I just got my X220 and I want to give it a bigger hard drive.

I'd like at least a 600 gig (it came with a 320 gig) that is 7400 RPM

Is there any specific brands of drives that work best in the X220?

Just thought I'd check in with the resident X220 experts before doing anything.

I don't have recommendations for what brand of disk to buy, but I'm sure someone here will chime in with their experience.

1000 gigabyte / 1 terabyte laptop drives are available, but these drives are a non-standard 12mm thick as opposed to 9mm.

12mm laptop drives are not meant to go inside the X220, but some enterprising German users have managed to do so. I don't think you want to void your warranty by modding the chassis to accept the thicker drive.

I think the largest 9mm drive out there is 500gb. My suggestion is to get a 500gb disk and use the (hopefully vacant, if you did not order WWAN as an option) mSATA slot for a Boot/OS/Apps disk. you will get the best of both worlds - high capacity for data storage and archival, and high-speed disk access for the OS and whatever software you require. A reasonable size for the mSATA would be 120gb, but you can squeeze by with an 80gb version too.

I replaced my 7200rpm 500gb Hitachi disk Drive that came with the laptop with 2 SSD's. I personally think that if you use an mSATA drive as your OS/software host, you really won't see the benefit of a 7200rpm drive versus 5400rpm, since you will be running your computer from a -much- faster SSD, that won't need to use a slow HDD that often (except for accessing personal data) The only thing I consider negatively about 7200rpm drives is the noise and vibration the inevitably cause. I don't know if that is a dealbreaker for you, but that is something to consider. I'm also not sure of the reliability differential between 5400rpm and 7200rpm, so I'm assuming the are the same in reliability. I could be wrong.

The mSATA is on the SATA2 bus, so you won't have the 6gbps bandwidth of the SATA3 bus that the main hard disk bay enjoys. But don't let that worry you. The difference in actual usage will be next to nothing.

X220 use 7mm (thickness) drives as oppose to 9mm, so you don't really have a many choices.

You mean... I could have two drives in this laptop?

That would be perfect. On my regular tower I used for work, I have numerous drives where the C drive is for Windows and programs only and all data is saved on a second drive. I do this because I use Acronis and I can restore my C drive in about 8 minutes and keep on trucking is there's ever a serious problem. This arrangement doesn't effect my data.

So, that's be great to be able to have a C drive, and then a second drive.

What I had in mind was... I got Lenovo to send me the installation discs (they somehow overlooked sending them to me initially). One set is for Win 7 Professional 64 bit, and the other set is for all the Lenovo stuff they load at the factory.

Do you think it's possible to simply load Windows without loading the Lenovo stuff, which I really don't want on there (I like having systems with just Windows and nothing else so I can install only what I want.) Just curious if that were possible or not.



Wow, so what brand is recommended that makes a 7mm 7400 rpm drive?

Would you happen to know who makes the 320 gig drive that came in this laptop from the factory?

Ok, so I found an article that says Western Digital has started shipping it's Scorpio Blue in a 7mm thick 500gig drives
http://www.slashgear.com/western-digital-scorpio-blue-7mm-drive-appeals-to-ultrabooks-11222418/

But, every Scorpio Blue drive I find on the WD website store is 9.5mm thick.

I guess I need to contact them directly, unless somebody knows how to find this on their site.

OK, so I found what I think it the drive that came with my laptop at

http://www.hgst.com/internal-drives/mob ... tar-z7k500
which is a Hitachi Travelstar 500GB 2.5" 7mm drive

Well, mine is actually 320gig and this one is 500gig... I'll probably just upgrade and keep my original drive in my to-go bag as a back-up drive ready to use if the new 500gig drive goes bad.

I may look at the SSD's at some point in the future when they get more reliable.

Anyway, one my second subject... using the discs I got from Lenovo, do you think it's possible to simply load Windows only without loading the Lenovo stuff, which I really don't want on there (I like having systems with just Windows and nothing else so I can install only what I want.) Just curious if that were possible or not.

This ought to be doable, right?

I stand corrected.

Clean installs of Windows from the Lenovo Recovery Partition or from the Recovery Disks they can send are not possible. however, you can download a genuine copy of your version of the OS from Microsoft, and apply your COA code to that, giving you nothing but windows and no Lenovo Software. there are a plethora of guides out there for doing clean installs, so I won't get into that.

I don't really see the point of clean installs, especially when going to SSD. You will have to spend a fair bit of time to set up drivers, which the automated recovery does for you, and some of the ThinkVantage software is really good, like the Toolbox (has a great set of diagnostic tools) and Power manager (has some very useful options for managing your battery)

Intel provides a migration tool that has worked for me flawlessly when I moved to the Intel SSD. It took all of 10 minutes to set up everything on the SSD along with the software I had installed and be up and running.

as far as reliance is concerned, SSD drives are a LOT better than what they used to be. most of the horror stories are now a thing of the past. but then, I always run weekly backups onto a 2tb desktop HDD to be on the safe side.

No, I have the actual Windows install discs that I had Lenovo send me... so, there's no reason why I cannot use these Windows discs to do a clean install.

When I called Lenovo, I told them I needed the Windows install discs in case the hard drive ever failed... they told me they would take care of that if it ever happened, and I said, Really??? 6 or 7 years down the line you are going to do what for me???

The guy said he could see my point and sent me the Windows install discs (2), and he sent me the Lenovo software / Lenovo software drivers discs (2).

I'm thinking I can install Windows clean and skip installing the Lenovo software that I don't want anyhow. I'll of course do this on that new hard drive and keep the original hard drive that is in the laptop now in case things don't work out as planned.

Since I use Acronis, I have no need for Lenovo recovery or Windows recovery. I have been using Acronis since 2005 and have yet to see it not work perfectly each time I needed to restore my system on any PC I use. In fact, I always restore back to the previous time anytime I need to install new software or make any changes. It's as though my Windows / software id freshly installed at all times providing trouble free computing at all times.

Obviously this does nothing for hardware failure, but I have yet to experience that other than harddrive failure which Acronis can easily handle.

With older Factory Recovery Discs (T30, T4x) it wasn’t possible to do a clean Windows install. But with newer (x201 & x301, for sure) the first disc labeled ‘OS Recovery Disc – Windows 7 xxx’ will do a clean install; just end the install process after the first disc finishes.

Many drivers are missing (WiFi, Ethernet, audio) but their most recent versions can be easily obtained through Thinkvantage Updates or Windows Updates. Saves time to pre-download WiFi & Thinkvantge installs and have them ready when Windows finishes.

There is one big advantage in using this disc, as opposed to a generic MS disc, the Lenovo OEM SLP key and certificate are built into the disc so you will get an automatic offline activation and not have to use the key on the COA.

This disc and also be legally used on any Thinkpad that originally came with the same version of Win 7 installed.

OK, all I gotta do is buy an external USB CD-Rom drive... anybody know of any good ones to look at?

Ones that can also burn a CD as that's always a handy feature that might be needed sometime.

I found an external CD-Rom drive / burner at
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications ... u=L49-1302

It's an LG unit... think this would be a good one?

I personally hate pre-installed OS with bloatware(some Microsoft live, many Lenovo programs I don't use....). I performed clean install few days after purchase and I only installed SW I use. Reinstall was really easy, I used install medium from MSDNAA and serial number from microsoft sticker and it was activated. And I just needed to manually install LAN drivers and System Update tool and everything else was installed automatically.

Yessir, that's my idea as well... to install windows clean.

I got from Lenovo 2 windows install discs, and two Lenovo install discs... I should be able to get by just using the windows discs, right?