[GUIDE] UX32VD - How to install Windows 7 on the integrated 32GB SSD

[aznhandles]

Almost. Ultime will not activate with Home Premium key, please read back thoroughly what I wrote before: "you can always activate your win7 with your key on the sticker, that is on the charger, assuming you installed the same version of win7, like 64 bit Home Premium, for example." The key on a sticker will activate only the win7 version that is written on the sticker.

You should download a Danish x64 ISO, use eicfg-remover on it, and when you are installing, at the beginnnng it will ask you which version you want, choose Home Premium (or the version that is written on you sticker).

Clear now?

That made sence now... Thanks Jedighost for clarifying!

[Indisium]

I've been reading a bit about Remastering Software recently.

What if anyone made a bootable windows 7 .iso installation file for UX32VD?

rt7lite offers such a software. It is possible to cut down the installation file, so you don't need to install unnecessary parts to save space. It's even possible to add the suitable drivers so everything will work perfectly after the installation

Am I misunderstanding the concept of rt7lite, or is this actually doable?

[dunces]

I've been reading a bit about Remastering Software recently.

What if anyone made a bootable windows 7 .iso installation file for UX32VD?

rt7lite offers such a software. It is possible to cut down the installation file, so you don't need to install unnecessary parts to save space. It's even possible to add the suitable drivers so everything will work perfectly after the installation

Am I misunderstanding the concept of rt7lite, or is this actually doable?

Aye, your understanding is perfectly right.

I spent some hours trying to do a lite Windows 7 install DVD with RT7Lite, but when I tried the disc Windows errored' while installing. So I left it, not bothering to spend much more time on it. It would be really nice to have a properly lite'd Windows 7 though! Could save a few GBs more of space like you say.

I also tried vLite, having successfully used that earlier, but it sadly doesn't support Windows 7 ISOs with integrated SP1. Seems to be the most stable lite-program otherwise.

If anyone finds some reasonable way of doing this, please share

[jedighost]

I've been reading a bit about Remastering Software recently.

What if anyone made a bootable windows 7 .iso installation file for UX32VD?

rt7lite offers such a software. It is possible to cut down the installation file, so you don't need to install unnecessary parts to save space. It's even possible to add the suitable drivers so everything will work perfectly after the installation

Am I misunderstanding the concept of rt7lite, or is this actually doable?

You understand it correctly, it can take quite some trial and error though to figure out the right combination of what to keep and what to trim down. I'm sure you find guides on this. Drivers and stuff: you could just copy the whole C:/eSupport/eDriver folder and run InstAll.exe after Win7 installed, brings up a windows where you can select all you want (Asus drivers, utilities), very comfortable to start with.

EDIT: Dunces was faster to answer

to Dunces: hi mate, I might have some new info for you:

I have installed HD Sentinel (another Hungarian author's work ), and it has options to properly set the APM of the HDD. There is a byte setting it, it has 5 different settings. 0, 1, 2-127, 128-254, 255. Take a look, it might help to find an optimum Power management setting for the HDD (not sleeping too soon, but reserving the battery). You can also see tons of SMART data.

I also have downloaded Sandisk's SSD Tool/Utility, was curious what it recognizes... It sees the drive, no Smart data, but it can check for a firmware upgrade! Exciting! No update yet at the moment though...

I also checked the BIOS again, it can boot as BIOS and as UEFI too. That is why there are double options in selecting boot device, when you plug in an USB drive, that is bootable, you can boot it as BIOS or as UEFI.

I also studied MBR and GPT. GPT sux at the moment, complicates things, too new. I don't know yet why Asus went with GPT partitions...

For me there is 1 unknown factor: how durable is this SSD, what is its write amplification. One of the above utilities was able to identify its SMART pointers, all read LBA sectors and all written ones (512 bytes each). Mine are too high, around 190GB written. It is too much for a new SSD, except if it was tested super-thoroughly at the factory. Unusual though. The way to find out is check how the written sectors nr. is growing day by day...

I also don't find much about U100's durability. I believe U100 and i100 are identical, just packaged differently. It is nice to have an idea about how fast an SSD is aging. i100 is so new, there is just not enough utilities/people knowing about it's details.

