Installing "boot" files to an SSD

Ok, thank you for your very active support in this reinstallation. I'll follow the tutorial very closely.

The BIOS options for SATA operation are not the same as those mentioned in the tutorial. The options are "Compatible," "AHCI Mode," and "IDE mode." I'm not sure which of the three I should pick based on the tutorial. There's also a whole separate section in my BIOS for Intel Rapid Start Technology, with the entries being iRST Support, which is enabled and can be disabled, Entry on S3 critical battery event, which is set to enabled and can be disabled, and iRST PARTITION STATUS, which is currently INVALID. I don't know if I need to do anything with those options.

Sounds like IRST is broken out into separate settings which are enabled, but registering correctly now as Invalid since the RAID is broken.

What is the current SATA setting? If you didn't change it I would leave it where it is.

What is the Lenovo model number and extension? Go to the Support Downloads webpage for your model to read the full Manual now for how to reinstall. You may also find more information on this by googling as almost every model requiring special steps has search findings from forums like ours.

The current SATA setting is Compatible. The model is Lenovo U410 Ultrabook. I'm not sure what you mean by extension. I'll go read up on the laptop.

The Guide on How To Reformat, Repartition AND Get RapidStart & RapidStorage Working

Mystery solved:

Delete all the things: Delete all of your partitions. Seriously, get rid of 'em. You will be left with your 500GB disk, unpartitioned - and a 8GB drive, unpartitioned - this is your SSD. It only shows up as 8GB because 22GB of that is dedicated to RapidStorage cache, due to the driver you just installed. Now create a partition on the main HDD and let windows create the other necessary ones. Click next to continue installation.

Ah. That solves that problem. I'll continue installing and see if I come up with any more problems. Thanks for all your help!

Can you find the RAID setting it refers to in the tutorial? It is referred to as working in several related Lenovo forums threads. The Guide on How To Reformat, Repartition AND Get ... - Lenovo Community

No, I do not see anything in BIOS which says RAID. The model the OP in that guide is using and the model that I have are slightly different, in case that could change anything.

A 500GB SSD is still pretty damn expensive. Especially as I'm a teenager with no income. I've also read that SSDs degrade faster than HDDs, resulting in f2fs filesystem types and things like that, although I've got no idea if that's actually true.