Vista has just got to go ... I'm backed up to an external and my plan is to install a new fresh drive and install Win 7 from scratch. Good plan ? What are the gotcha's ?

I have the OS, a spare caddy and a fresh drive. FWIW - The caddy was previously used a couple of years ago when I movced to a larger HD.

Thanks, Mal

Why?

Here is the step-by-step progress of my installation of Windows 7.
viewtopic.php?f=29&t=101643

There are two different on-line system update programs...
1) Microsoft System Update, used mainly for keeping Windows 7 current.
2) Lenovo Update, used mainly for keeping Windows 7 hardware device drivers current with T61 hardware.

You may wish to hold on to your old Vista HD (which contains install programs for Lenovo Utilities).
1) My function keys no longer work as before.
2) I still haven't figured out how to install Battery Maximizer.
3) I still haven't installed other Lenovo Utilities such as PC Doctor.

I just spent some time updating my recently acquired T60 with all the Vista updates. It's been running Vista since it was first deployed in 2007, but it didn't even have SP1 yet.

I have to say, once you get the updates sorted out, it's really not that bad.

[quote="pianowizard" Why?[/quote]
Uh, too much overhead. I'm using Win 7 at work and the quick up and down is very much more fun... My t61 is being dedicated to audio. Stability is a huge deal for me. The T61 will be part of my PA, networked to my audio mixer and allowing a capture during live performnc and iPad remote control of the mixer functions. So, my hope is to configure Win7 in lite and tight mode in the interest of stabilty and throughput.

Robert123, thanks for the link. i'll review that when I'm fresher. Just back in from rehearsal.

I did a Win7-64bit clean install.
It worked just fine.
Lenovo has instructions to do the clean install, and that is what I followed. I used their program to install all the drivers in the proper order, so I did not hassle with individual drivers.

In prep for the install I maxed the RAM and upgraded the HD.
- I maxed out the RAM to 8GB, so I would not have to throw away RAM if I later needed to up the RAM. 2GB was too confining. And I wanted to go 64 bit so that removed the 4GB limit for the 32 bit OS.
- I put in a 7k rpm Seagate HD drive. The 7k rpm drives have better performance and surprisingly draw less power than the 5400rpm drives.
You also have to think about how you want the HD partitioned, if at all. I do 2 partitions; C: = system and E: = data (D: is the DVD drive).

+1 on all of this, esp. on 8GB RAM (I also got 500GB HD). I've done all this last fall. Not a single problem (but I haven't had any with Vista either).

Do clean install, download all drivers that Windows Update offers. I haven't install ANY Lenovo software found by Lenovo update except drivers and utilities for Fn keys etc. None of the WiFi managers, PC Doctors, Power managers.

did the upgrade find the fingerprint reader and firewire port ? The firewire port is especially important for me in this application as that is how the mixer and laptop will network.

I do use the FP reader, so yes it works.
But I don't have a firewire device, so have not tested the FW port. Seeing as how everything else worked, I don't doubt that the FW port also works, but I will have to find a FW device to test it.

I don't have either of these 2.

FWIW, after installing Windows 7 on my X60 tablet (and maybe after Windows Update), the drivers for both FPR and firewire controller (Ricoh 1394 OHCI Compliant Host Controller) are automatically installed.