Workaround for installing Windows 7 on trim-enabled solid state drives on Poulsbo (US15w) based Atom computers

[UHans]

Issue:

The Windows 7 installer will fail on US15W based netbooks like the Dell Mini 10 if attempted installed on a trim-enabled SSD like the Intel x25-m with the newest firmware.

Cause:

The US15W chipset internally uses a PATA controller. To connect to SATA drives, a bridge chip is used. The drive annouces trim capability when queried by the Windows installer, but the bridge chip does not support passing trim commands to the SATA SSD drive, causing data transfers to the drive to fail.

Solution:

Install a previous version of Windows, then install Windows 7 from that installation and finally disable trim support in the registry from a Bart PE boot CD/key twice during installation reboots.Tools needed:

• External CD drive or bootable USB key
• Windows XP / Windows Vista installation CD or USB key
• Bart PE boot CD or USB key

Details:

1. Install Windows XP or Windows Vista on the computer (if you want optimal partion alignment, use Vista. But the performance difference will not be significant on an Atom platform)
2. Start the Windows 7 installer from within the older version of Windows. Select Advanced to install on the existing partition (the old Windows instllation will be moved to c:\windows.old during the installation process and can be deleted later)
3. The installer will reboot the computer three times during the installation process. During the first and second reboot, boot into Bart PE first to edit the registry to disable trim support:
4. During the first reboot, boot into Bart PE, start regedit.exe, browse to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, select load hive from file menu, browse to [SSD_Drive_letter]:\$Windows.~bt\System32\Config\ and load the file "system". Name the hive "temp" when prompted. Then browse to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\temp\Controlset001\Control\Filesystem and change DisableDeleteNotification from 0 to 1. Repeat for any other Controlset00x. Then, mark the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\temp node in the tree view and select unload hive from the file menu. Reboot and let it continue the installation.
5. During the next reboot initiated by the installer, repeat the above, but instead load the "system" registry file from [SSD_Drive_letter]:\Windows\System32\Config\
6. Let the installer finish the installation and delete the c:\Windows.old folder.

[idata]

Hello,

Thank you for the information.

Good Post.

Kind Regards,

Aryan.

[GSpec2]

Hi,

I can't install Windows7 on my EEE 1201ha with US15W chipset. I installed Windows XP as you say, but I don't understand how I need configure Bart PE...can you explain me please?

Thanks,

Girolamo

[GSpec2]

Ok, I have done 🙂

But someone can tell me if there is a similar procedur to install a Linux Distribution?

Thanks!