T40 Upgrade to SSD

[Metallo]

Hi guys,

Due to a different use of my PC I have re-installed the old WXP PRO and my car diagnostics software, this is the only program I will run on this machine.

However, my HDD seems to have some issues, confirmed by Crystal Disk, therefore I am thinking to upgrade to a SSD.

I read a lot here in the forum, many topics are dated and today things may have changed.

120GB is good enough but if I find a good deal a 240GB would be preferred.

SSD PATA are still expensive and their performance is poor for a SSD, many experiments have been made with the 3 Tx and I am now confused on what to do, really.

Is the combination mSATA + adapter the best and reliable for my T40? Or perhaps, today there are better options?

Thank you for your advice.

Alex

[theterminator93]

Well, I tried an mSATA + IDE-mSATA adapter in my T42p. Windows 7 ran fine, but XP was a horribly slow night-mare (admins, why is "night+mare" translated to "overused word" when I post?), which (even with proper partition alignment) had pathetic R-W speeds in the 1-2 MB/s range. Reinstall with Win7, all was perfect again. Also with XP there's no TRIM functionality - compounded by the PATA bus which doesn't support it either. So in any case - it might have been me, but I've since decided to just stick with platter disks on XP and older systems.

[Cigarguy]

My T42 have a SSD in the Ultrabay via an adapter. The PATA HDD is used mainly for data. No matter what you do it's still PATA converted to SATA but the nearly instant seek time of SSDs make it bearable.

[Metallo]

Thanks guys for your feedback.

Well, I am still using my ultrabay from time to time and I am not ready to give it up.

I could possibly go with W7 PRO, but I need to verify the compatibility of my diagnostics reader, the software won't be a problem, but the reader needs to be verified.

I will try to install W7PRO and see if I get it to work, if I succeed then I would have no issues to switch to W7 if that makes the use of my SSD more reliable and fast.

Thank you
Alex

[Metallo]

Hi folks,

I am having issues to install my software program on the present HDD given the repeated drive errors, so I will have to purchase the SSD/Adapter.

For the SSD I am oriented on the Samsung MZ-7PD256BW, for the adapter a Lycom ST-173-7.

Really for the adapter I am going blind, I read a lot and there is no guarantee that either a Lycom or an Addonics adapter will work to an expected standard, in addition my T40 is a 14.1" and I am not sure if I will encounter any space problems.

Any advice is greatly appreciated.

Thank you
Alex

[GACrabill]

For the SSD I am oriented on the Samsung MZ-7PD256BW, for the adapter a Lycom ST-173-7.

The "Samsung MZ-7PD256BW" is a 2.5" SSD ... it won't fit in the Lycom adapter ... you need an "mSata" SSD.

[Metallo]

Hi GACrabill

You are absolutely right, I copied/pasted the wrong code, I do apologize, I meant to say: MZ-M5E250BW or MZ-M5E120BW

Thank you!
Alex

[Davemci]

I'm using a Pata SSD on my T42 with Windows XP and it's still better then any HDD. But it's a T42 for goodness sake what do you want?

[dandreye]

For the SSD I am oriented on the Samsung MZ-7PD256BW, for the adapter a Lycom ST-173-7.

Really for the adapter I am going blind, I read a lot and there is no guarantee that either a Lycom or an Addonics adapter will work to an expected standard, in addition my T40 is a 14.1" and I am not sure if I will encounter any space problems.

Any advice is greatly appreciated.

You may wish to go through my test results and notes starting here (btw it's an extremely informative thread if you manage all 11 pages of it):
http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.ph ... 50#p775950

To summarize, cheap JM20330-based unbranded adapter N-2507I sold on AliExpress as Sintech ST6008C unfortunately didn't work well at all in my T42 under W7 no matter if TRIM was on or off in W7, which is sad 'cos positive feedback with JM20330-based adapters in a non-T43 T4x, e.g. here:
http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.ph ... 84#p785284
suggested all of their varieties might behave the same. In my case only Lycom ST-173-7 did the trick. A couple of used Samsumg PM830 (MZ-MPC series) SSDs worked fine in it and so did a PM800 (MZ-MPA series). I had no interest in XP due to the lack of TRIM support.

