Install OS on mSATA SSD, move Lenovo Recovery partition to HDD, possible?

I have a x220 and Edge E420.

I'm using a 64GB mSATA SSD for the OS in the x220. When I first installed the SSD I restored the image from the recovery partition in the original 320GB HDD rather than do a clean install. Thus the mSATA have 2 partitions, same as the factory install...or whatever they called it. The recovery partition takes up about 10Gb of the SSD. I want that space back!

Is there a way to reserve the entire SSD for the OS and create a Lenovo Recovery partition on the HDD instead? And how do I achieve that?

I'll also be looking at doing the same for the 128GB mSATA I'm putting into the E420.

Many thanks.

 

If you have created the Factory System Recovery media (discs or USB flash drive), you can delete the Q: partition and extend the C: partition.

Once you have set up your laptop "just so" with applications and settings to your personal preference, you can make an image of your system in that particular state. I find it more meaningful to "restore" such an image.

 

Agree with Kaso. Once you have it all working on new mSATA, that's the backup that you want to keep. Forget the Lenovo Recovery Partition.

If you can, back up the Recovery Partition to external device in case you want to restore to factory config before selling or returning for service/replacement.

 

Thanks.

I presume you can then install/recover from an external HDD, Right? BTW I found this site:

Free Hard Disk Backup and Restore, Hard Disk Image and Cloning Utilities (thefreecountry.com)

Can you recommend any from the site above?

Oh, is there a diff between "imaging" and "cloning"? I read from the link below that there is:

Cloning or Imaging a HDD

I lost access to my old laptop drive once many years ago when OS and could not access the laptop...didn't bring the OS install disc! It just wouldn't boot up. LOL, had to resort to my PDA to access the internet and it was a big pain. Didn't lost anything when I finally got home and used the install disc to "repair" the HDD.

 

Cloning is the process of replicating all the contents of a disk (source) onto another disk (target) so that the target disk (possibly faster in speed and larger in capacity) may be used in lieu of the source disk: the bootable OS as well as all application and user files are identically preserved as they are right now.

Imaging is cloning with one difference: the target is not another disk but "an image file" on another (very large) disk. There may be different snapshots of such image files taken over time. Eventually, an image file may be written onto a target disk that provides the bootable OS as well as all application and user files as captured in some moment in the past.

Backup usually means keeping copies of your own data that is difficult or expensive to re-create. I keep multiple copies (of each scheduled backup point), on different external hard drives, of all files that I personally produce.

I have used Macrium Reflect.

 

Right, I think I get what you mean.

Just had a look at Macrium Reflect and there're 2 choices: "Clone this disk..." and "Image this disk...". Will writing the Image (with the OS) onto a mSATA SSD affect TRIM? People keep suggesting that to avoid problems with trimming, its better to clean-install Windows 7. Is that sttill correct?

Many thanks.

 

Windows 7 knows what to do with TRIM when it works with a SSD.

 

Sorry, disagree on that. On Windows 7, I found that I had TRIM issues on both my mSATA SSD in my X220 and on the SSD on my desktop. Cloning drives resulted in TRIM issues and even restoring from backups had TRIM issues.

I have benchmarks, that have SSD TRIM info, to prove that.

 

Sorry to hear that. I have cloned 3 primary drives at home (one desktop and two laptop, upgrading to SSD) and everything has been working fine for months now. At my workplace, imaging onto SSDs has not created any problems.

 

@Kaso,

I don't know if the TRIM is hit-or-miss or whether it's certain restore utilities that can alleviate the problem. I had issues after restores using DriveImage XML, Windows Backup, Lenovo Recovery, and Paragon Backup.

 

@Brian: I've only used Apricorn EZ Gig IV (for cloning, bundled by Crucial) and Macrium Reflect (for imaging/restoring) to make any general statement about the TRIM problem.

The hit-or-miss part, in my case, is that on two occasions I had to boot with Windows Installation disc in order to have the boot information fixed.

 

Yeah, I have read that too.

So re-reading the posts, to create a Lenovo_Recovery partition on the secondary 320 GB HDD I just image or clone that partition onto the HDD? Then clean install Windows & onto the mSATA SSD using another Windows 7 DVD disk. Correct?

 

If my understanding was right that the 320GB HDD is going to be your secondary (data storage) drive and the mSATA SSD is going to be your primary (boot OS and apps) drive, I would:

1. create the Lenovo Factory Recovery media on an external media (DVDs or USB flash drive)

2. clean install Windows 7 onto the mSATA SSD using the Windows 7 Installation DVD

3. wipe the 320GB HDD clean.

There is no cloning or imaging/restoring involved. Did I miss something?

 

Yea, the 320 GB HDD becomes my data drive (I'll also put my User folder and less frequently used programs here) and mSATA becomes my boot drive.

1. Already done that.

2. Do have a W7 Install DVD.

3. Yes, I gather I have to do that.

But can I then create a partition on the 320 GB HDD to contain the original Lenovo_Recovery software? If there is a Lenovo_Recovery partition on the 320 GB HDD I don't have to worry about forgetting to bring along a W7 DVD when I'm on the road...this was what happened to me once when I was OS...the boot drive refused to boot and I had to resort to my PDA to read my emails/news etc for the rest of my trip! Once home I used a Windows XP DVD to reinstall/repair the OS and all came good.

NB the mSATA atm appears to be an exact copy of the 2 factory partitions of the 320 GB HDD. IIRC when I installed the mSATA I used the recovery media. This created the 2 partitions on the mSATA as it stand now. Something happened to the mSATA a month ago (laptop booted into DOS and asked me to recovery the C drive) and the recovery partition on the mSATA did a reinstall of OS from itself onto the C drive...ie without me using my W7 DVD.