X200s w/ Intel 5300 - New driver leaves me wireless-less.

Hi All,
I'm hoping this forum can be more helpful than the support line...
The pre-installed wifi driver on my x200s was giving me problems from the time it arrived. After a day of wifi usage, Windows would slow to a crawl. After some digging, I verified that the wifi driver was causing DPC latency issues.
I upgraded the wifi driver to the Lenovo v13 module and all ability to use the wifi card stopped. I tried using the ThinkVantage tools to upgrade, I tried complete uninstall, re-installs using the downloaded driver from the Lenovo site. Nothing worked. I can see the device in device manager without error, however, fn+f5 doesn't show any wireless cards but the network center CAN see the wireless device and shows full green bars.
I could not downgrade my driver since I couldn't find it on the Lenovo site.
I did install the Intel generic driver for the 5300 and that was able to have me connected, but once again, I was left with one day of usage then a reboot. Failing to reboot eventually leads to a BSOD.
I've called Lenovo support and the fellow there says, "The only reason their driver wouldn't work is if the hardware was broken." Which I find a little hard to stomach since it does 'work' using a different driver. He's asked me to reinstall my whole OS which seems unreasonable. He then asked me to ship my laptop to them to replace the card... again, seems like a "last effort" scenario. We compromised on having me bring it to a service center.
So, before I go to the hassle of replacing one wifi card with another; Has is anyone else having similar problems? Does anyone else think it's a bit daft that a software driver issue must be fixed by installing new hardware? It seems to me that the problem is in convincing Windows that the card is powered on... I doubt a hardware swap will change anything.
Your thoughts? Suggestions?
Details...
7465-CTO (x200s, 1.86GHz, 4GB, Intel 5300)
Vista Business 64-bit
wifi driver v13.0.0.107 (complete failure)

Take a look at this wiki category: http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Cat … English%29. I suggest the following from it: http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Makepkg, http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/ABS … ild_System, http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Arc … _Standards

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New driver for Broadcom wireless cards

Finally there's a driver for Broadcom wireless cards, including 4328 which only worked using ndiswrapper.
http://www.broadcom.com/support/802.11/linux_sta.php
There are discussions about it on the Ubuntu forums
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=914697
on the Debian forums
http://forums.debian.net/viewtopic.php? … 294ad5d3e9
and on the Gentoo wiki
http://gentoo-wiki.com/HARDWARE_Apple_M … Generation
Last edited by cmlr (2008-09-25 14:10:13)

Actually, this driver already has a Wiki page, http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Broadcom_BCM4312. The new information is that it doesn't just work with bcm4312 cards, but all modern 43xx cards. See the forum links in the previous message.
The driver is already available in AUR,
http://aur.archlinux.org/packages.php?ID=19514
Last edited by cmlr (2008-09-25 14:20:50)

I have recently purchased a hybred 750GbHDD as an upgrade for my MAC Book Pro (Intell Version) I have a boot camp partition to the original 500GB HDD. How can I expand both partitions to fit the new drive?

I have recently purchased a hybred 750GbHDD as an upgrade for my MAC Book Pro (Intell Version) I have a boot camp partition to the original 500GB HDD. How can I expand both partitions to fit the new drive?
I have tried bootcamp and have had no luck due to the fact that boot camp doesn't see the additional HDD space of 250Gb. What am I not doing?

Ouch, well there is a problem.
This is the stack of partitions on your old drive
EFI (hidden)
Lion (50GB say)
Bootcamp (50GB say)
Lion Recovery Partiton (hidden)
This is the same stack on your new drive imaged from the old one.
EFI (hidden)
Lion (50GB say)
Bootcamp (50GB say)
Lion Recovery Partiton (hidden)
Emtpy Space (100GB say)
This is what you want
EFI (hidden)
Lion (100GB say)
Bootcamp (100GB say)
Lion Recovery Partiton (hidden)
EFI has to be at the top of the drive and Lion Recovery has to be at the bottom of the drive.
And you only have four partitions.
You can't move the Lion Recovery Partition or Bootcamp partiton, however you can expand the Lion Partition into empty space below it. (but can't delete or move the Lion Recovery partition)
Your Duplicator duplicated perfectly, too perfectly Likely would work with same sized drives/partitions.
This is what your going to need to do.
You need to move the Bootcamp partition to a blank external drive using WinClone and disconnect. This is so you have two backups of it. (one on your old 500GB drive)
You will need a drive enclousre or IDE/SATA to USB adapter cable for the older 500GB drive and option key boot from it. (some enclosures can't be booted from so check first Other World Computing is good place to ask)
Download the free Carbon Copy Cloner, grab any new files off the new 750GB internal drive to the old 500GB your booted from.
Open Apple's Disk Utility and Erase with Zero option the entire internal 750GB drive and let it rip, this will map off as many bad sectors and improve reliability.
Now use Carbon Copy Cloner to clone the 500GB Lion + Lion Recovery Partitions to the internal 750GB, it will "fix" things and place Lion Recovery at the bottom of the drive where it belongs, give all the extra space to OS X Lion.
Next your going to have to follow WinClones instructions to restore your Bootcamp, likely you will have to recreate the Bootcamp partition first (in Bootcamp) to the size you want and then clone. Likely Winclone may "fix" Windows to recognize it's in a new larger partition now. I don't know you'll have to check as I haven't used it.
When Bootcamp creates the partition it will place it near the bottom next to the Lion Recovery Partition.
As you know you will have to re-validate Windows with Lord Redmond or it expires as you changed the hardware.

