T420 + mSata + UEFI ONLY = 20 SEC BOOT

Today, my mSata (40Gb Intel 310) arrived. I installed the drive into the WWAN slot, chose UEFI Only in the BIOS/UEFI settings, clean installed Windows 7 Ultimate (had to reinstall it once for the reason described below). I also added another 4Gb RAM and now have a system that boots in the UEFI mode and it takes it about 20 seconds from the moment I press the power button to a usable desktop. The machine shuts down in 10 seconds. I am pretty sure these results may even be better with the speedier 80GB msata (or any other high-performance SSD). I decided to go with mSata so that I could have the mSata as the boot/app drive and a 500GB WD Caviar Black (Advanced Format) as my data storage drive.

But let me tell you what I did step-by-step:

1) I changed the BIOS boot option to UEFI Only.

2) I opened the RAM/PCIe slot on the bottom of the laptop, installed the RAM and the mSata. Everything took me no more than a few minutes. A few things to note: a) there is a screw for the mSata drive in the slot (you don't have to buy any), b) there is enough space for the two WWAN leads/wires so you just keep'em there, c) as always remove the battery before installation and make sure there is no static. Furthermore, to simplify things you may want to remove your hard drive. So I removed the stock 5,400 RPM HDD.

3) I loaded the Windows Installation DVD (it has to be 64-bit) into the DVD drive and proceeded as with a normal Windows installation. Windows detected the mSata and started installing itself on the drive. Note: if you are not using a raw drive (e.g. resinstalling Windows) you will need to delete all partitions during the Windows installation so that Windows can create a bootable GUID Parition Table (GPT).

4) Installation took a while (probably due to the low write speeds on the 40Gb mSata. I wish I could afford the 80GB model.

5) After windows reboots itself a few times and you go over the setup, you get the virgin Windows OS on your machine meaning that many things will not work (e.g. network, monitor settings, backlight controls, etc). You may want to go to Windows Disk Manager to check if your drive was partitioned as GPT (if it was, you will see two partitions - 100MB reserved MSR and the NTFS boot partiion).

6) Then I uninstalled all unnecesary Windows features (Tablet PC Components, Media Features, Games, Remote Differential Compression, XPS stuff, Print and Document Services, etc.). Rebooted. I also turned off hibernation and system restore, which got me about 12 GB of SSD space back. Don't forget to turn off the scheduled defragmentation (for some reason Windows didnot do this automatically).

7) Then I went to Intel website and downloaded the Intel 6300 WiFi driver and installed it.

8) Set the updates to notify me. Checked for updates and installed all updates.

9) Rebooted and got the dreadful BSOD. It turns out that a UEFI installation results in a BSOD if you install the Intel HD 3000 driver BEFORE the SP1. See the discution of the problem here: http://communities.intel.com/message/120662.

- Important: In order to avoid resinstalling Windows again, do steps 1 through 7 and proceed as follows:

10) Check for updates and make sure you uncheck Intel HD 3000 driver. Install other updates and reboot.

11) After the first update, the reboot may take a while (mine got stuck and the Starting Windows stage). Then, check for updates again. See if you've got SP1 and again uncheck the Intel HD Driver. Install SP1 along with other updates. Reboot.

12) Then I installed the Intel HD Driver, and guess what, the screen got much prettier than it was with the Lenovo driver. The color profile and sharpness was much better and this made the screen much more usable than it was out of the box (you've probably read the horror stories abot the T420's screen. Here is a thread where I comment on the issue: http://forum.notebookreview.com/lenovo-ibm/571621-t420-arrived-first-impressions.html ).

13) I checked for updates again and have hidden the Lenovo HD Driver update.

- Important: If you don't want the horrible default screen quality of the T420, please, make sure you don't install the Lenovo HD Driver. Furthermore, for some reason, because of the Intel Hd Driver, the WEI for Aero performance increased from 4.4 with the Lenovo driver to 5.2.

14) I then went to the device manager to see which drivers are missing. Fir the missing drivers, I went to Lenovo support page, downloaded all the drivers but did not install them, just unpacked them and installed the drivers through the device manage (press "Update Driver" and choose the folder you unpacked the driver into). By doing this, I avoided installing all those ThinkVantage tools that I personally don't need.

