Thinkpads Forum

Hi, my newbie post as a new (second hand) T430 owner. It's a model 2349GCG (4GB RAM, i5-3320M, no dedicated gpu, W7 pro)

Yes, I've already fallen in love with the keyboard (coming from a worn out, almost passed away Samsung R530)

No problems so far, other than that is has an 320GB HDD and I want to upgrade to an SSD (Samsung EVO 120GB). Of course I started searcing and reading first, but I'm slightly confused whether my machine has an mSATA slot or the newer m.2 slot. Also I've read about having to migrate the HDD to the optical disk-bay? Is there no option to mount the SSD and make it boot from the SSD?

Last (which I couldn't find) is there no easy install your SSD topic or youtube video?

Thanks in advance

The T430 has an mSata slot. There is an ultrabay HDD/SSD adapter that can be used in place of the DVD/CD drive which you can put a sata HDD or SSD for an additional drive. You can boot from it by pressing the f12 key and selecting the ultrabay device. For your last question, the hardware manual gives instructions on how to replace the SSD/HDD in the main drive bay of the laptop. There should just be a simple screw and cover that you need to remove on the bottom of the laptop to access the drive.

Ah, ok, thx for the quick reply

Only one question left, can't I leave the current HDD, add the SSD and boot from SSD? So that I cann have software on the SSD & data on the current HDD?

What you told me, is what I understood myself, but I got confused by posts that later versions of the T430 had a different slot

and one more: anyone arguments for my two choices Intel 530 or Samsung EVO, the EVO is cheaper (only by less than €10)

Once you install your mSata drive, you should be able to migrate your OS to the mSata using something like Macrium Reflect or AOMEI Partition Assistant Standard software.

Once done, you should be able boot into the BIOS settings and change the boot order to use the mSata drive first.

Provided you are using less than 120GB on your current HDD, the migration should be relatively straightforward.

If you have not yet created Recovery media etc then I would recommend you do so.

Forgot to mention - once you have migrated the OS to the mSata, try not to let the Thinkpad boot into Windows (from the HDD) before you change the boot order. Not sure why, but I have done similar stuff in the past, and If I let Windows boot up from the original HDD, it would then not allow me to boot from the 2nd drive once swapped over...

hmm, I'm using almost 120GB, but there is >30GB of music on there, I can put that on another storage device

So if follow your instructions, I can place the SSD, migrate the OS to it, change the bios (boot order) and everything is honky dory

Really nicy that I don't need a tray, 120GB SSD plus the original 320GB is enough for me. Not that I need the CD/DVD often, but I do sometimes.

Really anxious to step into the fast SSD world.....

I'll post my findings when I've got the SSD (which will be the mSATA Samsung 840 EVO)

Oké, rtfm Frenz, just read in the Lenovo manual that I actually do have to get the tray, because there's only the swap possibility. I reallt thought I saw a picture somewhere of an additional mSATA slot next to the HDD

Ah well, it's not rocket science

The order of things should be then:

a) copy the cuurent HHD to the SSD (mounted in the tray) provided it's less than 120GB
b) change bios
c) swap HDD & SSD
d) transfer data to HDD

The mSATA slot is under the bottom RAM cover.

Frenz64 wrote:Oké, rtfm Frenz, just read in the Lenovo manual that I actually do have to get the tray, because there's only the swap possibility. I reallt thought I saw a picture somewhere of an additional mSATA slot next to the HDD

Ah well, it's not rocket science

The order of things should be then:

a) copy the cuurent HHD to the SSD (mounted in the tray) provided it's less than 120GB
b) change bios
c) swap HDD & SSD
d) transfer data to HDD

How did you get on? 85101 is right - the msata slot is next to the RAM slots.

Confusing.....

(still need to buy the SSD though)

So this does mean that I can leave the HDD where it is and boot from the mSATA slot and keep the CD/DVD in the bay?

Now I know why I had this picture of the mSATA under the RAM.....it was correct, haha

Hi,
Yes -you can plug an mSata SSD into the mSata slot, leave the HDD in place and leave the DVD in place. You can then clone your OS to the mSata and set that as the primary boot drive and boot your OS of the mSata.

OR you could swap the HDD or the DVD for another normal SSD if you wanted two SSD drives!! Or possibly even 3 if you swapped both of them - but I dont know if the Thinkpad supports 3 at once!!?!?!?

PS I am selling my Crucial mSata 128GB SSD if you are interested. I have just upgraded from an X1 to a T440p and the T440p does not have an mSata slot. I am in the UK - so only worthwhile (postage cost wise) if you are in the UK....

Cheers!

Yes!

SSD came this morning by mail, took me an hour or two and it's working like a charm

It's very true that it's a world of difference, opening progs is almost instantly, brilliant

Just one minor problem left, I can't remove the (small) SYSTEM_DRV from the HDD, computer management tol still says it's on the primary drive. It's also on the SSD and I don't have a feeling it influences performance, so I'm leaving it there

AFAIK the SYSTEM_DRV forms part of the System Recovery - so I left mine on, when I migrated my HDD to SSD.

Did you keep the Lenovo_Recovery too or did you delete it?

SYSTEM_DRV is a bit more than that! see here (3rd post): http://forums.lenovo.com/t5/T400-T500-a ... d-p/491653

I did keep the Lenovo_recovery

The space on the SSD was just a little short to clone it (with Macrium), so I left it on the HDD (hopefully not ever having to use it)

But the SYSTEM_DRV is on both now, I just cant remove it from the HDD, I was able to delete the W7 OS file, cuz with EasyBCD I renamed the partitions.

But again, there is no harm in having it on both, right and it's only a small file, very relevant, but small