Using the mSATA Slot in a ZBook 15

I am going to add a SSD to my Zbook.
Ideally, I would like to add a Crucial M550 512GB SSD in the mSATA slot and keep the hard drive where it is for music and videos. I would really like to add a Blu Ray writer in the optical bay so I dont want to move the hard drive there.
Can I use the mSATA slot for running the OS and programs? Or is it designed for hard drive caching only? If I can run programs from the mSATA slot, will it run slower than if I had it installed in the SATA III slot?
Thanks much!

Hi,
Firstly the " Crucial M550 512GB SSD" won't fit physically. Secondly please read the following discussions:
http://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Hardware-Upgrades-Replacements/set-msata-as-boot-drive-in-bios/td-p/281...
http://blog.laptopmag.com/install-msata-ssd-tutorial
Regards.
BH
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Any ideas on the best Config for RAID-0 on the Precision M6800 using SSD's (and the mSATA slot)

Hi, I have an M6800 on order that has a single 500GB 7200RPM hard drive. I am going to upgrade the storage the day it arrives (removing the 500GB drive and not utilizing it at all). I plan on setting up an SSD RAID-0 array and want to take advantage of the mSATA slot if possible.
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Hi Ential,
Thanks for the info, I thought my question would go unanswered forever. I posted the question in January, and I have since set up the computer. Below I will detail my research and the configurations of drives that I have used on my M6800 since the time I posted the question you answered. Perhaps the results of my research and testing might help you.
I originally I bought the same exact model SSD's that Dell sells with the computer thru their website;    the LiteOn 512GB drives (mSata & SATA), I configured them in RAID-0. The LiteOn drives are sold under the brand name Plextor, I found the proper model numbers by looking at the SSD drive firmware upgrade file from the Dell support website.
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Since I have 200GB of unallocated space, I am able to have more sustained deletion and writing of data between TRIM/Garbage Collection runnninng than I would ever utilize without affecting the performance of the drive. Basically most SSD drives have performance decrease throughout the day until the TRIM process is completed by the drives firmware, so Samsung instructed me to leave at least 10% of the drive space unallocated to limit that problem. Smaller drives likely need a higher percentage of space unallocated as compared to larger drives since the daily amount of read/write operations is typically the same regardless of drive size.   The amount of space left unallocated/overprovisioned is based upon the amount of read/write operations done on any given drive, not based on the size of the drive itself. If you run drive intensive applications, you would then want to overprovision more GB of drive space, if you have light use of the drive then you can overprovision/unallocate less GB of drive space (all of the configuration info regarding overprovisioning and TRIM was given to me by a Samsung specialist over the telephone - I called their tech support phone number and got a storage specialist to talk to me).
I will look into the SATA version on the optical bay, I never thought about that with this computer. My prior computer was a Dell XPS 17 3D (L702X) notebook which had 2 internal 2.5" SATA, in which I installed an optical bay drive. On that specific computer the optical bay was technically an SATA 3, but due to design constraints it couldnt run at that speed since there was voltage leakage across some pathways in the chipset when the optical bay has read-write throughput that is typical of a hard drive (as opposed to much less data transfer typically seen on an optical drive).  The M6800 can be factory configured with an optical bay hard drive, so I suspect it can support one properly. The XPS 17 was not available with an optical bay drive as an OEM configuration from Dell, so it couldnt be expected to properly support one. The design issue with the voltage leak across the chipset pathways on the XPS 17 was known by Dell, but due to the low bandwidth of an optical drive, the problem never occured with any of the factory OEM configurations.
It is possible that the optical bay hard drive offered by Dell (the exact OEM Drive installed by Dell) could have an internal limitation to SATA 2 due to a similar design limitation. It would not be surprising if an SATA channel designed for optical drives had SATA 2 speed since I suspect there is no SATA Optical drives that could use more than 3GB/s of data anyway.
I purchased 2 of the 2TB 2.5" hard drives that Dell uses for OEM configurations for this computer, they are Samsung 5400 RPM drives. I have one in a 2.5" internal bay and the other in the optical bay - I converted my Blu Ray Recorder/Writer drive to an external drive. I will do some extended time speed tests on the optical bay drive to see if its performance matches the internal drive (which is the same exact model drive - I have 2 of the same Seagate 2TB drives installed with the same firmware).
I use the pair of 2TB drives to store .vhd and .vhdx drives for test platforms for Hyper-V machines. The virtualized servers with high hard drive utilization get moved to the SSD RAID-0 array, the rest are stored on the 4TB rotational drives.
If you have any questions or comments for me, please let me know. I will see what info I can find on the optical bay SATA revision for this notebook, I am very curious to find out if it is in fact SATA 2. I will let you know what my test results are, I will try to use the AS SSD benchmark program, I believe it will work with rotational drives, otherwise I will find another benchmark utility - do you have a recommendation on which to use?
Thanks again for your info and for pointing out the possible limitation of the optical bay..

