recovery disk & msata questions

1) Do I understand correctly that I can create recovery disks to USB instead of CDs and DVDs?

If so, can I use a USB hard disk, a USB flash drive or both? How much space?

2) Do I understand correctly that using the recovery disks to install Win7 on the msata SSD is the only way to have the blue ThinkVantage button do useful stuff?

3) Some guides to installing an msata SSD suggest moving c:\users and some other folders to the hard disk (d: ) and setting up a link. My search skills are fading and I can't find how to set up the link and which folders to move. Please either tell me how to or point me in the right direction.

4) Some guides to installing an msata SSD suggest UEFI. Will this work if I use recovery disks rather than a clean install?

This thread suggests it might be a problem unless recovery disks include SP1 http://forum.notebookreview.com/lenovo-ibm/572616-t420-msata-uefi-only-20-sec-boot.html Would a new X220 have this problem?

Apologies for any of this I missed while searching.

 

I can only answer one, and give a maybe answer to 2.

For 1, I have my recovery image saved to a 16gb flash drive, Windows XP reports the recovery files as taking up 8.22gb. I created another folder (Storage), so I don't waste the remaining 7gb

For 2, it makes sense that only using the recovery image will grant access to the blue Thinkvantage button. I remember trying a clean install, and even after installing all drivers via system update, the blue button didn't work. After doing a recovery from the image, it worked fine.

 

I've seen a lot of these questions answered elsewhere.
2. Installing the Lenovo ThinkVantage Toolbox application activates the blue ThinkVantage button.

If you do a clean Windows install, install this Toolbox application. It's supposed to find a lot of the Lenovo updates (I only installed it last so can't confirm that )

 

command prompt - mklink (read the help). I use directory junctions.

as far as I remember, the recovery disks are UEFI

 

install win7 on msata SSD c:, which causes HD to be d:
mklink /j d:\users c:\users
move all files and subdirectories from c:\users to d:\users

Is that it?

 

We appear to have a disagreement here.

 

@richarddd,

I'm trying to help here. I think I'm going to stop posting on this topic.

Pressing my blue ThinkVantage button at boot time, brings up the Startup Interrupt Menu. Pressing while in Windows, starts up the Lenovo ThinkVantage Toolbox application. That's the facts. As stated before, I had done a clean install of Windows and then installed the Lenovo applications/drivers that I wanted to.

 

@brian5,

Thank you for your help. I was just pointing out that we have two people saying different things. If this worked for you, that's rather good evidence that it works.

I'm hoping to get my x220 and mata SSD early next week, so I'm trying to nail down as much as possible in advance.

 

If brian says it works, i'd believe him. I did this test a loong time ago, and I'm not sure if I had installed the toolbox after doing my clean install, so... ;P

 

Is there a newer view on UEFI, than this, which says it's not worth it.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/lenovo-ibm/612733-q-new-x220-legacy-uefi-bios.html

 

That was my conclusion

 

Hmm, I dug myself this hole, so here goes:

- it is mklink /j link target, so I think it's backwards from what you've got

mklink /j "c:\Program Files\Bloatware1" "d:\Programs\Bloatware1"

- I've not done this with user directories. But I've done it with programs. AFTER installation.
I've moved the program directory (c:\Program Files\xxxx) over to the D drive, then created the junction, as typed above. the directory in c must be absent (it will be after you've moved it) in order to be able to create the junction.

- as for user directories, I don't usually move them, but I create junctions inside them, meaning I move the folders inside them.

- this did not work with steam. dunno why. worked with everything else I've tried with it, though.

good luck

 

According to other sources, symlink is better than junction under Win7:

First, move the folder from OriginalLocation to DestinationLocation

Then, create a symbolic link from the original location to the destination location using the command:

mklink /d OriginalLocation DestinationLocation

Some people say there are problems with moving the \users directory, others say move it while in safe mode, others don't report issues.

 

Windows File Junctions, Symbolic Links and Hard Links The Developer's Tidbit

"A symbolic link can point to any file or folder either locally on the computer and over a network using a SMB path."

"...a junction is a hard link for directories."

that said,
I did write I had problems with steam, and only tried junctions. maybe a directory symbolic link would have been the answer. then again, maybe not.

 

From a fair amount of searching, there are recommendations for both symbolic links and junctions. Some of the more recent and authoritative sounds preferred symlinks, but I've yet to see anything definitive on which is better for moving directories off an SSD.

