Nat is awesome, and has gone to extraordinary lengths to help people, but some of his steps are overly complicated. 1.  Use your own Windows 7 disk and just install the updates after ... Let's say Windows 7 with SP1 will take an hour to download and burn to a DVD for installation ... you could have Windows installed from your DVD, SP1 downloaded and installed - with all other required updates - in less time.  Downloading the "stand-alone" updates is a waste of time in my opinion and experience.  If you do go with that though, it is an ISO file, which is a DVD disk image and must be burned to DVD using special software that can create DVD's from an ISO.  Premium versions of Roxio and Nero can do this if you already have it installed, but Windows 7 can do this natively (just right-click ISO, Copy Image to CD/DVD (or Burn Disk Image).  ISO Recorder and CDBurnerXP are also good free apps to do this. 2.  Also not necessary.  The ISO is an image of a bootable DVD, but you can't put a DVD image on a USB key and have it work the same way, so you do need to help the USB to be bootable to then see the files that are on it.  To create an installation USB flash drive for Windows 7, follow this simpler method: [URL] 3.  You must use the product key from the version of Windows that you purchased.  The ISO's referred to are "retail" versions of the OS, which do not automatically work with some other types of media (Dell-branded and other OEM's, for example).  So, if your disk is Dell-branded, you will likely need to call Microsoft to activate over the phone.  If you bought your media from a Retail store or directly from Microsoft (and it is not labeled OEM/system builders), then it should work and activate automatically. 4.  You do not need ANY Vista drivers.  As Windows 7 is fully supported on this system, you should ONLY use the Windows 7 drivers, after installation.  If the drivers are not listed for Windows 7, it simply means that they are already native (built-in) to Windows 7. 5.  Windows 7 already has the chipset driver built-in - it is not needed after installation, and any updates to it will be provided through Windows Update.  You do not need to install System Software or Chipset drivers ... continue with other device drivers at this point. 6.  If you have RAID set up, then you should only need the JMicron driver in order for Windows to see your hard drive array.  From the sounds of it, drives connected to the onboard SATA ports in SATA/AHCI mode need the ISM driver, and drives configured in RAID on the motherboard are handled by the JMicron controller. 7.  When installing and you get to the screen that shows you your partitions on your disk (after loading the storage driver), delete all existing partitions (Disk Options), then create a new one of  your desired size and install to that.  Windows will create a new 100MB partition with it - let it and leave it.  After Windows is installed, go to Disk Management (right-click Computer, Manage) and create your remaining partitions with the Unpartitioned Space, as desired. 8.  Network is fine - printers and external drives are also usually ok (although they sometimes can cause weird issues - best practice is do disconnect them) - leave network connected.  9.  Yes, this is the easiest way, but I would also copy the folders manually to be sure, as there are stories out there of WET not working.  Copy your C:\Program Data folder and your C:\Users\username\AppData folder for your Windows and program settings (they are hidden folders, so go to Organize/Folders and Search to Show Hidden Files/Folders.  Best practice is to reinstall the programs, THEN restore using WET (or reinstall the application, then restore from individual folders from the * Data folders). 10.a.  Do not rely on Device Manager to decide which drivers to install ... that is, Device Manager might show your Network card as being recognized - and it might even work - but install the Windows 7 driver anyway.  Trying to outsmart the Dell engineers is almost always going to end in tears. 10.b.  Once installed and everything reinstalled and running as you like, go to Start and type in backup ... start a scheduled backup WITH a system image to be run at regular intervals.  This backup image can restore Window EXACTLY as it was, should your hard drive fail or you need to restore to a new computer. 10.c.  Did I miss anything ;)? Good luck.      
I have a Dell Studio XPS 435T desktop system with Vista Home Premium 64bit and 6GB RAM. It has two 500GB hard drives in RAID1 configuration. I want to do a clean Win7 install. A long time ago I bought the Win7 Pro 64bit upgrade disk. It does not have SP1. I apologize in advance if many of my questions already have been answered previously, but I never installed an OS before and want to make sure I have everything correct.  I found the Clean Install of Windows Vista/7 on Dell Laptops/Desktops article here on the Wiki by natakuc4. I am planning to follow this. Thanks natakuc4! But I have many questions left. 1. I found the HeiDoc.net website with iso files for the Win7 Pro 64bit. It includes SP1. This site claims it is a bootable file, like most iso files on that site. Can I just burn the file to a DVD to get a bootable disk? 2. In his Wiki article, natakuc4 says to use the Microsoft .iso to USB/DVD tool to create a bootable disk. Is this still necessary if I use the bootable downloaded iso file from HeiDoc.net? 3. When I use the iso file for installation, can I use the product key from my Win7 Pro Upgrade disk to activate the OS? 4. I think I found and saved all the Dell Vista drivers for my system. Do I install the Vista drivers listed for my current configuration or do I need to find and use Win7 drivers after installing the new Win7 OS? 5. I saved the chipset driver for the Vista configuration. The Win7 list does not show a chipset driver. I understand that the chipset driver is very important and should be installed first. So should I use the Vista chipset driver in this case before installing any other drivers, either Vista or Win7? 6. Since I have a RAID1 setup, do I need to load the Intel Matrix Storage Manager driver and the JMicron JMB36X RAID controller driver before I do anything else, or can I wait until after the Win7 install? When do I install the Intel Matrix Storage Manager application? 7. I want to make a separate data partition on the hard drive. Can I delete the current Dell Recovery partition (that I never used) while installing Win7 and then use the Win7 disk management to make a data partition after the installation is completed? Or is there a better/easier way of doing this? 8. The Dell support site has instructions for a Windows 7 Manual Reinstall. They say to remove all non-essential peripherals such as Printer, USB drives, and even Modem or Network cables. I will do this, but I am nor sure if I should disconnect the network cable. What is the recommended approach? 9. I need to backup all my files before doing the install. Microsoft has the Windows Easy Transfer utility to move all user files and settings to an external drive (I have an external 1TB USB drive that I will use). After the Win7 installation this utility will move all user files and settings back. Is this the easiest way to save the files, and especially all the settings, and then move them back? 10. Are there any important items that I overlooked here and that I should be aware of? I am sure that I will have many more questions while doing the actual installation. I want to thank everyone in advance for any and all answers.
Win7 clean install, Dell drivers and other questions for XPS 435T