Buying a used W520 locally

So I'm going to meet the guy (recent college grad) face to face. I told him I wanted to see it fire up, know his passwords if it's password protected, make sure the ports all work. He said he would "wipe" the drive once we've done the deal. Since he hasn't done this before nor have I, what really is necessary for him to "wipe" (my definition is "delete")? Documents, programs...stuff to protect his privacy. Surely not format the C drive! I want to go home with a working computer.

He said W7 Professional came pre-installed on it, no recovery discs will be provided. So does that mean W7 is in some untouchable partition on the hard drive? Can I do a "clean re-install" from that partition once I take possession? I seem to remember I did that on my T61 (XP).

Should I go into this thinking I would absolutely want to start all over again with a clean install (re-install) hoping that would slay any viruses or malware? Is that possible using the OS that's already installed? I've got "SWTools" folder on my T61 C drive. (I'm guessing that's where the "ThinkVantage Productivity Center" programs are accessed from the blue ThinkVantage button). Upon a clean install can all those Lenovo programs be downloaded from Lenovo (at least modern versions)?

I've done clean W7 installs on various desktops (new boot drives) so I have that ISO already burned to a DVD, but just W7 Home Premium, not Professional. Could I just "downgrade" to Home Premium using the COA license number on the bottom of the computer or would I need to burn the proper W7 Professional ISO?

 

You can never tell the history of the previous user so I would recommend starting over from scratch, I suggest using DBAN to fully clear things out on the disk if the previous owner haven't done so.

The SWTools folder is unique to each model so you won't be able to make use of it on a W520 from a T61, you could try and ask the seller if they could make a backup of the SWTools folder from the W520 on to a blank CD assuming it is still there.

If not then I would grab a few drivers such as the graphics and network adapter and store this on a USB flash drive. The Lenovo System Update app can download the rest of the missing drivers and apps for you but be sure that you are using the latest version since there are some security issues on the older versions.

Since you already have a Windows 7 CD you can tweak it so that it allows you to install any version you desire, you just need to remove the ei.cfg file from the disc (more information can be found here). But if you're feeling lazy then I pretty much done this for you by compiling a Windows 7 All-In-One disc which contains all editions in either 32 bit or 64 bit for your convenience, link can be found on my page here.

Most W520's comes with Windows 7 Professional installed so the sticker should be under the battery where it holds the product key but double check on this. If you need a helping hand then you can read up my Windows 7 Install Guide for ThinkPads here which should cover most of the basics. Hope this helps!

 

Wouldn't you rather go home with a *clean* computer? You can get it working - as per your own standards/desires and not someone else's - within a couple of hours.

In my opinion, yes, for a slew of reasons. A clean install beats every other option, every single time. You know what you did or didn't do, to begin with.

If you *really* want all the Lenovo applications, you can buy a set of recovery disks from them, or pick up a copy set for a few bucks on TPF's Marketplace. Having said that, doing a clean install from "vanilla" media and then adding what *you* need to it is the way to go.

W520 is a fine system, generally speaking. I hope you'll love yours and that it will serve you well.

 

I'm mostly thinking of the "battery manager" if that's what it's called. Start charging at 65%, stop charging at 90%. How do you control that without the Lenovo program? And the "power manager" which dictates how bright the screen is etc when on battery. And the Lenovo "wireless location selector" if that's what it's called. Pretty painless way of finding and "bookmarking" a wireless location (libraries, colleges etc).

 

You can download the Power Manager and Hotkeys, as well as Access Connections from Lenovo's site. All the drivers for your new machine are available there.

 

Already there meaning in the Power Manager and Hotkeys and AC downloads or on my hard drive somewhere?

Once I do all this once I'll have all the answers (maybe). I'll start sleeping better after I get this W520 up and fully running as my T61 is truly on its last legs (I get the Kernel Dump error daily as well as CHKDSK starting up). I do have three other desktops running smoothly so it's not like I'm hurting for a computer, just a laptop I can depend on. No offense, T61, you've been a trooper all these years.

 

No. Not on your hard drive.

I'm presuming a full-blown clean install, and you'll have to download these utilities from Lenovo's website.

 

Like I say, once I've done this I'll have answered a gazillion questions I have but for now: doesn't a "full-blown clean install" mean wiping everything from a hard drive then re-installing the OS on basically a formatted drive? Where are these drivers located that can hide from a "full-blown clean install".

I told the guy to just delete his Programs and Documents folders and delete his browsing history but nothing else.

 

Yes, that's *exactly* what I meant.

Unless the previous owner restricted the access to recovery partition - presuming that one still exists on the system - there's no place to hide.

Your machine, your call. I'd never do it like that, though.

Good luck.

 

OK. Nice to hear you'd never do it the way I'm thinking of doing it for the first time. I'll let you know how it goes.

 

There's more than one way to skin a cat, as they would say. I only recommend what I've tried personally and has worked best for me on a myriad of ThinkPads.

Please do.

Good luck.