Lenovo Y410P SSD Install Problems

[Khris Rajiv]

Hi All,

This is my first post, so please sorry ahead of time if this may be in the wrong section and if I'm not exactly straightforward with my questions.

In short, I've installed a 500GB Samsung 850 Evo into my Lenovo Y410p laptop, and moved the original 1TB HDD into an aftermarket "caddy" I ordered from Ebay and placed it in the Ultrabay (removed optical drive completely, keep this in mind for booting options). I've tried using Samsung's Data Migration software and everything went ok, so I thought. I went into the Bios and changed the order of the disk boots for the new SSD to be the first on the list. Everything loaded ok. Unsure if the OS transferred, I tried changing the disk name of my original C drive to A. When I restarted (with the SSD as priority) Windows gets stuck logging in and says "Preparing Windows." When I press the Novo button on the side, and choose to boot from my old HDD, everything works fine.

My question is: How do I transfer my OS from the original HDD to the new SSD and make that my boot drive? I plan on using the SSD for the OS for fast booting and some common apps (games, etc.) and the old HDD for storage (movies, pics, etc.). Please help.

As a side note, my computer doesn't seem to have OneKey Recovery because whenever I search for it, NOTHING. I can use the Recovery app from the Control panel though to make a recovery onto a flash drive (I have a 64GB soley for this purpose, so keep that in mind as well). When I use the Novo button to get to Recovery options, there are only options to find the OneKey recovery file and I can't find it. I'm so frustrated, I was so excited to reward myself for my birthday with the 500GB SSD, Ultrabay harddrive caddy and 16GB of RAM (installed when I opened up my laptop for the SSD); but, now I'm regretting my decision and think I may have gotten in over my head.

Any help will be appreciated and I'll try to monitor my inbox as much as I can through the work day tomorrow.

Cheers!

 

[ArtPog]

Khris:
Just as a workaround...assuming you have a USB external enclosure, could you install the Samsung SSD as a USBEHD and retry the Samsung Data Migration program?

We've worked with the SDM program at least a dozen times and found it to be very effective in doing what it's supposed to do.

It's possible the problem lies with the optical drive bay being equipped with a caddy to house the SSD, but you could retry using the SDM program again and see if it "takes".

We've run into problems involving laptops that have two HDD bays with the system refusing to boot from a HDD (or SSD) installed in the second bay. I realize that's not the same configuration you're dealing with but there is a certain resemblance.

On the other hand you've indicated that the boot priority order did reflect the SSD installed in the caddy of the optical drive bay. So that gives the impression that a boot to that drive should be possible. (In the problems we ran into described above the boot priority order did not reflect that a bootable drive resided in the second bay).

I can't comment on the "Novo" button or the recovery process as it involves your Lenovo laptop.

Anyway, it might be a good idea to touch base with Lenovo tech support and see if they could shed any light on your problems.

 

[Khris Rajiv]

Khris:
Just as a workaround...assuming you have a USB external enclosure, could you install the Samsung SSD as a USBEHD and retry the Samsung Data Migration program?

We've worked with the SDM program at least a dozen times and found it to be very effective in doing what it's supposed to do.

It's possible the problem lies with the optical drive bay being equipped with a caddy to house the SSD, but you could retry using the SDM program again and see if it "takes".

We've run into problems involving laptops that have two HDD bays with the system refusing to boot from a HDD (or SSD) installed in the second bay. I realize that's not the same configuration you're dealing with but there is a certain resemblance.

On the other hand you've indicated that the boot priority order did reflect the SSD installed in the caddy of the optical drive bay. So that gives the impression that a boot to that drive should be possible. (In the problems we ran into described above the boot priority order did not reflect that a bootable drive resided in the second bay).

I can't comment on the "Novo" button or the recovery process as it involves your Lenovo laptop.

Anyway, it might be a good idea to touch base with Lenovo tech support and see if they could shed any light on your problems.

Hi ArtPog,

Thanks for the quick reply! In my initial research, I found similar answers for people using the SDM software and running into problems. However, as you noticed, my computer does read the two drives fine, and I can boot from either one. I could be wrong, but I don't believe the problem lies in the hardware. I believe the real problem lies in the OS migration (or lack thereof...). I will keep searching for answers, until I resort to attempting USB-to-Sata method instead of both drives installed simultaneously. The reason for this is only because I want to minimize the amount of times I have to open my laptop, as the screws very often get rounded out easily.

When I contacted Lenovo earlier today, they recommended creating a recovery flash drive with the Recovery software (found in Control Panel). However, once I did this and tried to restore, I could not find the recovery image or file.