Okay, so WHY is intel's legacy driver way better than the new one?

I bit the bullet and installed the intel-legacy video driver because I wanted to see if it was true that the old one was better than the new.
Result: Compiz is REMARKABLY smoother. As in, I'd forgotten just how pretty a silky smooth Compiz setup really is. I've done no benchmarking, don't care to. The point is, for example, I can set the opacity to 85% in the Move Window plugin and it doesn't hose the framerate.
My question is, why? What's going on in the new driver that made the performance totally tank? When there's a new driver and EVERYONE seems to have the same problem, I'm a little confused as to why they "improved" it.

Not only KMS, but also DRI2 and GEM. The next Intel video driver release should support only UXA, getting rid of the legacy cruft and concentrating on supporting one option properly.
http://www.freesoftwaremagazine.com/col … g_features
http://www.freesoftwaremagazine.com/col … t_graphics
Last edited by lucke (2009-06-06 14:08:13)

Satellite M100- INTEL made new gma945 driver - Can I use it?

INTEL made new gma945 driver, but where's no it on Toshiba driver download, I have only ATI updates, so WILL I HAVE PROBLEMS IF I INSTALL UPDATED DRIVER from INTEL page?

> WILL I HAVE PROBLEMS IF I INSTALL UPDATED DRIVER from INTEL page?
I think nobody will be able to say if its safe or not to use non-Toshiba drivers.
Non-Toshiba drivers are not officially tested on Toshiba notebooks!
But I can tell you my experience using the original Intel drivers. I have installed it on my old Toshiba notebook and I didnt notice any problems using the Intel driver. Everything seems to be ok.

New Intel WIFI Link Driver Randomly cut off Internet Connection

Two day ago I used ThinkVantage SYstem Update and installed Intel Wifi link driver (ver 13.01.1000). But since then my computer was randomly cut off internet connection, and the wireless signal strength icon on the system tray indicated no nearby wireless network. And then it powered off the wireless connection. Whatever I do, I cannot re-power on the wireless (I used Access Connection to power on the 802.11 wireless radio, but it could not be turned on and nothing happened) unless I restart the computer.
I thought it might be the router that malfunctioned as this problem never happened before. But after I checked the router and used another notebook to test wireless connection, I was sure the router ran very well.
Then I re-installed the TVT Access Connection (ver 5.61) and the Intel WIFI Link Driver (ver 13.01.1000) but the problem remained. Could anybody give a possible solution?
I also noticed on Lenovo's website, the Intel wireless card driver for T61 is v13.00.0000 Windows Vista 23 Oct 2009. It's lower than what I have now. Could that be the cause?
My ThinkPad T61 has the following configuration:
Model: T61 8897CTO
OS: WinVista Home Basic SP2 32bit
Language: EN
Wireless Card: Intel 3945 ABG
Wireless Card Driver: 13.1.1.1 (previous one was 13.0.0.0)
TVT Access Connection: 5.61
Solved!
Go to Solution.

Hi carlven,
Anytime when wireless driver is updated, Access Connections also needs to be reistalled.
Do this, first uninstall your wireless driver and access connections, thereafter reboot your system. Then install wireless driver first, again reboot, subsequently install access connections, reboot again.
When installing any lenovo driver manually, keep in mind they first extract themselves to a default location in C:\Drivers..., second .exe setup must be run from that location to successfully install the drivers.
Hope it helps.
Maliha (I don't work for lenovo)
ThinkPads:- T400[Win 7], T60[Win 7], IBM 240[Win XP]
IdeaPad: U350
Apple:- Macbook Air [Snow Leopard]
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T400 SSD Upgrade Question Do I need a new drive caddy? My machine shipped with a 1.8" drive.

I'm planning on upgrading to a larger SSD in my T400. It originally shipped with a 1.8" 64GB Samsung SSD and I'm probably going to upgrade it to a 2.5" 7mm Samsung 840 (non-pro) SSD.
I'm not sure if the current caddy in the T400 is going to fit the new SSD, or if I'll need to purchase the 2.5" caddy. If so, does anyone know the FRU # of the caddy I'll need?
When asking for help, post your question in the forum. Remember to include your system type, model number and OS. Do not post your serial number.
Did someone help you today? Press the star on the left to thank them with a Kudo!
If you find a post helpful and it answers your question, please mark it as an "Accepted Solution"! This will help others with the same question in the future.
My TPs: Twist 2HU: i5-3317U Win 8 Pro, 4GB RAM 250GB Samsung 840 | T420 4177CTO: i5-2520M, HD+, Win 7 Pro x64, 8GB RAM, Optimus, 160GB Intel 320 SSD, Intel 6300 WiFi, BT 3.0 | T400 2764CTO: P8700, WXGA, Win 7 Ult x64, AMD 3470, 8GB RAM, 64GB Samsung SSD, BT, Intel 5300 WiFi | A20m 14.1" PIII 500 (retired). Monitors: 2x Dell U2211h IPS 100% sRGB calibrated w/ Spyder3.

A couple issues to watch out for (x200/t400 generation)':
a) Sandforce drives (Sata Link Power managerment) issues. b) Samsung drives work well (just don't use bios disk passwords, works but confuses bios).
These are based on my experience upgrading my X200s.

Getting data transfered from old HD to new ones, leaving 2 slots filled . .

