When My Mini 9 Arrives, I Plan to…

In anticipation of my Dell Mini 9 arriving sometime next week, I’m making my plans to replace the WinXP OS with Windows 7. Here’s what I have so far:

1. Make sure the Mini 9 BIOS is the latest (A04). If it is not, download the update from the Dell support site and install it.
2. Install the 2 GB RAM module in the Mini 9.
3. Make a backup image of the original WinXP installation using Clonezilla.
   • Boot up the Mini 9 using a USB Flash Drive that is bootable with the Clonezilla software
   • Save the disk image file from Clonezilla to a 2nd USB Flash Drive (8 GB of free space)
4. Re-boot the Mini 9 using a 4 GB Fash Drive that has the Windows 7 Install files, and install the Win7 OS.
5. Install the Win7 Drivers as described in the DellMini Forum posting.
6. Apply all the tweaks I’ve been reading about to speed up the system performance.

I’m doing this because I want to test out Windows 7, since I’ve read that it runs pretty good on the Dell Mini 9. If I have too many issues with it, my plan is to install a nLite version of WinXP back on the system.

I’ve also got a 16 GB SDHC card ordered from Newegg.com and on the way, so that should give me more storage for applications and files.

Slipstream SP3 Updates Into Your Custom WinXP Installation

In a previous posting I mention creating a slimmed down version of the WinXP installation files to help reduce the amount of space taken up by a WinXP installation on your Dell Mini 9. You essentially use a nifty application called nLite to pick-n-choose what you want as part of the WinXP installation, and then have this application create a custom WinXP installation.

Now, you start this process by using a set of files from a WinXP Installation CD, which in most cases already contains the SP1 or SP2 service packs (it should say so on the CD’s label). Since the Dell Mini 9 comes with the SP3 service pack installed, you probably should upgrade to SP3 with your custom WinXP installation. So, there’s two ways of doing this:

1. Install WinXP with SP1/Sp2, then download and install SP3 separately on your system
2. Incorporate the SP3 service pack inside your custom WinXP Installation

Option 2 is nice, since you’ll have SP3 already part of the main installation (which is especially convenient if you want or need to install WinXP multiple times on your Dell Mini or other machine). So how can you include Sp3 as part of your Custom WinXP installation?

Creating a Slimmed Down WinXP Installation

Since most Dell Mini’s come with either an 8 GB or 16 GB SSD drive, storage space is a valuable commodity. A full WinXP Installation takes up on average 5 GB of storage space, so on a 8 GB SSD system that leaves you with only 3 GB for your application and files. If you visit some of the Netbook forums, you’ll often see postings regarding an “nLite” version of Windows XP, or a “slimmed down” version. What exactly is this?

There is a wonderful freeware utility called nLite that allows you to create a custom Windows XP installation where you can pick-and-choose what you want installed on your system. For example, the default WinXP installation will install various files for several different languages and keyboards, hardware drivers, applications, etc. which you probably will never use. So why not remove this unnecessary stuff from the Windows installation files? That is exactly what the nLite application does.

What’s nice about nLite, is that it have a very easy to use interface that steps you through the customization procedure. You can very easily select which items (e.g., applications, drivers, services, etc.) that you want to exclude from the custom WinXP installation files. There’s also provisions to check if you’re trying to remove a feature or file needed by something else in the installation. Now, it may seem undaunting at first since you may not know what items to keep and exclude from the custom installation, but there’s several web sites that offer assistance and suggestions.