Thinkpads Forum

I have a thinkpad W520 (Core i7-2820QM, 16GB Ram, 500GB HDD, Nvidia Quadro 2000M)

My questions are:
-Do I need RAID to install extra HDD?
-How can I install Win7 from pre-installed partition on my original HDD?
-I have got Intel SSD 520 series 180GB, how would you rate this?
-Can I additionally add mSATA SSD on top of these two HDD?

Thank you

I'll take a shot at this..

-Do I need RAID to install extra HDD?

No, you don't have to use RAID to install your 2nd harddrive - just a hard disk caddy (that replaces your ODD). In fact - if you didn't configure RAID when you bought your W520, you won't have it available now anyways.

-How can I install Win7 from pre-installed partition on my original HDD?

There are a few ways you can do this - you can clone your original HDD to your SSD using Acronis True Image (or a similar tool), or use ABR to backup your OEM activation, and do a clean install using a Win 7 ISO. Both are workable but I'd recommend a clean install for various reasons.

-I have got Intel SSD 520 series 180GB, how would you rate this?

I have the exact same drive (both 240GB and 180GB versions) and have got no complaints. My T420 with the 180GB drive boots Win 7 so quickly that the Windows logo isn't even completely lit up by the time it's done.

-Can I additionally add mSATA SSD on top of these two HDD?

Yes, mSATA SSD is independent of the hard drive bay and the Ultrabay slot; as long as you don't use a WWAN card you can insert an mSATA SSD into your W520.

Hope this helps!

Skie,
Thanks a lot for your informative answers.
I have another question:

Can I have different Operating systems on my 3 drive options and choose which one to boot with when I am booting my laptop? (for example Win 7, Ubuntu, and Mac OS X)

Hello,

I haven't personally done multi-booting on any of my ThinkPads, so I'm sure someone else would be better-positioned to answer this - however, I'm pretty sure you can install more than one OS (even on the same drive), and press F12 during the booting process to choose which drive to boot from.

You can set the boot sequence in the BIOS and override this with F12. You can actually boot from more than three devices; options include USB drives.

The process is somewhat different if you have multiple OS on one drive. Such a drive will be configured with a program (called a boot loader) that allows you to select which OS to use and possibly specify parameters -- a little like what you get in Windows when you hold down F8 or recover from a crash or if you did an upgrade install of Windows and still have an earlier version on hand.

While I prefer to boot into a single primary OS (Windows 7) and do other things (Linux, XP/IE6 testing) via virtual machines, I do keep an emergency flash drive configured via YUMI (http://www.pendrivelinux.com/yumi-multi ... b-creator/) with numerous bootable disc images of utility software and OS installers from which it lets you select at boot.

I've been very happy using the mSATA as a system drive -- especially now with 256GB sizes available -- and the primary drive bay for storage. Very rarely do I need to put a third hard drive in, but it's nice to have the option.