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    Fresh installation of Windows w/o optical drive. Does this work?

    Discussion in 'Lenovo' started by redevils89, Jun 9, 2011.

  1. redevils89

    redevils89 Notebook Consultant

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    Hello, I'm planning on purchasing the mydigitalssd mSata SSD.
    I am also planning on an X1.

    However, I need to freshly install the W7 on my mSata without an optical drive. Would the below solution work?

    1. Install the mSata in the WWAN position
    2. Format a USB thumb drive to a bootable one.
    3. Install W7 to the SSD.
    4. Install ThinkVantage System Update and Wireless Drivers to update drivers via Thinkvantage.
    5. Done!

    Would the freshly-installed laptop be able to recognize the HDD installed in the hdd bay?

    Thanks!
     
  2. bogatyr

    bogatyr Notebook Evangelist

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    Yep. Just copy the Win7 DVD to the thumb drive and run the bootsect command (use bootsect /? for the proper arguements) to make the thumb drive bootable. Bootsect is in the DVD\Boot folder.
     
  3. Kaso

    Kaso Notebook Virtuoso

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    Yes, the freshly-installed X220 will recognize the SATA HDD. As you change the boot order in BIOS before installing, you should change the boot order again to boot from the mSATA device. You can now format the HDD to make it a data drive.