procedures to upgrade my new w500

looking for instructions to add ram and replace my 250 5200 drive with a 7200 rpm one 320g or better when the laptop gets here - being shipped. My plan is to remove the bloatware at some point , switch drives , add a 2g ram stick (ordered with one 2g ram already) and use the drive that came with the w500 to upgrade my dell 6400 to replace the existing 120 g drive there...W500 is vista business 64 bit..and dell is XP home I think..where can I look for the process ? is there a way to properly transfer files when I swap hard drives? will Acronis True Image software help in either process? I was told by Lenovo rep that I would use their thinkpad recovery process to make copies of Vista - do I need to do this to properly set up the new drive ? Do I need to pick up a USB hard drive enclosure to make this work? appreciate any direction...

 

The best way insure that you have a clean system is to do a clean install (from microsoft).

 

You'll need a disc to do a clean install. The hard drive and memory are easily replaced. Consult the Hardware Maintenance Manual for instructions. There's a link in the sticky.

 

There are just so many ways to do this. First thing you should do is make the recovery disks for your machine regardless, that is step one. Next buy your new harddrive. Grab all the files you want off of the old drive. Next, replace your old drive with the new drive as per the hardware maintenance manual, like Zaz said. Next to put windows on the new drive you have a few choices. Let me give you a couple....

1.) You can put the recovery disks you made into the CD/DVD drive and boot from them. They will make your new disk look like the old one and will install windows with all the Thinkvantage apps and bloatware and will make your machine look exactly like when you first got the machine and turned it on. If you are ok with that then you are all set, DONE.

2.) If you want you can instead do a clean install, which will take some more work. You would need to follow one of the clean install guides on this site and make sure you go to Lenovo's site and download all of your drivers and any Thinkvantage apps you want. Next you would need to have a Vista disk(I am assuming your OS is Vista) either the OEM disk, Retail disk, or anytime upgrade disk and boot off of that. This should install your OS and then you would need to install your drivers and any apps you want and activate your copy of Vista with a preactivated OEM key that the machine already has(check out Orev's ABR guide for info on the preactivated OEM key) or your key on the bottom of the machine. This is a true clean install and put all the configuration in your hands.

3.) Another thing people like to do is to take an image of their drive for speed and comfort in installation/reinstallations. You can buy a drive imaging software, like Acronis, and take an image of your old drive. You can then change out to your new drive and put the image on this drive and this will make the new drive look like the old one. I don't know all the specifics of this method, but this is the general idea.

Those are some ideas for you

 

thanks for the help - I'm guessing that with the last swap of drives into my dell, I would want to pick up a usb enclosure in order to copy the existing hard drive files onto the new drive - would it be easier to install the drive and windows, then put the old drive in the enclosure and copy files, or do I leave the old drive in and put the new drive (original lenovo 250g ) into an enclosure and copy everything over including windows ? I have installed RAM and replaced a hard drive before (mind you a while ago) just want to ensure the two swaps are successful...

 

I am sorry but I am a little confused as to what you are trying to do. I know that you are trying to put your drive that comes with the Thinkpad into your Dell, but am confused after that. Regardless of what you do, I would make the recovery disks for your Thinkpad first. Then I would grab your personal files only off of the Dell and store them off temporarily for a bit. Then I would put the Thinkpad drive in the Dell and find a way to wipe the drive or use whatever Dell does to bring the drive to factory state. Now you put your new drive into your Thinkpad and at this point you can boot off of the recovery disks which will make the new drive in your Thinkpad look like the drive it came with, or you can do a clean install.

 

sorry for the confusion- here's the plan:

-buy new 320g - 7200 hard drive to install in new w500 (vista business 64)
-take 250g 5200 rpm that was in w500, install in my Dell inspiron 6400(US model 1505 or something ?)
-leftover will be the 120g 5200rpm drive that was in the Dell.

- I want the files from the old 120g Dell drive to be moved to the 250g drive, also keep that Dell on XP 32 bit that it is...so will need to clean off the 250g drive, install xp 32bit, and transfer the 120g WD drive contents to it.

That's what I need to do ...Hope that makes it a little clearer..basically was running out of hard drive space on the Dell plus bought a new W500 for daughter so shuffling drives to make everyone happy with their setup...

 

Ok, that is much clearer, thanks. So I would keep to what I wrote. I guess the big question is how Dell does things? Do you have an XP or restore cd that Dell gave you that allows to bring the machine back to factory settings? So what I would do would be the old fashioned way, since I am most familiar with it. I am sure there are others ways to do this.

1.) When you get your new W500, make the recovery disks right away.
2.) Replace your 250GB Thinkpad drive with the new 320GB drive. Put the 250GB drive aside for now.
3.) Get a USB stick, CD, DVD whatever to copy your personal files off of the 120GB drive in the Dell.
4.) Once this is done pull out the 120GB Dell drive an put it aside for now.
5.) Put the W500 250GB Thinkpad drive in your Dell. Install XP on this drive with your Dell Cds that they gave you with the machine(an assumption I am making). Make sure that you total wipe out all partitions on this drive. The XP installer should allow you to do this.
6.) Once XP is installed back on the Dell transfer your personal files back onto the Dell from your USB thumb drive etc that you used to store your personal files in Step #3. Now your Dell should be all set.
7.) With your new W500 either boot off the recovery disks you made in step #1 or do a clean install.
8.) Not sure what you will do with the left over 120GB 5200rpm drive in the Dell?


As I said this is the old fashioned way to do it, but I am sure you can use imaging software to just take an image of your Original Dell 5200rpm drive. Replace this drive with the drive from the W500 and then put the image of the drive on the new drive, thereby saving you time from reinstalling the OS and reloading your personal files back onto the Dell. But as I said, I have never used Imaging software to do it with this method, so I can't give you hands on advise about this method, so I stick with the old fashioned method I outlined above.

 

thank you for your help - the laptop will be here next week, along with a scorpio black drive and a 2g crucial ram to install...crossin' ma fingers...

 

Cool. Hope you like the machine and everything goes well, it is a great laptop.