Other views:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/win...gramdata-folder-separate-drive-partition.html

http://forum.notebookreview.com/windows-os-software/458366-moving-users-folder-windows-7-a.html

 

ok, I know I'm beating a dead horse here but the link your second link points to says:

"Create a NTFS Junction/symlink that points to the new Users folder:

I used:
mklink /J E:\Users D:\Users"

 

I have one big problem. I have a X220 and just installed a mydigitalssd msata drive. If I select in BIOS UEFI only the computer will not boot. It will show me a list to choose the device from which I wish to boot but if I select any of them it just takes me back to the same boot list.
Also I created the recovery USB drive but when I try to boot from it, it just says that I have no active partition selected and that I need to reboot the computer.
Can anyone tell me what I am doing wrong?

 

EDIT AGAIN: Just found some reasons for using UEFI here

Decided to give this a try myself (after backing up my mSata C: drive). I'm finding the same problem. I can't boot from my bootable Windows 7 x64 Pro USB flash drive.

 

I think I know why it does not Boot. The filesystem right now is MBR and it needs to be changed to GPT. Will get back on this.

 

Yeah, I figured that out too I'm in the process of deleting the current volume(s) and will convert to GPT. Don't know if I'll have time to complete today.

 

@Brian, for a clean install, did you include all the items listed Windows 7 Clean Installation - ThinkPad T420, T420s, T520, W520, X220 and X220 Tablet (stopping before the bingbar, as almost all the rest seems like bloat)? Or just use the lenovo updater to install the same stuff? Plus install Win7 SP1 and subsequent updates.

 

Unfortunately, my X220 does not have operational OS on it right now. I decided to make it UEFI (rather than Legacy MBR) and had to recreate as GPT disk.

I didn't follow any set instructions. Basically, this is what I'm going to try to do now:
1. install Win 7 x64 Pro SP-1 (you probably have Home Premium)
2. install Intel PRO/1000 LAN Adapter driver from Lenovo (as I decided to use Ethernet this time)
3. install all the MS Windows updates (58 of them)
4. then install Lenovo ThinkVantage Toolbox. The first thing that does is install Lenovo System Update (need to make sure you're downloading the one for Win 7 which is v4.01) which actually does that update checks so I guess you could just install the latter without the Toolbox. I expect that tool to figure out a lot of the Lenovo updates -- maybe even all of them.
5. Lenovo System Update has 19 recommended and 3 optional updates for my config.

 

That's essentially what I'm thinking of doing. With luck, my x220 and msata SSD will arrive today. A combination of your posts on doing a clean install and my having done clean installs on prior thinkpads convinced me.

I plan to:

1. Boot the x220. It comes with Win 7 x64 Pro
2. Use one of the utilities to copy the serial and authentication info
3. Copy programs and data to the HD (I have these on a USB HD)
4. Install the msata SSD
5. Install Win 7 from a USB stick to the SSD (win7 x64 SPI from http://forum.notebookreview.com/win...-digitalriver-windows-7-sp1-13-languages.html)
6. Install wifi driver or lan driver
7. Run Windows updates (58 sounds painful)
8. Install either the Lenovo toolbox or updater and run
9. Install apps to SSD
10. Point apps with catalogs (iTunes music, Lightroom photo, etc.) to the data on the d: HD drive. If I keep videos, photos and music files on the HD, programs and most other data should fit on the SSD

 

richarddd,

Sounds good. Only additional thing that you might want to consider is going the UEFI BIOS route instead of the Legacy BIOS (MBR) route. You cannot change later without doing a fresh install....

As Lenovo says " UEFI is a replacement for 16-bit legacy BIOS that has been in use since the 1990s. As 64-bit code, it solves many of the limitations of 16-bit legacy BIOS, including max 2TB boot disks, option ROM conflicts, and it will also (eventually) provide for a faster, richer preboot experience." More here Note that we won't apparently see improvements yet.

I found out after some different attempts that I made yesterday, that I could not install from my bootable Win USB (as I guess it's MBR) and I could not restore from my backups . I had to do a fresh install from a Win 7 CD.

I did not find good info on the internet for how to get UEFI set up for a Win 7 install. I did figure it out though. There's another thread here where it is being discussed too. I could document it later today.

 

brian,

I haven't really made up my mind on an UEFI install. There don't seem to be any advantages yet, e.g., Will UEFI make Windows/games/benchmarks run faster? No

By the time I have a 2TB boot disk, I'll likely have to reinstall anyway.

Odd that you couldn't install from the USB. I'll look forward to your documentation.

It would be nice if UPS showed my machine as "out for delivery." It's been sitting a mile or two from here for three days and is scheduled for delivery today.