The Notebook Review forums were hosted by TechTarget, who shut down them down on January 31, 2022. This static read-only archive was pulled by NBR forum users between January 20 and January 31, 2022, in an effort to make sure that the valuable technical information that had been posted on the forums is preserved. For current discussions, many NBR forum users moved over to NotebookTalk.net after the shutdown.
Problems? See this thread at archive.org.

    Y580. Installing SSD as primary drive. Has anyone followed this guide?

    Discussion in 'Lenovo' started by SlimJ87D, Jul 24, 2012.

  1. SlimJ87D

    SlimJ87D Notebook Enthusiast

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    10
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    5
    I was wondering if anyone has followed this guide and if it was helpful to them.

    Sean's Windows 7 Install & Optimization Guide for SSDs & HDDs

    I'm going to be getting my laptop and wanted to use a SSD as my primary. This guide sounds interesting, but it has a lot of things that need to be played with in the BIOS and I know that some BIOS menus for motherboards are different from others.

    Was it complicated if you did use this guide? Any tips specifically for the Y580?
     
    SlimJ87D, Jul 24, 2012
    #1
  2. shak541

    shak541 Notebook Consultant

    Reputations:
    25
    Messages:
    140
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    i used a diff guide.. long story short.. i used something else.. just optimizations like turning on trim.. disabling page file and hibernate .. simple things.. along with AHCI mode in bios.. its actually really simple.
     
    shak541, Jul 25, 2012
    #2
  3. kiteboarderni

    kiteboarderni Newbie

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    3
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    5
    Does the Y580 allow you to install both a HDD and an SSD without removing the optical drive? I have ordered one with just a HDD, but was looking to reinstall the OS onto an ssd.

    Thanks
     
    kiteboarderni, Jul 25, 2012
    #3
  4. alexsd123

    alexsd123 Notebook Enthusiast

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    32
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    15
    Just install it and do a fresh install of Windows 7 (not the factory default) and you're good to go. There is not enough space to have an HDD, SSD, and optical drive.
     
    alexsd123, Jul 25, 2012
    #4
  5. @bobo

    @bobo Notebook Guru

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    71
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    15
    There is an mSATA slot though, I have a Crucial M4 256GB mSATA as my OS drive in there and a Samsung 830 256GB as my data drive in the HD bay. Works great, fast/silent.
     
    @bobo, Jul 25, 2012
    #5
  6. SlimJ87D

    SlimJ87D Notebook Enthusiast

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    10
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    5
    SlimJ87D, Jul 25, 2012
    #6
  7. Jaybs

    Jaybs Notebook Consultant

    Reputations:
    25
    Messages:
    100
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    did you need a spacer to install your Samsung 830? I ordered the same SSD for my Y580 that comes Friday, but I didn't order the laptop kit that has Norton ghost, cables, and spacer, just the basic one, so just making sure I made the right choice.
     
    Jaybs, Jul 25, 2012
    #7
  8. aurulieus

    aurulieus Notebook Enthusiast

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    24
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    5
    Does the mSATA port have the same speed as the SATA in the normal HD bay?
     
    aurulieus, Jul 25, 2012
    #8
  9. ssri

    ssri Notebook Evangelist

    Reputations:
    27
    Messages:
    345
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    No need for a spacer to install the SSD in the HDD bay.

    Some chinese website confirmed that the mSATA port is indeed SATA III. I recall somebody posting a link here, but I can't find it right now.
     
    ssri, Jul 25, 2012
    #9
  10. @bobo

    @bobo Notebook Guru

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    71
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    15
    As he said, no spacer needed if replacing the HDD and yes the mSATA and HDD are both running SATAIII.

    That's the best price atm though who knows how low SSDs will go as prices seem to be on a slow but fairly steady decline, I picked mine up for $200 a few weeks ago. If you need/want it now buy it, if you don't you can always hope it drops more... ;)
     
    @bobo, Jul 26, 2012
    #10
  11. SlimJ87D

    SlimJ87D Notebook Enthusiast

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    10
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    5
    Thank you, it's much appreciated. But my question still remains to anyone out there. What are the necessary things in that guide I posted to optimizing and maximizing a SSD's life?
     
    SlimJ87D, Jul 26, 2012
    #11
  12. ssri

    ssri Notebook Evangelist

    Reputations:
    27
    Messages:
    345
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    I don't know about the guide, but here's what I did off the top of my head:

    1) Make sure your bios SATA mode is set to AHCI (usually is by default)
    2) Make sure that TRIM is enabled. Win7 is SSD aware and should enable TRIM automatically, but you can check with the following:
    Code: 
    TRIM Commands

• Enable TRIM
Go to the Command Prompt and type:

fsutil behavior set disabledeletenotify 0

• Disable TRIM
Go to the Command Prompt and type:

fsutil behavior set disabledeletenotify 1

How do I know if TRIM is working in Windows 7?

Go to the Command Prompt and type:

fsutil behavior query disabledeletenotify

DisableDeleteNotify = 1 (Windows TRIM commands are disabled)
DisableDeleteNotify = 0 (Windows TRIM commands are enabled)
    3) If you have 8GB of memory, turn off the paging file (virtual memory under advanced options).
    4) Turn off any scheduled disk defragmenter for that drive
    5) Turn off the search indexer for the SSD. If you are running a HDD with an SSD, leave the search indexer on for the HDD and move the database file to the HDD (under indexing options>advanced).
    6) Disable superfetch
    7) Move My Documents to the HDD (right click "My Documents" and set the location to somewhere else like D:\, Windows will automatically move everything there)
    8) Leave ~10% of the SSD unallocated for overprovisioning
    9) Disable system hibernation
    Code: 
    "Run cmd.exe as administrator"
Enter the command as seen below:
C:\powercfg.exe /hibernate off
    If you are getting the Samsung 830, its SSD Magician software can do most of the steps I described with just a few mouse clicks. As for the other SSD brands, I don't know.

    EDIT: Added step to disable hibernation
     
    ssri, Jul 26, 2012
    #12
  13. SlimJ87D

    SlimJ87D Notebook Enthusiast

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    10
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    5
    AWESOME! Thank you so much. Yeah, I guess that disk will be handy after all. Well I'll be getting it in a week or so.
     
    SlimJ87D, Jul 26, 2012
    #13
  14. ssri

    ssri Notebook Evangelist

    Reputations:
    27
    Messages:
    345
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    Whoops, also..

    9) Turn off system hibernation
    Code: 
    "Run cmd.exe as administrator"

@ the command prompt, type: "powercfg.exe /hibernate off"
     
    ssri, Jul 26, 2012
    #14
  15. ras7331

    ras7331 Newbie

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    3
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    5
    Can you provide a link to the guide you used?

    Edit: sorry just saw the above posts
     
    ras7331, Aug 1, 2012
    #15