X200's lack of optical drive

Hey,

I was first thinking about getting a T400 but I am not leaning towards the X200 with the 9 cell for its portability. I don't need dedicated graphics.

Since the x200 doesn't come with an optical drive...

Is there any reason to purchase the ultrabase with the DVD drive from Lenovo? The ultrabase is about $200 plus $130 for the dvd drive.

I can purchase a slim external USD DVD drive from Newegg for $100

If I do purchase an external drive, will I have any problems reinstalling windows or booting from that drive? Just looking for everyone's opinion. Thanks.

 

I know this isn't the main point of your question...but still related.

The external drives from Newegg are pretty ugly in my opinion. I just ordered an x200s and this external drive http://www.lacie.com/us/products/product.htm?pid=10986. I think it's nicer looking even though it is brown...and I think I paid $83.

 

Yea good point.

I found some nice looking Sony's.

But you see my point. I'm saving about $200.

 

It is one way to save money, I have never tried using only an external drive myself, but there should be no problems with it. One thing you might consider though is looking at the topseller models available from resellers. At times you might be able so save a little bit of money and some of the models come with the ultrabase. When I ordered my x200 tablet I was able to save a little over $100($200 if you take into account the fact I no longer had to spend $100 on an external drive), got a better hard drive, the webcam and fingerprint reader and ultrabase. If it is something you are interested in take a look at the topseller models in the tabook.

 

If you have a desktop computer you could also just network your X200 to use the desktops dvd drive. That's what I did with my IBM X40. Worked great for me because aside from installing a few programs that come on disk I barely use the cd/dvd drive.

One drawback though is that you couldn't boot off the dvd drive this way if you had to do a operating system restore or install.

 

I'm not sure if the Sonys are bus-powered, which was a feature I wanted.

I think people buy the base for 2 reasons:

1. so they can connect their external monitor, keyboard etc to the base to make it easy to dock/undock

2. to get extra ports like dvi-out that the x200 doesn't have.

Neither of these were important for me so I did not buy the base. The x200/s documentation includes an explanation of how to boot from an external drive so there shouldn't be any problems there (I haven't tried this yet...I will as soon as mine arrives).

 

I second this recommendation - this is how I ordered my x200s. I paid $1442 for a configuration that would have cost over $2100 to custom order on Lenovo.com and they are in stock ready to ship.

 

How would someone be able to re-install their OS if they deleted their recovery partition?

Would I be able to boot from CDROM if I have the ultrabase/optical drive?

 

I think you can make a set of disks (1 CD and 2 DVDs) from the recovery partition before deleting it. Also, the one I ordered says it comes with XP preinstalled but a DVD to use to install Vista.

Again, keep in mind that I am basing this on what I read, not experience. I'll know for sure next week when mine arrives.

 

is this a website or a store? is it possible to post the link? thank you!

 

Lenovo builds many pre-configured models for each of their computers (often called "Top Seller" models). I don't think they sell these directly from Lenovo.com. Instead, you buy them from authorized "resellers" which are just third-party vendors most of which sell online.

The model numbers and specs are all listed in a "Personal Systems Reference" document available online. The one for ThinkPads is called the tabook and is available here. There is a separate book for ideapads called the ipbook.

To buy one of them, you first study the tabook to find a configuration that meets your needs - in my case I studied the 10 different x200s models. It takes a bit of time to learn how to read the tabook; for example, it take a while to notice that many (but not all) of the models in the tabook automatically come with a 3-year warranty. Once you find a model that you like, you look at the number called "Type-model" in the tabook (for example, the model I bought is 7466-3HU).

Once you know the model number you go to a reseller to order. To find a reseller you can look for a recommendation here in these forums or just use google shopping, live search cashback, etc. (search for the model number). Many people here seem to like ProVantage. Others recommend TheNerds. I ordered mine from CostCentral. There are many options and prices vary across resellers and even change sometimes from day-to-day for an individual vendor.

Note that most resellers list *incorrect specifications* for the models on their websites which is disconcerting. However, if you are careful to match the model number with the tabook you should get the right machine with the specs listed in the tabook.

The benefit of going through this effort is lower price. The x200s I ordered was hundreds of dollars less than an equivalent spec'ed machine would have cost at lenovo.com - this is especially true when a new model is introduced and there are no discounts available at lenovo.com. You also can typically find these in stock for immediate shipment. The disadvantage is you don't get to customize exactly the machine you want.

Disclaimer: I just placed my first order using this system and haven't received it yet.

 

Well you should be able to create recovery disks while you are logged on to Windows. But what good are those recovery disks if you cannot boot from an external optical drive?
Am I missing something?

 

You should be able to boot from an external (USB) drive, or from the drive in the ultrabase (if that is the route you want to go). For those of you who are interested here is an article about installing windows from a usb flash drive.
obligatory text (aka link)

 

You can read the x200/s Service and Troubleshooting Guide here. Page 33 says:

"Restoring the factory contents using the recovery discs:
If a set of recovery discs is enclosed with your computer, or you have created or purchased recovery discs, you can restore the factory contents by using the discs in the following procedure:
1. Make sure that in the BIOS Setup Utility the startup sequence is set so that the system starts up from the recovery discs.
2. Insert the Rescue and Recovery disc into the optical drive.
3. Restart the computer. After a short wait, the Rescue and Recovery workspace opens.
4. Click Full Restore and follow the instructions on the screen."

Page 30 talks about how to set the boot order which I think is what they mean in step 1 above. It does not say explicitly that you can boot from an external drive...but it seems to imply it the way I read it. I'll know on 10/25 when my x200s gets delivered, the first thing I am going to do is repave from an external drive so it had better work ;-)

 

Sounds good!

Thanks for digging up that info.
I am having trouble downloading that .pdf though

Let us know how your OS re-install goes

 

petey: besides buying a premade external optical drive, i suggest also looking into purchasing the external enclosure (about $30-40) and optical drive ($20-30) separately. obviously there will be some assembly required, but i got the combination cheaper than having a premade one. also, if your premade external drive somehow dies, you'll have to get a totally new one. whereas if you get the case and the drive separately, you can just change the drive, which costs around $20-30.

they're both definitely much cheaper alternatives to the ultrabay. also, i chances are you won't be using optical drives on a daily basis with ur x200.

 

Depends if you want it bus powered though too . I don't use the optical drive ever...plus I have a workstation I can use and transfer over the network.

 

I used this slimline enclosure ($12+Shipping) and a laptop DVD±RW pulled from a broken Acer Laptop. The drive works very well with my x200, it is bus powered (although it requires 2 USBs) and satisfies my occasional needs for installing software, backing up data, and imaging discs. This solution is small enough to travel with, requires no external power supply, and is cheaper/easier to repair than a ready made drive. It should be noted that I had to remove the drive bezel, because it was too big (designed to fill gaps on the laptop) for the enclosure.

 

I did think about this, but those externals seem pretty big. I like the size of the slim external drives

Hmmm... very very tempting. Now I just need to find a cheap slim drive.

 

true. i guess for you, you'd want to bring it around making the bigger ones a hassle. for me, that's not quite the case. yeah, it totally depends on what you're gonna use it for i guess.

 

'Booting' an x200s from an external USB DVD drive works fine.