SSD, RapidDrive, and Ideapad Y470

Members,
I should be receiving my Ideapad Y470 today. I purchased the configuration (085525U) that does not include the mSATA (miniPCIe ?) SSD drive. It does however come with a 7200 RPM drive. I have several options:

1) Leave it alone
2) Install a mSATA SSD
3) Replace 7200 rpm HD with a 2.5" SSD
4) (2) + (3)

Lenovo's website has the RapidDrive drivers for this model. I want to keep the OS that it comes pre-installed with.

Q1: Which option would you recommend for operation speed (startup, program load time) and/or battery charge conservation?

Q2: How do I do it right (in regards to RapidDrive)?


I've been reading the forums but I can't find an answer to this specific question for the Y470 that didn't come originally configured with SSD.

Thanks for your help

 

I just got a Y470 and would like to know this as well, if anyone can help, thanks.

 

There's no point in installing an msata SSD and a SSD in the HDD slot... the point of the msata is to have a small partition with the operating system and most commonly used software for fast boot and app launching and the normal HDD to save all your media.

You can install the OEM software on the mSATA SSD by following this steps


1) make Recovery DVD's.

2) remove the HDD and installed the mSATA

3) boot from the Recovery DVD's and it will automatically make a partition and install windows on the SSD as it would on the HDD

4) re-install the HDD back in, then go to the Bios by pressing F2 and set the SSD as the first boot and left the HDD as the last priority in the boot order.

5) After loading windows, right clicked on Computer in the start menu and selected manage

6) delete all partition on HDD and make a single large partition or whatever you desire.

 

Luis!

Thanks for the information. I have a quick and dumb question. I just got my Y470 and my new MyDigitalSSD as well. I could not see the mSATA port...where is it? is it under the HDD? there is another PCIe slot to the left (separate compartment) and as far as I know it does not support mSATA. Please help as soon as you can!

Thanks!

 

It's the slot in the separate compartment... the Y570 is the one that has the mSATA slot besides the HDD

 

Hey Thanks for the quick response!
1. I tried in this separate compartment (has a single screw and a separate cover) and it does not appear neither at the system not at the BIOS (MyDigitalSSD 128Gb)
2. I called Lenovo and the rep over there said it's under the HDD....I guess he was not telling me the truth. He told me to remove the HDD and it is suppose to be under it...
3. Any suggestions?

 

Strange... it's supposed to appear as internal HDD in the bios... I suggest you try my guide and see if it gets detected that way... otherwise it may be a defective laptop or defective SSD.

 

Thanks again.
I will retry it, and then decide...

 

:-??
where is that?

 

You have a Y470... it's in the small cover, not the large one...

 

thanks for responce,
bud in can't see any thing.
can you show me in a pic?

 

thanx a lot Luis
I thought that this port is micro PCI-Express!!!

 

thats what i did at first, opened the big lid, and could not find msata port, then tried the small one louis what are your stats with crystaldiskmark?

 

A random run I did a while back



and here's the HDD

 

thanks man, i get pretty similar results

 

Luis_GT,
After i did this, can i be able to use "novo" key to restore to factory defaults?
or every time i need to restore in future have to use recovery disks?

 

Yes, The OneKey restore will work after the factory restore with the disks.

 

Thank you Luis_GT

 

Hey, this is a good link for a tutorial on using rapiddrive with the y470/570

http://consumersupport.lenovo.com/uk/en/HintsandTips/ShowDoc.aspx?ID=12870415982811

The bottom says to see if ur laptop is rapiddrive compatible, the sticker should say "rapiddrive" under "lenovo enhanced experience 2.0"
Our laptop doesnt say so, however since the rapiddrive drivers are available for the y470 on Lenovo's website, I assume its compatible.

 

I just got my y470, and I ordered an Intel 310 80GB mSATA SSD along with it. I found this thread while I was waiting for it to get here... My y470, and I'm guessing many others don't come with recovery DVDs, they just have a hidden recovery partition.

So, how do I burn recovery DVDs to be able to install Windows and the drivers on my SSD? I looked at the user manual, and it just says my model doesn't come with recovery disc, and see the section for alternative options (the recovery partition).

