Adding an mSATA SSD to an X230

I gather in some parts of the world you can get an X230 with an HDD and an SSD (in place of the WWAN adapter) from the factory, but not in the US. So, I'm thinking of doing it myself. My plan would be to add the SSD before installing any of my own s/w, then move the OS from the HDD to the SSD with something like this (http://www.paragon-software.com/technologies/components/migrate-OS-to-SSD/). Set the HDD to unbootable in the BIOS and I'm pretty much done. I'd be interested in hearing comments from those who've done this, or who might have some advice even if they haven't. Thanks.

Involute,
you can clone HDD on msata SSD using some sw like Acronis or Intel (free of charge tool if you use msata SSD from Intel). Install msata SSD, install smth cloning sw on HDD and do it. This solution is better if you have fully installed and tuned system.
If you want to get the system like from the factory just make a Factory_Recovery media, remove HDD, insert msata SSD and launch new image installation. Then insert HDD.
In both case you'll get all 3 partitions on both drives. Then repartition them for youself. You can even delete Lenovo_Recovery partition on system (msata SSD) drive as you have recovery media.
Do not forget to change the boot priority within BIOS setup.
Note, for installation R&R on 2nd drive with installed on another (HDD) drive it'd be better to remove HDD from the bay temporary. After installation you'll get a system with working blue button.
x220 | i5-2520m | Intel ssd 320 series | Gobi 2000 3G GPS | WiFi
x220 | i5-2520m | hdd 320 | Intel msata ssd 310 series | 3G GPS | WiFi
Do it well, worse becomes itself
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Adding a msata ssd to l430 as boot drive

Is it possible to clone my standard 320 GB HD to a msata ssd and put it in the pci slot on my Lenovo L430 and use that as the boot drive and use the 320 gb HD for storage?

Hi,
As Hemanth points out, the stock mSATA SSD as shipped (if your L has one) is too small to use as a boot drive. The stock SSD is intended as a fast cache for the HDD.
However, it should be possible to install a larger capacity mSATA drive and clone to that - or fresh install via recovery media or MS media. This is commonly done with Thinkpads - mine included.
The mSATA slot is dual-purpose: WWAN or SSD. If you have a WWAN card installed the slot won't be available for an SSD.
Note that cloning will probably "kill" the local recovery partition. It will still be there but not usable for local recovery - so it is essentially wasted space.
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The large print: please read the Community Participation Rules before posting. Include as much information as possible: model, machine type, operating system, and a descriptive subject line. Do not include personal information: serial number, telephone number, email address, etc. The fine print: I do not work for, nor do I speak for Lenovo. Unsolicited private messages will be ignored. ... GeezBlog
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How to add mSata SSD as HDD cache (for Windows 8)?

Hi,
I have T430 with HDD and Windows 8, 64. I have installed a new 32 GB mSata SSD, but I cannot figure out a way to set it up as a cache.
I am aware of the solution where ExpressCache needs to be installed but I have Windows 8 and the below link does not apply:
http://support.lenovo.com/en_US/downloads/detail.page?DocID=HT074404
I have also tried installing Interl Rapid Storage software. It does show my SSD but there is no option to "Accelerate". Googling points out that in BIOS I need to change SATA mode to RAID, but I only have Compatible and AHCI options there. Installing latest BIOS and lates Intel Rapid Storage drivers did not help.
Any other options I might be missing? Looks like it is either Lenovo publishes ExpressCache for Win 8 or adds IRS / RAID support in BIOS.
--Pavel
Solved!
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Ok, I have figured it out. Turns out that ExpressCache link for Windows 7 works for Windows 8 as well. After installing it I had to remove the volume from the SSD using disk manager and then run from the admin command prompt (can get there using Win+X key combo):
eccmd -partition
This command automatically found my SSD (again trick here is to make sure it is wiped clean first - not formatted and not partitioned).
Now I can see the status and effectiveness of caching via:
eccmd -info
Impressive - about 60% of read operations right now are from SSD. System is way more responsive and boots faster. You can see even that HDD lamp lights up less frequently. I definitely recommend adding an msata SSD if you have a HDD T430!
PS. ExpressCache.exe which I assume is GUI does not start though, I had to use the command line.

