Santa's bringing a SSD for my T61: Any installation advice?

[portsample]

I've got an SSD on the way for my T61. Does anyone have any installation advice for me? I am planning to install Win7, but may consider 8.1 if there are significant advantages. Anything else? Thanks.

[Orclas]

I'm not the pro guy, but it should be pretty much straight forward with Win7/8 (partition alignment is taken care of by Windows etc).

As for Windows flavour, my personal preference would definitely be Win7, but that's a a taste and personal preference question. If you choose Win7 and happen to have a Win7 Pro install media around, I would suggest buying a Win8 Pro license and use the downgrade right since you then keep the option of changing to Win8 should you want to (does not apply to Home versions). IIRC Windows 8 also comes with a more liberal OEM license, something in the direction of "may be installed on only one computer at a time, but may be moved from machine to machine a reasonable number of times" (which is great if a computer completely dies etc).

Hmmm, one more thing. If you think about Win8 I would also suggest making sure that the appropriate drivers are available.

[hhmcsv]

Congratulations with the new SSD, I'm sure you will be pleased. You may benefit from reading my story in this thread:

http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?f=29&t=105987

Note that I used HDClone 4.1 free edition, remember to mount the SSD in the HDD bay and your old disk in an Ultrabay or USB-enclosure if you go for cloning the old HDD.

Enjoy and a merry Christmas

[Orclas]

Note that I used HDClone 4.1 free edition, remember to mount the SSD in the HDD bay and your old disk in an Ultrabay or USB-enclosure if you go for cloning the old HDD.

This is true and my own experience. If at all an option I would however recommend a clean install.

I may also add one more thing. When I installed an Intel SSD on my T61 I ran their SSD toolbox (or similar name) which double checks that the firmware is of the latest version and also that Windows is fully tweaked for SSD use (stuff like prefetch etc) and I think this resulted in one change suggested for my machine. If you bought an Intel SSD then it may be worth to run it after install, or if you've bought another brand to check if they're offering a similar tool.

You're gonna love having an SSD (and perhaps sigh a few times about not getting it sooner)

[skou]

OK, after my trailer fire, (last February) where I lost EVERYTHING, I was able to get a replacement
motherboard for my desktop machine (which STILL has never seen a case) and the
guy sent me an 128 GB SSD for free with it. Let's just say that the speed is IMPRESSIVE,
even on SATA2 speeds.

I'd go with W7, instead of W8, unless you have a touch screen. And, do a fresh install. Period!

steve

[Cigarguy]

Cloning have always been hit and miss with me. Fresh install is the way to go. Windows 7 or 8, being released after SSD became popular, will both play nice with SSD. If the firmware is not up to date, then update the SSD firmware.

[Medessec]

I'd definitely agree with all the recommendations above- that you should do a fresh install. There's nothing better than giving an OS a chance to stretch its legs on SSD speed, except giving it a fresh start on top of that.

I would also personally recommend Windows 7. Even though Windows 8 has some neat optimizations and features that could come in handy, there is currently nothing wrong about running Windows 7 in today's world(in contrast to... say, running Windows XP or Vista) and it will be a lot easier and less time consuming for you to find and install the proper drivers, not to mention Windows Update will just pick them up for you pretty well anyways. It'll also be better for compatibility, and actual speed in using the OS will still be pretty brisk. And you really shouldn't be using Metro and Metro apps on a device that doesn't have a touchscreen... but that's just me. Windows 7, in terms of modern functionality and even in reality, is just Windows 8 minus the Touchscreen/Tablet-homed enhancements and features.

[hhmcsv]

Well, I would strongly recomend going for Win8 - runs beautifully on T60 hardware (except for the Intel 3945abg wireless card). The main - and for me deciding - advantage is the fast startup, your T60 will be up and running within 15-20 secs. For users, which switch on in the morning and off at bedtime, that may not matter much but for me where the T60 is beeing switched on and off several times a day, the fast startup is very useful.
And if you have the choice, why go for an outdated operating system?

[Orclas]

Well, it's not like Win7 is in any way slow. I just clocked my rig at 25 seconds to log-in screen (including bios POST etc), login to desktop is pretty much instant and this on a machine with a slower SSD. I do know that Microsoft has done some successful work on bringing down boot times in Win8, but I wouldn't base my choice of OS solely on that factor (particularly not when resume-from-sleep is just beautifully fast with an SSD).

[Medessec]

The biggest thing about the differences in boot time between Windows 7 and 8, is that Windows 8 is made to take advantage of UEFI quick booting. Windows 7 does just as fine as 8 with the traditional legacy booting... and since the T61 doesn't feature UEFI, that puts Windows 7 and 8 in the same boat. In terms of boot time, Windows 8's advantage will only be marginal.

With a fresh install, and as long as you do a good job keeping the Windows bootup unpolluted, Windows 7 will have incredibly fast boot times over your new SSD. Again, it's down to your preference, if you favor Windows 8, go right ahead and install it. But I see little point in having an OS that is made explicitly to take advantage of touchscreen and pen-tablet hardware, when your computer really doesn't have those features... and Windows 7 works just as well. But that's just my own opinion...

[hhmcsv]

The above does not conform to my experiences: With Win7 and HDD (7200 rpm), the boot time was about 80 secs., with the SSD that got reduced to 45 secs, and Win8 brought it down to under 20 secs.
I would say that is a more than marginal improvement

[Medessec]

Well... to be fair, there are countless factors in Windows boot time other than the booting drive's read/write speed, and the bus used(SATA 1, SATA 2, ATA IDE).

A lot of machines will boot Windows 8 faster because Windows 8 has some pretty amazing efficiency improvements and optimizations. But I'm just pointing out that I'm pretty certain with the T61, boot times will not be that different, because the T61 is actually pretty powerful, and Windows 7 usually boots up pretty quick with a powerful machine on SSD speed. The optimizations on Windows 8 are meant mostly for underpowered hardware, like those ridiculously low-clocked Core i5s you find in the Surface Pro.

Most machines usually gain a much faster boot time going from Hard Drives to SSD, so by all means, try that. But not every machine gains that much speed going from Windows 7 to Windows 8. You are more than welcome to try it, and if you find it worthwhile, that's awesome. And please post your experiences on here... so other T61 users have this as a reference.

[Cigarguy]

I've only have 2 machines with Windows 8 and about 10 with Win 7. All are running with a SSD. In my experience, Win 7 or Win 8 boot to the desktop in about the same time. However Win 8 will boot faster to Metro then Win 7 to the desktop. Having said that, Win 8's Metro is absolutely useless to me and is the biggest reason why I will not switch over completely to Win 8. Classic shell is the only reason that I will tolerate Win 8.

[emtee3511]

Now that Microsoft has pushed out Windows 8.1, my little X100e boots to desktop instead of Metro -- I haven't checked boot time yet, but maybe it's faster to W8.1 desktop than W7 desktop? I'll check my little X100e for boot time...