Thinkpad W530 - upgrading to Windows 8 ( dummy help required ;)

Hallo,

I am a "new" W530 owner - familiar with Thinkpads - but in fact more a "user" but not so very good in ICT.
I want to use the laptop for Photoshop and Adobe Premiere.

I'm just back from the store and started my W530.

Windows 7 is installed on this machine, but the man in the store told me I could upgrade to Windows 8.
I asked if there came some recovery DVD's with it, but he told me I had to do the upgrade online.

Now have opened the box, and I discover 4 DVD's !!! ???

* OPERATING SYSTEM RECOVERY DISC Windows 8 Pro (OEM Activation 3.0 required )

* Disc 1 of 3: Applications and drivers recovery disc
* Disc 2 of 3: Applications and drivers recovery disc
* Disc 3 of 3: Applications and drivers recovery disc

Also I found a paper with a warning to update the firmware for Mobile broadband mini card.

A little bit confusing for this dummy.....

Can someone please tell me how to start.....

Or is it safer to to back to the shop and ask them to make the upgrade ?

My apologies for these "stupid" questions, but I'm terribly afraid to do something "wrong".....

Thanks for your understanding....


Edit:

Suppose I make a CLONE on a other harddisk, and I manage to run the Windows 8 update, would I be able to swap disks and work with Windows 7 or Windows 8 ? Because I presume once I made the upgrade, I cannot "downgrade" ?

 

The first thing I would do is ironically make even more Recovery Discs! Since you have Windows 7 preinstalled I would do a backup of that first just in case you didn't like Windows 8, plus if you find performing clean installations a chore then having the original Windows 7 image from the factory would save some time.

After that, I would assume you just put the Windows 8 disc in and let it do all the hard work for you since being a "Recovery Disc" it would just set up the factory install of Windows 8 for you.

 

OK, I have som spare HD's so I will make a CLONE of the actual C: with this device.
It is a 1-1 copy and I treid that before.
Of course I will check if the clone works.



But I see on the DVD's the following message:

OEM ACTIVATION 3.0 REQUIRED...

What does that mean ?

@ the mods: I hope that posting a picture is allowed.....

(I just want to illustrate what I am using )


If not allowed, I will delete the picture.

 

Yes, you may post a picture, but as Hearst points out, make the recovery discs. Then if you don't like Windows 8, it'll be easier to go back.

 

According to his post at New W530 - upgrade for a dummy - please help... - Lenovo Community, it appears he has a rare Windows 8 recovery DVD disk set. If he is able to make a Windows 7 recovery disk set, that would be rather cool, and rare.

I am wondering if the W530 is really a unicorn.

 

Please excuse me, but I don't understand your reply. ( I live in Belgium, so English is not my native language )

Allow me to explain it better:

1. I never "installed" WIN7: when I for the first time booted the W530, the OS was already on the laptop.I only had to adjust time, give network key etc....

2. I have a BIG (folded) sheet named "SAFETY WARRANTY AND SETUP GUIDE ,with a picture of the W530 and all of its components ( for ex. 1= VGA port, 2 = USB port etc...)

But on that same sheet I read:

" RECOVERY DISCS ARE NOT PROVIDED. Instead, everything needed for recovering factory-installed files and applicatoins, is provided in the Lenovo_Recovery partition on your hard disk drive. Etc.........


But in the box of my laptop, I found FOUR "recovery-DVD's" ????

Isn't that confusing ?????


3. Is there something wrong to post he same question in another forum ?
I only want some more good advice.....

I thought "cross-posting" was 2 times the same post in the same forum.

Or is this also "not-done" ?

In that case, my apologizes....

 

Posting in both forums is fine.

My comment about the unicorn was a joke. We use unicorns for veiled references to magical things.

I was being serious about one thing. If you have a Lenovo Windows 8 factory DVD set, that is exceptionally rare. If the Lenovo Windows 7 factory image is installed, I would use the Control Panel application to create the Windows 7 Rescue and Recovery DVD set. You'll need four blank DVDs.

If you end up with two working DVD disk sets, one for each OS, then you have some cool resources at your disposal.