Hello,
*(Below is a thread I started in another forum, but, didn't get my final questions answered (see at bottom of this post in BOLD), and am hoping for further help and suggestions. I know there is a lot to read here, but, I think this information will help other novices, such as myself. Thanks!)*
I have 2 new HDs (each 1T) uninstalled, and I have my old HD (160 gigs) currently residing in one of the two slots in my G5. Any ideas on the best way/process to get the data transfered from the old HD to the new ones, leaving my two slots filled with the 2 new drives AND my data from the old HD transfered and intact, with a RAID0 setup?
OR, are there any other suggestions on a good setup with the 2 new HDs??
I'm open to suggestions.
I always back-up on external HDs, so, is their a need for me to worry about setting up a RAID0??
I'm doing video processing for DVD release.
Should I just max out the 2x1T gig HDs and not worry about a HD failure??
All Suggestions welcomed!!
Thanks, Jack
*FROM THE CUTTERMAN:*
You are limited with only 2 drive slots. In this scenario what usually works best is a small fast drive (eg Velocirapter or SSD) for OSX/Applications and a large drive for video files. It is not advisable to have the operating system running from a striped array.
Since you already have the drives, here is what you can do.
Install one new drive and format the partition you wish to use for OSX. You may not want to use the whole drive for OSX, so make 2 partitions. Be sure that it is GPT-formatted so it can boot.
Use CarbonCopy Cloner to copy your current OSX partition to the new one.
Set the startup disk as the new partition.
Remove the old drive and replace it with the second new one.
Reboot, and partition/format new drive.
*Hey Cutterman,*
Thanks for the advice. That sounds like a good set-up. I'll have to research the process of doing what you've advised, but, should work out ok:
A. Install one new drive and format the partition you wish to use for OSX. You may not want to use the whole drive for OSX, so make 2 partitions:
1. Partitions are done under Disc Utilities correct? Never done it before; will take a look.
B. Be sure that it is GPT-formatted so it can boot.
2. GPT is also done under Disc Utilities, correct? Here I start to get a bit confused, as I've formatted Extended Journal, SO, the partition with the OSX & Applications is formatted GPT, and the rest of the HD is formatted as Extended Journal?
C. Use CarbonCopy Cloner to copy your current OSX partition to the new one.
3. So, I partition the first new HD and use Carbon Copy Cloner (also under Disc Utilities) to copy the OSX & Applications from my original HD to the first new HD, correct?
D. Set the startup disk as the new partition.
4. This will be an option when I setup the partition???
E. Remove the old drive and replace it with the second new one.
F. Reboot, and partition/format new drive.
5. QUESTION: So, you recommend not striping the HDs: If I do a RAID 1, which sets up a mirror of the HDs, and since the first new HD is partitioned with the OSX & Applications, AND is set up as the Startup Disk, then the second new HD will also mirror that?? Another QUESTION: Even if the second new HD does not mirror the OSX & Applications, the second HD will only mirror the space/partition not utilized by the OSX & Applications partition, correct?
Thanks for your help!!
Jack
*FROM THE CUTTERMAN:*
OK I will try to answer your questions. To begin, if you want to mirror the 2 drives then you will need to boot from the SL install DVD or an external (USB/firewire) drive to set it up. IMO for your purposes it is too much hassle and a waste of HD space.
1) Yes partitions are created in Disk Utility
2) Yes, you choose a volume Scheme (ie number of partitions) and size them by dragging the separator bar. Then select the planned boot partition and click Options..., then choose GPT. I think it is usually the default but check and make sure. Extended journaled is the usual format.
3) You need to download Carbon Copy. It is a free tool that will copy the entire image of your current system partition to the new one and make it bootable. Consider making a donation as it is a very useful and frequently updated utility. It is fairly intuitive to use. You can also use the restore feature in Disk Utility but I have had more experience with Carbon Copy.
4) Once the copy process is finished the new boot partition will show up under the startup disk selections (this tool is in System Preferences).
*FROM 666Sheep:*
If may i correct one thing: OP, don't choose GPT (GUID Partition Table). You got PPC Mac (G5), so valid partition type for you is Apple Partition Map (APM).
GPT is for Intel Macs and you will not able to boot from this kind of partition.
*FROM THE CUTTERMAN:*
Thanks for the correction- my bad. No familiarity with non-Intel Macs.
G5 PowerMac, 2.5 GHz Dual, Dec. 2004, 6.5 GB RAM, 149 GB HD
*Hi All,*
*Since this process will come to a head on Tuesday/Wednesday, and I hope to be successful in transferring Old HD data to new HD/s.*
*A: I'm still a little foggy here, as I thought I'd set up the 2 new T-gig HDs so that if one of them failed, I'd still have the data backed up on the other HD; more ideas concerning this would be reassuring:*
*WHAT DOES "IMO" mean?*
*(IMO for your purposes it is too much hassle and a waste of HD space.)*
*As I understand the points made: After I partition the first new HD, and Carbon Copy data from old HD, I then install second new HD, and this will just act as an overflow from the first partitioned HD, correct? Because, if set up a Raid1/Mirror, the OSX partitioned portion of the first new HD will not copy to the second new HD, and that space on the second new HD will be wasted, correct?*
*Also: I have to set up RAID1 (if I do not set up RAID0), correct?*
*RAID 1*
*From WIKI: RAID 1 mirrors the contents of the disks, making a form of 1:1 ratio real time mirroring. The contents of each disk in the array are identical to that of every other disk in the array. A RAID 1 array requires a minimum of two drives.*
*Carbon Copy is a free tool that will copy the entire image of your current system partition to the new one and make it bootable.*
*1. Is my old HD partitioned? Is that done automatically by MAC prior to PC purchase?*
*2. Do I Carbon Copy the whole old HD or just parts? (eg. OSX, Photo Shop, After Effects, Various Files)*
*3. I read that it is necessary to DEACTIVATE Photo Shop (I have CS3) prior to doing Carbon Copy. Is that correct? If so, does this also apply to other Adobe applications? Such as After Affects, Illustrator??*
*Thanks to all for the help!!*
*G5 PowerMac, 2.5 GHz Dual, Dec. 2004, 6.5 GB RAM, 149 GB HD*