And no offense to you, maybe I wasn't clear in my initial description. The SSD is IN my laptop, while the original HDD has been moved to the caddy in the removable Ultrabay slot. (internal has Sata3, while the Ultrabay slot is Sata2).

 

[Ubrales]

I recently (3 weeks ago) did this by transfering my HDD OS drive over to a 500 GB Samsung 850 EVO, by using the cloning process which I am quite familiar with. I have done similar cloning a few times to transfer the OS to different HDD/SSD.

Cloning will make an exact copy of the disk being cloned over to the SSD. Since in this case you are going from a 1 TB HDD over to a 500 GB SSD, you will have to use a data select feature available on some free cloning programs. Here is the information that you need.

Cloning.

Backup before you do anything. Backup to an external drive.

For cloning (making an exact copy of the entire disk) you need to connect the hard disk to your present computer OR to a different computer and then use a cloning software. There are a few good free cloning software that you can download and run.

There is Acronis (free download from WD's website).

Clonezilla: http://clonezilla.org/

Apricorn (this is what I use): http://www.apricorn.com/products/software/ezgig.html
(Needs ‘Drivewire’ - $35) - http://www.apricorn.com/media/uploads/DriveWire_Manual_rev7_14.pdf

EaseUS: http://www.easeus.com/backup-software/ (I have used this) - look for the clone option.

After you clone the hard disk, use the newly cloned hard disk in place of the old hard disk.

Make a backup of the new setup.

After doing the above cloning, the computer runs perfectly well. I then installed Samsung's Magician software and optimized the SSD.

The next thing I did was to make a backup of the system using EaseUS Todo Backup (Samsung disables Windows backup because of the space limitations on the 500 GB SSD). This is not an issue.

 

[ArtPog]

Yes, I did misunderstand your configuration. I did assume the SSD was installed in the "Ultrabay" slot.

As to the Samsung DMP. As I previously mentioned we've worked with that program more than a dozen times and each time it performed flawlessly. Of course this is not to say s*!@ happens but our experience has been quite positive. In *every* case we've come across where the user ran into problems it resulted from user error, or a defective (or corrupted) source drive, or some misconfiguration, except in one case where the SSD was found to be defective.

If you're able to use a USBEHD enclosure to house the SSD as a destination drive, hopefully you shouldn't have to get into the laptop's case more than a single time to install the cloned SSD as an internal drive. You should be able to boot to the SSD following the disk-cloning operation while the SSD resides in the USB enclosure (hopefully the Lenovo's boot priority order will permit a boot from the USB device) so that you can tell whether the SSD is a bootable drive.

Anyway, I hope you can resolve this problem with Lenovo's assistance.

 

[Khris Rajiv]

@ubrales & @artpog you both have very similar solutions to my problem. It seems like I have to try cloning and booting while the ssd is outside of my laptop, then attempt to boot when it's inside while the original hdd is temporarily outside. I just got home from work, but I'm eager to attempt both of your suggestions. Thanks a lot for your time, I'll be sure to let you know what works!

 

[ArtPog]

I recently (3 weeks ago) did this by transfering my HDD OS drive over to a 500 GB Samsung 850 EVO, by using the cloning process which I am quite familiar with. I have done similar cloning a few times to transfer the OS to different HDD/SSD.

Cloning will make an exact copy of the disk being cloned over to the SSD. Since in this case you are going from a 1 TB HDD over to a 500 GB SSD, you will have to use a data select feature available on some free cloning programs. Here is the information that you need.

Cloning.

Backup before you do anything. Backup to an external drive.

For cloning (making an exact copy of the entire disk) you need to connect the hard disk to your present computer OR to a different computer and then use a cloning software. There are a few good free cloning software that you can download and run.

There is Acronis (free download from WD's website).

Clonezilla: http://clonezilla.org/

Apricorn (this is what I use): http://www.apricorn.com/products/software/ezgig.html
(Needs ‘Drivewire’ - $35) - http://www.apricorn.com/media/uploads/DriveWire_Manual_rev7_14.pdf

EaseUS: http://www.easeus.com/backup-software/ (I have used this) - look for the clone option.

After you clone the hard disk, use the newly cloned hard disk in place of the old hard disk.

Make a backup of the new setup.

After doing the above cloning, the computer runs perfectly well. I then installed Samsung's Magician software and optimized the SSD.