15) Installed all my programs (MS Office 2010, MSE, 7-Zip, Acrobat X, Firefox, and others) and now have 17 GB of space free on the mSata.

16) Last thing I did was putting in the 7,200 RPM Caviar Black. The drive installed but was not visible under MY Computer. You will need to go to the Windows Disk Manager and initialize the disk. I initialized it as a GPT (don't aks me why).

17) Do all the tweaking of your choosing.

I hope this guide will help you if you decide to opt for UEFI only boot with mSata. As a result, you will get a super fast and responsive system without compromising available disk space. The UEFI ONLY setup should also work with HDDs as well (can't imagine why it wouldn't)

Please, let me know if you have questions.

 

It seems Lenovo is using the UEFI terminology differently than I've heard in the past. I thought UEFI was a new version of BIOS that has mouse support, graphics, etc..

 

Did you install the RapidBoot driver?

Lenovo Support - RapidBoot for Windows 7 (32-bit, 64-bit) - ThinkPad

 

No, I did not as I don't know how it really works.

 

Not to be confused with RapidDrive. Please post what times you get with the driver installed. It will only help.

Yamato Thinking Blog Archive EE 2.0 and RapidBoot: Part 1

"the basic philosophy behind RapidBoot is to make certain that only the applications that you need are booted and other applications are deferred until after bootup. This allows the computer to defer applications appropriately even if you add a lot of them.

- That makes sense. So the computer is sorting them properly. What about updated versions of the things necessary when booting?

Kaneko: Yes. In the previous version it was only possible to manage the deferred events statically, but in EE 2.0, it is possible to manage them dynamically. For instance, it is also possible to defer applications in the startup menu for which events occur during bootup. That is why the performance does not change, even if you have used a PC for a long time."

 

Btw, what happens if you use UEFI-only with the factory image (non-clean win install)?

 

If what the OP is saying is universal (applies to all PCs if you first install Intel HD GPU driver before SP1, and not his laptop config specific), I'd imagine there would be a problem because at least with the x120e image, it does not come with SP1 installed. There's a chance it could be only a problem with the latest drivers from Intel. I'd venture a guess that the x220 won't come with the very latest one, which might not have this problem. And if it doesn't BSOD on you then just update to SP1 first, then update all the Lenovo drivers and whatnot

 

Re: "Btw, what happens if you use UEFI-only with the factory image (non-clean win install)?"

You will still need to have the disk partitioned as a GPT disk. I don't know if you can clone the image to just the NTFS portion of the GPT parition disk.


Re: "If what the OP is saying is universal (applies to all PCs if you first install Intel HD GPU driver before SP1, and not his laptop config specific), I'd imagine there would be a problem because at least with the x120e image, it does not come with SP1 installed"

Good point.


Re: "Please post what times you get with the driver installed. It will only help."

Sorry Vinuneuro, but I'll follow the saying "If it ain't broke don't fix it". Just don't want another piece of software on the computer. Pretty happy with how it works now,

 

Thanks OP for the detailed instructions. My T420 is on its way (in AK now) and I am going to configure mine almost exactly like yours (mSATA/80GB, 500GB WD Black, and 8GB RAM). Your post really helps.

Since you only have 40GB on mSATA, I would suggest checking out How to: Setup SSD boot drive with secondary Hard disc optimization - Overclock.net - Overclocking.net. It guides you to move C:\USERS from boot SSD drive to 2nd HD. I built a new desktop PC (with 64GB SSD C300) over the Christmas and the guide worked out beautifully.

I did turned off pagefile/hibernation in my desktop but I am not sure if I would do the same on the laptop. While T420 has a long battery life, my T61p sometimes ran out of battery and went into hibernation unexpectedly. This is why I am fine with 64GB for my desktop (16GB memory) but chose 80GB for my laptop to accommodate the extra needs. I may try to place the pagefiles in different locations (mSATA, WD, or even SDHC) and see how that goes.

As a side note, I chose mSATA not only for the SSD performance but also to make my T420 two drives to split the disk loads.

I think I am all set and ready to configure my T420 when it arrives. My only concern is all the negative comments on the display quality which my eyes will tell me soon.

Once again, thanks for sharing!

