Windows Startup Repair has been running for over 24 hours :(

[Calumus]

Macrium is a good one. What CPU is in that Thinkpad? You should see a pretty good difference between the ssd  and a spinner, even on a sata 2 port. You may be limited by the processor, I see a pretty significant difference in data speeds when I'm overclocked vs stock speed. Make sure you disable defragmenting on a schedule.

[zxcvbob]

I think it's an Intel Coreâ„¢ i5-2520M.  That's what's in my other Thinkpad that's almost the same model.  I know it's an i5 something, not an i3 or Celeron.

I found where to manually do a defrag.  I don't know where the defrag scheduling is; I'm not sure it has that.

ETA: yep, it's a 2520M at 2.5GHz, with 8GB of memory.

[Calumus]

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows-vista/configure-disk-defragmenter-schedule-in-windows-vista/amp/

Uncheck the schedule. You don't want to defrag an ssd. It will shorten it's lifespan considerably.

[zxcvbob]

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows-vista/configure-disk-defragmenter-schedule-in-windows-vista/amp/

Uncheck the schedule. You don't want to defrag an ssd. It will shorten it's lifespan considerably.

Thanks much.  I knew not to defrag it; I didn't know Windows would doit once a week automatically.  (maybe I did know that; not sure.  I didn't know I could turn it off)

[lee n. field]

Macrium is a good one. What CPU is in that Thinkpad? You should see a pretty good difference between the ssd  and a spinner, even on a sata 2 port. You may be limited by the processor, I see a pretty significant difference in data speeds when I'm overclocked vs stock speed. Make sure you disable defragmenting on a schedule.

Yep, you really should be seeing a significant speed increase with the SSD, vs. the platter drive.  I'd be looking at the Lenovo utility software.  I suspect (based on another customer's experience) that some of that may be causing a performance hit.

[zxcvbob]

I just got off the phone with Microsoft, after the product activation failed.  They said the product key off the sticker on the back of the machine is invalid; that I need to contact the company that sold me the machine.  (he implied but didn't come right out and say it that the Windows sticker is counterfeit)  I bought it from IBM several years ago, so I guess I'm pretty much *expletive deleted*ed since it's out of warranty.  It's impossible to talk to a real IBM service person w/o a service contract, which they'll probably be happy to sell me for more than what the machine is worth.

I know an IBMer with a MSDN (sp?) license, I'm gonna talk to him next.

It's a Thinkpad T520.  I have another Thinkpad 420s with the exact same version and license of Windows.  I wonder if I make a recovery disk on that machine if it will install and activate on the 520?  Some of the drivers might be a little different, but I can deal with that.

[lee n. field]

Any chance the laptop originally (when new new, not when you got it refurbed) came with Windows 8?  Because I think you can still just install Win 10 and have it activate off the 8 key in firmware.

[zxcvbob]

Any chance the laptop originally (when new new, not when you got it refurbed) came with Windows 8?  Because I think you can still just install Win 10 and have it activate off the 8 key in firmware.

It's possible, but unlikely.  But if I install Win 10 she won't be able to use our Sharp laser printer; it only has XP and 7 drivers available and it doesn't emulate anything.  (note to self: next time I buy a printer, make sure it's Mac compatible even tho' I don't have a Mac)

I'm looking at OEM Windows 7 disks and stickers for sale on eBay for about $25 to $30 with free postage.  All I really need is the sticker.