Recovery-type Partition on non-factory SSD?

[pegleg81]

From what I've been reading, it appears that some individuals did not have success in imaging the factory drive, with its recovery partition, to an SSD. Has your experience been the same?

Moreover, some have reported success in doing a fresh install of Windows on to an SSD. If you have done a fresh intall of windows on to an SSD, then have you set up some sort of a recovery-type hidden partition in the SSD? If yes, how so?

Have people tried using the built-in backup feature in XP or Vista to backup to a hidden partition?

How about using third party software such as Acronis?

Going to get my x61s from the Lenovo outlet (crossing fingers), and also having an SSD coming in.

[felixgogo]

It can be done - but you have to do things in the right order - I learnt alot from posting here, upgrading my X60s took many attempts, but my Z61T was updated at first attempt. Both times was to insert and use a new SSD as the 'C' drive.

You need to be able to connect the extra drive somehow - via a USB adaptor is best. You also need to be able to boot off a CD at the same time.
Connect all the above so the PC can see the CD drive and a extra HDD.

Then - important bit - remove the old C drive, insert the new SSD into the PC.
Insert the copy software into the CD drive - I used a bargain bin copy of Acronis 9 (The trial verson on the web will not work on this sort of copying - don't waste time on it)
Boot the PC up in compatibilty mode (option in BIOS)
The Acronis will start and can see the 'old' HDD (connected via USB) and the new SSD (in the PC)
Follow the instructions to 'clone'.
Reboot.

Done.

The Acronis will copy all the data on the source (old) disk to the destination (new) disk, including the recovery partiation.

If I had these instructions - I would have saved hours - I hope it is useful, and good luck.

[pegleg81]

felixgogo:

Much thanks for your reply. I have Acronis True Image 10, so I'll definitely try this, as this seems like a clean solution.

I might want to try a variation of this where I can copy Acronis on a usb stick, as I don't have the dvd drive in the ultrabase that's coming in.

Knowing how nice it is to be able to easily do a windows reinstallation a few years later down the road, I think that having a recovery-type partition is very important.

The OCZ Solid Series 60gb ssd has a usb port, I believe, so if booting off the Acronis on a usb doesn't work, I'll get a dvd drive for the ultrabase.

[leesiulung]

If you are just trying to get the hidden recovery partition onto the SSD, then just use the recovery CD's on the drive without any partitions. If you already have something on it, you will probably need a utility to wipe it clean.

Simply deleting the partitions do not work. The recovery CD/DVDs will only restore the hidden partition if the drive appears brand new without data on it.

[adrianaitken]

Why waste expensive SSD space for the recovery partition ?
My SSD has only 32GB so I just installed a plain XP Pro onto it, then loaded the drivers and any software I wanted to use on it.

[pegleg81]

Just in case I'm on a business trip and for some odd reason the c: drive goes kaput, i.e., data corruption or something else. If it's on the ssd, I don't have to worry about bringing along an ultrabase and the recovery cd.

Although the possibility of the c: drive going kaput is probably very very very very small, considering how I use my laptops.....

I also like the idea of being able to go back to factory settings once the computer starts getting slow.

leesiulung: I think that I like your idea better, as I won't have to buy something to connect the sata drive to the x61 via usb.