What follows is a shortened version of a How To I wrote for this issue on Lenovo's website. I used the following to upgrade the existing proprietary 180GB SSD of a "first generation" X1 Carbon (purchased 2/2012) to a mSATA 512 GB SSD. Total hardware costs were about $220, as follows:
- 1. Crucial mSATA SSD 512GB CT512M550SSD3 (still available from some vendors such as Newegg; other, newer mSATA SSD cards may also work, but check the form factor, length and thickness of the card), about $200.
2. mSATA SSD to 26 Pin Adapter SD5SG2 card, about $15 (part # MS-LEN-26PX1 from Micro SATA Cables http://www.microsatacables.com/msata-ss ... -len-26px1).
The following also assumes you are using a current version of Windows. Before starting, I made an image of the complete existing SSD (saved to an external USB drive)
and a windows bootable DVD, both using Macrium Reflect (
http://www.macrium.com). You will need both the drive image and the bootable DVD to restore your data. Test these to make sure they are valid before starting. These steps are detailed in the original version of the How To (see this
link).
1. With all cables disconnected and the laptop powered off and lid closed, flip the laptop over, and carefully remove the 6 Philips head screws from the back. There are two Lenovo documents that detail these next few steps, available at
https://support.lenovo.com/de/en/documents/pd025208 and
https://support.lenovo.com/us/en/documents/pd025211 (The documents are in English, but I did this work in Germany, hence the German “de” prefix in the web address).
2. Flip the unit right side up, open the lid, and fold it essentially flat. Place a clean paper towel over the screen for protection; you will be placing the keyboard on top of this surface.
3. With the screws removed (step 1), the keyboard is only held in place by internal clips and a ribbon cable. The keyboard is removed by carefully inserting a thin shim into the seam when it joins the case to open these clips. An old credit card or piece of stiff plastic works well here. Work your way around all sides of the case, carefully separating the keyboard.
4. Once all the clips have been released, carefully flip the keyboard and rest it atop the screen’s protected surface. There is no need to detach the ribbon cable; but it is fragile, so be sure not to twist or deform this connection during this step. At this point the unit will look something like this
Fig. 1.
5.
Fig. 2A shows the existing SSD still intact. There is a 3-wire cable (fingerprint reader?, secured by a plastic tab) that you will need to move aside to gain access to the single mounting screw that secures the SSD to the motherboard. Carefully pry the plastic tab clip open slightly and pull the wires aside – they are also fragile, so take your time. Once the cable is out of the way you can remove the mounting screw.
6. With the mounting screw removed, the SSD can be removed by carefully sliding it out of the bus slot, gently wiggling slightly side-to-side if necessary. Your view should now be similar to
Fig. 2B. Once the old SSD is free, set it aside for safe keeping, using the anti-static container of the new unit if available.
7. Two small screws attach the SSD to the mSATA X1 Carbon adapter board: remove them. Then attach the adapter in the position of the old SSD, carefully sliding it into the bus slot. Secure with the mounting screw. Your work should now look like
Fig. 3.
8. Fit the new SSD securely into the adapter bus (
Fig. 4A), and secure with the two small screws removed previously. Your finished work should now look like
Fig. 4B.
9.
Fig. 5: restore the position of 3-wire cable and secure with plastic tab as before. You’re now more than halfway complete. You can now reverse previous steps of keyboard removal: carefully flip the keyboard back into position, taking care not to deform the ribbon cable, clip the keyboard back into position, and reattach fasteners to back of laptop.
10. With the keyboard back in place, reattach AC power and DVD drive. The remaining steps describing restoration of the data and which partitions to use is included in the original
How To.
Post back if you need more help
.
Edit added: Also, in answer to a previous question: Lenovo does supply replacement SSDs that will work without the adapter card, but these are expensive (about $1000 for a 240GB-256 GB SSD), the maximum size is 256 GB (IIRC) with limited availability. The adapter card + mSATA SSD is cheaper and faster
.
