Thinkpads Forum

I got my x120e, and want to put Windows 7 Pro x64 on it. It *came* with this installed on the hard drive, but I upgraded to an SSD; normally, I install Windows from my Windows install disks (since I've bought copies of it in the past), use the serial number on the Thinkpad (since it's the same version of Windows), then install all the drivers I need from the Lenovo download site.

However, there seem to be an awful lot of drivers for this laptop, some of which I'm wondering if I need to install at Windows install time (rather than afterwards); eg. the "AMD AHCI Controller Device Driver" instructions says it should be installed at Windows install time.

I've never had to do this with a Thinkpad before - I'm wondering, with this different (AMD) architecture, if I have to do things differently.

Of course, I could just copy the partitions from the hard drive onto the SSD, but I'm concerned about partition alignment, etc. on the SSD (and perhaps other incompatibilities this kind of thing might create).

Anyone here upgraded to an SSD on this machine? How did you put Windows back on the drive?

- Tim

Ah well, nobody's done this I guess. In any case, I replaced the drive with the SSD and installed Windows from scratch.

Windows Activation didn't like my activation code, however - perhaps Lenovo has them pre-activated?

In any case, I called the activation-by-phone line, and it gave me the benefit of the doubt and activated it (the deal where a number is displayed on screen, you say/enter it to the automated phone system, and it gives you another number to enter, and you're activated).

I was worried that since the version that came preinstalled on the x120e was an OEM version, it would have a problem with my having installed a copy from a Retail disc, but I guess that wasn't an issue.

Getting all the drivers from Lenovo was a bit of a pain, because it doesn't look like System Update is officially supported for this model. Either it isn't *yet* and Lenovo are just dragging their feet, or they've released a Thinkpad model missing some of the Thinkvantage features of other models.

Also beware - Lenovo's tool for 'Identify model' on their update site seemed to think I was running Windows Vista and not Windows 7.

- Tim

System Update works a treat for installing all of the drivers that you need.

I have a bunch of Windows' installed on my X100e, and the W7/Server2008R2 ones are generally installed by unpacking the WIM rather than using the installer. Lets me use my computer while it's installing, but assumes an existing install of Windows.

System Update does indeed work great, but I felt like it added on too many processes that I didn't necessarily want running.

Windows activation didn't like my product key at first, but last night I entered it a few times (also trying some other ones I had on hand) and it finally took the Windows 7 OA (offline activation?) key that came with the x120e. I have heard that calling it in will let you activate it.

Regarding the AHCI driver- I think that's only required for Windows XP if the SATA is not in legacy/compatibility mode. I didn't end up installing it since the AMD gfx driver had that in the package. Here's the list of drivers that I used (with component name for my own sanity):

6hgx38ww ultranav driver.exe
6isk10ww active protection.exe
79oi24ww monitor inf.exe
7vgq14ww ultranav utility.exe
83cu24ww communications utility.exe
83ku14ww power mgmt driver.exe
83vu71ww hotkeys.exe
84a808ww audio.exe
84c307ww camera.exe
84w410ww wlan.exe
84x102ww card reader.exe
8fd801ww AMD graphics driver.exe
8fuj05us_x120e bios update.exe
8mu406ww power manager.exe

I usually create a WIM after installing everything just to have a backup (replaces an image of the drive). Haven't figured out how to make it self-deploying, although I suspect the recovery partition would work.