Thinkpads Forum

Just got a new Samsung EVO850 mSATA SSD (250gb) from NewEgg. It loaded pretty quickly (~10 sec) with a fresh install from the Lenovo recovery DVDs. But after updating with the updated Lenovo drivers and windows updates, it's as slow as a mechanical HDD (take ~60+ seconds to load). Anybody else have a similar experience with an mSATA SSD in the T420?

What is the temperature of the SSD ?
it is supposed to throttle down when it reach a temp of above 60c or 70c (not sure about the throttling temp.).

Don't have a temp reading but the system has never run hot (before or now). Now, you could fry an egg on my wife's HP laptop!

Generally, I advise against using Lenovo's recovery disks on SSDs of any kind. It takes way too much tweaking to get the things running properly when compared to a clean install from "vanilla" media.

Having said that, the boot time should still be nowhere near what you've been experiencing. I'd just nuke the install and start fresh, but that's me.

Yup.

A fresh install of the OS using OEM Windows 7 media (NOT the Lenovo recovery disks) and a run of Thinkvantage System Update + Windows Update should do you right.

Or if you don't *need* Windows, run linux. But that's just me. I dropped Windows as my boot OS about 6 months ago or so and only have Windows 7 in a VM for the few times I have to use a Windows program. Which is rare. I've replaced all my work related programs with their linux counterparts.

If you need Microsoft Office - it can run via WINE. Except Outlook. I never could get that to run right.

Windows is a fine OS though. If it suits your needs, by all means carry on.

Regarding your 60 second boot time on the mSATA SSD. That's crazy. Even though it's running at SATA2 speeds it should be plenty fast. I highly suspect conflicting drivers. As mentioned by me and others, reload the OS. If you need an ISO of the OEM Windows 7, shoot me a PM.

What a pain! Oh well, I have two ISO files for Win 7 Pro SP1: X17-24281 and X17-59186
Do you know if either of these will work with my OEM product key?

Thanks,

Windows 7 Professional 64Bit: X17-59186.iso

Windows 7 Professional x64 with SP1: X17-24281.iso <--use this

Ah, OK, didn't realize only one of them was the SP1 update. Can I run this from a USB drive or do I have to burn it to DVD and use the DVD-ROM drive?

There's a Microsoft tool for creating a bootable USB from the ISO. It's called Windows USB/DVD Download Tool.
Alternatively, there's also Rufus.

sktn77a wrote:Anybody else have a similar experience with an mSATA SSD in the T420?

I always thought the mSATA SSDs in my X220s, had Crucial and Intel drives, were a bit sluggish compared to other machines I'd used. The boot times were good, but not quite as snappy. I never did figure out why, not that I really looked.

Well, did the clean install of WIN7 Pro and, indeed, the boot times are faster - about 30 sec from hitting the power button to the desktop (with no cursor circling). Shutdown is about 10 seconds. I guess I can live with that.

Thanks to all!



EDIT: Forgot to add that, of course, nothing is ever as simple as "loading the OS, running the Thinkvantage system update" and full steam ahead. The native install didn't recognize my network card (Intel 6205), so had to manually download (on another machine) and USB-drive it over to my T420. Then downloaded the Thinkvantage System Update - failed to install - needs microsoft.net framework 4.5 or later installed first! So ran MS update overnight and then installed System update and got all of the T420 drivers. So, yes, system is snappier but took a day to get there!

I think and I'm not 100% sure as it's been a few years since I've had the X220, if you disable TPM in the BIOS, provided you're not using it of course, it'll shave about five seconds off the boot time.

Interesting. I never thought of that. I'll give it a try.

I use mx200 (because of the special chip that can prevent data corruption not the best for write and read performance)
I dont use windows, but so far it works great for me without a problem my set up is running /boot and root on my msata Crucial MX200, /home /opt /var on my SSD 850 EVO.
Compare with normal hdd is actually a lot much faster.

Guys, there is cap in mSata - on T420 and X220 ...

We are aware of that.

That being said even an mSATA SSD capped at SATAII speeds is still rather speedy - provided you buy a decent SSD. An 850 EVO, Crucial, Intel or Sandisk are good choices. I'd stay away from Kingston, Patriot and Adata drives - not to mention OCZ.