Run HD Sentinel, choose i100, click on SMART tab, then the last two rows, and then see the chart below. It gives you the number of MBs of read/written in its lifetime. Could you write me how much is yours?

Nice thing is, HD Sentinel stores this data with the timestamp, and is able to draw a chart from the data points later when run again. Interesting exploration...

[dunces]

hey jedig, good to see that you're still into trying to solve the remaining UX32VD questions.

Very interesting finds!

I believe the APM settings in HD sentinel should work just about the same way as crystaldiskinfo. While HD sentinel is a good program, I'll probably leave the guide as it is since crystal seems a bit lighter on resources and easier to use. I tried the different settings; APM disabled is the best one. When on a middle-value between pwr saving and performance it spun down to a low rpm instead of turning off. The effect was the same issue though, in the sense that the user will have to wait for it to spin up again every time it has to write something - even if it wrote just 10 seconds ago. No APM will make it work just as a regular HDD and turn off nicely when the timer ticks in.

The Sandisk utility might have some use in the future. The current firmware of it seems to be stable though. Haven't had any crashes or anything.

Yes, it will sometimes allow media to boot in UEFI-mode. I even read that Windows 7 can be installed in UEFI mode, and will then install on GPT-partitions! But, I didn't find any way of booting the Windows 7 DVD in UEFI. Although it should be possible if installing from a USB-memory. I didn't mention that in the guide as it would surely lead to even more confusion. It's also still untested.

It's a very valid point you bring up about durability. I've also considered that, but I feel like since it's made to be a Cache disk it is probably just as durable as any other SSD. Even if having the OS installed on it is slightly more taxing on read/writes it should be alright. Check out the brochure, there Sandisk states 4 million hours MTBF (!) and 20 TeraBytes of Writes (20 TBW, on the 32GB version) while guaranteed to maintain the stated performance. So it seems like a perfect contender for an OS disk actually.



I did the SMART read and it seems to show 73GB written and 76GB read. It's strange that yours shows such a high number. Regardless I think it's no issue at all, if the CrystalDiskMark results are in the same ballpark you should be all set. I too suspect that both U100 and i100 are pretty much the same.

It's probably called an iSSD mainly because of the integrated controller in the very slim ship. I checked the chip out when I opened my VD. It's small as a stamp, soldered onto the mainboard. To think that it runs my operating system is pretty amazing

Thanks for sharing your finds, soon we'll have everything figured out.

[jedighost]

hey jedig, good to see that you're still into trying to solve the remaining UX32VD questions.

Very interesting finds!

I believe the APM settings in HD sentinel should work just about the same way as crystaldiskinfo. While HD sentinel is a good program, I'll probably leave the guide as it is since crystal seems a bit lighter on resources and easier to use. I tried the different settings; APM disabled is the best one. When on a middle-value between pwr saving and performance it spun down to a low rpm instead of turning off. The effect was the same issue though, in the sense that the user will have to wait for it to spin up again every time it has to write something - even if it wrote just 10 seconds ago. No APM will make it work just as a regular HDD and turn off nicely when the timer ticks in.

The Sandisk utility might have some use in the future. The current firmware of it seems to be stable though. Haven't had any crashes or anything.

Yes, it will sometimes allow media to boot in UEFI-mode. I even read that Windows 7 can be installed in UEFI mode, and will then install on GPT-partitions! But, I didn't find any way of booting the Windows 7 DVD in UEFI. Although it should be possible if installing from a USB-memory. I didn't mention that in the guide as it would surely lead to even more confusion. It's also still untested.

It's a very valid point you bring up about durability. I've also considered that, but I feel like since it's made to be a Cache disk it is probably just as durable as any other SSD. Even if having the OS installed on it is slightly more taxing on read/writes it should be alright. Check out the brochure, there Sandisk states 4 million hours MTBF (!) and 20 TeraBytes of Writes (20 TBW, on the 32GB version) while guaranteed to maintain the stated performance. So it seems like a perfect contender for an OS disk actually.



I did the SMART read and it seems to show 73GB written and 76GB read. It's strange that yours shows such a high number. Regardless I think it's no issue at all, if the CrystalDiskMark results are in the same ballpark you should be all set. I too suspect that both U100 and i100 are pretty much the same.

