one that semi works.  I am getting 1920 X 1080 display but I thought I should get 1920 x 1200. I saw the modder files to modify a straight 3500 to a 3500M but was wondering if there is a way to obtain a correct updated driver.

Are my display issues because of the drivers - any suggestions?