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T530 - mSATA as bootable drive. Issues?

T430-T490, T530-T590 Series
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DiagonalArg
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T530 - mSATA as bootable drive. Issues?

#1 Post by DiagonalArg » Mon Feb 26, 2018 9:54 pm

The manual says:
... you are not recommended to use the mSATA solid-state drive as a bootable device. The mSATA solid-state drive is
designed and developed for “cache” function purpose only. If you use the mSATA solid-state drive as a
bootable device, its reliability is not guaranteed.
I notice the T/W520 does not have the same warning. So I'm a bit mystified. What are the problems that have/might crop up?

Thinkpad4by3
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Re: T530 - mSATA as bootable drive. Issues?

#2 Post by Thinkpad4by3 » Mon Feb 26, 2018 10:17 pm

It is referring to specially made Intel Cache drives that were about 16GB in size. This is not referring to normal old msata drive which work just fine. I used one in my T430s for 4 years and is now working happily in an X230 for the last 2.
Thinkpad4by3's Law of the Universe.

The efficiency of two screens equally sized with equal numbers if pixels are equal. The time spent by a 4:3 user complaining about 16:9 is proportional to the inefficiency working with a 16:9 display, therefore the amount of useful work extracted is equal.

DiagonalArg
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Re: T530 - mSATA as bootable drive. Issues?

#3 Post by DiagonalArg » Mon Feb 26, 2018 11:22 pm

Excellent. Thank you! I'm going right off to order a 250GB EVO 860.

kfzhu1229
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Re: T530 - mSATA as bootable drive. Issues?

#4 Post by kfzhu1229 » Tue Feb 27, 2018 12:18 am

I ordered a 256GB Toshiba one from local classifieds for only $80. It works pretty well, and breathes much more life into my T530.
Dell Lat CP MMX-233 64mb 40gb W2k
600 PII-266 416mb 40gb WXP
T23 PIII 1.13ghz 1gb W7
Precision M4300 X9000 8gb 160gb WUXGA Ultrasharp fp W10
T530i 15.6" i7 16gb fp W10
UXGA:
A30p PIII 1.2 1gb W7 (IDTech)
T43p 2.26 2gb fp W10 (Sharp)
Lat C840 P4-2.5 2gb 60gb W7 (Ultrasharp)

Thinkpad4by3
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Re: T530 - mSATA as bootable drive. Issues?

#5 Post by Thinkpad4by3 » Tue Feb 27, 2018 7:58 am

DiagonalArg wrote:
Mon Feb 26, 2018 11:22 pm
Excellent. Thank you! I'm going right off to order a 250GB EVO 860.
My drive is a 250GB 850EVO and its been kicking and alive for 6 years now. Good choice! :thumbs-UP:
Thinkpad4by3's Law of the Universe.

The efficiency of two screens equally sized with equal numbers if pixels are equal. The time spent by a 4:3 user complaining about 16:9 is proportional to the inefficiency working with a 16:9 display, therefore the amount of useful work extracted is equal.

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Re: T530 - mSATA as bootable drive. Issues?

#6 Post by RealBlackStuff » Tue Feb 27, 2018 9:30 am

In my X230 have a Sandisk X300 256GB mSATA SSD with W7 in the WWAN-slot and a 500GB HDD in the main bay for storage.
That HDD is set to power down after 3 minutes of non-use.
That setup is identical to a T530 and works like a charm.

DiagonalArg
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Re: T530 - mSATA as bootable drive. Issues?

#7 Post by DiagonalArg » Wed Feb 28, 2018 11:36 pm

Thanks, guys. Can't believe there are 1TB versions of these things! A bit too pricey for me right now, but it's pretty awe inspiring.

kfzhu1229
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Re: T530 - mSATA as bootable drive. Issues?

#8 Post by kfzhu1229 » Thu Mar 01, 2018 9:11 pm

DiagonalArg wrote:
Wed Feb 28, 2018 11:36 pm
Thanks, guys. Can't believe there are 1TB versions of these things! A bit too pricey for me right now, but it's pretty awe inspiring.
1TB mSATA is an overkill for that thing. Nothing that I know of can take up that amount of space, runs on this computer and needs that high response time of SSD. Get a 500GB max and get as many terabytes of HDD as you want.
Dell Lat CP MMX-233 64mb 40gb W2k
600 PII-266 416mb 40gb WXP
T23 PIII 1.13ghz 1gb W7
Precision M4300 X9000 8gb 160gb WUXGA Ultrasharp fp W10
T530i 15.6" i7 16gb fp W10
UXGA:
A30p PIII 1.2 1gb W7 (IDTech)
T43p 2.26 2gb fp W10 (Sharp)
Lat C840 P4-2.5 2gb 60gb W7 (Ultrasharp)

cadillacmike68
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Re: T530 - mSATA as bootable drive. Issues?

