Installing mSATA 256Gb SSD to Thinkpad X230, and cloning Windows 7 to it

Hi. Just spent some hours with cloning Windows 7 to mSATA SSD, so probably this would be useful to somebody else.
Other solutions I found over internet don't work with Windows 7, since it uses BCD database on boot disk, and it is not updated by most of free applications for disk cloning.
(BCD is used since Vista, and it is a replacement for older boot.ini, where your system drive was set as multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS and it was easy to change boot drive's number)
They work only if you install 2.5" SSD into the same slot in notebook, but with X230 you can use SSD for system and original (or even bigger) HDD for data storage.

So, what you should do:

1. Install SSD. It is actually easy, you can see a Youtube video for changing/installing UMTS mSata card as a guide: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YFRZXHR9rEI
Just remove bottom screws, marked with keyboard symbol, remove keyboard by pushing it horizontally to the screen, and remove the palmrest by popping it up from the keyboard side.
Left part of palm rest requires some efforts to pop up.

2. Boot up. Windows should recognize it. No need to format it or do something else, disk cloning tools will do it for you.

3. WHAT I DID WRONG. To save some time, go to 7. Otherwise stay here

I tried a lot of solutions from the internet, and they didn't work:

4. Acronis Migrate Easy - it clones, SSD drive boots, but you get BSOD with 0xc000021a.
After shrinking disk C: to 230Gb (you can do it by removing unnecessary files, using Defrag utility like PerfectDisk, which has 'Prepare to Shrink' defrag mode) , and cloning, Windows 7 boots from SSD (Wohooo!!), but, stop. After checking disk alignment you understand that boot drive is aligned to 31KB (and drive C: as well). This will slow down SSD usage, since it requires all drives/files/clusters to be 4k-aligned.
Now you can google for 'Re-align drive' and found tools like Paragon Alignment Tool. Use it. Probably, it will work for you, for me I got 'Disk read error' and nice colored random symbols over the screen. Didn't see such after the DOS/Windows 95.
Also, it will not boot if you add drives from your SSD in Windows - it will be recorded by your cloned copy, and set an invalid drive letter when windows boots from SSD.

5. Easeus Partition Master, Minitool Partition Wizard - they are free. And they are crap. No, they works. But they require to shrink your disk before cloning.
And they don't update BCD for SSD, so SSD will not boot. You can feel that it boots, but probably you forgot to physically remove old HDD and it loads files from it.
Also these tools have the same interface as Acronis Disk Director, make by Chinese guys, and I have a guess that this software should not be used normally. Maybe, I'm wrong.
However, there are tools to fix BCD records, but I didn't try them (actually, I try EasyBCD, but didn't found how to correctly fix BCD on SSD, and was not sure that problem is in BCD).
So, you can try this method, if you know how to edit BCD and sure that it will work for you. With old boot.ini it was much easier.

6. CloneDrive XML - this also requires source drive to be shrinked. Didn't try it before shrinking, but most likely it doesn't update BCD as well.

7. Acronis Disk Director Home 11. It just damn works. It doesn't require to shrink your drive before cloning, and updates BCD, copies MBR, whatever else.
However I tried it only with shrinked drive C because of 4-6.
Just right click on the whole drive (not disk, this will clone only the disk itself!) and choose 'Clone bla bla'.
Unfortunately, demo version will not allow to clone the drive, so if you want to do it for free - you should back to 5 and use BCD editor.

 

I would have just backed up the original drive with Acronis True Image Home 2013 then removed it. Then I would have installed the mSATA drive and performed a restore.

After that is verified to be working, you can scratch the source.

 

Yes, this will work as well, but I first tried to do everything with freely available applications, and idea was to describe what you can face on this way
Also, True Image would require the third bootable drive plus backup drive.

 

You get what you pay for.

The method I use with Acronis requires an external drive to write the backup, an optical drive to boot the Recovery DVD, and obviously the external drive again to restore from.

I make the assumption everyone already has those types of resources, and are already performing regular backups. If you aren't, you are likely going to land on Santa's naughty list.

 

I have external drive, even two external drives for backups and additional data, but don't have (external) optical drive since don't use CD/DVD for years
However, the third empty USB drive can be a solution.

 

@ O.Nicolay

You are over complicating the process here. Like Thors.Hammer said, you get what you pay for.

Simply buy or source a fully working copy of Acronis True Image Home 2011 or newer and Bob's your uncle.

Now I have not tried this on a mSATA drive but I don't see why it would be any different to an ordinary SATA SSD:

Just do the following:

1) Get your full copy of Acronis True Image (Plus version if you have a GPT partition)

2) Install Acronis True Image and create a USB bootable recovery drive using it's recovery tool. (No CD's required)

3) Install your mSATA SSD

4) Boot your PC using the Acronis USB recovery tools you created in step 2 and select "Clone" from the recovery tool options, select the whole disk you wish to clone and the mSATA as the target. It will ask you to re-size the partition if required.

