Lenovo Y470 and Y570 Official Owners Thread

[jbrian420]

I finally decided and purchased the y470 and also ordered mydigital discount 64gb msata and should have it within the next few days. I believe the process should be to create the backup discs, install msata drive, update firmware on drive, change boot order in bios, restore from discs, and delete partition after boot up. is that the correct order?

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[Ellatan]

I'm unsure about delete partition step. I don't have any partitions, I just have C: drive with SSD and D: drive with HDD. Lenovo by default comes with many partitions for its recovery and system files but I didn't like that. Messing with those is probably not the best idea.

[biteater]

I'm liking my new Y570 so far. My only dislikes are the stiffness of the touchpad button, and the screen has refused to come out of sleep once so far. Any ideas on the sleep thing are appreciated. Learning to click less in the center is helping with the touchpad button. I love this style of keyboard. The screen, while a bit small vertically, is fine. The best part is that I didn't have to tweak this computer to hell and back to get good performance. It is fast and responsive right out of the box.

[biteater]

Originally Posted by Ellatan

I'm unsure about delete partition step. I don't have any partitions, I just have C: drive with SSD and D: drive with HDD. Lenovo by default comes with many partitions for its recovery and system files but I didn't like that. Messing with those is probably not the best idea.

I'm not sure about the partition setup on my Y570. It has a 60 gb, a 650 gb, and 30 gb. What is the 30 gb for? It appears to be empty.

[Ellatan]

If you have rapid drive on, then who knows what those are

[pauloz1890]

Originally Posted by jbrian420

I finally decided and purchased the y470 and also ordered mydigital discount 64gb msata and should have it within the next few days. I believe the process should be to create the backup discs, install msata drive, update firmware on drive, change boot order in bios, restore from discs, and delete partition after boot up. is that the correct order?

Out of the box the 750GB original hard drive has 4 Partitions:
1. Boot/OS (C: around 655GB)
2. Drivers/Apps (D: around 29GB and called Lenovo)
3. 200MB System Reserved (from the Windows 7 installation)
4. 15GB Initial (Factory) Restore Backup (an OEM Partition)

Regardless of whether you use RapidDrive:
1. Create those initial/factory backup restore discs using OneKey Recovery no matter what (you will use this in case things go wrong...otherwise to restore back to factory default you just use the OneKey Recovery button and select initial backup. Using the OneKey Recovery restore to the initial factory backup requires the SSD to be disconnected as it needs Disk 0 to be the HDD not the SSD.)
2. Install the mSATA drive and update firmware if it isn't up to date ( I bought the MyDigitalSSD 64gb too and it had the most recent firmware on it).
3. Press F2 to enter BIOS upon first startup. The SATA SSD should be the first boot option like you said (for me it did this on its own). Also be sure to set the SATA/IDE mode to AHCI (should be on by default).
4. Now begin to reinstall windows. You will need a Windows DVD for this. (You can't enter the beginning stages of the Windows installation and mess around with the partitions using the OneKey Recovery backup DVD's or from OneKey Recovery. Using OneKey recorvery will take you straight to the second part of the Windows installation for setting up usernames etc. So use a Windows DVD if you have one, otherwise if u never had an SSD with your laptop when it was new you will never be able to install the OS on the SSD . I guess you could transfer the partition to the SSD if you have no other option?? Or maybe you could remove the HDD and run the recovery DVDs to force it to install on the SSD?). Here you want to:
- Wipe partition #1 and #3 and then DELETE/REMOVE them so they become one clump of "unallocated space" (i.e. the original OS currently on the original hard drive is removed). This space will be used for personal files if your not using rapid drive. If you are using rapid drive it will become part of the hybrid drive.
- be sure to install the new OS on the SSD (it will create a system reserved partition on the SSD too during the installation and the SSD should be called disk 0)

If you have done it correctly then on the SSD (disk 0) you will have 2 partitions:
- Boot/OS
- System reserved

On the HDD (disk 1) you will also have 2 partitions:
- The lenovo drivers/apps partition (i.e #2 above at 29GB)
- The backup OEM partition (i.e. #4 above at 15GB)
- ALSO on the HDD you should have the rest as "unallocated space".

Now you have 2 options:
- DO NOT USE RAPID DRIVE: If you DO NOT want to use rapid drive you should format the "unallocated space" on the HDD (preferebaly during the windows installation) so you can use it for personal files. So now you will have 3 partitions on the HDD. The largest being for personal files now.

- USE RAPID DRIVE: If you want to use rapid drive leave the "unallocated space" as unallocated on the HDD and proceed with the Windows installation.
After the windows installation you might want to go to "Disk Management" in Windows and check that all the partitions are okay and you have done everything correctly. The "unallocated space" should be the first "partition" on the spinning HDD (i.e. it should be at the beginning of the HDD...if it is not then I'm pretty sure rapid drive won't combine properly). Now run the Rapid Drive Tool after installing the "Rapid Drive" driver in the Applications folder on the D: drive (original partition #2 on the original HDD). Reboot and you should have a hybrid drive. SO your C: drive will now be a combination of your "unallocated space" on the HDD + your SSD (in a single drive and acting as a "big SSD"). If you go to Disk Management at this point there will be an error if rapid drive is working properly and it will not be able to recognise the SSD.

Either way you won't disturb the original Lenovo partitions that you really wanna keep for backup and drivers etc. I hope I made this all clear enough.

Read this for a process of how to reinstall Windows for Rapid Drive (kinda what I said above):
http://support.lenovo.com/en_US/down...DocID=HT027129

[jbrian420]

Thank you for the detailed procedure. I have two more question though, what's the benefit of setting up rapid drive? And do you use it?

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[pauloz1890]

No problem. I'm still torn between whether I should go with Rapid Drive or just use the SSD normally. I like the fact that Rapid Drive creates one big hybrid drive eliminating the need to manage files on the SSD and spinning HDD. Although my write speeds were significantly lower with Rapid Drive. Here are the speeds I've been getting with it under both types of configurations:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/8296267-post11.html

Read that whole thread for more info: RapidDrive vs SSD/SATA combo

Cheers to Fletchman1313 and jnorman5 for doing those initial tests and starting that thread. Heaps useful and it's not like Lenovo have much info on this stuff...well not that I know of anyway.

[sle3pingz]

sorry, newbie here...
i want ask ,Anyone here using Lenovo Y570 have encounter Kernel Power 41 Problem (Random Restart Blackscreen)? my laptop suddenly random restart when gaming, if someone have solution please post or PM ! Thank You Very Much

Regards
sle3pingz

[angrykenji]

for you Skyrim players, have you tried the new high-res texture pack? i'm curious as to performance issues