 

Thanks for the heads up on the UEFI mode, I was reading this particular feature quite thoroughly yesterday and still deciding on how to implement it should my T420 arrive by next week. Yesterday I thought it was wise to download a SP1 version of Windows 7 via MSDN and judging from your post it seems to be the correct decision as I was not aware of the Intel BSOD problem until now.

How did you measure the boot time on the system? Using a stopwatch or an utility? I tend to use Boot Timer on mine and would be interesting to compare. The image below is my T61 with Intel X25-M and i'm pretty confident I can shave this time easily with the T420 + UEFI + Intel 510 SSD combination.

 

I timed it with a good ol' stop watch. Doesn't the Boot Timer measure only Windows startup after the BIOS? Mine was a little under 20 seconds including BIOS/UEFI.

 

Ferganer, thanks for the information.

Question --did you use the Lenovo restore discs created from your T420, or did you use a fresh Windows 7 DVD? I'm just confirming.

I'm thinking I may extract my Windows 7 Enterprise DVD and create a USB install when I get mine. That will speed the install further.

Also note to others who have not done this yet, from personal advice: Download the Windows 7 SP1 network-install ahead of time. Have it on a USB thumb drive so you can install it first-thing after your Windows 7 install, before any drivers or other updates. In my case, I have the advantage of having a Technet subscription, so I can download a copy of Windows 7 with SP1 already integrated, one less thing to do. Also, it's probably a good idea to make sure your BIOS is the latest version before doing anything else; Lenovo has an update as recent as 4/10.

Vinuneuro, I'll put the RapidBoot driver on mine when I get it. My T420 and my 8GB RAM upgrade should arrive Monday; my 80GB mSATA SSD is already here. I'll let you know.

 

Thanks! If you're going to go as far as clean installing Windows for UEFI, this is the next logical step to complete the effort. It's not like experimenting on your car where actual bad things will happen if something break, on a computer you just uninstall that or do system restore.

 

I know. Been doing this computer stuff as a real-world job for awhile (sixteen years, actually).

I'm starting with a clean install anyway --in the unlikely event I have a problem, I just reinstall again.
My data is backed up to my home server.

 

The only issue I have with RapidBoot is not knowing exactly what it is doing. Sure, I can read and understand what they say it's doing, but since they don't actually say which services and apps are delayed I would need to go figure it out.

I wish they would just document it.

I guess I need to do registry before and after diffs along with closer inspection of the services.

 

Not a dig at you. Just didn't understand ferganer's apprehension at trying this. The downside to trying something new like this (esp considering it's from the oem) and seeing what happens isn't much, esp on a new install.

 

It's just pre-caching all of your information to send to the Chinese government.

Yes, I'm completely kidding. I understand your perspective. And Vin, no offense was taken.

 

Re: "Question --did you use the Lenovo restore discs created from your T420, or did you use a fresh Windows 7 DVD? I'm just confirming."

- I used a a Windows install DVD.

Re: "I'm thinking I may extract my Windows 7 Enterprise DVD and create a USB install when I get mine. That will speed the install further."

- Installation from a USB drive will not work in the UEFI Only mode. I've seen some people proposed a way to make it work but that's too much of a hassle.

Re: "Also, it's probably a good idea to make sure your BIOS is the latest version before doing anything else; Lenovo has an update as recent as 4/10."

- Great point. I forgot to mention that I updated the BIOS well before installing the mSata.

Re: "Download the Windows 7 SP1 network-install ahead of time. Have it on a USB thumb drive so you can install it first-thing after your Windows 7 install, before any drivers or other updates."

- I don't think it will make any difference. Just remember to install Intel HD driver only after you have the SP1 installed (reboot just in case). And skip/hide the Lenovo HD driver update.

Re: "Just didn't understand ferganer's apprehension at trying this".

- My thinking was that why would I want a third-party software to schedule my start up programs for me. I don't have many of them in the first place and RapidBoot would add at least one service/program to the startup process . RapidBoot/RapidDrive may probably be useful to those who have many startup programs. Furthermore, I really hate to install anything that I don't have understanding of. Also, I don't have much spare time to go through the reinstallation process once again if something doesn't work.

