Transfering OS from HDD to msata ssd

Hello! I just bought a Lenovo Thinkpad t420s and also purchased a 40gb msata drive. I have already installed the msata drive with success. Now, I am so confused in how to get the operating system on it for I want to run it there. Can someone please help me find a step by step how to do this or explain it to me? THANK YOU!!!

 

I'd recommend going to the Windows forum and downloading a Windows 7 disc, then doing a clean install. I don't think 40GB is enough space for the factory install. Keep in mind as SSDs fill, the performance starts to degrade. With all the Lenovo install stuff on there in addition to Windows and any programs you install, 40GB may not be enough space.

 

Depends on your usage. I installed Windows 7 Home Premium on my 30GB OCZ Vertex, had 15 GB free. After applications and drivers, like 14 GB. For a clean install, you could just do Power Manager, but full ThinkVantage suite is huge.

 

So your saying to do a clean install of windows onto the msata ssd drive? How would I get that disk or file to do it when windows is already pre installed? And once I install it, how would I make the SSD drive the primary boot disk and wipe the other one?

 

Yes, a clean install. I believe and I don't have a lot of experience with it, but you can put Windows 7 onto a usb flash drive and install it via USB. You might want to poke around the Windows forum. There's also links in the Windows forum to download a Windows 7 disc. The Windows 7 install should make the mSATA drive the primary disc if you install it there. You can also wipe the other drive while there.

 

RitzWayne,
I have a Lenovo Y560 and installed an Intel 310 series mSATA 80gb drive. In my case I installed the new drive and removed the old just long enought to reinstall Lenovo recovery disk to the new drive. Once I did that, I reinstalled my old 500gm drive, deleted the partions and then reformated. I have a feeling since the recovery disk has more than Win7 your 40Gb will not be large enough to take in the whole recovery. So a clean install of just Win7 might be your only option. Good luck

 

I definitely don't think that a clean install is the correct approach. It will wind up disabling the ThinkVantage button, for no reason. Instead, use Rescue and Recovery to "recover" onto the mSATA drive, then delete the recovery partition off of the mSATA, leaving it on the original mechanical disk.

Voila-- easy install, no wasted space, and everything's working. A clean install saves zero space. If you replace the mechanical disk later, you can clone the old disk's contents to the new one and still retain functionality of the ThinkVantage button.

 

I reinstalled windows and it works perfectly, but how do i get the msata to be the boot? Where it will automaticlly just start up with windows on the msata? cause right now all i get is the blinking curser on the upper lefthand side of my screen

 

First thing you should do is use R&R to install Windows, and take it from there. I'm stunned that so many people recommended the clean install, necessitating extra work and breaking the blue ThinkVantage button for nothing.

 

what is R&R

 

I can write posts giving you the correct advice, but I can't read them for you.

 

40GB isn't enough for Windows, all the ThinkVantage crap and all the other programs. You don't want to fill the SSD more than 2/3rds full as performance will start to degrade.

 

A fresh install is the wrong advice for multiple reasons:

1. It gives no disk space benefit. The ThinkVantage drivers themselves are ideally going to be installed with the OS anyway so that they can be recovered with the OS, and entail minimal space. The Rescue and Recovery partition is the main space hog, but that can be left on the mechanical disk-- although you won't be able to use it the same way with a clean install.

2. It's slower. Downloading a Windows install pack from Digital River etc. (illegally, I might mention, as breaching copyright law as well as terms of use / EULA terms, not that it matters to me personally), then running through the install, then installing Lenovo drivers takes more time than simply running through the Rescue and Recovery process onto the mSATA drive.

3. Doing an R&R recovery-install is faster, and the ThinkVantage recovery tools will still work properly with the R&R partition left on the mechanical disk. This entails only an extra step of deleting the new, extra R&R partition off the mSATA and extending the new OS partition to reclaim the space.

In addition, your advice is founded upon a misconception of the correct way to use a 40GB mSATA boot drive. One shouldn't try to keep less than 20GB or 26GB of OS and programs on such a small drive, or one's missing out on much of the benefit of having the faster drive in the first place. The OP chose not to buy a bigger drive; that's fine, and involves certain tradeoffs. It would be foolish to waste half the space out of worry that performance might be slightly impacted, and thus miss out on a huge performance advantage over placing those same extra gigs onto the mechanical drive. Really, the only thing the OP needs to worry about is planning to always leave 5 gigs free on the mSATA drive so he can run the Intel TRIM utility.

 

As for my post on this subject, I myself did NOT od a clean install of Win7 because I installed an 80GB intel series 310 mSATA. for me I had more than enough space to use my recovery disks. As for the 40GB I just have to question if a Full recovery can be reinstalled on that amount of space. 40GB should hold everything but the drive formates out to less that stated size.
Just to clarify my post.

 

Yep. Even after installing a boatload of programs, my Windows folder is sitting at around 16 GB.

 

I wasn't thinking it wouldn't fit, but more so the R&R backups that are going to pile up. This seems pretty likely for someone with four posts doing a restore from R&R. Personally, I don't like R&R as it's farty and bloated. I much prefer TI.

I would concede it slower, but better in the long run as you install only what you wish and don't get the crapware in the background.

Point two and three are the same.

 

I always recommend a clean install when it comes to any MS OS, hell I do it just for fun once a year to clean things out. Doing it the right way will ensure you have all the latest drivers and a malware and virus free system.

I would even recommend removing your standard drive when doing the install. If you go into the BIOS it should let you select where it tries to boot from first. I don't have a mSATA drive so I can't confirm but you'll want it to boot from cd or usb first and then the mSATA drive. After everything is working again I would change it back to only boot off of the mSATA drive for security reasons.

