[pcrequest]

I will be installing W7 in a day or two and wanted to bring up a few potential issues. My vostro A90 (just a mini 9 right?) shipped with Ubuntu. Running 12.04 now. I need to run Onenote, so I must get Windows on here.

I've been perusing these forums last few days, and have reached some conclusions.

W7 works well. (32 bit only, right?) i I should follow a guide to trim it first so it doesn't hog drive. I've already upgraded the RAM via Crucial to 2GB.

I have the stock SSD 16 GB. It seems slower than it used to be. It is PATA and doesn't do do TRIM. There is a utility (STEC SSD 8 / 16GB util) to fix a bricked drive and flashes it's firmware. I wonder if this restores it's performance. My drive is not broken. I have no data to save.

I seem to have the latest A06 BIOS, so that's fine.

Any gotchas I need to address? TIA.

[Dell_Abhishek_B]

Hi,

I would advise you to run the Windows 7 upgrade adviser. In case there are any compatibility issues, it will automatically suggest you about the possible resolution.

You can click on the following link to run the Windows 7 upgrade advisor.
Download Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor from Official Microsoft Download Center

You can also check the link below for more information on system requirements for Windows 7.
Windows 7 system requirements - Microsoft Windows

For more information on windows 7 upgrade you can check Article ID : 267477 on www.support.dell.com
http://dell.to/S7ffka

Please reply for any further questions.

Thanks and regards
Abhishek B
#iworkfordell

[lswartz]

You are correct, 32 bit is your only option for the Mini 9/Vostro 90.

I found a link for running Office 2007 that you might take a look at, maybe One Note would work too. » Ubuntu 12.04: Office and Play on Linux Linux Sagas. However, you can be certain that it will work with Win 7.

Added;
I don't see that anyone got One Note to work well. Seems like Win 7 is the best solution.

[pcrequest]

SAGAS is interesting, but yeah, I'm intent on running Windows 7. My main concern is if I should run the STEC SSD 8 / 16GB util before I install 7 in an attempt to restore performance.

But perhaps I should consider replacing the SSD after seeing performance gains. 32GB doesn't seem like a bad price. Is the Runcore drive "resettable" as in I can reset the cells since I've read no PATA SSD can ever do TRIM.

[lswartz]

I would skip the SSD utility & just do a clean install of Win 7. I have not noticed 12.04 slowing down like Windows XP does. However, I do think that 12.04 is slower to boot/shutdown than 10.04. I just never timed it on my desktop before installing 12.04 so it is only what I think.