Self install T420 mSata drive

[milkster]

I'm currently looking at buying a W520 or T420 and I want to have 2 HDs in it - a 80GB SSD for the O/S and a SATA HD for data inside the thinkpad.

I'm confused as to where the second HD will go in the thinkpad. From what I can gather, normally you would put the SSD in the space where the sata drive is, but where do you put the sata drive?

[Adamp]

you have 2 choices.
1) You can buy an mSata SSD . This is a tiny SSD drive that comes in 40GB or 80GB sizes, which uses the PcIE slot. This allows you to also install a standard hard drive in the laptop, and keep your DVD/CD drive.
2) You can use a standard 2.5" SSD. This will replace your hard drive. You can the purchase an ultra bay caddy, which you install a 2nd hard drive into. You must then remove the DVD/CD drive and put the 2nd hard drive in this slot.

The best solution is the first, unless for some reason you need more than 80GB of SSD drive. I use an 80GB SSD drive in my T420, and with Windows 7, Office 2007, Chrome, Itunes, + other apps I can't remember installed, I still have 35GB free.

[milkster]

Thanks adamp.

SO there is a dedicated OPEN pcie slot for this SSD or do I have to remove the wireless card since I believe it plugs into a pcie slot.

[Adamp]

There are 2 PcIE slots. One for the Wifi card (ie for your wireless internet at home, work, airport, etc 802.11abgn), and one for the optional WWAN card (which you would use a cellphone network to access the internet through).

You cannot use a WWAN card, and an mSata drive at the same time. So this is an issue if you are interested in using a cell provider's data for the internet. This has no impact on your standard wireless card for wifi.

[milkster]

Great! I have no plans for WWAN cards so there should be no problems there. Thanks for clarifying things.

[GeneSD]

I just performed this on my new T420 installed the Intel 310 80gb mSATA PCIe, everything went as planned. No problems, I did remove the hard drive while using the restore disks to load my laptop back to original configuration. After all my software is install I only have 17gb free. I use this computer as a development machine so I have alot of software to install. The performance is pretty great. Thanks to this forum for confirming that the mSATA drive would work.

[rickh925]

New to the board and new to ThinkPads in general although I've always envied them.

I just received my T520 and Intel 310 mSATA on the same day. I installed the upgraded RAM and the mSATA while I had the keyboard off. No problems. Booted the first boot and ran through the config... Now I'm at the point that I want to switch to the mSATA for the boot. I set the mSATA to the higher boot priority than the internal HDD and Windows sees the drive fine.

I see that the OP says he installed Win7 x64. I'm wondering if it is possible to use the recovery to install/re-install/recover the initial drive image to the 80gig mSATA? I have a TechNet Subscription so I have access to Win7 media... but would like to maintain the whole ThinkPad experience and installation, at least for now.

Anyway, I am just looking for some more details on the best process for getting the OS on the mSATA SSD.

***update***
I tried using the recovery from the ToolBox (ext USB HDD) and it just restored the internal HDD without even an option to direct to the 310. I'm going to try removing the internal HDD and see what booting the recovery media says. I suspect it is going to complain that there is no target drive but hey, it'll be fun.

Thanks
Rick

[Colonel O'Neill]

Is there some sort of WIM on the recovery media?

[rickh925]

Yes, there is a WIM of about 230meg and then a factoryrecovery folder with about 9gig of WIM and SWM.

I just found another thread where someone with a W520 did the recovery from R&R after removing the internal HDD leaving only the 310 mSATA and it worked. It does sound like there are some tasks around moving some of the partitions/folders to the HDD so that you can reclaim some SSD space but I can work through that. I really want to have 30gig or so free to do some VMware work from SSD if possible.

Rick

[Adamp]

I performed my (clean Windows x64) mSata install without the hdd installed. After installing windows, I reinstalled the main hdd.

[rickh925]

After the clean install is there some way to quickly gain the functionality of the goodies in the ThinkPad? ToolBox, finger reader, Smart Card...? Sorry if this is a noob question.

[Colonel O'Neill]

You can use ThinkVantage System Update to automatically download everything. You'll only get part of the Enhanced Experience 2.0 though.