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T430s or T431s? and a key question concerning the T431s mSATA slot

T431s or T430s?
First let me apologize for my English, sorry if reading through this cause you any headache…
I gave away my T410 (bad bad decision) the day after I got a i7 Yoga 13 with 256G SSD, and bought a M4 256G which I planned to put in the free mSATA slot, only to find out i can't live with that yoga keyboard and that huge off-center touchpad which gets in the way all the time a few days later... anyway, end up returned that yoga13 and is using my heavily abused limping T500 now with a replaced motherboard... I was looking to go back to thinkpad and buy a T430s right away but Lenovo announced T431s one day afterwards. now i dont know what to choose, although leaning towards T431s a little bit.
things i'm looking for in my next laptop: first X1C is not an option for me, I can’t accept that screen with high dot pitch.
l weight: less than my T410, it doesnt have to be light as an Acer S7 or Samsung 9, just reasonably lighter, and as slim as possible.
l Processing power: doesn’t really matter, anything i5 or i7, M or U… all fine to me, I can run Lightroom, DPP and video processing applications on my desktop and I don’t play games. 8G or more RAM is needed.
l Storage: comes with 256GB SSD or user upgradeable to 256GB SSD is an absolute minimum requirement, but I really prefer any flexibility to configure a second drive, HDD or SSD, is a big plus, preferably HDD as the second drive.
l Screen: wouldn’t mind squeezing my eyes on a FHD screen, but I can only settle on a 900p, afterall I’m looking for a thinkpad, have to live with that screen, right?
l Tough… every one of my laptop gets dropped once or twice… many many times in the case of my old T410… so it needs to be tough…
l Not much else…
So, T431s is lighter, slimmer, user replaceable 7mm SSD, mSATA available (a concerning question later), all good, and I like the new look. And I don’t care much about the indicators, lid lock, flipped logo or that new touchpad (I think I can manage, maybe…).
So what do I have to sacrifice if I choose T431s? removable battery, ultrabay for optical drive and HDD, full voltage cpu, and possibly a couple hundred dollars… since we don’t know for sure how much optional parts will cost in customized build, and of course the risk of buying an unproven, newly designed product. Did I miss any other key point?
If I didn’t miss many advantages that T430s have, I probably should go with T431s, it was all good until I found a video which shows how to disassembled a T431s (http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XNTI5NzIxMzg4.html) and at about 4 mins in, it shows that the WWAN card is secured by a single retaining screw in the middle on the outer edge, unlike typical mSATA SSD which should be secured on the 2 corners of the board. Does this mean users can no longer install a mSATA SSD on T431s? if so, I can only have one 7mm SSD instead of having OS installed on a 256G mSATA, and have a 500G HDD to storage all the photos and videos, which I was intended to do, that maybe a deal breaker…
I don’t really understand these hardware upgrades, can some one please tell me for sure whether the mSATA slot on T431s, as shown in the video, can be used to intall a regular mSATA SSD. If I can, I’ll probably still struggle to make the decision, if it can’t be used to install SSD, T430s it is.
Any help is appreciated!
Kai
Solved!
Go to Solution.

thanks, yes, it's the new NGFF M.2, and the new form factor is a lot more complicated than the old mSATA slot, different dimensions for different storage size, and it maybe single side for WWAN, cashe drive, or double side for actual SSD perfermance...
if i'm gonna get a T431s, i'll just buy the 320G 5400RPM low end drive, make a recovery media from Win8, and reset to factory setting after intall a 512GB 840 Pro, or the much cheaper M4...

Is it possible to use an mSata drive as the primary drive?

Greeting everyone,
I recently bought an HP ENVY Phoenix 810 whiich comes with the MS-7826 (Kaili) motherboard which has an mSata slot with a 16gb msata ssd in it, but it's only being used as a cache. So my question is, is it possible to use the mSata drive as as the main bootable drive along with 3 other hard drives? I'm planning to install a 256 msata ssd along with 3 4tb hd, but want to use the msata as the main one. Is it possible, if so how?
I've come across a few forums where they were having problems with the same thing where they were able to use it as the main drive but as soon as they installed the original bootable drive they system will not boot since the drive didn't have an operating system installed in it and it wont boot from the mSata even though the os was installed onto the mSata. Any ideas?
Thanks in advance.

