X60: SanDisk SSD reliability

[brucehe]

Hello all,

The story starts with my X60 XP install crashing while on a trip. It would not boot, giving me a a BSOD every time. However I was able to do a Safe Mode boot, tried turning off devices with no luck.

I was in the neighborhood of a Fry's electronics and they had an ad for a San Disk 64GB SSD 6Gb/S for $60 so guessing that my drive was sick I purchased this SSD hoping to get the machine running while traveling. I was able to do a fresh XP install and got it working.

Two questions:

Should I keep this SSD drive as I can still return it. It does boot fast and the benchmark is Seq Read of 125 mb/s. This is my first SSD so I do not know what to expect. Does anyone have any experience with this drive?

Why did XP crash originally and should I toss the hard drive? I tried to access the drive with a USB-SATA converter and the computer would not recognize it. I then tested the drive with SeaGate DOS tools and it passed long and short test. I also tried to do a XP repair on the drive and now it won't boot at all. Considering reinstalling XP and seeing what happens. The drive is a Seagate 100MB drive that is 5 years old.

Thanks,

Bruce

[ArtShapiro]

Now that SSD prices are routinely dropping below a buck a gig, I think it's a no-brainer. That modest outlay has certainly increased the "snappiness" of your X60.

I believe you're still limited to SATA I speeds (someone will correct me if I'm wrong) just as with the T60s.

Reinstalling XP (or better, Win 7) on your old hard drive, if you don't have a backup from which to recover, would perhaps be interesting but academic if you keep the SSD. Probably it was just a Windows meltdown, a reality of life, given that the drive passed various diagnostics tests for you.

Art

[brucehe]

I think I have read on the Forum that X60 hardware does not support SATA II. I guess the question I have, is there another model of SSD in that price range I should look at or just be happy with what I got?

I did reinstall XP on the hard drive after doing a format and it runs fine, albeit a pain to get running compared to installing W7. I guess XP did melt down, never had that happen before. I think I will put W7 on it and see how it runs.

Bruce

[ArtShapiro]

is there another model of SSD in that price range I should look at or just be happy with what I got?

Enjoy it - it's simply more than you need but I suspect it would be hard (impossible?) to find a modern Sata I device.

I did reinstall XP on the hard drive after doing a format and it runs fine, albeit a pain to get running compared to installing W7. I guess XP did melt down, never had that happen before. I think I will put W7 on it and see how it runs.

I've had W7 on an X61 for quite a while and it has been a pleasure. There's no question about W7 running well on machines of this vintage.

Art

[brucehe]

OK, I installed W7 with XP on both the existing hardrive (which seems to run fine) and the SSD as dual boot. At some point I will remove the XP partition. W7 runs fine of course. Time will tell with the SanDisk SSD.

thanks,

Bruce