SSD Installation !

[samw1038]

Hi guys ! I just bought my first Thinkpad this week and ive been looking into getting an SSD because of the massive performance increase they have to offer ! My question is that could i just make a backup of my current system and take out the hardrive and install my ssd and then use the recovery disks to get me back to where i was before ? Im asking this because i have heard things about Windows installs differently when done on an ssd and running a system that was orginally on a HDD might not do the ssd any good , is this true or have i just been reading rubbish !

Cheers Sam

[ajkula66]

Welcome to the forum!

Clean install is your best bet rather than cloning from a spinning drive that might cause some issues.

Having said that, I'd recommend install from "vanilla" media as opposed to factory recovery disks since you'll get a system that's free from Lenovo's bloat, and whatever drivers/applications you find missing can be downloaded from Lenovo's site after the fact.

Happy upgrading.

[Saucey]

If its just data, you can get an Ultrabay HDD holder, drag and drop those babies.

As with programs, that probably won't be easy or quick.
I had installed a few programs, then did the drag and drop and for the most part it worked with the presets I originally had.
I know the Intel SSD I had bought had a transfer program, but it was mainly for desktops, yet I didn't use it because I mainly wanted a quick boot w/o the bloat of the OS programs.

[samw1038]

Thanks for the quick response ! , also i forgot to mention i heard that if you did a total clean install of the OS and you go and download the Thinkvantage software, is it true that the software will recognize what your laptop is and it will go and find all the drivers that you need and you let it install them instead of going on Lenovo's website and getting them all individually (Because there's a heck of a lot !) and last of all my current version of windows obviously has all the Thinkpad stuff on the log in screen and not the normal standard windows theme that's blue with all the birds etc, so is that something the Thinkvantage software changes ? and i don't have to get some special version of windows etc ?

Thanks for your help guys

[Saucey]

Yes, for the most part, you can just get the ThinkVantage System Update and it'll find the drives and download them for you.
I've done it on T60,T61,X61 (regular, s and tablet), T400, T500, W500, W700DS. They'll install and do some restarting.
I think the Intel or ATI software is an extra step, same with getting the software for the WiFi, but it'll work just fine, just some small features you'll be missing out but not needed.
Its not available on the A31, I think because it is too old, I haven't tried it on a T43 because I installed Linux on it, but it worked fine even then.

The only thing you wont get is say, the default backgrounds that come with a ThinkPad system, but you can find those easily.
A bit harder are some of the ThinkPad icons for Windows.

The system update works well, I used to download them one by one until I tried it.
Other than updating Windows 7, I haven't had much problems.
I think trying to get two finger scrolling working well was my problem.

Good luck!

[samw1038]

Also the battery bar and the wifi status on the task bar (not the standard windows one), are they part of the Thinkvantage software and will appear when that's installed ?

[Saucey]

Those icons to the left of the windows clock?
Yeah they are included usually. When updating make sure you have it selected.
Also the bios update is not recommended to do, but it shouldn't be checked anyways. I think the safest way to do that is with a CO while at boot, but I am not sure if the update would benefit your system anyways.

[samw1038]

Hello ! I decided to not purchase a 250gb Samsung SSD for £106 but instead go for the same model but buy the 120gb version and another 4gb of ram to get me up to 8gb which in total was £95, about £10 cheaper than going for the 250gb alone. My plan of action is to get an ultra bay which will replace the cd drive with a slot for me to put my old 320gb drive in for extra storage space. Ive been looking around and cant find any sort of official Lenovo branded drive but instead have found this one on Amazon for £14.89, do you think this one looks decent ?

Heres the link : http://www.amazon.co.uk/Ultrabay-Enhanc ... o+ultrabay

Thanks !

[Saucey]

I had bought some off-brand Ultrabays that work fine, not from that particular company.
Reading from thinkwiki, it says this about UltraBays of that type.

Serial Ultrabay Slim
supports hot swapping; same dimensions as the Ultrabay Slim; supports Ultrabay Slim battery, but not in models supporting slice battery attached to the bottom of the laptop, e.g. T410/T510 (even then there seems to be some mechanical difficulties—see discussion); some versions with a flat bezel, some versions with beveled lower edge

I don't personally have that model, but they are pretty much plug and play.
I had bought one that said it was for the W700DS, but it didn't fit, lucky I had a T500 that needed an UltraBay that worked for it.
Just pull out your UltraBay to see if it has that connector and stub.

Welcome to the forum, I hope ThinkPads work for ya!

[samw1038]

Hello
So I got a new Samsung 840 EVO 120 GB SSD for my T430 and I want to install Windows onto it. I have used a vanilla Windows 7 Pro iso and have been unable to install, getting the error that 'A required CD/DVD drive device driver is missing.'. I know that this is sometimes related to using USB 3 as the installation, but I have tried the USB 2 port, the yellow one that's always powered, as well as burning to a CD. Is there any easy way of doing this, possibly involving the recovery tools on the original OS (which I can still put back in and boot to)

Thanks

Moderator edit: please do not double-post!

[Saucey]

I had an error similar to that.
Turns out it wouldn't install on my T60 when I had the ultrabay empty.
I turned it off, slapped in a spare CD drive (I have Win7 on a bootable USB), turned it on, had no error and the system was fine to do a clean install.