5) Reboot, enter BIOS and move your mSATA up the boot order. Done.

It is that easy. If done correctly there is no need for recovery CDs/DVDs, no need for other third party tools. Acronis will do it all for you.

Thousands of people have successfully performed the above 5 simple steps with no issues. No BSOD, or need for tools like Easeus Partition Master etc.

In my opinion if someone doesn't want to pay $40 for a very useful set of backup and recovery tools, when they have probably just spent over $1000 on a new laptop, then I don't have much sympathy when things don't work out smoothly.

People need to ask, how much is their data worth to them... is it not worth a measly $40... How much is their time worth... spending hours trying to fix something because they tried to take the cheap way out.

Fair enough if a person feels they have the skills to perform all the tasks Acronis does with free third party tools and the skills to fix things with little to no support when they go wrong, however, unfortunately 99% of people wanting to take this route probably don't have the skills to get themselves out of trouble and are just looking for a free ride.

 

Right on.

If they have any worthy data at all. Browser cache?

 

For every post I see on various forums claiming the clone process onto SSD is as "easy as 1, 2, 3" or a "piece of cake", I see two posts voicing complicated problem encounter issues such as that stated in the OP. I'm speaking from the perspective of a computer technical novice. We buy computers, too.

In response to the people who encounter problems, I often see rebutting qualifiers such as: "well, you didn't change the frugatram bit in the sub-BIOS", or, "of course, that doesn't work that way in Windows 7 (or 8)", or, "you were supposed to do that step with a USB drive and not a DVD", or, some other similar qualification that seems simple to the proficient but Greek to the novice.

Everything is easy to the proficient. That's what makes them proficient.

There is another way to get your operating system and all related tools onto an SSD boot drive in a new Lenovo laptop. Namely, order it that way in the custom build process. LET LENOVO DO IT. No cloning, no Acronis, no freeware, no backup-restore, no qualifiers, no fuss, no muss, no pain, no stress, no time spent.

Is it a little more expensive than cloning/restoring onto your own third party SSD? Yeah, the same $40 that Flickster makes a convincing case to be trivial in the $1000 scheme of things.

 

@ Kilt,

You have a very valid point. Sometimes people who are more technically inclined forget how intimidating tasks such as swapping in an SSD can be for those without the know-how. Things that seem so simple to the technically proficient can be very complicated for the technically inept and I agree that for those people it is often easier and safer to just get Lenovo to do it.

If you wait for a good offer, you can actually get an upgrade from the standard 500GB HDD to a 180GB SSD for only $230, which is only about $70 more than what you would pay for a Intel 180GB drive if you purchased it yourself. If you ask me, that is $70 well spent if you are a technically challenged individual.

I still highly recommend people buy a good backup solution like Acronis, regardless of how they install the SSD.

Backups are a whole other subject, but one which is often overlooked by most until disaster strikes and 5+ years worth of work/memories are lost.

 

I ordered a second T530 with the 180gb Intel SSD based on good info here about SSD's and my experience with the mSATA SSD cache on my current 530. The SSD upgrade from the 500gb HD was only $143 with the discounts I was getting, which is actually less than I can buy the Intel SSD for. And I can buy a Hitachi or Western Digital 500gb HD for the ultrabay for less than the price of Toshiba HD that Lenovo uses in the main bay.

People screw up with tools all the time. A software program is a tool, and it can be a very complicated and intimidating tool to the non-technical. That's me. I do have confidence that I can snap a HD into a caddy and put in some screws. However, if someone tells me I also have to change something in the BIOS I will cry.

The advice on backup is obviously sound and I am taking it. I bought a 1TB external HD and am trying to decide what backup software tool to use. There may be free ones that can suit my simple purpose, maybe even hiding in the mysterious (to this Alice) W8nderland.

 

Your timing is good. See Backup software for data backup and recovery | Acronis

 

Yes the current $39.99 offer for Acronis backup which includes the "Plus" package software, is a very good deal. With the Plus package you get GPT partition support and Universal Restore.

[Extract]
Universal Restore is designed to allow a machine to boot its operating system initially after a restoration/deployment of an image to hardware that is different from the one it was taken from, and then proceed with the installation of other drivers and configuration.
[Extract]

I would still prefer to perform a clean install of the OS with all the required drivers, then move my personal data and software across via standard backup restoration. However, it's a neat option to have.

Another reason I like Acronis backup software is that there is plenty of support articles for those who need it and a large support community.

No I do not get anything for recommending their software though maybe I should.

