Installing a SSD in X220

[house kitten]

I purchased a X220 in April 2011. I love it but wanted more speed so purchased a Crucial M4 SSD (128 gb). I hope I did the right thing because I have read conflicting reports that I should have just bought a mSATA and use the drive that shipped as a data disk. Is this true? Also how do i install the OS onto the Crucial disk when I only have a recovery partition? Should I do a clean install or copy the partition over to the new drive? Either way how do I move forward?

If the answer is a should have gotten a mSATA how do I install the OS onto that drive?

[ThinkRob]

If the answer is a should have gotten a mSATA how do I install the OS onto that drive?

That depends entirely on whether you need more storage than your existing SSD offers.

The drive you bought will offer much better performance than any of the mSATA options, so it's really a question of whether you need a mechanical drive for bulk storage. If not, I'd keep the m4.

[house kitten]

Since I do not have the Crucial drive installed at his point, I don't know if I need more storage. In the future if I do I guess I could add the mSATA but at this point I need to figure out how to get the OS onto the new drive.

[bill bolton]

but at this point I need to figure out how to get the OS onto the new drive.

Well, the Intel 320 SSDs that I bought for my ThinkPads came with everything needed to transfer data from the existing HDD to the SDD (cables, software etc).

I have no idea what Crucial puts "the box" when it ships an M4, but you should have a careful read through of all the material that came with your SSD to see if it has any specific advice for you on that.

Cheers,

Bill B.

[house kitten]

Just the drive in a box. That's it.

[visionviper]

Just the drive in a box. That's it.

Unless you specifically buy the kit that comes with some cables and such.

Since I do not have the Crucial drive installed at his point, I don't know if I need more storage. In the future if I do I guess I could add the mSATA but at this point I need to figure out how to get the OS onto the new drive.

You can buy a USB adapter for $15 or $20. Personally I am a fan of clean installs onto SSDs, but you can use something like Acronis' software (and other software like it) that will image your hard drive onto a SSD properly. Windows should pick up on the drive change and make the necessary changes.