X230: Questions regarding included 32GB msata SSD

Spoiler (Highlight to read)
Hi... I've got a couple of questions regarding the X230 offered in Singapore, which comes with a msata ssd:
"Up to 5x Boost 32GB Micro Solid State Drive Outperforms 5400rpm Drive "
I AM assuming this is a msata ssd?
http://shopap.lenovo.com/SEUILibrary/controller/e/sgweb/LenovoPortal/en_SG/special-offers.workflowho...
1) Given the limited size of this msata SSD (32GB), can I assume that only the operating system (Win 7) is installed here by default?
What about the folders under "My Documents", "My Pictures" and etc. Are they also installed into the SSD by default? I tend to leave all my work documents in that file, and it fills up pretty fast.
2) I assume that the recovery partition is still located in the 320GB SATA HDD(7200rpm)?
3) When I do a recovery from the Lenovo rescue/recovery programme (from the recovery partition), will Win 7 install correctly into the SSD, and not the HDD.
4) If I do a factory recovery using the recovery DVDs (which I will create as soon as I receive the x230), will everything be installed correctly? Windows 7 to SSD and recovery partition to HDD?
Thank you for your time!

the expressways software would make the 32 gigs mSATA a drive cache for the main HDD. Nothing is really installed on the mEATS, only files that are frequently used or predicted to be used frequently will be replicated on the mSATA.
Regards,
Jin Li
May this year, be the year of 'DO'!
I am a volunteer, and not a paid staff of Lenovo or Microsoft

X230 / mSATA SSD - Will not allow boot (unauthorized network card)

this is killing me. I just got a crucial msata ssd. i went to install and the thinkpad whitelist fcc crap is giving me trouble. the system thinks it a network card and is therefore stopping the boot. i see others have installed msata on x230 and I have done this on other models as well.
does anyone know a way around this that doesn't envolve changing the bios to a custom bios hack?

Hello,
I don't have an X230 myself, but have you tried using a different MiniPCIe slot? On my X220, only one of the MiniPCIe slots is mSATA compatible. Perhaps it is the same way with the X230.
Regards,
Aryeh Goretsky
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X230, formatting mSATA SSD affect to booting time?

Dear All,
I'm just using Thinkpad X230, it has 2 hdd : 500gb SATA & 32GB mSATA SSD, after creating DVD recovery, i formatted the 32GB mSATA, after formatted and use the drive as storage my booting time take too long, about 3 minutes.
Please help how restore my booting time (also restore the 32GB mSATA), i can't recover my x230 now because taking time very long (to backup the data, recovery and copy the data back)
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Wandy Effendi

you would need to reinstall the
Intel RST software and ExpressCache software on the X230's mSATA.
Regards,
Jin Li
May this year, be the year of 'DO'!
I am a volunteer, and not a paid staff of Lenovo or Microsoft

X230:Has anyone tried to install mSATA SSD as cache?

Hi
I want to install a third party mSATA SSD as cache to work next to my 320gb HDD.
I'm posting this thread as a new subject to my unresolved subject here.
If you've tried to do something similar with your mSATA SSD and succeeded (or even if failed), please share your know-how experience here.
Thank you
Mike

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Can we now install mSATA SSDs in our US X230s without voiding the warranty?

So it had been discussed before on this forum that installing a mSATA device on an X230 was a warranty voiding action (the part was listed as CSU instead of FSU). And we in the USA had no option to have one installed at all.
Now on Lenovo's site when I try to configure an x230 it says that you can order a mSATA compatible one under the different screen options.
I ordered a week or so ago, but does this mean we can now install them without voiding warrnaties?
Anyone from Lenovo have an opinion on this?
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Tout1108G wrote:
Hey there Coronadoisdead,
I would advise against installing the mSATA at this moment, as it may void your warranty. I assume you will be wanting to install this via the mini PCI-e slot available in the X230. In this installation a Field Service Only part would have to be removed to do the installation according to the hardware maintence manual page 70 (page 76 when navigating adobe reader). The palm rest, keyboard and battery pack will need to be removed, and the palm rest is the field service only part.
Now, there may be other options that we can look at to ensure you don't void your warranty. If you will, please private message me your serial number for your machine (if you have received it), so that I can take a look at your specific warranty information and see all what it covers. I'll be back in touch as soon as possible after your private message.
Thank You,
George
I respectfully disagree. Removing an FRU will not "void" the warranty unless the manufacturer (in thise Lenovo and not an independent (non-Lenovo owned but authorized)) determines that the modification (in this case removing the palmrest) caused or significantly contributed to whatever failure occurred.
In addition, since the mSATA is available in the rest of the world without any other modifications by Lenovo, Lenovo cannot legally claim that the mere presence of a mSATA is sufficient grounds to deny warranty service.
That said, this is the law and in practice it may be different. A Lenovo repair shop may incorrectly refuse warranty service (or even incorrectly use the term "voiding the warranty") and the customer may be left to resolve this issue in small claims court where they would prevail (but is it worth the hassle?)
As I've always said, be prepared to pay for any damage that your mods may cause and be prepared to educate people on the differences between "voiding the warranty" and refusing warranty service on a specific failure.

