Just received my T420, now clean install!

I just got my T420, it didn't come with any dvds.

I want to clean install. I have win7 pro dvd, I have experience with reformatting and all. But I NO experience with thinkpad and its thinkvantage stuff.

What precautions, actions, steps I need to take/consider before doing a clean install?

UPDATE: I have a 500gb drive which I'm gonna replace the stock, so it's a fresh hdd too!

 

Why do you wish to clean install? Why go through the trouble when you have a perfectly fine working system that you can use right away? Also, for what its worth, I'm not sure if clean installing gives you the benefits of "enhanced experience 2.0."

 

Have you made your recovery discs first? If not then its best to do so since you only have one chance at this and if you wiped the partition then there's no going back.

I'm currently writing a clean install guide but its not finished yet. But what I do is:

- Copy the DRIVERS folder in the SWTOOLS folder on the C: Drive and place it on your USB stick. Also ensure Intel RST is in there too.

- Go online and download Windows 7 SP1 if you haven't done so, place this on the USB stick. If you have a Windows 7 SP1 disc then you don't need to do this step.

- Turn UEFI mode on in the BIOS.

- Place the Windows 7 DVD in the drive and press F12 to access via boot list.

- Follow the steps, during the Disk Partition section there should be a "Load Driver" link. Click on that and load the Intel RST drivers from the USB. Then let it run and install Windows.

- After installation, load Windows 7 SP1 if you haven't got this update. Reboot when prompted.

- When Windows completed go to the Device Manager, with the missing drivers simply refer them to the DRIVERS folder on the USB. Don't forget the video drivers too as it should be running in basic mode.

- Reboot and that's it - job done!

*Note - Fingerprint doesn't work properly in UEFI mode at this time. Use BIOS mode if you require this feature.

 

Thanks a lot Hearst!

Waht about the THinkVantage, won't I lose this feature?

 

Not really since you can always re-download them back on the system. Though you can be selective on which goes to your system and which doesn't. I'm using a clean install on my T420 and it feels nippier, barely touching 50 processes with a few things on. With the Lenovo image you can easily exceed 90 processes on occasions...

 

Ok, then, I can download ThinkVantage from lenovo anytime.

For recovery disc, I can use usb hdd no problem, right?

I have win7 pro sp1 in .iso, can I install via usb hdd or must be in dvd?

 

Take a look at Lenovo Support - Windows 7 Clean Installation - ThinkPad T420, T420i, T420s, T420si, T520, T520i and W520

 

For the Recovery Discs it's best to do them in DVD format, dumping them on a hard disk drive can be quite sketchy and may fail to work which some people reported. Best to play it safe as you have just one chance to make them.

If Windows 7 is in ISO format then you'll need to put it on a DVD disc. You can convert it for use on a hard disk drive/usb drive but you will need to prepare the USB drive / hard disk by formatting it using diskpart. Alternatively an easier method is to use Windows 7 USB DVD Tool for this job. Just point it to the ISO and it should it do the rest but it may format the drive so backup anything on the drive before using the tool.

However that said, I heard under UEFI mode it may fail to register the USB drives to boot into the installer so you need to use the original DVD method. This seemed to be confirmed by ferganor80 on his UEFI install thread.

 

THanks a lot guys.

Btw, the screen looks perfectly fine to me (coming from a glossy screen ) and it's AUO.

 

I've been trying to do Recovery the recovery. However, when its "extracting files" it hangs.

Now I have another partition called "SYSTEM_DRV". and when I double on the Recovery partition it's empty. I haven't done a recovery disc, yet. So what going on wrong?

 

I had the same problem on a couple of T420 machines and ended up calling tech support this past weekend and was told that there might be a fault with their Win 7 preloads on the T420. They offered to ship out a copy of the recovery disks. Am still waiting. I recommend giving tech support a call. Also, check the event viewer to make sure that there are no error messages pertaining to your DVD burner.

 

I'm doing the recovery disc creation at the moment. It must have taken at least 15 minutes to extract the files. The only sign of activity was the HDD activity light.

John

 

how do i do that?

 

Is it possible to upload the disc in iso format for us to use?

 

Not easy because (a) Mine is the T420s so it may be slightly different and (b) there are at least 4 discs holding many GB.

John

 

Is Recovery really THAT important? Because I can just reformat and start fresh and not worrying about anything.