Can I just install the SSD, tell it to boot from the recovery partition, install on the SSD, and reformat the old drive? If I do that, I think the recovery partition would get formatted along with the old drive.

*EDIT* - Nevermind, found the recover disc option in the OneKey Recovery program =p

 

Has anyone tried installing RapidDrive on the Y470? I'm curious if it's worth it, and if so, does the process require re-install of windows? If so, how does one go about since the machine only comes with restoration image, no windows CD. The linked tutorial from toukhang sounds promising but still waiting for my SSD!

Thx!

 

Yesterday, One rapid drive have been bought
I bough a Intel 310 msata with 40GB capacity.
this as awesome and I tested it by different programs such as crystal Diskmark that this resault are shown in end of this post
the lastest boot time by this HDD is 18sec!!! whereas by prev HDD (750GB@ 5400rpm) was 40sec!!!!
the test resault:

Intel 310@40GB:

WesternDigital scorpio blue 750GB @ 5400rpm:

if anyone have any question i'm here

 

Y470 - Has anyone used the recovery disks and installed the OS to the mSATA SSD *without* disconnecting the HDD? Also, do the recovery disks have *all* necessary drivers? Thanks.

 

Hello everybody,

I'm new to the forum, and I just ordered an Ideapad Y570 with the 64GB SSD and 750GB SATA drive. I had planned to run the OS and install "select" programs on the SSD, and then use the 750 for other programs and documents of course. Then I read about Rapiddrive and how it automatically does that (treat the two drives as a single disk move files/programs off and on the SSD as deemed necessary).

Is Rapiddrive more efficient than "manually" managing the SSD and mechanical drive? Or can I get better performance if I pick and choose what I install on the SSD?

 

Hi Fletchman,

I am planning on doing the same thing as you when my machine arrives. I am going to put a clean install on the mSATA with the basic programs I will always use (Office, Flight Sim, CCleaner, etc). Then I hope to make a clone copy onto another drive as a backup.

Although I am sure RapidDrive can do the same thing I am going to do (probably even a little better), I am a tinkerer and like the idea of having control on what files are located where.

 

Ok well, I just got my Y570 today. It looks like RapidDrive has already been installed.

I have decided to just try it out as delivered and trust RapidDrive to deliver. If I upgrade to Win7 Professional then I might blow everything up and manage manually.

Introduction to reinstalling Windows on the machines built with Rapid Drive

I think this link gives a clue on how to do it. Except that we skip step 5.3 (which puts the RapidDrive back into the new installation).

 

I see the software available for the Y460 series and the Y560 series laptios. I did not see it available for download on the Y470.

Anyone had any luck putting RapidDrive on the Y470?

 

I am interesting to find out also.. I am receiving my Y470 tomorrow

 

Escape,

I would guess that your Y470 will have RapidDrive already installed, since my Y570 came like that too. But that's only a guess. Be careful if you go into Disk Management, because it'll prompt you to format Disk 1 (don't do it).

 

didnt find the rapid drive option when I installed the mSATA SSD.

 

You can actually see your SSD and SATA as separate drives (like C: and D ?

If so, then yeah, RapidDrive is not activated.

 

Hi guys, I'm new to all this. I bought a Lenovo Y470 and a 64GB MyDigitalSSD mSATA drive. Can anyone tell me what specific steps I need to take to get this to work? Once I get the new laptop, do I need to do anything before I physically install the drive? And after I install the drive in the mSATA slot, will the laptop automatically recognize the new SSD? When does burning and using recovery DVDs come in - and is this required? What of the RapidDrive software from Lenovo?

Thanks for any help!

 

Before install the SSD, I would recommend create a Factore restore DVD (require 3 discs) from your origional HDD.

Then once your done, you can install the mSATA and use the Factory DVD to restore to the mSATA.

I just got the laptop and Rapid Drive does not support on my Y470.

Hope that answer all your question.

 

Thanks for the quick reply! Does this mean I can't use this Rapid Storage Drive or the Rapid Drive software that's supposed to automatically manages programs and place them on SSD if they're better there?

Edit: RapidDrive software is available for download for Y470. Anyone tried this or know what it's for?