 

ferganer, this is extremely helpful. a big thank you. can you tell us how the 40GB is compared to a conventional driver for regular use? I am thinking of ordering the 40GB (the 80 is beyond my means for now) and pairing it with a hitachi 320 GB 7200 RPM drive on my T420.

 

The RapidBoot package seemed to drop boot times by about 15 seconds on my X100e with a 250GB 5400RPM platter drive on a fresh install. Dunno what it does either, but it works for me.

 

Thank you. That's not an insignificant amount of time.


Now that we know RapidBoot is worth 15s, I have a couple of questions regarding UEFI.

1. How much time does it save over the standard option?
2. How do BIOS updates work with this?

 

Re: "can you tell us how the 40GB is compared to a conventional driver for regular use?"

- I would say it will not be as fast as other speedy SSDs but definitely a step up from a 7,200. Difference is quite noticeable as long as you use it as a boot/app drive (writ speeds are slow). Overall, the system is much more responsive.

Re: "Now that we know RapidBoot is worth 15s".

- I hope this applies to SSDs as well. If it does, I will get a 4-5 second boot (this is including the UEFI load, i.e. 4-5 seconds from the moment I press the power button)

Re: "How much time does it save over the standard option?"

- In theory, it should significantly reduce PRE-OS boot time. See: http://download.intel.com/design/intarch/papers/322253.pdf or http://www.howtogeek.com/56958/htg-explains-how-uefi-will-replace-the-bios/ . Unfortunately, I don't have another exact machine with the BIOS to compare the boot times. But 20 seconds is still impressive enough for a boot with one of the slower SSDs.

Re: "How do BIOS updates work with this?"

- AFAIK, Lenovo updates both BIOS and UEFI in one package.

 

I have a W520 with the 80GB mSATA, and I set up UEFI yesterday and ran some unscientific boot tests (posted on the W520 Owner's thread). I just installed Rapidboot and it seems to have shaved about 5 secs off my already fast boot.

I am still no where near to the times Lenovo demo'd at CES, but lightyears ahead of my T61 or even the W520 stock when it shipped.

 

16 sec boot is very good. Could you please use boottimer to put it into perspective? I'm not sure how that records the interval compared to how you did it.

Looking back my WD3200BEKT, I now really see how impressive that hdd was. On my T400 with a not-fresh Win 7 installation I got 20 sec boots (recorded with boottimer).

 

I ran Windows Boot Time Utility 5 times. Here are my results (in seconds):

13.743
13.634
13.540
13.665
13.603

 

Wow one more thing to look forward to. The other half of RapidBoot that's so appealing is that it's supposed to keep boot times at this level over the life of an installation. My Win installation boot times inevitably always get somewhat longer as they age.

 

When we were shown RapidBoot at CES back in January, the tech explained to me that it involves both a custom BIOS and custom Windows boot settings. I observed during my drunken time at their fantastic party that the various Windows services and other items were tweaked via some boot scripts that Lenovo implements when RapidBoot is enabled. It's possible that some of this has changed, but it was indeed quite quick.

 

I remember when I did my 180 MB Windows XP install using nLite. From 2 minutes+ boot stock T60 system I went to 25 seconds. And after that I had problems with services, drivers, compatibility and other stuff for a two years. I hope rapid boot does not influence your system this way.

 

Do you have to set up UEFI with a fresh install or can you do it without doing a fresh install and just going off stock?

 

dboss619, your drive should be formatted as GPT in order to boot as UEFI Only. Theoretically, you can convert your MBR drive into a GPT. Don't know if converting will work with all the ThinkVantage services though. That said, Windows automatically formats your raw drive (raw meaning it shouldn't be pre-partitioned) as GPT when you install the OS with UEFI Only enabled.

 

ferganer80 so to do this, you simply set the BIOS to UEFI only and then clean install win 7?

 

Yes, but as mentioned earlier, it doesn't seem to work from an USB stick - you must use an installation DVD.

 

ok noob question:

ferganer80 mentioned that after you have the "virgin Windows OS," network etc will not work because drivers are not installed then he/she went to Intel website to download the Intel 6300 WiFi driver

...so with no network or wifi do you have to use a different computer to download the driver and then copy it over to your new system on a USB stick?