The next thing I did was to make a backup of the system using EaseUS Todo Backup (Samsung disables Windows backup because of the space limitations on the 500 GB SSD). This is not an issue.

Ubrales:
Since you obviously have an interest in disk-cloning programs I would like to suggest that you take a look at the Casper program and see what you think of it.

(Before I get into some general info re the program please understand that I have no financial or any other commercial interest in the program other than being a satisfied user of the program for many years.)

The program is extremely user-friendly with an easy-to-understand interface and straightforward design. No "learning-curve" of any consequence is necessary.

But the chief advantage of Casper is its rather extraordinary speed (in comparison with other disk-cloning programs) in undertaking its disk-cloning operations when the program is used routinely and frequently. (That last phrase "routinely & frequently" is the critical one.) This makes the program an ideal vehicle for a user to maintain up-to-date comprehensive backups of his/her ENTIRE system since the user now has a strong incentive to do so because he/she knows it will take only a short period of time to complete the disk-cloning operation. As an example, I back up my PC systems at least 3X a week, sometimes even daily. It usually takes me under two minutes to complete a disk-cloning operation - frequently under a minute when I clone on a daily basis. Naturally the volume of data that's cloned, the user's system, the types of drives involved in the disk-cloning process will all have a bearing on the expenditure of time to complete the disk-cloning process.

Now to the negatives...

The program is a commercial one - it costs $49.99 and AFAIK can only be obtained from the developer - http://www.fssdev.com. I fully realize that most PC users are exclusively interested in a "one-shot" disk-cloning program to clone the contents of an older HDD to a new larger HDD or SSD and are simply uninterested in using a disk-cloning program as a comprehensive backup tool. More's the pity but that's the situation. So the PC user can obtain disk-cloning programs that are freely available on the net and by & large they will do the one-time job satisfactorily.

All I can say is that I've never found a disk-cloning program as effective, reliable, easy-to-use, and as fast in carrying out its disk-cloning operations as the Casper program. So if you have an interest in using such a program for carrying out comprehensive backups of your system so that you can routinely maintain up-to-date bit-for-bit copies of your PC system give this program some consideration.

Now there is a 30-day trial version available at...https://www.fssdev.com/products/casper/trial/

The trial version is slightly crippled but it should give you a good idea of the capability of the program. Again, bear in mind that the true usefulness of the program is ONLY realized when the program is used on a frequent basis so that the user can have at hand an up-to-date current comprehensive backup of his/her system. So if you do decide to give the the program a spin employ it a number of times and judge the speed of its disk-cloning operations.

 

[Ubrales]

Thanks Art!

The cost (Casper) is definitely a negative! I continue to use Apricorn's Drivewire and EZ Gig IV mainly because of the success I had in using them, and also based on the fact that I have Drivewire. In addition, I use Drivewire occasionally to initialize a new disk outside the PC case.

I do a complete system backup every week using EaseUS Todo Backup (free version) and Windows Backup on my PCs that have HDDs (Win 7 Pro).

When I upgraded one Win 7 Pro PC to an SSD, the Windows Backup was automatically disabled. On this PC I use EaseUS for backups. I am not sure why Windows Backup will not work on this PC with the SSD. Maybe Samsung's Magician did the change.

 

[Khris Rajiv]

Hi all,

Ok, so I took ArtPog's advice and ran the SDM software again with both harddrives still connected (SSD internally, and original 1TB in the removable Ultrabay caddy). Upon completion, I removed the original HDD and booted from the new SSD with no problems. The drives even changed themselves. After a first trial start up with the original HDD removed, I reinstalled it and now I have the 1TB as storage!

Thanks a lot for the help and advice, I really appreciate it.

Now, I have one more question:
How should I go about formatting the original HDD to use as storage? Should I use Disk Management and do a clean wipe? Do I need any of the old system information still stored on there? I will back up the drive for sensitive/personal files (eg. Music, Videos, and Docs), but I no longer need Windows or the D partition that's currently on there.

 

[ArtPog]

Unless some special circumstances dictate otherwise I would see no reason not to simply format the HDD you plan to use for storage/backup purposes. If you want you can use Disk Management to delete the volume and then create whatever partitioning scheme that suits you.
Needless to say all this is dependent on the presumed fact that there is no data currently existing on the drive that you now or later desire and you're comfortable with the fact that your SSD is performing without any problems. Work with it a while before you make ANY changes to the HDD. Good luck.

 

[Fauzy1881]

I am doing same thing at same laptop,so many ways i tried to clone os from hhd to ssd buy failed.the best way just make clean install os on ssd it self.