Amateur in need of setup/configuration help.

[idata]

I apologize in advance if this is the wrong place/format/medium to solicit help; that said, I am vastly too inexperienced with computer configurations to be able to sort through jargon, tech support everywhere has been absolutely useless, and I figured I might give community forums a shot. Please let me know what I might be doing wrong and show me the proper course of action, if possible.

Background: I've recently purchased a Lenovo Ideapad Y580 from the Microsoft Store. Prior to this, I've also purchased 2 Intel 330 SSD's. Each SSD was adequately configured into a second and third laptop without a hitch, simply by cloning the existing drive into each SSD, and then swapping out the stock HDD for the Intel 330's via a USB-SATA cable and some 3rd party data management software (EZGig I believe).

This was my same approach for the recently purchased Y580, but it seemed that this laptop came with a 750 GB HDD + 32 GB (flash memory?) configured in some way that was beyond me. I initially just cloned the 750 GB HDD into one of my (formatted) Intel 330 240 GB SSD's and swapped their places. The configuration worked swimmingly for about a day; speeds on everything were absurdly fast relative to what I was used to. 4 A.M. the next morning, Windows decided to update and abruptly crash. Figuring it was a fluke, I tried to just boot up again - but to no avail. I tried booting from the old drive, switching the boot order through F2/F12, booting in safe mode, nothing. It's here that I realized the old OS must've been erased or removed somehow when the HDD/SSD were switched, though I still have no idea how. Lenovo tech support offered their premium technicians' help only if I would feed them $60 and wait for a recovery disc to come in, so I opted to purchase Windows 7 Ultimate from a 3rd party instead.

At this point, I'm pretty fed up with the 32 GB portion and just wanted to get Win7U to install onto the SSD and be over with it. However, when trying to install onto the SSD, I kept getting and error message saying that the drive needed to be under GPT? I resigned to just installing the OS on the 32 GB portion. This allowed my laptop to function normally again, but at the cost of having no space (there was maybe 7 GB left after the OS installation). Now I try cloning the 32 GB into the Intel 330 240 GB since I could boot without any 2.5 drive in the laptop. However, no matter how I tried to reorder the boot configuration via the startup menus, I could not get Win7U to boot up from the SSD instead of the flash memory. This was mainly a problem because all the documents, media, program files, and everything on the desktop needed to be on the SSD in order to have space.

As far as I know, the 32 GB flash memory portion cannot be removed. Ultimately, I just want to have at least all the programs/media stored by default onto the SSD (D: drive). It doesn't matter if the OS would be stored on the 32 GB portion and the two drives be linked somehow (although I know absolutely nothing about RAID or how to set this up), or if I were to bypass the 32 GB portion altogether and just have everything run off of the SSD. I just want my new laptop back 😕

And yes I am aware that:

- I could just install the programs/put user files on the SSD directly, but this wouldn't really be a feasible set up.

- I should stop being stubborn and just attempt to restore the original 32 GB + 750 GB configuration, as it is efficient enough and that's how it was meant to run. Be it as it may, I only really wanted to have 1 SSD and it would be an optimal setting for me, despite the whole process being a pain in the ass.

Please let me know if you have any suggestions and/or if I could clarify anything in the post. Thank you.

[idata]

You're not kidding.

After finally managing to format the drive to MBR (doesn't work) then back to GPT (still didn't work), I had the Intel formatted while running Win7U off of the initial SSD. FINALLY got Win7U to install on the Intel SSD, but now I have a few problems that really mess things up together.

1) I can't boot up with just the Intel (while the 32 GB SSD is removed), apparently it needs a Atheros LAN driver to be installed. This wouldn't be a problem except for..

2) I can't seem to install ANY of the drivers specific for my Lenovo from ANY location. Apparently they install to the C:\ drive by default and there's no way to adjust the installation location prior to it happening. I would just change the drive letter of the Intel from D:\ to C:\ but..

3) I simply CANNOT change the drive letter for whatever. Not to C:\, not to any other letter. This is with and without the 32 GB SSD physically attached to the drive (via the direct SATA connection used for the original HDD). When I try to put the 32 GB SSD back in, I can't change that drive letter from C:\ to anything else. I then try formatting the Intel again, which allows me to switch the drive letter. But upon reinstalling Win7U on the Intel, I can't change the drive letter anymore.

I went through Control Panel -> Administrative Tools -> Computer Management -> Storage -> Disk Management -> Right click the appropriate drive -> Change Drive Letters and Paths -> Change.. for the appropriate drive -> Assign the following drive letter -> C:\ -> Warning message that says some programs might not work correctly with the drive letter -> OK -> The parameter is incorrect.

Yes, I've already tried to relocate/readjust the page file through guides like http://www.tweakhound.com/windows7/tweaking/7.html this, but ultimately I still get the error, with or without the 32 GB SSD installed. I know I can boot to through the Intel, I just can't seem to get it to be the "main drive." If it helps at all, http://imgur.com/mZblb imgur: the simple image sharer.

[idata]

Here's some visual representation of the last post

http://imgur.com/a/WPGou http://imgur.com/a/WPGou