MSATA to PATA adapters exist, upgrading really old laptops possible?

So, things like this exist now.
M-sata to pata(ide)
http://www.ebay.com/itm/mSATA-SSD-t...apter-to-laptop-2-5-inch-44-pin-/271989715421

http://www.ebay.com/itm/131713720112?_trksid=p2055119.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT
Really cheap small msata drives of unknown quality


So upgrading really old laptops for novelty purposes is possible I guess.

Question is this, since XP doesn't support trim, is there a manual way to do it?
Does puppy linux support trim?

Its an interesting option to make these old things relatively "fast", since drives of that era are becoming scarce.

 

an arstechnica thread mentioning this method.
https://archive.is/PvGQO
no answer on the trim issue there either.

 

@woodenspoon why on Earth would you want to install that buggy old piece of software on any PC? Modern Windows (8.1) runs well on Core 2 era machines, OK even on single core junk - and then there's Linux. Also, these adapters have been around for ages.

More to the point, those SSDs will run OK without TRIM if you overprovision them by 30%.

 

Attaching an SSD to an IDE port is going to severely limit the SSD to IDE speeds. Any SSD you attach with that connector will be limited to 133 MB/s max. There are a number of hard drives that run faster than that! So while you CAN do it, I don't see a reason WHY to do it.

 

Well, pata is very old, so hardware of that era tends to be marginal with newer o/s's.
I guess you mean over provision through a partition smaller than capacity, I guess that could work.

This is true and false. Max throughput of ssd's in sequential read and write is going to be limited by any old interface, whether sata 3 or pata. But the vast majority of read writes in windows normal usage are random, where most ssd's only reach double digit speeds, so the difference is not as large as you'd believe.
Mechanical Harddrives have quoted specs for sequential access, their random read write performance can be single digits, that's the difference.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/ssd-upgrade-sata-3gbps,3469-15.html
shows the real world difference between sata 3 vs 6 to be inconsequential in real world usage.

Here's a regular modern desktop harddrive, the random 4k read write transfer in iometer are sub 1MB/s
http://www.storagereview.com/hitachi_deskstar_7k4000_review

 

@woodenspoon it will work. I was going to use some SSDs in RAID 1 environment (i.e. no TRIM) and made some research prior, reading various forums where people actually described their, RAID 0+1 mostly, SSD experience.. Bottom line was, overprovision enough and it will be more or less OK. Of course it's theoretically worse for health of the drive than TRIM with lesser overprovision, but on cheapest drives limited by PATA speeds - who cares, really? If you want to read on the subject, search for articles about utilizing SSDs in RAID - because that's the only modern scenario that doesn't involve TRIM.

Regarding OS, 7 actually will run well too, but 8.1 and 10 are actually much snappier even on powerful enough machines (faster boot, faster launching programs - even on SSD). I`m not sure about 10 on really old hardware, because it is buggy enough as it is - but 8.1 is great for that, just give it a try. And, obviously, if there's any chance end users of these machines will be satisfied by Linux - that'd be the OS of choice.

 

I wonder what Windows aside from XP will fit 24GB drive wih overprovision or without. And you can't use disable-pagefile hack because old IDE/PATA-based laptops are lucky to have 2 GB of RAM while most will have 1GB or less.

Back to topic. Can anybody confirm that this works at all and what laptops confirmed? If this works I plan to recover old HP nc6000, add that 24gb ssd (presumebly oem samsung) and it will be used as type-machine whithout big miss of lost or being stolen.
P.S. Does it use mini-PCIEfor sure or perhaps sata drives BTW?

 

Ah ok. There maybe some manual trim tool but I'm guessing its ssd manufacturer specific.
The interesting thing about windows 10 is its light weight nature, but downside is the 64bit extensions and NX bit requirement means older cpus as far as I can see are not supported.

There seems to be a way to enable trim support under puppy linux, frugal install and enabling discard.
http://techgage.com/article/enabling_and_testing_ssd_trim_support_under_linux/
http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=63959&sid=01cc15e3b1e78c3e8e4384caf2e03321

As far as I can tell this does work.
Puppy linux/reg edited xp for continued updates seem to be the best option.
I would assume the really cheap msata are sata?

 

@James D any Windows will fit in 16GB, even 7.

@woodenspoon yes, as the name implies. (=

 

And leave OS either without any program to install afterwards or without updates? Without updates it becomes same old and insecure peace of software. You can't scratch enough space even moving Temp & Library folders and deleting hibernation file.

I think those cheap msata SSDs are truly sata-based and not PCI-e. But what SSDs are needed for that converter? Because here I see PCI-Express, not that it is always true what you read on eBay. But googling the chip model number jm20330 I found datasheet telling it's Serial ATA Bridge which probably means it supports SATA-based drives mSATA and not PCI-E-based mSATAs. Who knows.

Additional thing to note. There are 5V boards, 3V boards and boards with 3V<>5V jumper! The one containing jumper is obviously more expensive. For typical laptop you need 5Volt one which should have big 4 leg chip which is on the left on the image.

Spoiler

 

Good to know.
Had not taken voltage into account, msata is a mess.
Lol at the bent pin

 

In the case of NO TRIM, it is best to over-provision by 20% and do an occasional secure-erase. Or find an SSD that has aggressive garbage collection. I know Kingston's have been known for this, so TRIM is effectively unnecessary.

 

Is this still true for their more recent drives? I remember them being aggressive with GC in the past, but haven't kept up with their recent offerings. I'm kinda interested by this purely from a knowing things standpoint.

 

I don't think there is a mSATA PCIe SSD, all of them are SATA. Only M.2 has SATA/PCIe

 

@Raidriar technically you're right - these are called mini PCIe SSDs. They share form-factor with mSATA, and mSATA drives are often referred to as mini PCIe SSDs for that very reason, causing confusion. Anyway, true mini PCIe SSDs are expensive outdated crap compared to mSATA, not worth any attention.

 

Found a video where you can notice that some SSD like Kingspec nare not fit firmly due to that voltage chip and you need longer screws.

 

Interesting, thanks, yes many of the vids related seem to be russian

 

Well, even in Ukraine dealing with IDE-based laptops is considered as necrofilia so it's not a surprise why you can't find such videos in rich, n0n-postsoviet countries. I'd like to recover my HP nc6000 due to warm feelings about how I played NFS Underground 2 on old notebook I played NFS Underground 2. Just for this.