Thinkpads Forum

I placed the order for a T520 at Lenovo.com on June 6. It was shipped from Shanghai on June 9, with an estimated arrival date of June 15. That's quick service.

I am currently running a T500 which I upgraded last year to a 256GB SSD. I plan to move my SSD drive with all its installed programs and data to the T520 and keep the 500 GB that comes with the T520 as a backup drive which I will be able to access via the ultrabay.

My question is whether there are any steps or precautions related to moving the SSD from a T500 to a T520. Will I encounter any hardware or software or proprietary issues? Will running the Windows and ThinkVantage system updates after the new drive is installed be sufficient to handle/update my hard drive to the new laptop?

Thanks for any pointers that you are able to share.

FRANK

...FRANK;
troubles > in short = lots !!
However if you know your way around - you CAN EASILY do that - without MUCH ISSUES.

- not sure if you want to keep the OTHER WINDOWS7x32 (from T500) am assuming tis x32windows 7
- But LEGALLY - you would have the 'wrong keys' of windows in there ......but if theyboth windows 7x32 - you might be fine ( I think ....

Swapping over - might also be an issue - as am not sure what MODEL OF SSD you got. A lot of the OLDER SSD were SATAII , and most of the NEWER SSD = SATAIII ( which is what T&W520's are) and you will get some reduced speed and might not like it etc etc not to mention possible HEAT ISSUES etc etc....
(((reason I KNOW - is a did that SAME THING on my W500 - model 4058 and moved thigns to newer W520 - see sig)))

My BEST suggestion = since you spent all that $$money on a NEW T520 - buy a newer SSD (with SATAIII) and am SURE you will enjoy that lots easier ................well unless you like that kinda of "ADVANTURES"

Cheers

I have not 'documented' any STEPS that I took - but the swap worked and ran nicely (Windows 7 X64 Prof with Intel SSDs - I dont use anything else) on both machines without much troubles ..............and if YOU LIKE > PM me and I will help you if you want to still try this ADVENTURE!!

Vista and 7 are pretty tolerant of being put into a totally different machine. You'd probably have no trouble getting it to boot, albeit with non-working drivers. A quick TVSU pass should fix that. You'd almost certainly have to reactivate Windows though.

ausmike wrote:....but if they are both windows 7x32 - you might be fine...

Swapping over - might also be an issue - as am not sure what MODEL OF SSD you got.

The T520 comes with a Win7 Professional 64bit installation (and key). I installed Win7 Ultimate 64 bit on the SSD in my T500. So that compatibility should be OK (except for the key codes).

My SSD drive is the Crucial 256GB C300 2.5" SATA 6GB/s. The product number is CTFDDAC256MAG1CC. I don't see any reference to whether this is SATA III. Am I correct that SATA 600 = SATA III?

According to Wikipedia...
the eSATA version of SATA 6G will operate at 6.0 Gb/s (the term SATA III is being eschewed by the SATA-IO to avoid confusion with SATA II 3.0 Gbit/s, which was colloquially referred to as "SATA 3G" [bps] or "SATA 300"

Thanks,
FRANK

Hi Frank;
Seesm you have one of these SSD (not sure which of these you actually have 2.5 or 1.8 version):
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductLi ... name=256GB

if so; than you be sweet !!! > they all SATAIII (lucky you)

Win7Ulti x64 you might as well do a FRESH INSTALL with that ssd on T520 (cleaner and lots better)

oops edit links :: Enjoy your new toy !

ausmike wrote:if so; than you be sweet !!! > they all SATAIII (lucky you)
Win7Ulti x64 you might as well do a FRESH INSTALL with that ssd on T520 (cleaner and lots better)

My SSD is 2.5".
Thanks for the confirmation that it will be up to speed with the T520.
I will indeed enjoy this new toy.
FRANK

ausmike wrote:if so; than you be sweet !!! > they all SATAIII (lucky you) Win7Ulti x64 you might as well do a FRESH INSTALL with that ssd on T520 (cleaner and lots better)

My T520 arrived today. Looks like a very nice machine. The screen as others have indicated looks superb.

Unfortunately, moving my SSD drive from my T500 to the T520 did not go so well. The T520 with the SSD in place began to boot windows and then flashed a Blue Screen and then rebooted. It finally ended up with a prompt to repair the installation using my Win7 disk.

I proceeded with the "repair" from the Windows 7 Ultimate CD, but the repair also failed, and gave me the following message:
================
Root cause found.
-----------------------------
A patch is preventing the system from starting
Repair action: System files integrity check and repair.
Result: Failed. Error code = 0xa
=====================

Anyone have suggestions as to what I should do now? Meanwhile I have moved the SSD drive back to my T500.

Thanks,
FRANK

Hi bear*...
Sorry you having issues with SSD ,,,,,,,,,,,,YES they CAN be tricky!
and I am NO EXPERT............however , I have "made few mistake myself ,,, and learn via mistakes does wonders to your leanring curves hehe ...."

Since you ALREADY BOOTED with SSD once ,,,,and seems you didnt PRESS F1 ( to boot to BIOS FIRST) ,,, the damage is already done ( well damage here refers to BOOT SECTOR in windows) ... blah blah - am sure all you need to find is HOW TO FIX it!!

That am afaid is tuff thing to do now.....> so I have few suggestions:
a) if you still have the FACTORY DRIVE "in-tact" (am assuming u pulled otu the factory drive even before poweing it on , and put it aside - hope u did that ! )
i) IF ABOVE IS TRUE - than I would setup a CLONE PROCESS on another laptop /PC
and CLONE from FACTORY HD to the SSD. I use ACRONIS and it works nicely for me ,,,, as ACronis seems to see the NORMAL HD and SSD , and does all the internal adjustments etc by itself (FYI - there are differances in how data is stored from norma HD to SSD - am sure you know all that!) ii) once the clone process is done

ii) once the CLONE PROCESS is done ( it will ask you to reboot - make sure u do that and THAN its completed proceess in Acronis) Once you have a CLONED SSD , than install in the NEW T520

iii) MOST IMPORTNAT - AT FIRST BOOT WITH SSD - hit F1 , and let BIOS SEE the NEW SSD ,,, thens hit F10 and SAVE (( must save )

So these might be long winded steps but I hope it works for you ,,,,if not than I would DO a FRESH INSTALL - save you all these messing about !!


Cheers

Is Sandy Bridge still ICH9M? Might be the reason for the BSOD...

Nei Hao Col*.... tis super nice in Dallian @moment

ausmike wrote:Hi bear*... Sorry you having issues with SSD ,,,,,,,,,,,,YES they CAN be tricky! and I am NO EXPERT............however , I have "made few mistake myself ,,, and learn via mistakes does wonders to your leanring curves hehe ...."

Thanks for the suggestions.
Rather than cloning at this point, what I have decided to do is to re-install all of my programs (one by one) on the 500GB HD that came with the T520. That way I can have my T520 and T500 working "side by side" for a couple of weeks. However, I would limit the amount of data and programs to less than 200GB (and keep anything else safely tucked away in one of my external HDs). Once I have have the T520 configuration working the way that I want it, then I will reformat the SSD drive and clone the T520 HD to the 256 GB SSD. At that point I should be able to swap the drives and use the SSD as my primary drive (with the other as my backup).
FRANK