W700 RAID1 Windows 7 Clean Install ? BIOS changes?

[barrywohl]

I have just finished upgrading my T61p from Vista Ultimate x64 to Windows 7 Professional x64. It went really well as a clean install. I plan to do a clean install on new hard drives with Windows 7 Professional for my W700. I will use new 480GB 7200 rpm Seagate drives. I bought two copies of Windows 7 Professional Upgrade when it was on 1/2 price sale in July.

Does anyone know if I need to adjust the hard drives in the BIOS or do anything else to do a clean install? I was just going to pop the new drives into slots 0 and 1 and the Windows 7 install DVD into the optical drive and let her rip.

Barry

[barrywohl]

No one answered this so I plowed ahead and here is the answer.

I did a clean install, but, even with two blank hard drives installed and the BIOS previously set to RAID1, the Windows 7 Pro x64 install DVD saw the drives as two non raid drives.

I installed Win7 Pro x64 as a clean install, using the instructions on this link. http://www.winsupersite.com/win7/clean_ ... _media.asp

Then I downloaded from the Lenovo site System Update 4, installed it, and ran it, and it downloaded 19 updates and programs for Win 7 from the Lenovo site. Then I downloaded Access Connections 5.41 for Windows 7 and installed it. (Win 7 does not support the WEP security that I use, and Access Connections does.) After running System Update 4, Device Manager had drivers for everything and all devices working fine.

Then I tried to convert to RAID 1 by pressing CTRL-I during the boot up, but you cannot convert from non raid to RAID 1 without erasing both disks before Windows loads.

Then I booted into Windows and used the Intel Matrix Storage Manager Console 8.9 advanced mode. It does let you create RAID 1 while preserving data on one of the two drives. That ran overnight and got me the RAID 1 configuration I wanted.

I am pleased.

Barry

[barrywohl]

Here are a couple more pointers for putting Windows 7 Pro x64 on a W700 as a clean install on a fresh hard drive.

To play blu-ray you need InterVideo WinDVD8 or to purchase a replacement. Windows 7 Media Player doesn't support blu-ray. You can find the WinDVD8, the Ulead software, and quite a few other programs in a Software / Tools folder on the original Vista x64 installation. I couldn't figure out how to get the software from the Lenovo recovery disks, but it was there.

HueyPro has a problem with Windows 7 deskto themes and gives an error, but, if you change your desktop theme to Windows Classic, HueyPro runs fine. You can change your theme back as soon as the calibration runs.

I spent quite a bit of time solving those two puzzles, so I hope it will save someone else some effort.

Barry

[schmidtj]

I'll be in your shoes in a few weeks.
I understand you install Win 7 to one of the two HD's.
I'll assume System Update 4.0 will download the Intel Matrix software needed to convert to Raid 1 after Win 7 is installed??

[barrywohl]

I'll be in your shoes in a few weeks.
I understand you install Win 7 to one of the two HD's.
I'll assume System Update 4.0 will download the Intel Matrix software needed to convert to Raid 1 after Win 7 is installed??

Exactly. I put in both drives (0 and 1) blank, then inserted the Win7Pro x64 install DVD, and it built the 0 drive as a non-RAID drive and ignored the 1 drive.

I installed System Update 4 and it installed everything essential to make Win 7 work, but not Access Connections 5.41 for Win 7. I installed that from the Lenovo site to make the wireless work with WEP 128 bit shared key (which Win 7 wireless connection does not support unless you have additional wireless software like Access Connections). I did all the Windows 7 updates.

Then I used the Intel Matrix Storage Console (which System Update installed) to convert from a 0 non raid and a 1 not used drive to a RAID 1 array of disks 0 and 1. It worked like a charm.