X220 Msata windows installation - clean vs recovery?

I'm getting my x220 in the mail tomorrow. I already have an 80 gb Intel 310 msata.

There is a ton of information on installing windows that I've read. It seems like the majority of people say that the best option is to do a clean install of windows and only install the drivers and Thinkpad utilities that you need. I have a solid amount of time to do this tomorrow.

However, I also read that this might hurt the battery life. I was wondering what peoples thoughts on this was.

I am intrigued about doing a clean install (I would do it once a year on my old computer, Mac OSX). However, I am not super familiar with doing it on Windows. And if noticeably better battery life existed with the recovery option, it might just make sense to do that.


What do you guys recommend?

 

I would recommend doing a clean install. It shouldn't take long. Just search for the three file method, download the Win7 files, backup your win7 serial, and then reinstall windows and the drivers you need.

Doing a clean install will not hurt your battery life. If you install the Lenovo power manager the power options you have would be exactly the same before your clean installation.

I would not recommend doing a recovery because the mSATA SSD is small and creating recovery partitions that are filled with Lenovo software would not help in conserving space for useful programs/ data.

 

Here's wahat I did:

- Create R&R disks
- USE ABR tool to save installed activation key
- Replace standard HD with SSD(Crucial M4)
- Clean install(EFI boot from USB, using this guide)
- Re-activate using ABR
- Install Thinkvantage system update
- Install selected Thinkvatage software
- Install all Windows updates(including SP1)

I do not own another Widows 7 computer, if I did i would probably create a clean slipstreamed version using RT Se7en Lite to remove all unwanted services, wallpapers, sounds and themes.

As far as I know, the only thing you will miss doing a clean install is the Lenovo EE(Enhanced Experience) option which is supposed to make the laptop boot faster..

 

Hi,
I'm no expert on this stuff but I've never heard of decreased batter life. I've done a clean install on two thinkpads. One nice thing is that a clean install takes up less space on the SSD.


You don't mention if you have a windows install disk or not. You'll need one to do a clean install. The disk can be the full retail version, update, or oem install. If you have a friend that has a disk you can borrow that as you'd be using the windows serial number on the bottom of the x220.

If you don't have a windows disk, there is another way. There's a thread in these forums on how to download windows7 legally, and then use the serial number that came with your x220 to activate. I've never tried this myself though.

If you do a clean install, there are a few things you should definitely install from lenovo:
not a complete list, just off the top of my head. Also I've never done a clean install on an x220 so I may be wrong on some of these.
- first install windows, then run windows update.
- Power Management driver
- Power Manager
- chip set driver
- hotkey driver
- access connections (manages wifi connections, also manages bluetooth, I like this program, some don't)

 

mark this， thanks

 

Thanks for the help.

I've successfully installed it to the mSata.

Now, what is the best way to deal with the fact that I have two harddrives?

For example, do I need to format the old harddrive? Create a new partition, to keep the old copy of windows as a backup?

 

Go to windows disk management. There you will see the old harddisk. You can right click it and hit reformat.

There is already a recovery partition. You can leave it.

 

This is probably a stupid question, but is it necessary to make the discs when the machine is new? Does it matter if you make them a month or two down the line?

 

The advantage of creating recovery disks early is there is less data to image. So it will take fewer disks. Also it's nice to return the computer to that brand new state, but I think this is less of an issue with windows7 than xp.

There are recovery tools built into windows7, you can create additional restore disks anytime you want.

 

When you say data, what do you mean? Reason I ask is that I made recovery discs from a 2-day old X220, which was then returned to Lenovo due to some hardware issues. I made recovery discs of my replacement machine after using it for 2 months, with the HDD almost full with videos and music and many programs installed, and it required exactly the same amount of disc space as the recovery discs from the first X220.

 

I thought the rescue discs were created from the recovery partition, no? If it does I would think it would be the same size even if you made them years down the line. If creating an image of the whole drive, different story of course.

 

wooops, sorry. I misspoke.

If you are using Lenovo's software to burn the recovery disks, then no it doesn't really matter when you do it. The recovery image kept seperate on the harddrive on a seperate partition so it doesn't change with time as you use the computer.

What I meant to say is, if you are using windows7 built in recovery option to create recovery media, it will create the disk image based on your c drive partition as it exists at that moment. So if you've installed a bunch of new programs the recovery image will be larger and take up more space. I think...

 

did you have to disconnect your hdd before installing windows 7 into your ssd? or can it be done with the hdd still connected??

 

Ahaha, now that make more sense.

Just veering this thread sideways for a minute: When folks opt for setting up their Intel 310 using the factory image rather than doing a clean install, do they use the recovery partition (ie from Lenovo discs) or the Windows 7 recovery image? Sorry about the confusion.

 

What method do you suggest for setting up the 310? I seem to remember you posting a step by step, a while ago.

 

Not really a step by step, but I posted what I had done to my setup on the 310. Using factory image.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/lenovo-ibm/598867-x220-idling-4-95w-what-about-you.html

 

question: if you do a clean install, will the ThinkVantage button still work after installing the drivers from Lenovo?

or will it only work with an "install" using the recovery media?