Iucounu, what exactly do you use the thinkvantage button for? At first I thought you where being sarcastic...

 

Obviously, the fact that you give such advice doesn't make it correct. The idea of doing a fresh install yearly to "clean things out" is antiquated and poor advice today with Windows 7, where it's just unnecessary. The best way to have a virus-free system is to be careful. I haven't had a virus or malware infection in... forever.

Repeat after me: a fresh install breaks system functionality, is slower, and confers no benefit whatsoever.

Google is just a click away. That's not sarcasm; search engines are quite useful.

But it's not better, since there is no crapware. The latest ThinkPad factory loads are quite clean. During initialization it only asks if you want to install trial versions of Office and antivirus; answering "no" means they're not installed.

The backups, like any backups, can be put wherever you like. I have my R&R partition left on my mechanical disk, where I also store my system images.

You might prefer paying for third-party software that provides backup functionality that Lenovo gives you for free, but a lot of people would probably choose not to break system functionality for no good reason, everything else being equal. In addition having the R&R functionality intact can be a selling point if one decides to sell the system later.

I can't find any way that the R&R backup functionality works poorly or is bloated. Works for me, and no need to buy a TI or other license. {shrug}

 

Again, what seems obvious to you, i.e. putting the R&R backups on another partition, probably isn't to a new person. It won't be long before the drive is full.

I prefer a clean install. I don't use most of the ThinkVantage suite. I prefer to not have it running in the background. One persons bloatware is anothers invaluable software. I got my TI free after rebate. Each method has it's pros and cons. I'll guess we're going to agree to disagree on this one and there's nothing wrong that.

 

It's fine to give advice, but it's not cool to spread fear, especially for those new to Lenovo.

A fresh install doesn't break any mythical system functionality. The rescue and recovery partition is simply a convenience. It's not essential and the computer won't function any worse if it's not available. There are other ways to recover your system to a factory state without ever using the ThinkVantage button/Rescue and Recovery partition. http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/ThinkPad_Button

One of the easiest ways to to create a Recovery CD/image using the Recovery Media creator software from Windows. Once you've done that, you can do whatever you want to your HD and should things go awry, you can go back to a factory state using the recovery media you just created.

You also don't need to rely on TrueImage. Parted Magic and Clone Zilla work just as well.

With regards to a fresh install vs the factory install of Windows, there's a thread somewhere where the differences came down to marginally better battery life for the factory Lenovo image. It was said that after some tests, the author found that the factory image provided 20 - 25mins more battery run time vs a fresh install of Windows.

 

I don't know why you'd use the word "mythical". It breaks actual, existing system functionality that comes with the system from the factory: the ThinkVantage Rescue and Recovery features. After breaking this factory-provided functionality, the blue ThinkVantage button will be useless.

The fact that you can pay money for your chosen third-party backup and restore solution, or use a less user-friendly open source solution, doesn't change these facts. I just think that if you're going to give correct advice to people, you shouldn't just tell them without any reason to do a fresh install.

Instead, what you should say is: You can choose to do a fresh install, but this will not provide any advantages, is slower, is illegal (if you download the ISO image from DigitalRiver anyway), and breaks system functionality.

Then you can proceed to explain why the ThinkVantage functionality you're advising them to break is worthless in your opinion-- that instead of having easy nearly one-touch restore functionality and the ability to recover easily to a factory load is useless and warrants buying third-party software that you prefer-- and a user can make a reasoned opinion based on having all the facts.

So's an OS, I suppose. One could always wipe Windows 7 and go with Linux. Less prone to malware and one can use Clonezilla to recover.

 

You seem to be very resolute in your convictions, but I'd say there are few absolutes in life. There is a yin and a yang to most decisions, which means different people can chose divergent paths and both still be correct. I think I and others pointed out some legitimate reasons why we think our choice is better and you, rightfully so, made your opposing views known. I guess it's up to the OP to decide what's best for them. Going around in circles with each side giving their opinion serves no purpose.

Also, the powers that be here at NBR have decided the Digital River download link is legit, whatever your or my opinion on the matter is. Microsoft is free to send a cease and desist letter to NBR or Digital River any time they wish. You may even inform them of it if you like, but please do not bring up the legality of it again.

 

It's not that I'm resolute in some convictions on which reasonable people can differ; I'm noting hard facts. I don't think we've been going around in circles; there's been a discussion which unfolded on what the actual, as opposed to the supposed, merits of each method are. That is the nature of discussion/argument.

So, for just one example, if someone suggests that an advantage or functionality I've noted is "mythical", I should have a right, on a discussion board, to discuss why that's not true. Otherwise it's not much of a discussion.

 

That's debatable. While it's true you'll lose the use of the blue button if you do a clean install, if you never use it, how much functionality are you losing? I think a clean install has benefits as does the factory install depending on your disposition. Everyone's had their say and now it's up to the OP to decide what's best for them. Let's leave it at there.

 

People use the ThinkVantage button?

The factory install does indeed include unneeded bloatware programs. Having deployed several hundred ThinkPads in my company, I can say that a clean install, for us, works better. The ThinkVantage utilities offer nothing for us and just use up drive space. Even if you leave it on the HDD, it is still wasted space - especially if you have the 320GB drive.

Whether or not someone does a clean install should be up to them. Offer your opinion on why or why not to and leave it at that. Don't act like your way is the way to go and everyone else is an idiot. Different people have different requirements from their systems.