[rickh925]

I removed the internal HDD leaving only the 310 mSATA and booted the R&R external USB. The recovery process ran and I chose to install all data (Windows partition plus data) and it ran. Now I'm up an running with just the mSATA drive (for now). The original internal HDD still has the R&R partition as does the internal mSATA drive. Another post says that I can move the R&R partition to another drive but I may just make some DVDs or something and be done with it. I can always install from TechNet media if needed at a later date.

Thanks for the help.

[ferganer80]

So I opened the mSata slot on my T420 and there are two wires/leads for the WWAN. What di you, guys, do with those when you installed your mSatas? Thanks.

[rickh925]

The leads fit under the mSata drive in my t520.

[hman]

Rickh925, and others,

I was thinking of cloning the OS partition after installing the mSATA drive. I thought
this would be easier, and would keep a backup system on the HDD. Do you see flaws in
this plan, or gotchas that I'm not realizing?

1) Use stock system set up by Lenovo on HDD
2) Create separate system and data partitions on the HDD (with PartitionMagic)
3) Add programs, etc. - set the system up as desired
4) install mSATA drive
5) Clone the system partition(s) to the mSATA drive (this is the step I'm not sure about)
- can this be done? I believe someone did this using Acronis software
6) Either erase, or simply hide the system partition(s) that are on the HDD. Hiding it would
keep it in reserve in case the mSATA dies for some reason.

RSVP, and thanks in advance.

[ferganer80]

Has anyone tried GPT formatting the mSata to take advantage of the UEFI?

[zygomatic]

Quick question--where did you get the screws necessary to install the mSATA drive? I just received an Intel 310, and it arrived without screws.

[bdmclacken]

Maybe you can borrow one from the WLAN card?

[Deleau]

Quick question--where did you get the screws necessary to install the mSATA drive? I just received an Intel 310, and it arrived without screws.

I just installed an Intel 310 80GB mSATA drive into my W520 tonight, and the W520 had a screw there waiting for me. Between that and the WWAN leads taped to the underlying plastic, it almost seems Lenovo expects us to be installing SSDs in that slot.

[zygomatic]

I'd feel better if the WLAN was completely secured...

After a bit of searching through the thinkpad manual (for the x220), I think the necessary screw is a "M2 × 3 mm, wafer-head, nylon-coated"

These are pretty cheap online (http://www.parts-people.com/index.php?a ... em&id=5012). I'm still not certain whether extra screws are necessary though. The OEM mSATA Intel 310s sold online are all screwless.

Edit: ah, thanks for the info Deleau. Looking forward to the install.

[rickh925]

My OEM 310 also came without a screw. My t520 did have the single mounting screw already in the hole closest to the front of the slot. On my chassis, there is only one screw and a short peg that goes into the hole on the 310 closest to the LCD. I can take a picture if it would help although it may take some time to post. Let me know if a picture would help.

[thinkstone]

Rickh925, and others,

I was thinking of cloning the OS partition after installing the mSATA drive. I thought
this would be easier, and would keep a backup system on the HDD. Do you see flaws in
this plan, or gotchas that I'm not realizing?

1) Use stock system set up by Lenovo on HDD
2) Create separate system and data partitions on the HDD (with PartitionMagic)
3) Add programs, etc. - set the system up as desired
4) install mSATA drive
5) Clone the system partition(s) to the mSATA drive (this is the step I'm not sure about)
- can this be done? I believe someone did this using Acronis software
6) Either erase, or simply hide the system partition(s) that are on the HDD. Hiding it would
keep it in reserve in case the mSATA dies for some reason.

RSVP, and thanks in advance.