 

nLite can cause some wierd driver quirks. I think Lenovo has probably audited their RapidBoot driver to avoid this, considering that it is a supported driver on a business laptop (whereas nLite is a use-at-your-own-risk utility).

 

Before I did my clean install (and converted both the mSATA and HDD to GPT), I copied the SWTOOLS folder to a USB stick. That way, once I had installed Win7 fresh from a DVD, I was able to use that USB stick (in a back port...the USB 3 did not work initially off the fresh install) to get SWTOOLS and all the drivers that I needed for the network connections, USB 3, etc.

 

Re: "ferganer80 so to do this, you simply set the BIOS to UEFI only and then clean install win 7?"

- Yes, but you will need to delete all partitions and use the entire disk. You don't have to do this before installation. You can simply delete all partitions when you get to the disk selection setup within the Win installation. And don't forget that you will need to install SP1 before the Intel HD graphics driver. And, as mentioned, you need a 64-bit Win DVD installation disk.

Re: "...so with no network or wifi do you have to use a different computer to download the driver and then copy it over to your new system on a USB stick?"

- Yes, or alternatively you can download it to a USB before reinstalling Windows. USB ports will work after installation.

Re: "he/she"

- He

Re: "I copied the SWTOOLS folder to a USB stick. That way, once I had installed Win7 fresh from a DVD, I was able to use that USB stick (in a back port...the USB 3 did not work initially off the fresh install) to get SWTOOLS and all the drivers that I needed for the network connections, USB 3, etc."

- Make sure you have the latest drivers. I also opted for OEM drivers over Lenovo's wherever possible. Again, make sure your system does not install the Lenovo HD Graphics driver before SP1. I also installed the Intel HD driver and skipped the Lenovo HD driver to avoid installing the crappy color presets that came with the original system.

Re: "in a back port...the USB 3 did not work initially off the fresh install"

- I didn't know we had USB 3.0 on the T420. Can you, please, confirm?

 

Thanks for the response. I have a T520 on the way and I'm trying to decide whether to get the 80 GB Intel mSATA 310 or a 120 GB Intel 510 SSD. I already have a WB Black 500 HDD. The cool thing about the mSATA is that I can also use the DVD drive instead of the Ultrabay adapter (which I also already have).

I've read that you can spin down the HDD in the ultrabay if it is not being used, can you do the same for the primary bay's HDD if you have a mSATA drive? Do ALL drives have to be GPT (whatever that is) or just the boot drive?

Which drivers are in SWTOOLS? Can I simply copy it over before I perform clean install?

 

I'm on a W520...so things are similar but different.

 

So does anyone know if it's possible to switch to UEFI and re-install Windows using the recovery partition or discs, or will it not boot? (I know with x120e recovery discs there's no option to partition how you'd like or format a drive in your choice. It starts installing right away without any real prompts that I remember)

Getting x220 soon and am going to set to UEFI but would rather save the really long process of burning and installing Windows just to find out it won't boot if someone knows already. Again this pertains to Lenovo recovery discs only.

 

thecrafter I could do a test for you, I got 5 spare hard drives lying around (I do a lot of testing!) and already made my recovery discs so I could let you know if it works out or not later on.

 

That would be great! Looking forward to your findings

 

Until I moved my browser caches and swap file to my mechanical drive, my Scorpio Black barely spun up at all, though I haven't done anything to force it to spin down. However, I've moved anything that gets written regularly (TEMP file environment variables, browser caches, swap file, Windows 7 libraries) to my mechanical drive, both to save space, and to lessen wear. I also disabled indexing on the C:\ drive.

As for the GPT partitioning --funny you should ask. I did an EFI install of Windows, and can prove it using DISKPART or the management console. Despite that, the C:\ drive was formatted NTFS at the time of the install. The System Partition (hidden unless I run Disk Management) does say EFI System Partition; I'm guessing that's GPT, but I can't even do a properties on it, all options are greyed out when I right-click on it.

EDIT: When using DISKPART, it shows my mSATA drive as GPT partitioned, even though Disk Management shows it as NTFS. It also shows the Intel 310 as Disk 1 and my Scorpio Black as Disk 0. It lists the 100MB system partition as FAT32.