JCCR510, welcome to the forum.
The mSATA drive in the computer can only be used as cache and not as a boot drive. This is the way that HP has it setup.
You certainly can buy a SATA SSD and install it. As you can see in my signature below, I have Samsung EVO 840 SSD in my 810-135qe. It works great.
Please click the "Thumbs up + button" if I have helped you and click "Accept as Solution" if your problem is solved.
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SATA 6Gb/s support with mSATA slot in the T530?

How would I find out if the mSATA slot in my T530 will support SATA 6.0 Gbps? I have an Intel 7 Series/C216 Chipset with a core i7-3520M.
Solved!
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I used the forum's Search function. That led me to several posts including T430s mSATA speed? (see someotherguy's post of 11-06-2012 09:54 AM) and T530, what are the sata speeds? (see lead_org's post of 20-11-2012 12:35 PM.) Both are well-informed and well-respected posters on this site.
Cheers... Dorian Hausman
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ENVY Touchsmart 15 J000 Series (J001TX) Optional mSATA slot for installing Windows?

I wanted to ask
1. whether we can install a mSATA drive of 60-120 GB in the mSATA slot and use it as the place to install Windows? Would it be like having a dual hard disc setup if windows is installed on the mSATA and the 5400 rpm HDD is formatted? I know this might affect the warranty but still i am curious.
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This question was solved.
View Solution.

Tornado7 wrote:
I wanted to ask
1. whether we can install a mSATA drive of 60-120 GB in the mSATA slot and use it as the place to install Windows? Would it be like having a dual hard disc setup if windows is installed on the mSATA and the 5400 rpm HDD is formatted? I know this might affect the warranty but still i am curious.
2. Also is any particular mSATA drive models whitelisted/blacklisted by HP?
3. When we install a mSATA drive in the bay, does it affect the max RAM which we can use?
4. What is the size of the mSATA drive that would fit in the slot available?
5. Is the interface of the mSATA slot SATA II or SATA III?
Hi,
Q1: Yes you can install Windows on a mSATA module on this laptop..
http://forum.notebookreview.com/hp-envy-hdx/729085-envy-15t-j000-msata-ssd-hdd-fresh-install-msata-b...
I recommend to remove the hard drive if the how to doesn't say that. A mSATA module is compatible so I don't think it will affect the warranty.
Q2: Hard to answer this one but some guys already confirmed that Samsung PM830 256GB drives work with this series. Some other models also work, just search this forum..
Q3: The mSATA can be used as cache or a boot drive. If it's going to be used as cache it won't work with 12GB or more according to the manual for the laptop series. If it's going to be used as a boot drive there shouldn't be any limitation so you may use the max 16GB or so.
Q4: mSATA is a standard/interface/format so any mSATA SSD should fit the slot, the capacity doesn't matter.
Q5: As I said mSATA is an interface (slot), SATA II or III (speed) is a matter of the chipset on the motherboard. It's the same case like the typical SATA connection. The connectors and slots are the same but the speed is based by the chipset..
Dv6-7000 /Full HD/Core i5-3360M/GF 650M/Corsair 8GB/Intel 7260AC/Samsung Pro 256GB
Testing - HP 15-p000
HP Touchpad provided by HP
Currently on Debian Wheeze
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ENVY 15 J000 Series (J037el) Optional mSATA slot for installing Windows?

I wanted to askWe can install a mSATA drive of 250 GB in the mSATA slot and use it as the place to install Windows? Would it be like having a dual hard disc setup if windows is installed on the mSATA and the 5400 rpm HDD is formatted?

max91r wrote:
I wanted to askWe can install a mSATA drive of 250 GB in the mSATA slot and use it as the place to install Windows? Would it be like having a dual hard disc setup if windows is installed on the mSATA and the 5400 rpm HDD is formatted? Hi,It's definitely possible. However, you can't boot from the mSATA so it needs some adjustments to get it working. Browse this Hardware Upgrade section. I remember guys had it done on this series models with Windows 8.

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Thanks Larry
That is exactly what I have done today.
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Video
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Galin Iliev [MCSD.NET, MCPD], http://www.galcho.com

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