 

Are you in the US? Lenovo tech support can be reached at 1 800-426-7378. Tell them that the recovery cd program is stalling on you and you can't make the discs. They will offer to ship you the full set.

 

If you loose your Recovery partition you can always buy the disks direct from Lenovo. They aren't expensive, but you obviously should just burn your own if you still can.

You can NOT redownload all the Lenovo modifications if you clean install. Honestly I am perfectly happy with the way it arrived. First time I have ever said this about a laptop, but i think their preinstalled software actually helps.

 

See this post about how to let you burn another set of discs.

John

 

When you sell the machine you can put it back to its factory state after you wipe the drive. People also like it when you have the recovery discs when you sell it.

I usually burn off the recovery discs and make an image of them to put on my desktop. I can then burn off a set if needed.

 

I agree. What? I agree with Zaz? Mark this moment.

 

I was able to burn the recovery discs. I just rebooted into "repair mode" and everything went back to normal.

The reason why I want to wipe is because I'm replacing the hdd and want a pure clean install. and THEN i installed lenovo software myself.

 

Where's Intel RST and what is it exactly?

 

Intel RST is short for Intel Rapid Storage Technology. It's Intels branding of their AHCI SATA Controller used to manage your system disk drives. You can find these drivers on the Lenovo Support site or from Intel directly.

 

is it also possible to install these drivers from the lenovo site after completing the clean windows install?
Or is it better to install them during the windows install?

 

You can put the Intel Rapid Storage Drivers on after installing Windows but you will have to install their additional software and services on top.

Doing it by the "Load Driver" method means you still get the Intel RST AHCI SATA driver but without the need of installing the software which is what I tend to prefer to streamline things.

 

Can the load driver Method be done by downloading all the drivers i want from the lenovo page, just putting them in a folder and then load them during the windows install?
Sorry if the questions sound a bit dumb for you :S

 

Is in the DRIVERS folder? because i couldn't find it there, i just copied the entire folder.

 

You can do yes, but its quicker to just point it to the DRIVERS directory on the USB stick (if you don't know its located inside SWTOOLS on your C: Drive - copy this) and Windows should preload them before the installation. It actually can save you time from doing it later on.

If its the Intel RST you're after then yes it should be in this folder, its under the folder with an obscure name of "IMSM".

 

What I did is download it off lenovo, extracted it, then put it in usb drive. Worked!

 

Okay, now I'm confused.
First of all, I don't have a Windows installation at the moment, I'm using Ubuntu. Secondly, I need to install the clean Windows with a usb stick (it's a thinkpad x220).

Just for testing, I downloaded a driver from the Lenovo page (it's the track and touchpad driver), put it directly (only this one driver file without any folders) on a second usb stick, and started the windows setup with my "boot usb stick". But when I tried to load the driver Windows didn't find it. Also, I couldn't choose it manually.

Normally it should have worked?! (Maybe it's because I'm testing on another computer - my x220 hasn't arrived yet)

 

DONE!

Reinstalled Windows and drivers no problem.

Now for THinkpads software, the important ones are what? especially power management.


Btw, I really liked how Think wallpaper would appear in login, how do I do that?

 

In windows update, there's Lenovo Dispaly update, should I install it or will it mess up the colors (i think i read something like that around here)?

 

Any ideas guys?

 

Change and customize Windows 7's Logon screen wallpaper | TechRepublic

 

dont bother with that method, its tedious and you need to resize the wallpaper most of the time. this app automates it

Logon Changer for Windows 7 v1.1 by Tweaks.com - TechSpot Downloads

oh, and it executes without installing, so you can just delete it after you get it to change the wallpaper

 

+1 - I use Tweaks.com Background Logon Changer too and its easy to use without having to mess around with the registry. If you lose the original Think wallpapers see the User Toolbox section on the T420 thread for links to get them back.

 

Neat, thanks!

 

Another question:

I remember when i first booted my laptop, DVD drive was on "power off".

How can I do that manually? Can it be done for the HDD caddy? External hdd?

 

i think you should explore the thinkvantage suite thoroughly yourself, then you'll find lots of useful/interesting stuff you wouldnt even think of as well, so i think its worth spending the time

 

I cleaned installed windows, so I don't have everything as it came in the first place.

I have ThinkVantage system update power management, that's it. I
Maybe I'm missing something...I'm usually snappy with these things..Help?