Confusing Information:
A1: You also want to make sure the drive you are backing up to is formatted Mac HFS Extended (HFS+) if using Mac OS 8.1 or above.
A2: On PowerPC Macs, your clone should be partitioned as Apple Partition Map.
*Q? I thought the new HD (1T) should be formatted in Extended Journaled?*
B: Also disable Spotlight (in 10.4 only) on your destination drive using Apple menu -> System Preferences -> Spotlight -> Privacy to add the destination drive to the pane.
*Q? I'm using 10.4.11, so, I should follow these instructions?*
C: If possible, boot into safe mode to perform the backup (holding the SHIFT key at startup). In addition, you can clone while logged into another administrative user that you don't use at all to avoid further complications of changes which may be happening to your regular user (though don't use Fast User Switching to get into that other user, since that other user is still active when fast user switching is used). Otherwise you are going to be running a backup on a live system which could have changes happening while you are attempting to backup. These may yield an imperfect clone, with uncertain success at recovery. It may be possible that your clone will have its own hardware issues, so make at least two copies.
*Q? ?????????????*
*I GOT THE ABOVE INFO. FROM THE FOLLOWING SITE:*
Making a clone/mirror/duplicate backup
http://www.macmaps.com/backup.html#SHORTANDEASY
*ALSO, WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT THE ADVICE ON THIS PAGE:*
http://www.levoltz.com/2010/04/21/how-to-transfer-data-to-your-new-hard-drive/

Lenovo G480 Problem: I cant Create a new Drive

Hi everyone.. so my my laptop is a Lenovo G480 intel i3
4GB ram
My operating System when i bought this was Windows 7 Home Basic.
So my problem is that my Local Disk C is 420 GB while my Local Disk D is only 25.4 GB
So I want my disk D to have more space (atleast 150GB) so I could store all my Installers, Games, Music and Videos in there, but when i try to transfer the memory from C to D, it wont. I shrink 150GB from my Local Disk C and when i clicked on Local Disk D the option Extend Volume is not available. So i tried to create a new drive instead.. I right click the 150GB unallocated space and the only option available is Create Simple Drive (i think). then i agreed at all the options but in the end it would say Not Enough Space.
I dont understand. So I tried changing the Operating System to Win7 Ultimate but same problem. Please Help Me I dont know what to do (and by the way it can also not be done when im installing Win7. The option Extend is also not present there or Create new Drive)
Solved!
Go to Solution.

you need not to go to diskmgmt.msc as you have already messed up enough with your HDD. now wipe out you system reserved, C and D partition (I mean all created partitions leaving the OEM reserved partition viz "LENOVO_PART") booting from windows 7 DVD. At one page there will be drive option when you see your all partitions. click that "Drive Option" and now delete one by one all partitions leaving "lenovo_part" one untouched.
now create your required partitions of your size. system reserved partition of 100 MB will be automatically created when you create your first (C) drive.

WRVS4400N V2 and Intel 5300 AGN can't connect at N speeds

Hi,
I have a Dell Latitude E6500 with the Intel WiFi Link 5300 AGN adapter. I cannot get it to connect to my WRVS4400N V2 at anything higher than 54 Mbps. I have downloaded the latest driver from Intel and N mode is enabled. Has anyone else managed to get these two to work together?
Thanks in advance.

I am having the same problem as kirksaban. I have an HP EliteBook 8530p with an Intel 5300 AGN. It can detect my WiFi network from the WRVS4400N is 802.11n, but it will only connect at 802.11g speeds. We have both an older and newer MacBook Pro that both can connect faster than 54 Mbps, but the HP will not. I checked the product brief on Intel's site and it claims the 5300 AGN will operate at both 2.4 GHz and 5.0 GHz (I will try to paste URLs below). Where did you find it would only operate at 5.0 GHz? Are we sure the band on the 5300 AGN is the problem?
http://www.intel.com/network/connectivity/products/wireless/adapters/5000/index.htm
http://download.intel.com/network/connectivity/products/wireless/319982.pdf

Error code 10 for Intel 5300 Wireless Card

Hi,
I tried to install a new Intel 5300 Wireless Card in my Thinkpad T400.
However, it is not very successful.
After I installed the driver, I find a yellow exclamation point on the 5300 Wireless Card on the device manager and an error code 10 (can't start device).
I have tried to re-install the driver but still no luck.
Could anyone help for this?
Thanks a lot
Here is some information might be useful:
Operating System: Windows XP (SP3)
Driver download from Lenovo: http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/document.do?lndocid=MIGR-70504
Wireless Card bought from ebay (The seller said this card can support IBM/LENOVO T400).

Unless the card is a Lenovo Branded card, it won't work. But since you aren't complaining about an error in BIOS about an unauthorized card, then you also might have put it in the wrong slot.
Check the Hardware Maintenance Manual for your particular system and make sure you have it in the WLAN slot, not the WWAN slot.

