After 3 days of clearing and backing up data from my hard disk, I finally have the chance to install Windows Vista. It was really tedious going through all the data and the additional fact that I don’t have DVD burner didn’t help at all. By installing the Windows Vista on a separate partition I could still use my good old Windows XP since I have lots of software running in it and also to test out and get myself familiar with Vista.

Now I’m ready to install Vista after creating a 25GB partition for it. I ran an initial Vista readiness check on my hardware and noted that Linksys LNE100TX may not run properly. I took a chance and installed Vista anyway, and the installation went as a breeze. Sure enough after the completion of installation, Vista detected two hardware items that is has no drivers – a Silicone Image RAID card and Linksys LNE100TX v4.1

Installing the RAID card wasn’t too difficult, but I did accidentally install a version that was not compatible and got myself the blue screen of death! Fortunately after a reboot I was able to choose the option “reboot into previous known working condition” after pressing F8. Retried another version and managed to get the RAID card to work. One hardware item solved!

Now to get the second piece of hardware to work. At first I tried the Linksys support page, but they never mentioned which drivers were suitable for Windows Vista. Searching through the forum, finally found that v5.1 should work. Even though my LNE100TX is version 4.1, the v5.1 driver supports it.

Yep, the version 5.1 driver works like a charm and I got my internet connection going.

Strike that one out of the list of software upgrade.

Next…!