Thinkpads Forum

Greetings from a new member in central Mexico.

I have just acquired a used ThinkPad T430 which I really like. I have a lot to learn.

I have partitioned the 500-Gb drive and installed LinuxMint 17.2 on it and it works great. (dual boot)

Now I am looking at the possibility of installing some kind of solid state drive (SSD), both to speed up the operating systems, and to help reduce battery consumption. I have some questions:

1. The only place to install an mSATA drive is also the only place to install a SIM card adapter for cellular internet. Is this correct? So I must choose between the two?

2. If I do decide on an mSATA drive for OS, will this one fit and be O. K.?
---SSD Crucial M550 Ct256m550ssd3 256gb mSATA

3. Is this big enough to have both a Windows 7 and Linux OS installed? I would keep my personal files on the old hard drive in the other bay. Also, I have the recovery CDs so I am not considering a recovery partition.

Thanks in advance and be blessed!

Steve

You can do WWAN or a SSD, but not both.

That looks like it would work. I had the 128GB version in my X220.

I suppose that would depend on how large the drive is. I had Linux running on my R60e using a 8GB Kingston SSD. I had no problem with it, though that was a few version ago. Windows will take up more space, but just get a bigger drive.

SSD Crucial M550 Ct256m550ssd3 256gb mSATA

Is this big enough to have both a Windows 7 and Linux OS installed?

More that enough IMO.

I use a 60GB mSATA SSD on my X220, with both Windows 7 and Debian Linux 8.0 on it.
Its usable space is actually around 55GB, so it's split 40GB for Win 7, and 15GB for Linux.

To be honest 40GB is a bit small (experience has taught me that Win 7 OS partitions should be at least 60GB), but since I'm almost always running Linux, there's little opportunity for cruft like temp files and system restore files to build up in the Windows partition.

Even then, the 40GB Windows partition is already around 70% full, while the 15GB Linux partition is around 22% used.

Thanks a million for your input, my friends! May you be surprised by blessings today.

Steve

I say go for the 120GB drive, which should be plenty of space unless you're cash strapped. Drives are so cheap these days.

My friends: I am more excited than a mosquito in a nudist colony! My 256-GB mSATA drive arrived via package service today. I am looking forward to installing it tomorrow, good Lord willing.

Perhaps setting up 140-GB for Windows 7, and the rest for Linux.

I will let you know how it goes.

Thanks to all for your input!

Steve

ZaZ wrote:You can do WWAN or a SSD, but not both.

Don't they have a USB cellular internet option these days?

XE1UFO wrote:I am more excited than a mosquito in a nudist colony!

Poor 'ol mosquito

Update:

I installed the Crucial M550 Ct256m550ssd3 256gb mSATA drive, then installed Linux Mint 17.2 on it from my Live USB drive. Everything appears to be working fine. Everything seems to be very fast.

Thanks for all your input!