Win10 installation with MBR

[brahman]

Hi,

I just purchased a refurbished Lenovo Thinkpad T430. It comes with Win7 Pro.

I bought a new 128GB SSD (my first SSD - the laptop has  a 320GB HD right now) and would like to make a clean windows 10 install and have already downloaded the ISO with Media Builder.

I prefer to have Win10 x64 installed with an MBR so that I can continue to use my vast collection of drive utilities, especially Diskcryptor, which won't work on UEFI/GPT. I do not want to use bitlocker and - please - no discussion about this.

Before I had a Thinkpad SL410.

How can I do it? What are the pitfalls and points to regard in this process. What are the BIOS changes I need to do? Does the SSD need any special handling (alignment, etc?)?

Thanks for your tips!

[Shades]

Alignment won't be necessary, the operating system should take care of that automatically.

Depending on the edition of Windows 7 you should generate a key. This happens automatically when you do the upgrade from Win7 to Win10. You could use a generic key, but if you have Windows 7 pro or ultimate edition that would be a waste.

This generated key is based on the hardware of the T430 and if you only change the hard disk for the SSD and use the installation media you created, it shouldn't be a problem to create a fresh installation of Win 10.

Now I am not sure if the Windows 10 installer selects MBR when it encounters a small SSD or that it always uses GPT. I installed Win10 only 2 times myself and never checked for this to be honest. To make sure you use MBR, you could pre-format the SSD using your disk tools repository or perhaps the SSD comes with software that allows you to do this.

Do take a look if the manufacturer of your SSD provides management software for your model of SSD. Samsung does for the 840 EVO model in my system (Samsung Magician). This software takes proper care of the SSD (optimization, provisioning etc.) and is regularly updated. Even if there isn't such software, a standard Windows 10 installation will be able to handle SSD's just fine.

[brahman]

Thank you very much, Shades, for your answer.

To recapitulate: If I preformat the SSD as MBR, then Win10 will make an MBR installation. So I can format the SSD as one big partition, correct?

What about the UEFI BIOS - do I need to change anything there.

[Shades]

Generally speaking, UEFI should not have any problem with a MBR hard disk or SSD, so no changes are needed in there. Divide the storage space as how you see fit. Not having multiple partitions on any size/type of hard disk is a "sign of weakness", as I am a stickler for keeping operating system, programs and data separate. But whatever works for you...well, works for you. 

Having said that, please find documentation about your T430 from the Lenovo web site to see if there are notes or specific behavior to be expected when using an SSD. The user's manual usually contains this information. Perhaps there is even a forum where people share experiences with putting an SSD into a Lenovo laptop.

Sorry, lazy Sunday, so I didn't provide links...

[brahman]

Not a sign of weakness - a sign of stength: Since I have a 2nd HD in the modular bay.

[xtabber]

The T430 has an mSata slot on the motherboard.  You can install an mSata SSD card in that slot and still keep your hard drive in the hard drive bay.  Instructions on how to do that can be found in the hardware and maintenance manual which you can download from the Lenovo Service site.

I have done that with my ThinkPad 420s: The system drive is a 110GB mSata card and the original hard disk is a used as a data drive.

[brahman]

Thanks for your tip.

I have considered that, but from my research the mSata cards are made for boost (readyboost) and not for continuous use as a main drive.

Therefore - and because I don't want to buy a 7mm HD - I have settled for putting my 9mm HD into a modular bay enclosure replacing the DVD writer, which I don't really need any more.

[f0dder]

especially Diskcryptor, which won't work on UEFI/GPT. I do not want to use bitlocker and - please - no discussion about this.

Switch to VeraCrypt already - no discussion.

[brahman]

Only Veracrypt beta works on UEFI AFAIK.

I do use Veracrypt in a different scenario.

Do u have experience with Veracrypt on GPT?