It's probably called an iSSD mainly because of the integrated controller in the very slim ship. I checked the chip out when I opened my VD. It's small as a stamp, soldered onto the mainboard. To think that it runs my operating system is pretty amazing

Thanks for sharing your finds, soon we'll have everything figured out.

Sure, i did not mean to influence the guide, just wanted to share my findings. It was more like a message to you, but a public one. I fully agree, it would just confuse and overwhelm others with new data.

20TBW is that is 11GB writes/day for 5 years, that is plenty! If one does not use hibernation, it is more than enough.

Thanks for your input, i hope your Zenbook's fan behaviour gets solved soon. My one seems really silent. It is back with me for a few more days, the sound did not come back after the computer's screen went dark (not sleep yet, just energy saving). I had to play around with the Audio drivers, basically had to disable the HDMI output, i think that was the reason.

EDIT: It didn't solve it. This did: originally I let the fresh win7 download the Intel HD Graphics 4000 drivers as part of Windows Update. But those did NOT install the Intel HDMI drivers. The device showed up in Device manage as HD Audio Device or sg. similar, beside the Realtek one. Then i checked the factory win7 install on the HDD, the naming was different, Intel HDMI audio or sg. I have checked the eSupport/eDriver/Software/Display/Intel folder on the HDD, and there was a HDMI driver. So i just installed the whole Intel HD driver again from that folder. Problem solved. This means we have to rely on Asus for proper drivers in certain cases.

Interesting: on Intel.com the latest HD Graphics 4000 driver says it is not compatible with this machine when trying to run it... Similar how Nvidia's 300 series Beta driver says the same... Seems like updates will come mainly through Asus.

[Eckenlieger]

Very nice guide, thank you for your work!

All UX32VD versions come with this two-drive setup from factory and can be used in this guide.

Look here: http://www.asus.de/Notebooks/Superio...specifications

In my opinion 24 GB is TOO small for a growing Windows 7.

Hibernation will still work normally and just as fast.

How does that work without the hiberfil.sys?

Cheers
Eckenlieger

[dunces]

Very nice guide, thank you for your work!

Look here: http://www.asus.de/Notebooks/Superio...specifications

In my opinion 24 GB is TOO small for a growing Windows 7.

How does that work without the hiberfil.sys?

Cheers
Eckenlieger

Thanks Eckenlieger,

Regarding the size it's 30GB formatted, which I state in the guide. The 24GB figures are only if it's used in 'ExpressCache'-mode. And it's not too small at all for what it is. As stated, you will have about 15GB free space after windows is installed. That is plenty to allow it to grow, and keeping a few of your most used programs on it as well.

Any games or huge programs you can install on the Hitachi HDD which has plenty of space.

Hiberfil.sys actually slows the computer down and is totally unnecessary on SSD drives. After disabling it the hibernation will work even better, while not consuming any space at all.

[Eckenlieger]

OK, but I thought hiberfil.sys ist used to dump the RAM for the S4 suspend to disk mode. How can a simple file only used for hibernation cause performance issues? Where is the memory dump saved when S4 is activated? Sorry for my maybe stupid questions and thanks for your instruction.

[dunces]

OK, but I thought hiberfil.sys ist used to dump the RAM for the S4 suspend to disk mode. How can a simple file only used for hibernation cause performance issues? Where is the memory dump saved when S4 is activated? Sorry for my maybe stupid questions and thanks for your instruction.

Ah yes, good point. Disabling hiberfil.sys will not allow the computer to go into S4. It will go into S3 instead, which is like S4 except that the RAM is still powered. Sorry I didn't mean any general performance issues, but performance is worse when entering and resuming S4 hibernation. With disabled hibernation, it will always enter S3 and hibernation will work lightning fast.

The disadvantage of removing the hibernation file is that the notebook will draw slightly more power while hibernating.

I prefer to disable S4 hibernation though, since I like faster hibernation before slightly higher hibernation power draw, and the reclaimed HDD space is nice of course. And if I'm planning not to use the notebook in a while I simply shut it down regularly.

It's not stupid at all, I hope it's of some help. Cheers