After going through the obligatory Windows initialization process with my new Dell Mini 9, I proceeded to follow the plan that I outlined in a previous posting. After checking that the system had the A04 BIOS installed, I then used the application called CloneZilla to make a backup image of the virgin Windows XP installation on the disk. With this backup image, I can always reinstall the system files exactly to the original state of the Dell Mini.
I then inserted my USB Flash Drive (bootable) containing the Windows 7 Beta installation files and rebooted the Mini 9 (having the system boot up from a USB drive). After a few seconds, the Windows 7 installation procedure began to start. I followed the simple instructions, and away it went through the installation. When it finally got to the part where it was ready to reboot the system, I still had the USB drive connected to the Mini 9 and the system began the installation procedure again. To remedy this, I simply removed the USB drive and rebooted the system again. It then came up and continued with the final stages of the initialization process. What was a bit discerning, was the length of time Windows 7 took in the final stages of the initialization phase, as it gave no indication that it was doing anything (no hourglass or progress bar displayed). I remained patient, and after several minutes the system finished with the initialization and rebooted again.
Windows 7 then went through a setup process of checking the video performance, etc. which took several minutes before it came up with the main desktop screen. I then followed the suggestions on this web site to install Vista Drivers (for the Dell Mini 12) which are compatible with Windows 7. Finally, with a wireless Internet connection active I did a Windows Update which installed 4 updated drivers on my system.
I have to note, that I used vLite to create a custom Windows 7 installation, where I stripped out components, drivers, etc. that I was certain I wouldn’t need. By doing this, I was able to reduce the final OS installation size down to 5.5 GB of space.
After I got the Win7 OS installed and tweaked to my satisfaction, I began to install the handful of apps that I felt I needed on this machine. I installed everything on the main SSD drive, and the final amount of free space ended up being the following:
So, I’ll probably be in good shape space-wise if I install files on an SDHC card. So now the real evaluation begins…
