MSATA drive Win7 install issues

Hello,
I have a Y470 and bought a used Samsung 128GB MSATA SSD. The drive seems to work fine but will not allow me to install the image from my original installation using disks made from Win 7. I am attempting this with the HDD removed. I looks like a partition issue but system recovery says it finds and repairs the problem but it still will not load the image giving the error "the system image restore failed no disk that can be used for recovering the system disk can be found". I have gone into diskpart and cleaned the partition, no help. The report kind of bothers me as in one part it states that there is 0GB free but also states there is 119GB free almost like the volume or partition is write protected. Any ideas what I am missing, it has been many years since I have messed with the sort of stuff so treat me like a newebie. Here is what it looks like:

Microsoft DiskPart version 6.1.7601
Copyright (C) 1999-2008 Microsoft Corporation.
On computer: MININT-83F41LL

Disk ### Status Size Free Dyn Gpt
-------- ------------- ------- ------- --- ---
Disk 0 Online 119 GB 0 B

Disk 0 is now the selected disk.


Disk ID: F89783A8
Type : SATA
Status : Online
Path : 0
Target : 0
LUN ID : 0
Location Path : PCIROOT(0)#PCI(1F02)#ATA(C00T00L00)
Current Read-only State : No
Read-only : No
Boot Disk : No
Pagefile Disk : No
Hibernation File Disk : No
Crashdump Disk : No
Clustered Disk : No

Volume ### Ltr Label Fs Type Size Status Info
---------- --- ----------- ----- ---------- ------- --------- --------
Volume 1 C New Volume NTFS Partition 119 GB Healthy

Volume ### Ltr Label Fs Type Size Status Info
---------- --- ----------- ----- ---------- ------- --------- --------
Volume 0 D Repair disc UDF DVD-ROM 166 MB Healthy
Volume 1 C New Volume NTFS Partition 119 GB Healthy

Volume 1 is the selected volume.

Disk ### Status Size Free Dyn Gpt
-------- ------------- ------- ------- --- ---
* Disk 0 Online 119 GB 0 B

Read-only : No
Hidden : No
No Default Drive Letter: No
Shadow Copy : No
Offline : No
BitLocker Encrypted : No
Installable : Yes

Volume Capacity : 119 GB
Volume Free Space : 119 GB

Disk 0 is now the selected disk.


Disk ID: F89783A8
Type : SATA
Status : Online
Path : 0
Target : 0
LUN ID : 0
Location Path : PCIROOT(0)#PCI(1F02)#ATA(C00T00L00)
Current Read-only State : No
Read-only : No
Boot Disk : No
Pagefile Disk : No
Hibernation File Disk : No
Crashdump Disk : No
Clustered Disk : No

Volume ### Ltr Label Fs Type Size Status Info
---------- --- ----------- ----- ---------- ------- --------- --------
Volume 1 C New Volume NTFS Partition 119 GB Healthy

Partition ### Type Size Offset
------------- ---------------- ------- -------
Partition 1 Primary 119 GB 1024 KB

Partition 1 is now the selected partition.

Partition 1
Type : 07
Hidden: No
Active: Yes
Offset in Bytes: 1048576

Volume ### Ltr Label Fs Type Size Status Info
---------- --- ----------- ----- ---------- ------- --------- --------
* Volume 1 C New Volume NTFS Partition 119 GB Healthy

 

Have you tried an installation using an official Windows 7 DVD? You don't have to activate it. You can run the install and see if it succeeds. If it does, you'll know the other image you tried is faulty.

 

No, I do not have a copy. There are several threads here and on other sites that go though the process of adding a MSATA SSD without using a official Win 7 DVD and making it the primary drive, just is not working for me.

 

You can download a Windows 7 disc in the Windows forum.

 

Well, if the image you are trying to use works on any other drive other than the mSATA, then that would be a good indicator the drive is the culprit. You need to rule out something so downloading the Windows 7 .ISO and burning a DVD is one way.

 

I have just bought a y570 and a kingston 64gb mSATA drive I wish to install. Opening the cover I see a slot next to HDD. Across from slot there is a cylindrical metal post at one corner and a rubber cube on motherboard. These look like they will line up with screw holes on mSATA card. The drive did not come with a mounting screw and there is not one in post on motherboard. Does anyone know if card needs to be secured with a screw ?

 

yes, it does

 

Thanks, I did not want to ground or short something out. So a screw in the metal post ? Neither the y570 or the kingston drive have a screw. I don't suppose you know what size ?

 

I will give the Win7 ISO install a try.
Thanks

 

I was able to load the Win7 ISO and run it on the MSATA drive, but I still receive the same error: "the system image restore failed no disk that can be used for recovering the system disk can be found" failing the installation of my original system image. There has to be some kind of configuration issue that windows recovery can't deal with. Any more ideas?

Thanks

 

Well I think I am going to give up on the Lenovo Win 7 install on the SSD. I tried to do a OneKey recovery to original on the original HDD but all I get to when rebooting is just a blinking courser, this was in hope of shrinking the partition down to a size that would work. Some where along the line I must have done something that messed up the ability to do a OneKey Recovery. The Win7.ISO install is working and I am slowly configuring it back to where I want it. It is ether this or invest in a good image transfer program or buy the disks from Lenovo.
Thanks for the help!

 

Sounds like the Samsung mSATA drive you bought is bad.

 

I kind of doubt it. I have been running a clean install for three days now with no issues. The only issue from the beginning was not being able to migrate a image of the original HDD to it which mostly due to my lack of knowledge.

 

What was the mistake you made?

 

I waited until after I moved everything over from my old laptop to this one before making my recovery disks, it took 10 dvd's to do this (should have been my first clue there would be issues). I then shrunk the partition in hopes of making it small enough so that the image would fit on the SSD, could only get it down to appox 300gb, something was not allowing it to shrink, probably some unmovable blocks. I then expanded it in hopes of doing a OneKey recovery back to original but probably do to the fact that I touched the partition OKR would not do this.