#9 Post by cadillacmike68 » Fri Apr 03, 2020 1:14 am

Soooo, the mSATA goes in the WWAN slot... OK, does the system recognize it as a bootable drive?

And can you use either recovery media, a regular win ISO or an acronis backup image to load it?
600 600X
760LD FUBARd
T21 2647 T22 2647 1@ 1GHz SXGA+ 4 more; T23 2647 1@ 1.2GHz SXGA+ 3 more
T30 2366-88U 2GHz; 2366-83U 1.8G; 5@ 2366-LU0/66U; 2367-KU6 FUBARd
T41 T42 T43
T60 T61 8897 2.4GHz SXGA+; 8898 2.4Ghz; 6463 2@ WSXGA+; 7658 2.5GHz; T61p; 6 more T61s
T500 2
T530 W530

kfzhu1229
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Re: T530 - mSATA as bootable drive. Issues?

#10 Post by kfzhu1229 » Fri Apr 03, 2020 11:07 am

cadillacmike68 wrote:
Fri Apr 03, 2020 1:14 am
Soooo, the mSATA goes in the WWAN slot... OK, does the system recognize it as a bootable drive?

And can you use either recovery media, a regular win ISO or an acronis backup image to load it?
I have always had a Toshiba msata drive in the WWAN slot in my T530 and the OS treats it like a regular 2.5" SSD. Just change the boot order so that it boots off the msata slot over the 2.5" sata slot.
And yeah you can use the recovery media, but I find the version of Windows 7 that came with my T530 is really bloated and it ran slower than my 15 year old T43 when it was new.
Dell Lat CP MMX-233 64mb 40gb W2k
600 PII-266 416mb 40gb WXP
T23 PIII 1.13ghz 1gb W7
Precision M4300 X9000 8gb 160gb WUXGA Ultrasharp fp W10
T530i 15.6" i7 16gb fp W10
UXGA:
A30p PIII 1.2 1gb W7 (IDTech)
T43p 2.26 2gb fp W10 (Sharp)
Lat C840 P4-2.5 2gb 60gb W7 (Ultrasharp)

cadillacmike68
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Re: T530 - mSATA as bootable drive. Issues?

#11 Post by cadillacmike68 » Fri Apr 03, 2020 9:03 pm

^^ Thanks.
As for the bloated factory install, I've become good at removing all the unwanted stuff while keepink what I like. I just can't stand that blue default winblows starting and ending screen. I'd much rather have the ThinkPad's trademark black screen with the white think in the lower right.

Now I need to find an acronis true image that will back up and restore full win 10 drives.
600 600X
760LD FUBARd
T21 2647 T22 2647 1@ 1GHz SXGA+ 4 more; T23 2647 1@ 1.2GHz SXGA+ 3 more
T30 2366-88U 2GHz; 2366-83U 1.8G; 5@ 2366-LU0/66U; 2367-KU6 FUBARd
T41 T42 T43
T60 T61 8897 2.4GHz SXGA+; 8898 2.4Ghz; 6463 2@ WSXGA+; 7658 2.5GHz; T61p; 6 more T61s
T500 2
T530 W530

kfzhu1229
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Location: Toronto, Canada

Re: T530 - mSATA as bootable drive. Issues?

#12 Post by kfzhu1229 » Fri Apr 03, 2020 9:12 pm

cadillacmike68 wrote:
Fri Apr 03, 2020 9:03 pm
^^ Thanks.
As for the bloated factory install, I've become good at removing all the unwanted stuff while keepink what I like. I just can't stand that blue default winblows starting and ending screen. I'd much rather have the ThinkPad's trademark black screen with the white think in the lower right.
I know what you are saying but I believe those can easily be changed with some tweaks.
My installation was Chinese and there is no home premium for chinese - only home basic, and you get very limited windows aero and it performed like crap. Participated in windows 10 insiders and got a free windows 10 pro license and never looked back.
Dell Lat CP MMX-233 64mb 40gb W2k
600 PII-266 416mb 40gb WXP
T23 PIII 1.13ghz 1gb W7
Precision M4300 X9000 8gb 160gb WUXGA Ultrasharp fp W10
T530i 15.6" i7 16gb fp W10
UXGA:
A30p PIII 1.2 1gb W7 (IDTech)
T43p 2.26 2gb fp W10 (Sharp)
Lat C840 P4-2.5 2gb 60gb W7 (Ultrasharp)

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