______________________
Lenovo Y470 | Core i7 | RAM: 8GB | HDD: 750GB | SSD (to install):
128GB MyDigitalSSD mSATA SSD

 

i tried tinkering with the rapiddrive software from lenovo's website. however after reinstalling the factory dvds back onto the mSSD a few times and not being able to get rapiddrive to work i gave up and settled for a C:\ and d:\ drive.

the rapiddrive software from lenovo website is supposed to seamlessly attach your mSSD and physical hdd together as one big 128+750GB drive

 

I also found the RapidDrive software difficult to use. I was trying to seperate the drives, as the lenovo diagram discussed earlier in the thread demonstrated, but after a few failed attempts, I simply formatted manually and did a clean install.

I actually prefer having my two drives seperate but from the few bootups I did, before the clean install, it appears that RapidDrive did a good job at improving speed.

 

Is installing the OS on msata and having 2 drives shown LESS effective than using the Rapid drive feature?

 

Good evening all,

I am wondering if anyone else has questioned the speed of their mSATA drives? I am running the 64GB mSATA drive without RapidDrive and am getting similar results to previous ones listed in this thread (max of about 142mb read using ATTO Disk Benchmark).

I stumbled upon a review where they are consistently getting 270mb read speeds. The review is located here: MyDigitalSSD 50mm Bullet Proof mSATA PCIe 64GB SSD Review - Test System Setup and ATTO Baseline Performance :: TweakTown USA Edition

So what I'm wondering is, what is our bottleneck that's slowing down our speeds? Am I missing something here?

 

I have an issue with my y570 laptop, i want to install the os on the ssd
i have the version 750GB + 64GB SSD, anyway I read the first post of this tread.
I successfully make the restore DVD`s, then disconnect the 750GB drive from the laptop, but then in the restore process i got a message:
The program cannot restore the system partition because it`s structure is incorrect you may have to recreate the partition to continue.
Then i tried to installed back the 750GB drive and tried to restore again but the program selected the 750GB drive and not the 64GB drive.
How can i restore the windows on the 64GB drive?

 

Hmmm.... I'm not quite sure nCode... my clean install went flawlessly, however I did not use the recovery media. Did you run RapidDrive prior to taking out the 750GB HD??? The RapidDrive program combines the drives but also separates them.

 

I think I did that, do i need to uninstall it and then remove the 750GB drive?
I read the manual in the first page and did not manage to finish the third step
did you install fresh version of windows?

 

Yeah I did a complete fresh install of windows. I didn't want RapidDrive to manage my hard drives for me. Something you may want to check out is: http://forum.notebookreview.com/...rapiddrive-vs-ssd-sata-combo.html Although the thread hasn't gotten a lot of traction, it shows testing that Fletchman and myself completed. It shows some of the pros and cons of running the drives separate or combined (with RapidDrive).

 

So i can not use the restore disks to install the os on the SSD drive?

 

Im really not sure nCode... I don't know why it wouldn't let you but if you removed the 750GB hard drive and it still didn't let you do the install... maybe it wont??? I have reached the end of my expertise unfortunately....

 

I've use the restore disk to install on the SSD drive. Only thing will not work is once you use the one button restore (which you can get into) you are not able to restore your OS.

 

Has anyone had a chance to compare battery life for for I7 Y470 with HD+mSATA SSD vs mSATA SSD alone?

 

After doing some research and seeing this thread, I decided to add a MyDigitalSSD 64GB msata, at the current price point ($99.99), I think it's a good option to keep the 750GB HDD in my new ordered Y470.
_____________________________________________________________
Lenovo Y470
CPU: i7-2670QM ~ GPU: NVIDIA GT 550 1GB ~ RAM: 8GB DDR3 1333 ~ SSD: 64GB MyDigitalSSD mSATA SSD ~ HDD: 750GB 5400rpm

 

For those people who has Y570 with RAPID DRIVE enabled.

Just courious, when you go into your BIOS, what kind of options are you guys getting in the default setting? ACHI / Compatibale IDE? or RAID options?

 

Not sure if this consider as Rapid Drive.

Please review my picture