 

There is a bunch of Acronis products for backup. True Image Home looks pretty nice for this purpose (however, I didn't ever try to restore using it, hope will not have need to )

Regarding buying additional hardware from Lenovo - there are some problems to shipping to Ukraine (from +40% tax for items, which costs more than $1000, to non-zero possibility that your device will be lost in it's way).
And, our regional dealers rarely sell top-level models or models with custom configuration.
For instance, I spend some weeks to buy X230 with i7 processor.

However, here it is easy to buy memory for only $25 for 4Gb module, and 256Gb mSata SSD for only $210.

Buying software in ex-USSR countries is the another question. Here people do it very rarely, even licensed Windows here installed only on ~40% of computers.

 

True Image Home 2013 is ideal for the average home user. I recommend people get comfortable restoring a backup and test their backups frequently, it's nothing to be afraid of.

Not sure where you get the 40% import TAX rate from. All the websites I have checked show the V.A.T rate in the Ukraine as 20%, still not small but far from 40% which sounds insane and frankly incorrect, least for computer goods.

20% is in-line with most of the European nations and it looks like it is dropping to 17% in 2014. A flat 40% V.A.T on goods over $1000 does not sounds right at all, I can't see that happening any time soon. I don't know of any country in the world with a VAT above 27%

 

You are right. Tax is actually 20%, plus 20% for customs clearance.

 

Again I don't know where you get the extra 20% Custom Clearance rate from, if every item coming into the Ukraine was charged a flat 20% custom clearance tax that would essentially raise the Tax rate on all imports to 40% (20% VAT + 20% CC Tax) which to my knowledge is unheard of in Europe or most developed/developing nations.

There is some select goods that have a very high tax rate on them to potentially protect industries etc but to say there is a flat 40% TAX rate on all electronic/computer goods coming into the Ukraine simply does not sound right.

Most websites I have checked say the following for Ukraine customs fees:
"The average cost for customs cargo declaration is $20 per declaration plus approximately $15 per each additional page."

I am not an Economist but a 40% flat import tax, doesn't sound correct to me.

 

But that's a fact. That was a fact, because just this year they changed laws (I though that 20%+20% works now), and now additional customs fee is around 10%. When item costs more than EUR 1000.

 

I can't refute your claim as foreign import tax rates are not my speciality, Information Technology is, but having some basic economics knowledge a flat 40% import rate on electronic goods still does not sound correct. I can't find anything online to support your claims, everything I have seen talks of a 20% VAT and small customs clearance fee not a flat 20%.

Anyway if that is true, I feel for the people of Ukraine.

 

Ukraine 'requires' such a high import taxes since for the years we have import level higher than export.
Also, all 'professional' importers have ways to lower the declared goods price or import it even without declaring.

 

You should get out more often. Online information does not reflect reality. I find it "amusing" for a non-Ukrainian using a few brain cells and some numbers to "reason" with an Ulkrainian resident who experiences the harsh reality first hand.

I have lived in certain crazy parts of the world.

I'm sure you did not mean that. Because you just can't. (It's even conditional: "if that is true.")

 

Yes in Russia and Soviet Bloc, the ThinkPads can attract about 40% tax, in China, the tax on ThinkPads (or any other exported oriented laptop) go as high as 50%.

If i was to take a $2000 AUD W530 back to China and sell it on grey market, i could effectively make about 400 to 500 USD per machine. (Not that i could be bothered doing it).

 

Could you guys start another thread on ThinkPad taxes?

 

Thor you are right, conversation has taken a bit of a side step from the OPs original question. I'll move this to PM mode .

Least I learned some useful info on foreign tax rates.

 

I just did exactly that on my X230 and somehow I'm having problems with Lenovo Recovery. The cloning process with True Image apparently went smoothly. it cloned the whole main drive, including the Q drive (therefore, becoming 4 partitions, msata w/recovery drive, hdd w/recovery drive).
However, I wanted to restore the OS drive (msata) to factory settings and went forward to use the Lenovo Recovery with the discs I had previously burned. There is no way in hell I could make it to work - when using the boot CD, I would enter the recovery start screen, but then I would get a Recovery Fail. When going to Windows 7 and trying to create a new boot CD (I thought that was the problem), it said it could not locate recovery files (when in fact I had two partitions with recovery files).

I decided to undo whatever I had originally done, removing the msata and trying to isolate the problem. Indeed, everything worked fine now with Lenovo Recovery (didn't restore yet), so the issue was the cloning to the msata. My question is, did I do something wrong in the cloning process or is it behaving like it should? In the event I transfer all the OS and format the HDD, in the future, how would I be able to recover the system if I need to?

 

I didn't try to run recovery. Looks like it works only with original drive, i.e. first device on SATA line. What if try to remove the HDD and run recovery again?