WRT320N & Intel 5300, unable to connect.

Im having problem connecting when using encryption.
There are no problems with the wireless when im using no encryption.
I've tried WEP WPA/WPA2... Mixed mode, only B/G/N modes. 2.4/5Ghz tried to update driver for my Intel 5300 wireless card, also tried to downgrade driver... tried the XP wireless client and Intels Proset software.
I still get the issue where it starts to connect, and it says that its connected for about 3-4 seconds and then it "disconnects" itself.
If i set a static IP on my computer it stays connected to network even with encryption but i am unable to communicate with router trough wlan.
Router has the latest 1.0.02 firmware.
Any tips or tweaks to test?

How many wireless computers do you have ?
Are you getting on all the computers ?
You can try upgrading / reflashing the router's firmware.
Go to website linksysbycisco.com/downloads.........insert model no of your router in serach tab......select proper version of your router........download the firmware file......save that file on desktop
Follow these steps to upgrade the firmware on the device : -
Open an Internet Explorer browser page on a computer hard wired to the router...
In the address bar type - 192.168.1.1...Leave the Username blank & in Password use admin in lower case...
Click on the 'Administration' tab- Then click on the 'Firmware Upgrade' sub tab- Here click on 'Browse' and browse the .bin firmware file and click on "Upgrade"...
Wait for few seconds until it shows that "Upgrade is successful" After the firmware upgrade, click on "Reboot" and you will be returned back to the same page OR it will say "Page cannot be displayed".
Now reset your router :
Press and hold the reset button for 30 seconds...Release the reset button...Unplug the power cable from your router, wait for 30 seconds and re-connect the power cable...Now re-configure your router...
If your Internet Service Providor is Cable follow this link
If your Internet Service Providor is DSL follow this link

X61 - new drive, sata must be set to compatibility - why?

I'm refurbishing an X61 for a new user. It had serious case damage--hinges were broken, so I sent it off to Lenovo and it looks like new. I thought I would also put a Seagate SSHD in it - ST500LM000.
I cloned the old drive to the new one using Acronis TrueImage.
All seemed to go well, except that I had to do a couple of iterations of startup repair when I started the machine with the new drive installed.
However, after that, things went very strange: 1) When I attempted to download any file in IE10 (windows 7 enterprise, fully patched) clicking on the resultant dialog box did nothing--I had to run firefox to download any file. 2) Windows update would not run--the wuauserv service was not running and could not be started. 3) eventually, the machine started giving "non-genuine" warnings.
Since one of the fixes for non-genuine was to do an upgrade install, I tried that--used 64 bit enterprise upgrade windows 7, and it went through what appeared to be the whole install and at the end said: Windows setup cannot configure Windows for this hardware." and rolled back.
Reading about that message led me to discussions about missing RAID drivers, and that got me to try switching between AHCI and Compatibility.
With the bios set to compatibility (2.22) the system works fine--no non-genuine warnings, windows update works, I can download files in any browser I choose.
The system is up to date according to system update 5. I even downloaded the 13 hotfixes for Windows 7 64 bit listed in the download center and applied them one by one to see if SU missed anything. To my surprise, 3 of them DID install, but made no apparent difference to the behavior.
I'm perplexed--This is not a large drive--500 Gigs. I've read messages here about SSDs and large drives in x61, and it seems it should be fine. When set in compatibility mode, the Intel Matrix Storage Manager complains its driver isn't properly installed, but that is the only sign of anything awry.
Performance seems excellent--I think the hard drive number in the Windows Experience Index went from 5.2 to 5.9.
I can certainly leave it set this way, but I'd like to understand why--anybody have a good idea?
Bill Sanderson
Solved!
Go to Solution.

Hi Bill,
That drive is an advanced format drive - 4096 bytes per sector: http://www.seagate.com/files/www-content/product-content/momentus-fam/momentus-xt/laptop-sshd/en-us/...
This can cause a number of issues with pre-SP1 Windows 7 and friends. Even if you're at SP1, there is a matrix storage manager version around that can also cause problems. Your update install was maybe from pre-SP1 media?
A few things to try would be a MS fix (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/982018), rerunning the SP1 update, trying a different Intel storage driver. You may need to do one or all of these things _before_ the clone op.
Z.
The large print: please read the Community Participation Rules before posting. Include as much information as possible: model, machine type, operating system, and a descriptive subject line. Do not include personal information: serial number, telephone number, email address, etc. The fine print: I do not work for, nor do I speak for Lenovo. Unsolicited private messages will be ignored. ... GeezBlog
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I want to install an SSD as my OS drive. Can I do a copy of my existing drive straight the new drive?

I wish to install an SSD as my OS drive. I seem to recall in my travels that it is possible to copy my existing OSD, install the SSD, Copy old drive info' to new drive and then set that to be the boot drive.
Any directions to where I can find out how to do this would be greatly apprecciated. Providing this can be done.