Regarding the upgrade question, it really isn't that hard, especially if you haven't yet put any personal data or applications on the system. I certainly would no pay someone else to upgrade the system.

If the Windows 8 DVD set that was in your box is in fact the Lenovo Windows 8 factory image, you don't need to upgrade anyway. You can just boot from the disk and install the image to the HDD or SSD in your system. It is likely a destructive install. In other words it will completely write the image to the disk without preserving anything that was previously there. If you have personal data or apps, they will likely not be preserved.

 

Thank you Thors ! :thumbsup:

So if I understand correctly: it is rather "unusual" that Lenovo provides a Windows 8 DVD ???

This is what I received:

A plastic bag with 9 different numbers, but only 4 DVD's ( that are the four first numbers )











My clone is just finished ( took exactly 2 hours and 25 minutes )

But tomorrow I will try to make the Win7 disks also.


PS: And what does the text on the DVD means ? "OEM Activation 3.0 required )

Must I take some additional "action" to make the Win8 work ? Or just put in the 4 DVD's.....and let it spin.

 

Most likely your machine already has an embedded Windows 8 key. I believe the "OEM Activation 3.0 required" is just telling it will be used when it connects to the internet for the first time to activate the system.

I am really not sure how key management is handled for a machine that has downgraded license rights for Windows 7.

 

PS: The (Windows7) clone works flawless :thumbsup:

I booted 2 times to make sure.
Booting from the original HD = 25 seconds
Booting from the clone = 32 seconds

Both are 500 GB HD's, but the clone is a 5400 rpm, and the original a 7200 rpm. Mayby that's the difference ?

In fact I bought an SSD to replace the boot HD.

Do I have to "format" that SSD first ? Or just plug it in and put in the 4 DVD's ?

Anyway, that's work for tomorrow....
I don't know where you live, but here in Belgium, the current time is 0:14 .....

But, hey, many many THANKS for your help !:hi2:

I love the way Thinkpads are build: piece of cake to swap the HD or put som extra RAM, the possibility to swap DVD-drive with a extra HD in an ultrabay....., the LENOVO site, their DVS's , the forums with friends.....:thumbsup:

 

I think that is 100 % correct: the seller in the shop told me that the Win8 key sits nowadays in the BIOS of each computer....

 

Update:

1) I succeeded in making 1 startup DVD and 4 recovery DVD's for Windows 7.

2) After that I plugged in a new SSD and tried to install Windows 8 on the SSD.

Something odd happened: the recovery program detected more than 1 harddisk ???? althoug there was only 1 SSD in the computer.

But....on the original HD were some (recovery) partitions.....
But the original HD was OUT of the computer and the new SSD in the computer.....

The recovery program asked to format all the HD's ( but there was only yhe SSD ) or NOT.
I chose NOT and went futher....

Until... at some point the green installation bar seemed to have stopped.
And yes I know - must be patient - but I really had the impression that it stopped.


Now my question:


1) Maybe the recovery (upgrade?) to Windows 8 doesn't work with a blanco SSD.

2) Maybe I must use the original Windows 7 harddisk.

( but in this case I can take my clone to experiment with )

Pffff.....rather confusing....

 

OK folks, problem solved Win8 is installed on the SSD....

The sequence of the DVD's that I had to suse was not always clear and obvoius.

And I had to run the setup twice....

The first time I was mislead by the green installing-progress-bar that seemed to haven stopped. ( but in fact it was busy a long long time... )
A SSD makes no noise, so it wat hard to judge if the installing porcedure took a long long time, or that it was crashed.

The second time I was more patience, and the installing of Windows 8 succeeded !

PS: I also thought the installing process on a SSD would be much much faster compared to the install on a ordinary harddisk.
But this is NOT the case.

Anyway, now I have Windows 8.

Next step is removing bloatware...

 

IMARC:

I would love to know if I could get a copy of these discs from you. I have the windows 8 key, however mine only came with windows 7, and I have not done the upgrade due to loosing the preinstalled applications. These discs, would enable me to install the pre installed applications after doing the upgrade. I really only need the last 3 discs, and not all 4.

I would send you discs, and money to ship to me. If you would entertain the deal, Please contact me at hroberts89436 [at] gmail.com.

Thanks,

Harold Roberts