Added Intel 310 mSata SSD 80gb

I just finished migrating the System partition on the 500GB HDD to the Intel SSD card. The Windows Experience Index went from 5.9 to 6.9. The Disk access component was 7.6. Physical installation was easy, but migrating the software was a learning experience.
W520, i7-2820QM, BIOS 1.42, 1920x1080 FHD, 32 GB RAM, 2000M NVIDIA GPU, Samsung 850 Pro 1TB SSD, Crucial M550 mSata 512GB, WD 2TB USB 3.0, eSata Plextor PX-LB950UE BluRay
W520, i7-2760QM, BIOS 1.42 1920x1080 FHD, 32 GB RAM, 1000M NVIDIA GPU, Crucial M500 480GB mSata SSD, Hitachi 500GB HDD, WD 2TB USB 3.0

I used Ghost 15 to clone the C: partition on the OEM HDD instead of the Intel Data Migration Tool. I probably would have used the Intel tool had I been aware of it, but I bought the SDD as OEM and there was no documentation included. The Intel tool is an OEM version of Acronis Home which should work fine.
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W520, i7-2760QM, BIOS 1.42 1920x1080 FHD, 32 GB RAM, 1000M NVIDIA GPU, Crucial M500 480GB mSata SSD, Hitachi 500GB HDD, WD 2TB USB 3.0

Adding mSata SSD to my W520

Looking to add this SSD http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148613 to my W520. Any body with experience and recommendations?

I've just bought this mSata SSD for my brand new W530
I'm still waiting for the parcel delivery from Crucial UK.
This SSD should work perfectly on your W520.
Several users on this forum use this SSD on their W520 without any issue.
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MSI GE70 Apache Pro 0-61 msata SSD

Hello guyz,
I have recently ordered the above mentioned MSI laptop. As it does not come with an ssd. So i thought of adding one to it. After searching google i found that an msata ssd can be added to this model. I wanted to confirm here on the official msi forum. I am thinking of buying a Samsung Evo 840 msata ssd 250gb for this upgrade. Can you please confirm will this ssd be compatible with this laptop model ? and is it ok if i install a new OS (windows 8.1) on the new ssd for booting purpose and not deleting the old OS. Lastly please do confirm if the laptop has an extra msata ssd slot . As i have still not received the laptop so thought of ordering an msata to use it with. Waiting for your replies Thankyou

The GE70 should come with 2 mSATA sockets (I believe), assuming that there is none installed already.
Yes, the Samsung 840 EVO should work fine. (95% sure about that)
I would use the MSI Burn Recovery disks that you NEED TO MAKE when you first setup your notebook (I HIGHLY SUGGEST MAKING THESE) to reinstall Windows onto the SSD. I would remove your OLD HDD and install the SSD and then use those recovery disks to install the OS.

Can I install a mSATA ssd in my HP ENVY 17t-k000 CTO Notebook PC?

Can I install a mSATA ssd in my HP ENVY 17t-k000 CTO Notebook PC? Added a 250 gb SATA sdd and 8 gb memory chip today but could not find any way to also add a 250 gb mSATA sdd. I looked on the front and back side of the system board.
Should I return the Samsung 840 EVO mSATA SSD I bought from Newegg?
This question was solved.
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The Service Manual is no help whatsoever. It says an M.2 mSSD is supported on "select models" but there is no picture of it in the Manual or indication where it is on the "Select Models". Those that do have it use an M.2 version (three connector prongs not 2) so your 840 Evo would not work even if you had one of the "Select Models". I believe on those that have it the M.2 port is right on the motherboard so if you do not see it there you are not among the select.
Manual, FWIW
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Moving win 8.1 to msata ssd on U310 touch

