[SOLVED] Win 7 on M.2 SATA SSD, plus dual boot?

[chenw]

Hey all,

I had asked a similar question in another forum and all of its replies ended up being "why do you want to use that old outdated OS?" or "Just use Win 10" or "Just use VM".

I have reasons for not using Win 10 (it's a spare laptop with official drivers for Win 7 and XP, my main rig isn't going to run Win 7, nor is my laptop going to use Win 10 because I have no need on that particular laptop), and my past experiences with VM has always been poor.

So basically.

1. Does Win 7 require injection of drivers to install onto an M.2 SATA drive? (Emphasis on SATA, not NVMe, the laptop I am using doesn't have NVMe) A quick google only turned up answers for M.2 with NVMe SSDs.

2. Is it possible to use virtual disk feature of Win 7 to setup a 32-bit XP, or is dual booting my only real option?

Thanks in advance

EDIT: The laptop in question is Lenovo Thinkpad E431

EDIT2: Treat the two as separate issues, I am in all honesty probably not going to install the Win 7 on M.2 SATA, and probably will share an SSD with XP in all likely hood.

 

[maikutech]

https://forums.tomshardware.com/thr...7-on-a-samsung-950-pro-m-2-ssd-drive.2595161/

Actually yes windows 7 but you will need the drivers for nve m.2 support, check the Leveno support page for the laptop.

It should be available, if its not there, send a email to leveno and require about them.
If they it will not work for windows 7, you can opt in to use normal sata hdd as shown here.

https://www.amazon.com/Western-Digital-Scorpio-Internal-2-5-Inch/dp/B004I9J5OG

 

[onespeedbiker]

There is little difference between a sata ssd and a non-NVME sata m.2 drive (and no advantage). The M.2 drive will work the same as a sata drive with the same drivers. OTOH, XP does not support Trim, so unless you use a a special line of Intel ssds, your XP ssd will become inoperable over time. http://www.ryli.net/enjoy-the-power-of-ssd-with-windows-xp-is-it-possible/