TRIM Part 2
Trim on SSD Drives
When I first wrote this article/thread, which was for my own benefit and was eventually turned into this thread, as it is today, trim was not available on ssd drives, when it did arrive, there were mixed idea’s on how it worked, a lot that was incorrect at the time, a lot of new users do not understand the use of Trim even today, explanations tend to very technical as trim is a complicated issue at the best of times. I found a simple explanation for the implementation of trim in late 2009, I came across it again the other day, it still holds true today so here’s the link, ( I know you are going to point me to AnandTech explanations, there are links in this thread, if your a technically minded person, then AnandTech’s articles may be a better option ) this simpler explanation is still active in late 2011. As you can see if you carry on reading and don’t turn off, how complicated it can be for a non-technical user of ssd drives. So here’s my explanation of trim. Remember this a generalization of most ssd drives, it’s a lot easier when your dealing with your own ssd drive.
Trim and it’s association with GC ( garbage collection ) varies depending on how the controller’s "GC" handles the use of Trim ( Win7 ). Trim is activated, by deleting files in the OS ( Win7 ), it doesn’t actually trim the ssd drive, but marks the block/file header’s with a 1 making that block/file available for being re-written or written over. Trimming is actually done by the GC and will only work if the block doesn’t contain other files that haven’t been marked deleted, but this again depends on how GC is implemented, the GC can wait till the block is full, then move undeleted files to another block allowing for the block to be trimmed ( GC ), in doing this, the GC uses a lot more write amplification than it does if Trim in win7 has previously marked these blocks/files for deletion, flash memory can only be ‘written over’ if all the information in that block as been marked with 1, this allows the whole block to be re-written. GC can only erase/Trim a full block, not individual files or pages.
What trim does is mark these blocks/files etc and make it simpler for the inbuilt GC ( garbage collection ) to recognize the blocks that are available for further use, on some controller’s this will not necessarily happen immediately, it depends on whether the controller as been designed for “idle” use, “on the fly” use or “stand by use”, GC/Trim can be brought into use in many different ways, having the computer sitting with the bios open, having the computer idling at log in, placing the computer in stand by mode, deleting files or just simple idling the computer overnight. It’s a matter of finding out how the controller in your particular ssd handles the garbage collection. You will find the most efficient way is by experimentation or by other members passing on there particular way of doing it.
Low level formatting used on conventional HDD drives writes mainly 0’s to every cell on a SSD drive, it’s the opposite to how flash memory actually works, if you low level format with Win7 or any software that writes 0’s or 0’s and 1’s to the individual cells, you are not necessarily cleaning the ssd drive completely, ( hence the need for secure erase software ), you can actually make the performance worse.
If you use software designed for writing 1’s to each cell, like you would if it was designed for ssd drives, this will “clean” the drive and is a good thing to do if you are selling the drive, or as a last resort, if you are having problems with your ssd drive. The downside of using this type of erasure, is that it not only takes a long time it uses high write amplification and if used regularly can reduce the flash cells life expectancy considerably, these type’s of deletions bypass most controllers durawrite capabilities ( the way controllers extend the life expectancy of the ssd’s individual MLC cells ), Durawrite ( Sandforce ), other controllers have this technology in some form or other, it increases MLC life expectancy by between 5 and up to 30 times depending on the design of the controller.
Basically a command line program like dispart and dispar will secure erase a ssd drive either by writing to the individual ( “Cleanall“ command ) cells or simply marking the blocks to be deleted with a 1 ( “Clean” command ), you need to use the latter which takes only seconds and will return the majority of ssd's to a new state, without impacting too much on write amplification.
That’s how I see the use of GC and Trim in win7 today ( Nov 2011 ). Note! Most ssd software, tool boxes etc use the inbuilt win7 diskpart commands, to make it easier than using the command line. There is a explanation for the use of diskpart and can be found HERE, but NOTE! It’s written with conventional hard drives in mind, not ssd drives.
In the case of most Toolboxes provided by manufacturer’s, the OCZ Toolbox is a typical example, they are incompatible with Intel’s RST driver, you would need to use Diskpart from the command line. Also Toolboxes will in most cases, not secure erase a ssd with a OS on it or if the ssd drive is in use as the OS drive eg. ( “C:/” partition ). If you want to secure erase an OS drive you need to delete all the partitions on the drive including any hidden partitions, there’s an excellent tutorial on the Intel toolbox on LesT’s website, TheSSDReview here’s the Link.
You will have to use Diskpart or Diskpar from the Dos prompt, you can’t be in windows with the ssd drive you intend to erase. This is mainly if the toolboxes fail to work and deleting the partitions refuses to solve the problem.
I’m sure there are exceptions to what I have written and easier ways of explaining trim or secure erasing some types of ssd drives. All I ask is you don’t isolate passages out of context, please read the whole article, before you tell me I’m incorrect. There are a lot of more informative people out there than me on this subject, so I’m open to criticism on the subject. I want to impart only the correct facts on this thread.
Trim and the IDE issue The Intel IDE drivers after Vista sp2 are fully compatible with the trim command , but for trim to pass through this command, the ssd controller itself has also got to be compatible with IDE mode, eg. Intel drives with the Intel controllers are ( according to Intel ) fully compatible. The Crucial M4 appears not to be, other controllers optimized for AHCI may also not be compatible. I can’t comment on the Intel 510 as I’ve only ever used them in AHCI mode.
Wearlevelling Here’s an explanation that’s not too complicated, its from StorageSearch.com, here’s the LINK.
Overprovisioning Also from StorageSearch.com, a simple explanation for the need for overprovisioning, same link as above. This actual link covers a number of technologies used by the ssd controller in ssd drives. Overprovisioning improves write performance, if the ssd is used in a high write situation, increasing the overprovisioning will improve performance and write endurance, in a high read situation, too much can hinder performance, in a os situation the 7% supplied on client drives, in most cases is probably adequate depending on it’s use, if there’s a lot of writing done to the drive daily, reducing the partition size, which will increase overprovisioning, by a small amount may improve performance.
http://forums.extremeoverclocking.com/showpost.php?p=3643482&postcount=1
Trimming SSD Performance Degradation
Thursday, October 14, 2010
Todays solid state drives are worlds apart from those of just 3 years ago, however they are not yet perfect. Performance degradation can still be observed through ‘seasoning’ of the SSD as well as filling it to capacity. SSD manufacturers have been successful in combating the effects of seasoning but performance degradation when an SSD is filled to capacity seems to be just a bit more difficult.
Typical testing of most drives, through use of random data, will result in an observable performance drop which may start as soon as the SSD is filled past the 70% mark. This article will describe the common characteristics of SSDs followed by a simple method to ensure that maximum performance is sustained with the drive.
SEASONING
