Thinkpads Forum

I discovered that IN THEORY some decent results COULD be achieved at a (much?) lower cost than buying a (very large) SSD disk (512 GB in my case) by using the existing (512 GB) HDD and adding in the (currently free in my T420s) mSata slot a 32-64 GB SSD disk and then installing ExpressCache (there seems to be a Lenovo-specific version available).

Anybody using that program? I only saw one reference to USING it in the entire forum - and that I believe was not on a T4x0/T5x0

well i guess this makes two then. i've had expresscache running on my T420s for several months now and to me the improvements seem pretty significant. bootup is quick, and applications seem to launch much faster.

have you seen this video? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZFU4cDx_5A

i feel like often times, these things are gimmicky and i'm reluctant to give them a go. i guess this time the joke was on me!

what do you use your T420 for? i use it for work and got my boss to buy me my mSata because he felt it would make me more productive

i'm robert btw, this is my post here. nice to meet you all

---Robert

kangaroochip wrote:well i guess this makes two then. i've had expresscache running on my T420s for several months now and to me the improvements seem pretty significant. bootup is quick, and applications seem to launch much faster.

have you seen this video? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZFU4cDx_5A

i feel like often times, these things are gimmicky and i'm reluctant to give them a go. i guess this time the joke was on me!

what do you use your T420 for? i use it for work and got my boss to buy me my mSata because he felt it would make me more productive

i'm robert btw, this is my post here. nice to meet you all

---Robert

Thank you! And I have seen that video

My question was more around the lines of what mSata SSD was used - I did not have an option to order it when I got my T420s and I was now considering two options - buying an M4 64gb on mSata and using it with ExcpressCache with the existing 512gb HDD, OR an M4 512gb 7mm SSD and replacing the HDD completely.

The mSata option is a lot cheaper in absolute terms (75$ vs 400$) but not in the '$ per gb' way. It also has the potential problem (with a very small probability, but still...) that the ExpressCache version from Lenovo might not work on it..

The option for 7mm SATA SSD is more expensive and there have been some strange reports on the web regarding problems when you go to sleep with Thinkpad models (one report on newegg, and not a T4x0/5x0). It also has the possible drawback that I tend to write a lot on my disks and have those pretty full (80-90%) at most times.

gotcha. okay, well have you seen the post on Lenovo's forum about doing exactly this?

see http://forums.lenovo.com/t5/T400-T500-a ... d-p/628607

guy basically said "I've purchased the Intel 310 80 Gb mSATA SSD for my T420s (4171-6PG, Win 7 Pro 64) and want to ask about OS migration.
What steps I need to perform after installing the new drive?"

the answer was the steps below:

I just installed the Intel 310 80 GB mSATA SSD for my T420s too using Lenovo System Recovery method and everything is working great.

Here are the steps I used for the installation process:
1) Backup the computer using Lenovo System Recovery (I used a 16gb USB flash drive (make sure you format the USB flashdrive to make it bootable first) - but you can back up to DVDs too)
2) Turn on computer, hold down F1 to access system menu. Change boot sequence to USB first then DVD-RAM drive.
3) Install Intel mSATA drive
4) Optional: You can temporarily remove your regular HD now if you want to take the extra precaution so you don't do the recovery on your existing drive.
4) Insert USB or DVD Recovery disk and turn on computer. The computer will try to boot from the USB first then DVD drive etc..
5) Follow on screen instructions to do Full System Recovery to the SSD drive.
6) The computer is now back to factory setting with the new Intel SSD as the primary drive.
7) I deleted the recovery partition on the SSD drive to free up space since I already have the back up on my USB stick/DVDs
Reinstall your regular HD if you removed it in Step 4.
9) Download Intel SSD Toolbox software: http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_ ... ldID=18455
10) Disable hibernation (after reading countless posts, the general concensus is to turn it off)
11) When everything is working fine you can format the old HD but keep the recovery partition- just in case.


i'm sure this is still valid as it was from only a few months back

---Robert

kangaroochip wrote:gotcha. okay, well have you seen the post on Lenovo's forum about doing exactly this?

see http://forums.lenovo.com/t5/T400-T500-a ... d-p/628607

guy basically said "I've purchased the Intel 310 80 Gb mSATA SSD for my T420s (4171-6PG, Win 7 Pro 64) and want to ask about OS migration.
What steps I need to perform after installing the new drive?"

the answer was the steps below:

...

i'm sure this is still valid as it was from only a few months back

---Robert

I saw that one (which also contains a reply from somebody with a SSD that was not seen OK by the T420s) - but for me a SSD (well) under 512GB can not be an optimal replacement - so it is either a 512GB 7mm SSD as a full replacement or a smaller mSata with some form of very smart cache!

My curiosity was more around the brands of mSata devices that people use with ExpressCache (preinstalled from Lenovo or not), and the degree of optimization/acceleration that can be achieved with such mSata devices (and eventually how the size of those matters more or less).