Hi all;
Just upgraded the 24GB msata to a 120 GB msata and I'm having trouble cloning the hard drive over to the ssd with Clonezilla. The plan is to move the OS to the msata ssd and wiping the original hard dirve and using it for back-up and storage. The BIOS is current set to AHCI with Lagency OS support active but trying UEFI first. I've done this before with win 7 systems; but this is my first foray into win 8.1 w/UEFI. The system does reconize and access the 120 GB Crucial M500 msata disk; it just won't mirror the 8, win-8 partitions. I reinstalled the HD and rebooted the system; to ensure I didn't mess something up and everything seems to be working; though on the slow hard drive.
Any help with this will be greatly appreciated.
PS. I did boot from the USB drive with Clonzillia on it and used the drive to drive cloning option
Solved!
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Here is what I did for all the issues.
I had installed Ubuntu in this machine. Forgot the steps I did to install Ubuntu. Later I decided to upgrade the machine with 8 GB memory and 250 GB samsung EVO 480 mSATA. The problem was moving win 8 to mSATA.
The bios had many boot entries
1. Windows Boot manager
2. HDD western Digital
3. Ubuntu
and many more.
By the way the, machine (with prebuilt win8) has SATA mode in ACHI, Boot mode in UEFI and Secure Boot Enabled and USB boot enabled by default. you can disable secure boot by first setting admin password.
I tried cloning HDD to SSD using Acronis True Image Western Digital version (Its free). But it could not clone rather it added an entry "Acronis loader" in Bios and there is no any way to remove bios entries or at least I could not find the way to remove.
during linux install, I had resized the win OS partition to create Ubuntu partition. I had no issue with the bios at that time. But when I deleted the linux partition, I no longer could access the bios again until I reflashed with bios file given here. https://forums.lenovo.com/t5/IdeaPad-Y-U-V-Z-and-P-series/U310-can-no-longer-access-bios/td-p/896225... It really works for U310 touch.
Sorry for my whole story. you probably dont need to bother with the things I said above. Now below is what I did to install windows 8 on mSATA
A) Created UEFI bootable USB Win 8 install drive
I had win8 pro retail DVD image with serial Key. But in fact, you don't need the serial key. If you find win 8 installation DVD any way, it works because the win8 key is burned in your system Bios (Probably)
1. Insert USB drive ( 8GB or more, probably 4 gb works But I had 8)
2. make it UEFI bootable
go to cmd (command prompt)
diskpart
list disk
select disk # (# is disk number of USB drive)
clean
create partition primary
select partition 1
active
format quick fs=fat32
assign
exit
exit
Now insert win8 installation dvd / mount win8 iso image
go to cmd (command prompt again) and copy the win8 installation files to USB
xcopy d:\* f:\ /s /e
here d is win8 dvd/ win 8 iso drive letter and f is USB drive letter
once the copy process finishes,
exit
turn off the computer. remove the regular HDD. If you don't remove HDD, the new installation will add another boot menu for windows that is already in your HDD.
3. Insert newly created bootable USB drive
4. press the NOVO button(One key recovery button), go to bios setup, change the first boot device to USB, disable secure boot. you dont need to change UEFI boot and ACHI SATA operation.
5. save and exit.
Now your computer boots from the USB drive you created. The installation process starts. select clean install, select mSATA drive. and wait for the installation to finish. The installation will never ask you to enter the win 8 serial key. as you complete the installation, the win 8 will automatically be activated without all the bloatwares Lenovo ships with their laptop. In my case, I had win8 pro retail DVD, but the install activated Win8 only.
Delete the win OS partition of HDD but dont delete its recovery partitions in case If you need the recovery in future.
Note: The Recovery function of NOVO button is now useless. But you can use NOVO button for boot selection and bios setup. In fact, If you have any windows8 installation DVD/image ( you dont need serial key) , the recovery partition of your laptop is virutally useless as you can always recover your windows by 10 minute installation rather than waiting hours for recovery from recovery partition.
Hope this helps.

New Intel Chipset and SATA3 mSATA SSDs

Since the 4th generation Intel processors are coming, that means they'll probably support the 4th generation chipsets, QM87 in particular for us.
Since the QM87 chipset supports four SATA3 lanes, I hope this means I'll be able to run an mSATA SSD at SATA3 speeds instead of SATA2.
The speed differences are negligible for humans, but it would be nice to get what I paid for.

There are existing systems with 6 Gbps mSATA ports. The port in the W530 is only 3 Gbps because there is a limit of two 6 Gbps SATA lanes in the QM77 chipset, and Lenovo thought they would be better used for the 2.5" bay and the Ultrabay. Adding more 6 Gbps SATA lanes allows for the mSATA port in the existing design to use 6 Gbps SATA.
NGFF/M.2 supports SATA Express (12 Gbps) as well as 6 Gbps SATA, but will of course require an additional port in the notebook due to the different form factor.
Thinkpad W530, i7-3720QM, 1920x1080 screen, 32GB RAM, dual SSDs (Samsung 830, Crucial M4 mSATA), Quadro K2000M, 9-cell battery, DVD burner, backlit keyboard, Bluetooth, Intel 6300 wireless card

Can i install a 32gb msata ssd drive on my hp envy 6 1002tx laptop?

can i install a 32gb msata ssd drive on my hp envy 6 1002tx laptop?
Is their any msata port in my laptop motherboard?
is their any problem by installing msata in my laptop?

Hi,
Please check the following documnet to find down a slot on the system board because this is an option:
http://bizsupport2.austin.hp.com/bc/docs/support/SupportManual/c03282148/c03282148.pdf
Regards.
BH
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Adding an mSATA SSD to an X230

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