Much has been said with respect to performance degradation as a result of the ssd becoming ‘seasoned’ over time. By ‘seasoned’, we mean that the drive will eventually use up all of its empty blocks of NAND, or memory and, without TRIM, the process of writing to a drive actually becomes that of reading the block of data, understanding that it is invalid, erasing and then writing rather than simply writing to a clean block. Performance is greater when writing to ‘clean’ memory vice memory which has previously been used and contains invalid data that has not been cleared. The root cause of degradation is that when a non-TRIM ssd is told to delete data, it actually only marks the area as clear which leaves the invalid data intact and tricks the ssd into believing that the NAND flash is available.
Data on a SSD cannot simply be over-written as it is done on a hard drive and this gets a bit more complicated when we erase information and the block that it is located on also contains valid information that we don’t want deleted. The process then becomes read data, recognize the valid information, move it to another clean block, erase the present block and write. Manufacturers have tried to combat this issue of performance degradation by creating 3 solutions to the problem which are wear leveling, TRIM and ITGC (or Garbage Collection).
Wear leveling
Wear leveling is the process of the ssd understanding how many times each cell of memory has been written to and then ensuring that all are all written to evenly. After all, the life span of the ssd is dependent on the total number of writes that are written to and this has been coined as ‘write endurance’. Unlike the hard drive which stores information in a static location, the SSD will move information around on a continuous basis without your knowledge to ensure that all cells wear evenly, thus affording a longer lifespan for the ssd. By also doing this, the drive can ensure that only the valid information is used, leaving blocks to be cleaned up by TRIM or ITGC, again without the knowledge of the user.
ITGC/GC (Idle Time Garbage Collection)
Garbage Collection (GC) is the process by which the SSD recognizes, in idle time, which cells are valid and which are not valid (or deleted) on the drive. It then clears the blocks of the invalid data to maintain the speed of writing to ‘clean’ pages or blocks during normal operation. GC was initially shown to be a last resort if TRIM was not available, however, recent releases are showing new methods to be very aggressive and results equal to that of TRIM are being observed. This is a huge benefit to those using RAID systems where Garbage Collection is accomplished as TRIM is not an option.
The SSD Review was able to discuss GC and TRIM with Crucial as it pertains to their SATA3 releases as it has been observed that their RealSSD C300 SATA3 drives do not appear to show any performance degradation over extended use. Crucial confirmed that they had to consider that TRIM would not pass through the present release of SATA3 drivers which helped recognize that very aggressive GC would be necessary for the C300 SATA 3 SSDs success. The subsequent result was that many forum threads were created by avid users who were questioning whether TRIM was, in fact, working in their SSDs as no performance degradation was seen even in the toughest of test beds. To dispel a common belief, it is not the Marvell processor of the Crucial RealSSD that prevents TRIM from being passed, but rather, that of the hardware and drivers of SATA3 capable motherboards. All Crucial SSDs are fully capable of passing TRIM direction to the OS.
TRIM
TRIM occurs when the ssd clears blocks of invalid data. When you delete a file, the operating system will only mark the area of the file as free in order to trick the system into believing the space is available. Invalid data is still present in that location. Its like ripping out a Table of Contents from a book. Without this, one would not know what, if anything, is contained on the following pages. TRIM follows the process of marking the area as free by clearing the invalid data from the drive. Without this, the process of reading, identifying invalid data, deleting or moving and clearing the block before writing can actually result in performance 4 times slower than it would have normally been as a new drive.
In recently speaking with Kent Smith, Sr. Director of Product Marketing for SandForce, he identified that there are many variables outside of the hardware that are responsible for users not seeing the benefits of TRIM, the first of which are drivers at the OS level which have to be working optimally in order for TRIM to function correctly. Another example occurred with early Windows 7 users testing their newly installed drives and not seeing the benefits of TRIM. Examination of these complaints revealed that users would have originally made the Windows 7 installation on hardware that did not support TRIM and then cloned to the SSD to which TRIM was supported but would not work because of the original configuration settings. The same could be said of cloning an OS that originally had AHCI turned off followed by a clone to the SSD where TRIM was not being passed, simply because AHCI has to activated for TRIM to function.
ENHANCE SSD OVER PROVISIONING MANUALLY
In our conversation, we breached the topic of SSD capacity to Mr Smith to which he replied, “Are you trying to optimize performance or maximize capacity?” which reminded us that the main purpose of the consumers transition to SSD was to maximize their system performance. Filling a drive to capacity will hinder TRIM and GC ability which will result in performance degradation. Many drives will start to display performance changes once filled to 70% capacity. Testing has shown that the user can very simply add to the drive, especially if it is a 7% over provisioned drive, by reducing the size of the partition, the new unallocated space of which will automatically be picked up as over provisioning and benefit the SSD in many ways. This idea has been tackled by Fusion IO who includes a utility within their products that allows the user complete control of the size of their over provisioning.
OWC 120Gb SSD With 16x8Gb NAND Flash = 128Gb Total (7% OP)
Over provisioning allows more data to be moved at one time which, not only enhances GC, but also reduces write amplification to the drive. Write amplification is a bit tricky of an explanation but it is the measure of how many bytes are actually written when requiring storage of a certain number of bytes. A ratio of 1:1 would be ideal but not a reality and a typical result would be an actual size of 40kb written for a typical 4kb file. In short, maximizing over provisioning and reducing write amplification increases the performance and lifespan of the drive. Over provisioning also provides for remapping of blocks should the bad blocks be discovered during wear leveling, which unlike a hard drive, does not reduce the end user capacity of the drive. The replaced blocks simply come from the over provisioning.
http://thessdreview.com/ssd-guides/optimization-guides/ssd-performance-loss-and- its-solution/
Reducing the time GC takes
Increasing the amount of freespace available after a GC (which increases the time it takes for performance to degrade after a GC)
It lets the FTL have a wider selection of pages to choose from when it when it need a new page to write to, which means it has a better chance of finding low write count pages, increasing the lifespan of the drive
Now, I want to be clear, a sufficiently clever GC on a drive that has enough reserved space might be able to do very well on its own, but ultimately what TRIM does is give a drive GC algorithm better information to work with, which of course makes the GC more effective. What I showed above was a super simple GC, real drive GCes take a lot more information into account. First off they have to deal with more than two blocks, and their data takes up more than a single page. They track data locality, they only run against blocks have hit certain threshold of invalid pages or have really bad data locality. There are a ton of research papers and patents on the various techniques they use. But they all have to follow certain rules based on on the environment they work in, hopefully this post makes some of those clear.
http://www.devwhy.com/blog/2009/8/4/from-write-down-to-the-flash-chips.html