 

GPT isn't a file system. It's a disk partitioning scheme.

 

D'oh.

I think this week my mind has been aging by years rather than hours or days. Slap me and wake me up, will ya?

 

OK I just tested it on my T420, switched to my test SSD (OCZ Vertex II) and placed the Recovery Discs in. Unfortunately in "UEFI mode" the Recovery Discs would simply not boot, only when I switched to "Legacy mode" that the Recovery Discs initialised for system recovery. So if you want UEFI boot i'm afraid you have to start from scratch.

Edit: I can confirm the Lenovo Recovery Disks will align the Partition offset for SSD use. Did an alignment check and everything is in order which is good news, shame that it won't allow a UEFI boot option.

 

It sounds like Lenovo might need a specific mSATA preload then for restore, something that may only come with a sytem factory-configured with an mSATA SSD. That would explain why the 1.21 BIOS update's changelog reflects new support for an mSATA preload.

 

Thanks for the update. That's too bad. There are some EE2.0 tweaks that are only available from the image (guessing some Windows system files have been tweaked).

Wonder if UEFI is worth it. Does it only provide a faster boot time? Who knows what other drives are incompatible. And if Lenovo's own recovery discs don't work in UEFI, I'm sure sometime down the line they will release a driver that will cause other funkiness because it's obvious they didn't test it thoroughly enough or just didn't care enough to keep testing since they gave us recovery discs that don't work with it.

While searching for UEFI info I found on another forum that a user had a RAID controller, and it would prevent the system from booting in UEFI mode but would boot fine if he switched back to regular BIOS. So hardware compatibility is also an issue I see.

Guess I'll pass on it for the next few years. I want my system to be stable and not take chances and fear that installing one piece of software will start causing BSODs or who knows what other types of problems people haven't discovered/reported


Hey Hearst, would you mind doing one more test? On Windows 7 when you install it on a SSD, it's *supposed* to disable prefetch, readyboost, and defrag. I say supposed, because I've seen others report in another forum about this that they weren't disabled but maybe they just did an upgrade install or something. I'm wondering if the Lenovo image properly installs 100% for SSD use.

Maybe you could test one install using Lenovo's recovery discs on an SSD and check if prefetch and readyboost are disabled by default (it was enabled on my returned x120e with SSD. Did a re-install using the recovery discs)

And one with a regular Win 7 64-bit install and check again.

If you're up for it, the way to check is to open control panel->administrave tools->services. And look for I think it's called Windows ReadyBoost and Windows Prefetch, but could just be prefetch and readyboost (on a Mac right now so I can't tell for sure)

Here's the official article from MS that mentions they should be disabled: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/e7/archive/2009/05/05/support-and-q-a-for-solid-state-drives-and.aspx

edit: actually it would be a shortcut to install regular Win 7 first and check. If they aren't disabled there it's a safe bet they won't be disabled with the Lenovo recovery discs.

 

Crafter, I can only say that I'm using UEFI with a GPT partition right now and the RapidBoot driver, on a clean install. It's been only a week, but no instability, quirks, or other odd problems.

 

UEFI from any manufacturer is considered a DIY option for enthusiasts who wish to implement it with a clean installation.   a clean installation is by far the best way to utilize it, too.   had it not been implemented as an option then people would have complained.   apparently they'll complain either way.

at this time windows isn't build with GUID in mind.   it still revolves around MBR/MPT.   one can only hope that future versions of windows move toward a native GPT rather than a hybrid MBR/GPT as it is now.   given intel's push for EFI and GPT, i expect things will only improve.

while the industry works out all the kinks (yes, surprisingly enough this is not a lenovo-centric issue), there will be bumps in the road as things mature.   the good thing about UEFI is that no one is forcing you to use it.   the legacy BIOS still exists in all its outdated, limited-address-space glory for everyone to enjoy.   down the road, however, you might be glad that your thinkpad has a UEFI option.

 

Well I did complete the recovery process on my OCZ Vertex II SSD and services such as Disk defragmenter and Superfetch are on. This is understandable since it copies the settings from the hard disk drive so you will need to turn these services off manually. But even on a clean install under UEFI mode I still need to turn these services off when I installed on my Intel 510 SSD so just be aware of this.