Thinkpad Edge E530 Hybrid (HDD+SSD)

[manu1707]

Good morning,
a few days ago I bought the "Lenovo Thinkpad Edge E530" (http://www.cyberport.de/notebook-und-ta ... t630m.html) with a hybrid hard drive combining a 750GB HDD and a 16GB SSD.
How does this hybrid technology work? 'Cause here in the Diskmanagement-Panel it looks very strange. I thought the OS is installed on the SSD (to ensure a fast boot) and all the other data will be installed on the HDD. But in the diskmanagement it seems like the OS is installed on the HDD and I don't really understand what the SSD is used for.
Now I want to install my own version of Windows 7 (Clean Install) and have another question: On which drive should I install it? Should I format the SSD and the HDD?

Greetings,
Manuel

[Cigarguy]

I think you might be referring to a Seagate Momentus XT 750 GB Hybrid HDD. If that is the case the SSD and HDD is housed into one chasis with the switching between SSD and HDD controlled by a software (firmware) written by Seagate. There's nothing for you to do with regards to this matter. Simply use the drive as you normally would. These hybrids works pretty good. OS load is much faster than conventional HDD but still not as fast as a stand alone SDD.

[manu1707]

No, actually it's a Western Digital Hard Drive:


Does this make any difference?

[wolfman]

Hello and welcome to the forum!

The 16gb SSD drive is actually installed as a cache drive. The OS, applications, etc are all installed on the hard drive. As you use the machine, the most frequently accessed applications or information from the drive will be cached on the SSD speeding up performance. Here is a link describing the express cache feature: http://www.tomshardware.com/news/lenovo ... 15896.html.

[manu1707]

Okay thanks!
When I install a clean windows now, do I have to install some software to use the express cache feature?
And do I have to format the SSD when installing a new Windows?

Should I keep the "SYSTEM_DRV" and "LENOVO_RECOVERY"?