Cloning Drives -> 1.8" Micro SATA to 1.8" Micro SATA

[underclocker]

I picked up a 1.8" Intel X25-M SSD to replace the stock 1.8" Toshiba drive in a T400s. I wanted to clone the drives, but Micro SATA drives have proprietary connectors (meaning unique to Micro SATA) and I couldn't use any of the UltraBay hard drive adapters that I have on hand.

I was stumped for a few minutes and thought about ordering an Micro SATA to SATA adapter (which would be nice to have on hand). Of course, that would take days (or weeks, if from China) to arrive. Then I figured out a solution.

I put a spare 2.5" SATA hard drive in the SATA UltraBay hard drive adapter and cloned the original 1.8" Toshiba to the 2.5" spare drive, then swapped the 1.8" drives and cloned the 2.5" spare drive to the new 1.8" SSD. Voila! My Windows 7 HD Experience score went from 5.9 to 7.7 with the SSD.

FYI, I used Symatec Ghost Solution Suite version 2.5's Ghost32 version 11.51 - which is the first version to support Windows 7 (32 and 64-bit).

(No, I'm probably not the first to think of this, but when I did a search for cloning Micro SATA drives, this solution didn't appear.)

[Volker]

Your T400s doesn't support mSata, which is a way of hooking up an SSD via a mini-PCIe connector (but not using the mini-PCIe standard).

The 1.8" drives use micro sata cables because they don't have enough space for normal Sata connectors. But micro sata is a standardized connector, nothing proprietary here.

[underclocker]

Thanks for the clarification - I edited the original post and changed mSata references to Micro SATA. (It took a little searching to confirm since there seem to be many instances of people incorrectly using the mSata, Micro SATA, mini-SATA and Slimline SATA designations!)

In using the term proprietary, I meant unique to Micro SATA or differing from standard SATA connectors - I clarified that above, too.

Regardless of nomenclature, the procedure doesn't change, clone the old 1.8" drive to a 2.5" drive in an UltraBay caddy and then back to the new 1.8" drive.

[emtee3511]

I use the Apricorn Easy-Gig II or the Easy-gig III -- So would this possibly work to clone the original 1.8" drive to a spare 2.5" drive using the Easy-Gig 2.5" connector -- then install the new 1.8" drive in the machine and clone from the 2.5" connected by the Easy-Gig to the installed 1.8" ?

Seems it should work...

[underclocker]

Yes, that should work, too. As long as the cloning software supports the drive connection type (USB, UltraBay, etc.) and the multiple disk paritions/O.S. of the source drive, you should be fine.

[emtee3511]

@underclocker -- That's what I was hoping -- thanks for the info