Disk utility reports "Device could not be opened" - error when trying to format a new drive in a Mac Pro 1,1

MacPro 1,1 Quadcore 3 GHz (2006 "Woodcrest")
32 GB RAM
ATI Radeon HD 5770
OS X 10.7.5 Lion
I have encountered the following behavior when trying to format a new drive with disk utility. This description has also been send via the Mac Pro feedback as a bug report to Apple.
On searching the web and forums with this particular error message and behaviour I could not find any usful results. So maybe the following description may be helpful for some users.
Best regards.
1. Drive Bay 1 contains the original 250 GB Startupdisk. It works without errors.
2. Drive Bays 3 and 4 contain each a WD Caviar Black 2 TB SATA 3 HDD. They work without errors.
3. I have purchased a third WD Caviar Black 2 TB HDD.
4. In Drive Bay 2 there has been a Seagate 750 GB HDD, which worked in conjunction with all the other drives without error.
5. I exchanged the Seagate HDD in Drive Bay 2 with the new WD Caviar Black 2 TB HDD.
6. On starting the system, it will report to initialize the new drive.
7. On trying to initialize the new drive with disk utility it reports the error [translated from German] "Erasing of the volume has failed. The device could not be opened."
8. I thought that the drive is faulty. Thus I created an RMA-Case at WD. They exchanged the drive without problems.
9. On getting the exchanged WD Caviar Black 2 TB drive I put it in Drive Bay 2 as before.
10. On trying to erase and format the exchange drive I got the same error message "Drive could not be opened."
10.1 On selecting the physical drive in the devices list, disk utility reports all information in the bottom area of its window as usual, e. g. hard disk description, connection bus, type and place, capacity, write status, SMART-status, partition scheme.
10.1 On leaving that drive selected in the devices list and clicking the info-button, disk utility will also report additional information as usual, e. g. Name, Type, partition scheme, media-identification, media name, media type, device tree, … , number of relocated sectors, etc.. All this information appears to be valid, as can be compared to the other devices information inside the other Drive Bays. Also the disk numbering scheme appears to be standard - 4 HDDs give the numbering disk0, disk1, disk2, disk3.
10.2 From that information I conclude that the SATA-bus and connectors electrically work properly, the drive has spun up and can be accessed by the system normally.
11. I powered down the computer, took out the HDDs from Drive Bays 3 and 4 and put the caddy with the new exchange drive in Drive Bay 4 [Maybe, I could have also just left it alone in Drive Bay 2, or 3].
12. After powering on the system, disk utility will quick format the exchange drive without any error message. Also, when erasing again by selecting the option to write zeros to the drive, disk utility will finish without error.
13. After disk utility finished formatting, I put back the original drives into Drive Bay 3 and 4 and put the now newly formatted drive back into Drive Bay 2.
14. After switching on the computer the system start and login proceeds without any error message. All drives appear as expected on the desktop.

If anyone is reading this still looking for what caused the issue and how to fix it here is what I discovered.
The antivirus program our company uses, Bitdefender Antivirus Plus, was causing some of the PDF files not to open. After troubleshooting the different modules and settings the culprit was..
Scan SSL in Privacy Control Settings. Turning it OFF solved the problem and all the PDF files that previously would not open now open just fine. This issue has been sent to Bitdefender for them to review. If you use a different antivirus program and are having this issue try locating the Scan SSL setting and see if turning it off solves the problem.

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