Bought 2 SSD, want to install on w520, how ?

[kpoman]

Hello guys,

I have a W520 with default hdd (7200rpm 500GB). I just bought 2 SSD Samsung 830 of 256GB each. I wonder what would be the best configuration and how to install them.
First can I have both disks on the same chassis/notebook ? After, can I do some Raid1 or whatever ? Finally how can I transport my current os to one of the disks ? I dont want to do nlite thing (to recreate my own ISO then reinstall the whole thing). Ghost ? What tool to use ?

Thank you, have a nice day !

[kpoman]

Give me some tips please !!!!

[Cigarguy]

IMO, a raid setup using SSD is not necessary. SSD is that fast.

I'm a believer in fresh installs. It really isn't as time consuming or as scary as people make it out to be. I find cloning, swapping, and then trying to figure out how to optimize everything a lot more time consuming and aggravating. Win 7 does a great job with SSD in that it does the alignment, set up trim and garbage alignment. Obviously make sure you're running in ACHI mode.

You can get an Ultrabay adapter that will allow you to swap out the CD drive for a HDD. I've done this on a couple of machine with the SSD as my primary boot and program load files and larger 1 TB HDD in the Ultrabay slot. On my T61s the Ultrabay slot is pretty slow, so a SSD would be 1) expensive and 2) a total waste.

[jdrou]

, can I do some Raid1 or whatever ?

You can't do hardware RAID unless you bought the laptop with two drives and RAID setup; if you bought with only one then the motherboard does not have RAID enabled.
You should be able to do some software RAID but as Cigarguy said it isn't really needed for performance reasons (RAID 0) and personally I'd rather keep good backups than waste a disk doing RAID 1 (especially since you should have backups even with RAID 1). Only reason to use RAID would be to make them appear as a single drive ("JBOD"= Just a Bunch Of Disks).

[kpoman]

Ok then next steps: how do I take out the most of the second SSD ? eSata ? Usb3 bay ?
And how do I make a fresh install keeping my win7pro license ? recovery ? n7lite ?

[kpoman]

cigarguy, there are tools to replace the dvd bay by a hdd container ? the interface would still be sata3 ? where do I find those ?

[kpoman]

Ok I just received the disks.
I bought an OEM Samsung 830, and a Notebook Packaged Samsung 830. The "notebook packaged" one comes with a free norton ghost 15 license, and a usb to sata cable. But I am using the disk via the cable and the speed is really slow (about 35MB/s sustained copy). I tried the SSD Magician software (suite by samsung) and it doesnt detect the SSD. This s apparently normal when you use it via USB. It only detects and optimizes disks detected on SATA. So my purpose is then, to have one disk internally installed, and the other one connected via a eSata cable (via the provided eSata of the notebook). Now the question: what cable do I buy ? I saw some but sometimes they say it is not powered, or whatever. Is the eSata of the W520 powered ? I guess it is but can someone confirm ? Will I have good performance via eSata ? Normally the same as internally ?

[kpoman]

ok I ghosted yesterday my hdd to the sdd (had to previously shrink the partition with gparted on linux livecd).
the ghost worked flawlessly copying the whole OS and thing to the SSD disk.
Then I switched disks and booted on the SSD.
Ok it booted fine, went to the windows Logon screen. However, there, the keyboard and the trackpoint/trackpad were completely unresponsive. I booted on the linux livecd but there it was still working. Rebooted again on the windows and still no life from them. I plugged in a Usb mouse, and usb keyboard. The usb mouse worked fine, however no sign of life from the keyboard too. Even the biometric logon was not operational.
Can someone tell me how I can fix this ???

[monkeybagel]

Do you have any devices banged out in Device Manager?

[jcvjcvjcvjcv]

Regarding the plugged-in stuff: did you plug it in the two USB 2.0 ports? I find that the USB 3.0 ports aren't as functional as the 2.0 ones. Which is logical since they aren't straight from the chipset.

[davidhbrown]

Is the eSata of the W520 powered ? I guess it is but can someone confirm ? Will I have good performance via eSata ? Normally the same as internally ?

The eSATA on the notebook (and the one on the dock if you have it) is SATA 2 speed. The chipset offers only two SATA 3 connections; these are hooked up to the primary 2.5" bay and to the ultrabay.

Additionally, I do not believe there is any way to get enough power out of that connector even for a SSD; you will need to also run a USB cable for power only.

If you start to have second thoughts about this awkward and probably slower approach, I think I'd lean toward putting the second SSD in an ultrabay caddy. I rarely have use for an optical drive anymore anyhow.

[davidhbrown]

...I find that the USB 3.0 ports aren't as functional as the 2.0 ones. Which is logical since they aren't straight from the chipset.

Off-topic, but I thought I'd mention that I'm very sure I was unable to boot from the USB 3 ports on my W520 back in April '11, but now, no problem. They must have improved the USB 3 support in the BIOS at some point.