Adding SSD to Dell Dimension 9200

Hi Leighton,

Keeping you old system alive is indeed a good idea. However, I would like to make slight changes to the sequence you wish to follow. Please go through the below steps:

1. The two old Hard Drives (2 x 250 GB) are configured using RAID 0, so do not make any changes to the BIOS Settings or SATA Ports as this may damage the data on RAID Drives because RAID 0 controller breaks the data into blocks and distributes the pieces to both drives. The correct sequence would be to connect your 1 TB external hard drives and transfer all important data to it.
2. Download and run the Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor to see if your PC is ready for Windows 7. It scans your hardware, devices, and installed programs for known compatibility issues, gives you guidance on how to resolve potential issues found, and recommends what to do before you upgrade. If the computer qualifies for Windows 7 64-bit, follow the below steps.
3. Search for the drivers for hardware in the machine, download and save them to a safe location. Note: Windows 7 64-bit drivers are not available on our support site you can try finding them on the hardware-manufacturer websites.
4. Check the functionality of the  empty SATA ports on the motherboard
5. Then make the necessary changes to BIOS.
6. Connect the SSD to the empty SATA port.
7. Using a USB Key (this is the fastest way) install the Operating System on the SSD. When installing Operating System format all the drives as the data has been backed up in step 1.

Please revert for clarification.

Your 9200 is Windows 7- (or Windows 8-) ready unless third-party devices are installed that you haven't listed.

If it can run Vista, it can run Windows 7, which is just an improved Vista.

Hi Zohaib,

Thanks for your response.

I have already run, printed and reviewed the W7 Upgrade Advisor and other MS documentation including the 14 page custom installation guide. There are no showstoppers in the upgrade advisor report although there are contradictions in it.

MS do not sell an upgrade version from Vista Ultimate to W7 Pro and I am moving from 32 to 64 bit so I  am in the custom installation arena anyway. In any case I want to do as clean an installation as I can do and leave behind all the unwanted junk that may have accumulated over the past 6 years. I have accepted the fact that its going to be a much longer process. I have purchased an additional licensed copy of W7 Pro 64 OEM  from my new system builder who is also supplying the upgrade bits for the 9200. I have the CD already.

My 1TB external drive is permanently attached and key files are automatically sync'd. I will also take a snapshot back-up of everything before I start the migration process.

I'm not sure I understand your point about using a USB key. Is it because the key is a faster device or because a USB attached device would be better? We have an external CD/DVD drive if needed, but I was going to use one of the two installed drives, since I already have the CD.

The main reason for the original post was because of the advice elsewhere in this forum concerning the SATA ports. In one of them it stated that HDD/SDD may not work if plugged into a higher port than any CD/Floppy. Other posts advised unplugging the two raid ports and the media card whilst installing W7 on an SSD. Can you clarify these please? On the DXP061 mobo under W7 Pro 64 can I just plug the SSD into any SATA port and use it as a system drive without doing anything else?

I won't move or unplug the existing ports 0 to 4 if this is unnecessary .

Your point about drivers is well made. I will take the device report from the W7 upgrade advisor and get the drivers together on a USB key in advance.

Thanks for your help. Would appreciate a definitive position on the SATA ports if possible.

Regards,

Leighton

Hi Zohaib,

Thanks for your response. I will do as suggested since I wanted to initialise/format and run some disk checks after the error report ( I hope a transient problem ) I had with one port a while back. If the problem ever comes back I will replace both HDD.

I was also following up on downloading new drivers for my hardware as you suggested.  Regarding my Nvidia 8600 GTS I was unable to download without it attempting an install, which I aborted. Thinking about it, I  guess I need to plug a monitor into the standard mobo VGA port until I have successfully intalled the video card driver under W7?? Is that a correct assumption?

Thanks and regards,

Leighton

I suggest keeping your Vista and installing Windows 7 on the SSD for a dual-boot.

Hi rdunnill,

Thanks for the suggestion, I had not consisdered dual boot as I wanted to get away from Vista. It has become so slow and clearing out  unwanted applications, files and start-up stuff and defragging the HDD had little impact. Over the past few weeks it has developed the habit of crashing once a day. Exactly once, no more, no less. I had developed the view that I would be better off getting rid of it.

Anyway, following your suggestion, I searched the web on dual boot. I found plenty of articles on how to do it and plenty of posts on how to fix the problems created. I found it almost impossible to find  reasons (let alone good ones)  why I should go dual boot. One opinion offered was that it appears to be a thing that techies like to do. I found one useful article on ZDnet by one of their reviewers who was at one time was into dual booting, but more recently can't find any good reason why anyone needs to do it.

So where am I?

Vista is out of favour (not uncommon it appears)

We already have 3 W7 PC/laptops in the household, a fourth arrives next week. This will be a fifth after upgrade.

Why would I want to maintain/update two OS?

My relatively small HDD with Raid 0 seems less than ideal for dual boot

My applications, in the main, are W7 compatible and I have the distribution media

I want to replace some applications with later versions or move to another product.

I want to rationalise my photo & video editing s/w which will go on my new system.

There are no significant incompatibilities in upgrade advisor not covered by the previous two lines.

I've now checked out compatibility mode which might be a fallback, but unlikely to be needed.

So I still favour a simpler, cleaner, easily maintained, lower risk solution which might take longer to totally implement,  but will be a much more stable solution going forward.  

Thanks for raising the dual boot question. It made me do some additional research and  rethink through the whole process again. I'm even more confident about tackling the upgrade now.

Best regards,

Leighton

Thanks Zohaib

Thanks for raising the dual boot question. It made me do some additional research and  rethink through the whole process again. I'm even more confident about tackling the upgrade now.

I've found that the Windows 7 installer will set up the boot menu and that the original install can be left alone, with no impact on the new install.

However, if you're more comfortable eliminating Vista, that's the way to go.

Good luck!