R500 laptop doesn't recognize SSD

[xyzyy]

I'm attempting to replace an old 140GB SATA drive with a (slightly smaller) SSD (Samsung and also a Vertex 4). I've successfully transferred the image of the old drive to the SSD (on another computer using Acronis). When I attempt to boot from the Samsung SSD, it goes straight into looking for a network boot device, and with the Vertex, I just get a read error (drive checked out OK on another computer). In the BIOS, there is no drive detected, and I've tried with SATA set to Compatibility as well as AHCI. Have I missed something, or are there known problems with those SSDs?

[Brad]

Welcome to the forum!

Sorry to hear of your trouble.

I haven't heard of any issues with either drive.

If the drive isn't seen by the BIOS there wouldn't be any chance of a successful boot. The only thing I can think of is that it has not been seated correctly. Most SSD's are 7mm and the drive bay is 9.5mm so the drive must be lined up and seated properly. It helps with centering the drives if the rubber bumpers are installed.

What is the read error you get on the Vertex 4?

Another issue you may have is that the drives were cloned outside of the ThinkPad. I have great success when I have the target drive in the ThinkPad and the source drive in the ultrabay or outside the ThinkPad via USB.

Brad

[xyzyy]

Hi Brad - thanks for the quick reply.

The error message just says "Read error" - but I'll take another look later.

I tried cloning using the thinkpad (source internal though) but I don't think that will make much difference if it can't detect a SATA SSD, however I will give it a go. It really doesn't solve the non-detection issue though.

[Brad]

The detection issue must first be resolved.

Of course you couldn't clone with the target in your R500 unless it was first detected.

Double check that the drive is seated properly.

Brad

[xyzyy]

The vertex drive is recognized - I was able to get the BIOS hard disk checker to run - no errors, however, still won't boot -
The exact error message is:

A disk read error occurred
Press Ctrl-Alt-Del to restart

any other ideas?

[RealBlackStuff]

Put one of those SSDs in the R500 HD-slot, and try to install Windows or Linux on it.
If that works, your cloning outside an IBM/Lenovo environment did not work.

[xyzyy]

Put one of those SSDs in the R500 HD-slot, and try to install Windows or Linux on it.
If that works, your cloning outside an IBM/Lenovo environment did not work.

Actually, given that I can see the Vertex SSD in the HDD slot, I am going to try and reimage the original HDD (which will be mounted externally via USB) using the acronis boot CD.
I will post results later - thanks for your help.

[xyzyy]

It seems that the suggestion of putting the SSD in the internal HDD slot worked! Thanks for all your help - I really appreciate it.