Thinkpads Forum

Hello,

I have several T60 & a T60/1 Frankenpad, some with slots for an internal pci-e card. The original intention was a WWAN card or a turbo-memory card.

I want to know if I can put a pci-e SATA SSD in and access it as a drive? Also, for my purposes, this must work with Linux.

I read several threads which suggest it may work, but that the system can't boot from it. I can get around the boot problem if it works.

Does anyone know? Any information is useful.

Here is an example:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/KingSpec-128GB- ... 3cc677451c

Thanks,
Bret

No, it won't work.

There are several flavors of "mini PCIe" SSDs:
1. mSATA. This is a standard form factor that is the same physical size and connector as PCI Express Mini Cards, and use SATA protocol for data transfer.
2. proprietary SATA and
3. proprietary PATA SSDs. These may also share the physical dimensions and/or connector of a PCIe card, and use SATA/PATA protocol respectively, but they use non-standard pinouts. These can be found in some eeePCs and earlier netbooks.
4. PCI express SATA controller + SATA SSD all in one card. The only such product that managed to hit the market is the Super Talent CoreStore MV.

A T60/61 era ThinkPad (or any laptop from that time) is not equipped to support 1, 2 or 3. There is some chance that 4 may work in a T61, but the CoreStore MV has a pretty bad reputation for compatibility, and the computer may decide not to boot if you have such a card installed. I believe the WWAN slot in a T60 only has USB lanes, so 4 will not work in it.


On the other hand, you can install an internal SD card reader in the spare mini PCIe slot. See this thread: http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?f=29&t=104341