Y̶o̶u̶'̶l̶l̶ ̶n̶e̶e̶d̶ ̶a̶ ̶m̶o̶d̶d̶e̶d̶ ̶B̶I̶O̶S̶ ̶w̶i̶t̶h̶ ̶H̶D̶D̶ ̶w̶h̶i̶t̶e̶l̶i̶s̶t̶ ̶r̶e̶m̶o̶v̶e̶d̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶a̶v̶o̶i̶d̶ ̶B̶I̶O̶S̶ ̶e̶r̶r̶o̶r̶ ̶2̶0̶1̶0̶ ̶(̶I̶ ̶u̶s̶e̶ ̶T̶T̶A̶V̶1̶3̶4̶ ̶B̶I̶O̶S̶ ̶o̶n̶ ̶m̶i̶n̶e̶)̶.̶ (that'd only be the case for T43; T40-T42 are fine)

NB: make sure you stay away from Samsung 840 EVO because of its notorious "old" data read issues, which they never managed to fix properly (Samsung 850 EVO hopefully doesn't have this issue).

[Metallo]

Hi dandreye,

I read the 11 pages already, lots of useful information, but at the end I understood that you need a bit of luck too

Next Saturday I should have all the stuff at home to assemble and test.

Here is what I chose:

Samsung 850 EVO mSATA 250GB SATA III
Ableconn IIDE-MSAT mSATA SSD to 2.5-Inch IDE Adapter

Regarding the BIOS, I am currently on 3.23 (1RETDRWW) dated 2007-06-18, is the error you mention occurring on the T40 too?
I will try anyhow and see what happens.

If needed, is there a specific version for the T40s?

Thank you
Alex

[dandreye]

Regarding the BIOS, I am currently on 3.23 (1RETDRWW) dated 2007-06-18, is the error you mention occurring on the T40 too?
I will try anyhow and see what happens.

If needed, is there a specific version for the T40s?

Thank you
Alex

Hi Alex,

Actually try new SSD+adapter in your T40 with existing BIOS first indeed: I've just checked my old records and it turns out that TTAV134 BIOS for T40-T42 is needed for some other purpose (e.g. to remove BIOS error 1802 "unauthorized WiFi card"), i.e. has nothing to do with the disk. Only TTAV134 BIOS for T43, which is different, also removes BIOS error 2010 "unauthorized HDD". IIRC the latter one was added 'cos effectively being native SATA adapted to IDE/PATA HDDs (unlike T40-T42, which are native IDE/PATA), T43 uses a few SATA specific commands when talking via the bridge to the IDE/PATA HDD, which should be able to understand them, hence the concept of "whitelisted HDDs". T40-T42 don't do anything like that.

The Ableconn adapter you're referring to looks exact same as my Lycom ST-173-7 (or whatever it really is).

D.

[w0qj]

I its heyday, our T42 had a PATA SSD upgrade, which made disk read/write MUCH faster!
Previously our T42 had a 7K100 hard drive (which was the fastest 2.5" HDD before SSD came out).

So yes, PATA SSD upgrade to T42 was worth it in our eyes, definitely breathed new life into our beloved machine!
(As an aside, we are still sorely missing the T42 LCD screen of 4:3 aspect ratio for MS Excel work...)

[dandreye]

I its heyday, our T42 had a PATA SSD upgrade, which made disk read/write MUCH faster!
Previously our T42 had a 7K100 hard drive (which was the fastest 2.5" HDD before SSD came out).

So yes, PATA SSD upgrade to T42 was worth it in our eyes, definitely breathed new life into our beloved machine!
(As an aside, we are still sorely missing the T42 LCD screen of 4:3 aspect ratio for MS Excel work...)

It's absolutely worth doing indeed. Any chance to publish further technical details such as adapter make/model (if applicable), SSD make/model, benchmarks etc. here:
http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=112081

[Metallo]

Next Saturday I should have all the stuff at home to assemble and test. Here is what I chose:

Samsung 850 EVO mSATA 250GB SATA III
Ableconn IIDE-MSAT mSATA SSD to 2.5-Inch IDE Adapter

The BIOS, I am currently on 3.23 (1RETDRWW) dated 2007-06-18

Alex

As promised, I published the results on the appropriate thread http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.ph ... 44#p795044

Alex

[dandreye]

As promised, I published the results on the appropriate thread http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.ph ... 44#p795044

Alex

Good result and thanks for the report ) Hope you figured out how to fix the ST-173-7 in your laptop properly: I have yet to do it with mine, which sounds fairly loose. Thinking of fitting it somehow into the case of a JM20330-based one purchased earlier, which doesn't work anyway.