 

Well I have Power Manager and Hotkeys Integration on my system but thats about it in terms of the Thinkvantage suite. I aim to keep my system light on processes where I can.

 

Same here, I'm trying to keep the processes and resources to minimum. But it would be great if we can the option to power off/on the DVD drive or hdd Ultra bay.

 

i cant vouch for this, because i havent removed it myself, but in another thread a few people mentioned that without power manager you dont get as good battery life

after exploring the thinkvantage suite i found loads of useful stuff and things i could do that i dint think about before. so i would have at least taken a look at it first

 

I think lenovo tweak their factory windows image to squeeze more battery life. many users are reporting factory images consistently giving longer battery life compared to fresh installs.

 

I have tested both and don't feel that's true.

 

Hearst,
I'm desperate!
1)
My T420 (4236-CD1) didn't come with any install at all. Despite of deserving 32bit Win 7 Pro. So even if I tried to call/write to Lenovo and lied that recovery program failed me to burn those discs, they would still send me only 32bit version...
I rather need 64bit one.
Would you be please so kind and burn them for me please? I will pay for p&p and some tip on top, as a thank you for your precious time.
Or if you knew about some online storage way, that would be even better and faster. (Dropbox has only limit of 2GB on free acc.) (FTP would be lovely)

2)
Do you think that if I got hold of Win7 in some way, done clean install according to your superb manual, that all the necessary Lenovo stuff is downloadable online?
Because I can't believe that their support section would make 3 DVDs + 1CD.
There must be something of added value if they sell it for an extra cost...

Thanks ever so much!
(feel free to PM)
R

 

Unfortunately my Lenovo Recovery Discs uses Windows 7 Home Premium, not Professional. Even so I don't think I'm allowed to distribute such discs online personally due to legality issues i'm afraid (unless mods say otherwise).

Fortunately you can have access to the original Windows 7 discs on this forum, the one you specifically need is the Windows 7 Professional SP1 x64 ISO. And yes you can download all the drivers and utilities from the Lenovo Support Site too.

Generally what you need is:

- Ideally a Spare USB stick with 4GB+ space

- Graphics Drivers (NVIDIA or Intel)
- Wireless or Ethernet Drivers
- Intel Rapid Storage Technology SATA Drivers 64 bit - Ensure contents extracted on a USB stick
- Lenovo Thinkvantage System Update
- OPATool

If you follow my Clean Install guide then you can work along the Installation phase without trouble. When it comes installing the drivers just setup the Graphics driver and Wireless/Ethernet drivers first. Then run System Update to get the rest of the missing drivers. After that run OPATool to activate your OEM copy of 64 bit Windows 7 using the key labelled underneath the battery compartment.

 

Hi there to all the forum viewers/contributors. I have a question regarding this topic and the clean install windows guide form Hearst.
First i want to than you all for this forum as it is realy helpful.
Now i just want to tell you my situation:
I have a t420 since early 2012, it is a refurbished one and had no problem with it (it has windows 7 profession 64 OEM preinstalled), but i do had/have the curiosity to try out Ubuntu so i went on internet on how to do a dual boot. My first problem is that my t420 didn't had a burner so i managed to make an external one to create my recovery disks. I made them (1 boot cd and 2 data dvds) with no problems. So when i booted with the cd to do the "recovery" process it stoped at 99% or so of the process due to a lack of data or resources. So now i can't log on windows! Then i used a bootable usb with the ubuntu OS on wich i can see the win7 partition and the lenovo recovery partition. I have downloaded the win 7 with sp1 x64 iso and used the windows 7 usb dvd download tool to make a bootable usb with this iso, formated the win7 partition to fresh install it, so my questions are:
1. Will my win7 key work if i didnt used (because i couldn't log on to windows after running my damaged recovery discs) the ABR Backup & Restore??
2. I read that if my key doesn't work, win7 will install but as a trial version wich will expire, what can i do in this scenario, will i be able to burn my recovery disks after i follow Hearst guide??
NOTE: to call lenovo and ask them for a set of recovery discs is my last option as i live in Mexico and have no physical adress on the U.S.
Sorry if my english isn't legible but it isn't my native language and THANK YOU ALL FOR READING!!!!

 

Rufotamales, the product key under the battery will work but you may be required to phone Microsoft to fully activate the system which should just take a few minutes. Once that is done I think you can use the ABR application to backup the activation so you don't need to phone up Microsoft the next time you do a clean install.