Installing mSATA ssd guide

Hello folks,

This is a guide on how to install an mSATA ssd. Adding an ssd disc will greatly improve the speed of your computer, your computer starts up faster and load files faster. Someone once said "The MacBook Air is faster than the MacBook Pro". The MBA has an ssd disc while most MBP's dont, the MBP has the much better processor and graphics tho. The speed of your harddisc will be more important in all day use than a fast processor.
The read speed of HDD harddisc is typicly around the 50 MB/s, the highest read speed of any HDD is 120MB/s. Normal SSD's read at 500 MB/s. Another advantage of the SSD is the time they can acces data, they dont have any moving parts so they can acces them much faster. Not having moving parts has another advantage, they are much less prone to being thrown around with.

The main difference between normal SATA ssd and the mSATA is the way they are integrated in your computer. The SATA must be put in a hard drive bay where the mSATA can be put on a slot on your motherboard. When you install an mSATA you can keep your HDD and use it for mass storage and use the mSATA to store important progams and your OS.
Always check if you have an mSATA slot when you want to install an mSATA otherwise you will have bought it for nothing and check if you can open your laptop. If you got both it is a very easy and cheap way to make your laptop much faster.

The model i have bought is the OCZ Nocti 60 GB mSATA. OCZ is not the best company for ssd's nor is it fast. The read spead is only 280MB/s but it was a special offer.


The model where it will be put into is the MSI GE60.

The first thing which you MUST DO is make a back up of your OS and burn it on some DVD's. When you dont do this you wont be able to install the SSD. I used MSI burn recovery but not all laptops have this so i wont go in on making a back up of your OS. Note that this takes a while do burn al those discs. Installing an ssd is not an operation which is done in half an hour it took more a whole morning 10 to 2 to do it.

Then after you made your back up you have to open your laptop so you can put the SSD in its slot. First remove the battery and then get rid of the screws. Then you can remove the back panel which covers the hardware and your motherboard. Time to get your hands dirty ,)

The arows points to where you have to but the ssd card. Just slide it in plain and simple. After you have done that make sure it is properly secured by a screw. Make sure you have one i didnt get one with my ssd Now your mSATA disc is well secured and sits nicely in your motherboard.



You can now close you laptop again and start it up. The system isnt adapted yet on having an extra mSATA so you have to run the backup. First insert the 1rst dvd with the back up. When you start hit F11 for the boot menu and choose to start from the dvd, the first one here. Now you run the recovery from the dvd´s durned earlyer.

then strike any key to boot the dvd and run the windows set up. Then i was running the MSI recovery system again but i think any notebook will have such a program. From now on it is pretty straigh forward and do what is said in the windows. It might take a while running the recovery and you have to stay allert and change the dvd´s when needed.

Then start up your machine again and run the BIOS, pres the delete key and go to the harddisc scetion and choose the newly installed SSD to be your boot drive.

I hope this helped even tho it will probably be full of gramatical errors. And good luck with installing your own ssd!

 

I now got my ssd for a few days and evrything is finaly working fine. I´d not advise anyone to get a 60gb which is really quite small. After only installing windows it was already half full. To not get it too full i made new folders in the my HDD mass storage. I moved the Downloads to the other disc as well as creating a new Programs & Files. I now install new programs on the D drive so my mSATA doesnt get too full. You can not move whole folders from the SSD to the HDD. I tried to move the whole Programs and Files to the HDD but it didnt work files got all shaterd over both disks and i had to reistall windows again. It is wise to just make new folders in the D drive and use them instead of the SSD.

The preformance ugrade was nice. My computer boots up really fast now. Without the ssd installed my system scored 1750 points on PassMark system score after having installed the SSD it was 2250. The SSD disc itself scored around the 1350 mark. Despite it being too small i am very happy with my new ssd and it is investment worth making!

 

Thanks! This looks like a good breakdown.

A more technical breakdown (for anyone interested) to differentiate the two can also be found here: Serial ATA - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"Mini-SATA, which is distinct from the micro connector, was announced by the Serial ATA International Organization on September 21, 2009. Applications include netbooks and other devices that require a smaller solid-state drive. The connector is similar in appearance to a PCI Express Mini Card interface, and is electrically compatible; however, the data signals (TX±/RX± SATA, PETn0 PETp0 PERn0 PERp0 PCI-express) need connection to the SATA host controller instead of the PCI-express host controller. Due to the absence of a standard for quite some time, there is still some confusion around this subject. For host devices which support either an mSATA SSD or mini-PCIe card interchangeably, this application note from NXP explains how to use a PCI-express/SATA router chip. This chip is essentially a four-channel bi-directional multiplexer. The vast majority of computer motherboards however have single-purpose headers which may support one of either an mSATA SSD or mini-PCIe card, but not both interchangeably. The fit-PC3 with board revision 2.3 supports 1 Mini-PCIe/mSATA device internally. Earlier fit-PC3 boards only support mini-PCIe."

 

Hi,

my msata ssd was invisible in disk management.
on this web site look at "The Definitive Guide to Clean Install OS on a mSSD..."

When I found this guide (THANKS!) I thought it solved my invisible mSATA drive problem.
... By running rapid storage technology as author indicated.
Unfortunately, I did not have rapid storage technology loaded.
(presumably, because i did not have an mSATA cache on my system)
Loading the "rapid storage technology driver update" FROM HP FOR MY HP MODEL NUMBER, fails. HP? get it together.
Then I wasted lots of time, because i reasoned if it isn't loaded it cannot be hiding the physical disk. (wrong).

Anyway, go to intel.com, download the entire install package for Intel rapid storage technology, there is an English and international version.
DON"T just download the driver, it won't install.

All i had to do was install the package and reboot.
magically, the disk shows up in my disk management system program.

I suppose your system may vary, so you may need to also follow the author's steps below
and the steps from the author of "The Definitive Guide to Clean Install OS on a mSSD Cache Equipped Laptop (dv6t-7000, dv7t-7000, Envy17-3200)"
on this forum.

good luck