Thinkpads Forum

I just received my first ThinkPad and I am loving it. I am a newbie here and I have lots to learn. My T420 came with the 128 GB SSD installed. I am very interested in adding a Intel mSATA drive to the PCIe slot as I am not using WWAN. It seems that most people are adding the 2nd drive to use as a boot drive to get the speed benefit of a SSD versus their large capacity HD. Is there any reason I can't or shouldn't use the added drive as a 2nd drive for storing data and keept the OS on the original drive? I simply want the added storage - and the benefit of having a 2nd drive - without having to give up the speed of SSDs. I know there is a problem getting the Intel drives but I saw the 40GB version somewhere in stock for $100 and I am very tempted to try it. Will both the 40GB and 80GB Intel drives work?

Thanks in advance.

Both drives will work. You can setup the mSATA drive to be the OS drive or you can setup the SATA drive to be the OS drive. You can even setup a third ultrabay SATA drive to be the OS drive. It's completely up to you.

Thanks for the info.

Yep, they are all SATA bus and treated the same by the bios.