Installing Windows 7

Hi,

Thank you for writing to us!

Kindly follow the steps :

1-To install Windows 7 using the Custom option and formatting the hard disk

2-Turn on your computer so that Windows starts normally, insert the Windows 7 installation disc or USB flash drive, and then shut down your computer.

3-Restart your computer.

4-Press any key when prompted, and then follow the instructions that appear.

5-There are two options to choose from during the Windows 7 installation process:

Upgrade. This option replaces your current version of Windows with Windows 7, and keeps your files, settings, and programs in place on your computer.

Custom. This option replaces your current version of Windows with Windows 7, but doesn't preserve your files, settings, and programs. It's sometimes referred to as a clean installation for that reason.

Thanks

Robin

Hi Robin,

I got the message: " A Required CD/DVD device driver is missing......"  Please advice where can I get the necessary drivers?

Hi ,

Kindly private message the service tag to the system .

Thanks

Robin

Hi Robin, please advice me how to private message you the info.  In the meanwhile, is it possible for you to advice based on my laptop model XPS13 3950?

Hi kentchia,

You would need to add Robin as a friend to send a private message.

The latest drivers for the system can be found on our Dell support site.

http://dell.to/1UiTOks

You can filter using the service tag or model of the system and select "Drivers and Download", then filter using the operating system loaded on the system.

Kindest Regards,

DELL-Akshatha M

Social Media and Community Professional

[tag:IWork4Dell]

Hello,

thank you for the link but I am not able to find a recovery image for windows 7.  The drivers are not useful at this point because I can't even get windows 7 installed due to the error " A Required CD/DVD device driver is missing......".  Appreciate if Dell could give me a recovery image or other help to over come this error message.

I had exactly the same error last night when Dell Pro Support un-sucessfully tried to reinstall Win7 due to my brand new 7510 constantly blue screening. After a while Pro Support told me I needed to boot using USB3.0 compatible flash drive with Win7 instead of using the USB DVD since my external DVD (the Dell DVD player they sell with the unit) was a USB 2.0 device and my system only has USB 3.0 ports. Maybe something for you to look into.

Hi kentchia,

Please private message us the service tag of the system so that we can check on the system configuration and guide you accordingly.

Kindest Regards,

DELL-Akshatha M

Social Media and Community Professional

#IWork4Dell

Many thanks to Jared Rude for the tips that eventually led me to the solution.  

This is a strange situation and while I have no good explanation, I'll just list down what works and what didn't.

My XPS 13 came with Windows 10 installed by default and I wanted to downgrade it to Windows 7.  I have created a copy of windows 7 DVD injected with USB 3.0 drivers as I learn from many forums.  Tried booting from this DVD and received "A Required CD/DVD device driver is missing....." error.  I tried to "upgrade" by running setup of Win7 DVD after booting into Windows 10 (yes it sounds silly), and it worked until a certain point and I got a blue screen.  Upon Jared's prompting above, I created a boot USB and tried booting from the USB and got exactly the same device driver missing error.

In desperation, i tried to "upgrade" by running win7's setup in the USB drive after booting into windows 10.  And... it worked!  I was able to "upgrade" to windows 7 successfully.  It doesn't make any sense but that's how I got my Windows 7 on XPS.