I tried a similar approach (on my W520) and it can be done, even though I ended up differently. Here are some of my experiences, maybe they are helpful.
- When I tried to reduce the size of the Windows partition on the HDD with the Windows 7 Disk Management tool (which can reclaim unused space from a partition), it only allowed me to reduce the size down to about 200 GB (of a 500 GB HDD), even though I only had about 40 GB used. It turned out that in the middle of the disk there were some system files (MFT?) that couldn't be moved with the internal tools. Maybe PartitionMagic can move this, I don't know.
- As some others already described in other threads, I put in the mSata SSD, took out the HDD, and then used the (previously created) Factory Restore Disks to restore the factory image on the SSD. I did that because I assumed it would take care of SSD alignment and system partitions (which it did). Not all partition cloning software seems to take that into consideration.
- When I put the HDD back in afterwards, I could boot into either disk with the F12 boot menu. I wasn't quite sure how the system assigned drive letters depending on how I booted. I didn't spend a lot of time with trying to assign fixed letters. I would have wanted to have the booted Windows 7 drive always as C and the data partition on the HDD always as D. It didn't do that. Maybe it can be done with further manipulation.
- The original HDD and the SDD after restore have a 1 GB SYSTEM_DRV partition at the beginning, which is obviously needed on the boot drive. The one on the non-boot drive showed up with a drive letter.
- Maybe partitions can be hidden with some other software or boot manager, but I didn't want to install any of them.
- After having both drives installed, I could copy the larger Win7 partition from the HDD to the Win7 partition on the SDD with a free tool called Mini Tool Partition Wizard.
- When I tried to use the same tool to make the HDD into one large data disk without a Win7 boot partition, it messed up the system on both drives. But that can be done by using the boot CD version of this tool or with some other partition tool.
- I ended up loading the factory image again onto the SSD, making the HDD into a non-bootable data disk (by using the previously mentioned tool from a boot CD), and building my system on the SSD. I'll take a couple of backups after I'm pretty much done building it and could restore those to the HDD if anything should happen with the SSD.
- One consequence that I couldn't undo was that now the blue ThinkVantage button doesn't start setup any more when I press it at boot time, instead it loads a recovery menu. Not a big issue for me, as I can still enter setup with F1.
- In general I am happy with my setup now.
- One more thing: first I tried to back up my HDD with Lenove Rescue & Recovery and restore it onto the SSD. That did not work. R&R doesn't seem to be able to restore to a smaller disk size. It stopped with an error that there was not enough space on the disk. As mentioned above, the HDD had some system files in the middle of the disk. Another consequence of using R&R was that Win7 had the SSD offline when I had both disks in because of duplicate drive id (or something similar). So it seems R&R clones this drive id.

[redhook]

This would be the unit....

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... -_-Product

The only problem is finding them in stock.

[crohit]

I have T420 with a Toshiba 128GB SSD in the main HDD slot. Its size does not look like that I can move it into the WWAN location.
What are my options to add another 7200RPM drive?
Pls advise.

[ZaZ]

None. The only set up that allows for two internal drives is one with a msata drive in the mini-pci slot and a drive in the the main bay.

[crohit]

Thanks for quick reply. Essentially, my only option is to use the ultrabay to add another HDD.
Hence, I can have either the optical (dvd-rw) OR the second hdd at any point in time.

Also, since my Toshiba SDD is in the main HDD slot, I can still use the WWAN
slot to add another Intel SSD.

Correct?

[Ankerre]

On a similar topic, I am looking at buying the T420 (Core i7-2640M (2.80 GHz, 4MB L3, 1333MHz, Intel HD Graphics 3000) with the 128GB SSD SATA. I assume that the configuration / connections etc for the SSD will be compatible for a HHD. So, I can take the SSD out, replace it with a HHD 750 - Yes? My problem at present is that when all software is on loaded, plus Win 7, the threshold seems to be around 300 GB. I use ArcGIS and it grinds to a halt. Any heads up on this appreciated.

[wolfman]

Hello and welcome to the forum.
In that case, I'd do what I did (see system in sig below) - add an ultrabay HDD adapter (the company newmodeus at the top of the forum page sells them) and put the 750gb drive in the ultrabay instead of the DVD drive. You then have fast boot for the OS and critical applications on the SSD and the other apps and data can run off the platter drive in the ultrabay slot.

[Ankerre]

OK, Thanks Wolfman, very good. I had to look up the "ultrabay" jargon and still a bit uncertain but will follow the dots. Couple of other questions.
Do you agree with the earlier recommendations regarding the particular variety of 750 HHD?
Will the Windows 7 64 bit "Home edition" be any drawback to operation or should I get a Professional version?
I assume that this issue has been discussed in other topics but seeing as you have just been through a configuration decision making thought you would have an opinion.
Thanks.