Thinkpads Forum

Hi folks

I'm getting my x220 pretty soon... it comes with 320 GB 7200 rpm hdd but i want to swap it out for an Intel G3-320 SSD 120 GB.

Read somewhere that it needs to be 7mm thick? and so I need to remove the spacer or something... and get new screws. So I'm quite worried, can I have more details? Anyone using this SSD with x220?

Also, is there a clean setup guide for x220 around? used to see one for x200... i want to install back my windows 7 pro, and also thought of trying lenovo's own EE2.0 thingy... wonder if it's good.

Thanks in advance for any help rendered.

You may wish to consider the Intel msata SSD. It slots into the miniPCI slot. It would allow you to keep the 320GB for storage. You can't use it with WWAN if you need it. That's what I got for my X220i.

FredGarvin wrote:You may wish to consider the Intel msata SSD.

Read this first - http://forums.lenovo.com/t5/X-Series-Th ... d-p/447781
I have one sitting here that is useless for my X220 until Lenovo releases a BIOS update.

thanks for the suggestions...

but i am not a big storage guy... and i want to keep the machine 'slim', so i dun need the 320 gb hdd. i want to keep it 'raw' so that when i sell the laptop down the road, the hdd can be considered unused.

anyway the msata seems to have an issue too with the bios.

so, nobody here has a intel 320 combo with the machine? need to figure out how to swap out the hdd.

You need a 7mm SSD. The 320 is too big unless you want to void your warranty and do the 'spacer mod'. See this thread - http://forum.notebookreview.com/lenovo- ... -x220.html

maumu wrote:So I'm quite worried

Take the screws out, take the spacer off, get a couple of short pieces of 3M magic tape (or similar) and use them to hold the cover on... there's nothing but electronics under the cover so it doen't need to be screwed down. In any case, when you mount the 320 drive in your X220, the rubber mounting rails will also hold the cover on. That's all I did with the 320 160GB I now have in my X220.

maumu wrote:Also, is there a clean setup guide for x220 around?

There is one on the Lenovo support web site that covers the all the current model ThinkPads.

maumu wrote:i want to install back my windows 7 pro

If you buy a retail version of the Intel 320 drives (part # SSDSA2CW120G3B5 for a 120GB) they come with everything you need, including software and a USB connector for the drive, to clone your existing HDD onto the SDD.

Cheers,

Bill B.

Harryc wrote:The 320 is too big unless you want to void your warranty and do the 'spacer mod'.

Intel is on the record as saying that removing the spacer doesn't void any warranty, and in any case doing so does not break any seals (etc) so it quite undetectable.

Cheers,

Bill B.

bill bolton wrote:Intel is on the record as saying that removing the spacer doesn't void any warranty, and in any case doing so does not break any seals (etc) so it quite undetectable.

Cheers,

Bill B.

You are free to remove the spacer. It's a purpose from Intel to provide a drive which can fit both 9 and 7mm high drive shafts.

It's a shame they don't include shorter screws though! I bought the retail drive hoping they'd be in there, but they only include the usual large chassis screws.

You need M2x3mm wafer head (I can tell you from experience).

Hope this helps.

S