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    Crucial mSATA on W520 - installation problems

    Discussion in 'Lenovo' started by andy789, Jul 22, 2012.

  1. andy789

    andy789 Notebook Consultant

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    Hello all,

    I have just received my Crucial mSATA 256GB and am trying to make it work:

    1. Installed it into mSATA slot and started Win 7. It spotted a new device;I got a message - "Your device is ready to use." At the same time it has been showing a message "Searching preconfigured driver folders..."

    2. The drive appeared in the list of Disks under Disk Management. I initialized it and run quick format.

    3. Restarted the system. It shows quickly Lenovo loading screen and then hangs up. Cannot even get to a Safe mode.

    Any suggestions?

    Thanks!

    PS. All Fixed! It was because of the boot order - the new mSATA was on the top of boot devices. After I moved it down, everything works fine.
     
    andy789, Jul 22, 2012
    #1
  2. Kaso

    Kaso Notebook Virtuoso

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    256GB mSATA SSD. Awesome. Never thought I would see a large mSATA SSD on the market so soon.
     
    Kaso, Jul 22, 2012
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  3. andy789

    andy789 Notebook Consultant

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    Playing with the new toy... it seems that all Read speeds are too low comparing with ~500MB/s as advertised and tested by thessdreview. This is my AS SSD benchmarks:

    as-ssd-bench M4-CT256M4SSD3 A 7.22.2012 5-51-07 PM.png

    Any suggestions?
     
    andy789, Jul 22, 2012
    #3
  4. Thors.Hammer

    Thors.Hammer Notebook Enthusiast

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    Yes. Test using some other synthetic benchmarking tools to get a broader perspective. Keep in mind you are running SATA II not SATA III.
     
    Thors.Hammer, Jul 22, 2012
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  5. andy789

    andy789 Notebook Consultant

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    Similar results with ATTO and CrystalDisk:
    ATTO.png
    cr.png

    Did the ssdreview test it on SATA III?
     
    andy789, Jul 22, 2012
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  6. Thors.Hammer

    Thors.Hammer Notebook Enthusiast

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    I'm sure they did considering the qualified statements about the test rig. You should confirm with Les.

    My Crucial M4 should arrive later this week and I'll be installing it in an ultrabook that has a full SATA III slot. I'll report back some results later.
     
    Thors.Hammer, Jul 22, 2012
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  7. yrc

    yrc Notebook Consultant

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    yrc, Jul 22, 2012
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  8. andy789

    andy789 Notebook Consultant

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    Yes, with W520 SATA II only on the mSATA port, it cannot get to the 500MB/s speed range. Still Crucial is much faster than my original Intel 320:

    1) 4k 64 Thrd write: 167MB/s vs 56MB/s.
    2) Seq write: 220Mb/s vs 160MB/s.

    All other benchmarks are very close.
     
    andy789, Jul 23, 2012
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  9. ymi

    ymi Notebook Geek

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    i thought about getting one of these, but am holding out in hope of the pm830 becoming available as it draws less power
     
    ymi, Jul 23, 2012
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  10. Thors.Hammer

    Thors.Hammer Notebook Enthusiast

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    Samsung is selling every flash chip they can to Apple and others. They stopped putting their own PM830 drives in the 128GB Samsung Series 9 models and sourced drives from Sandisk.

    You aren't going to see their drives in the retail channel anytime soon.
     
    Thors.Hammer, Jul 23, 2012
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  11. yrc

    yrc Notebook Consultant

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    May I ask which Ultrabook? I am looking to buy one.
     
    yrc, Jul 23, 2012
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  12. Thors.Hammer

    Thors.Hammer Notebook Enthusiast

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    I bought the 13.3" Samsung Series 9 (NP900X3B) last week when they went on sale for $799.
     
    Thors.Hammer, Jul 23, 2012
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  13. yrc

    yrc Notebook Consultant

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    Very tempting price for the Samsung 9, but am going to wait till the T430u is announced. Back to topic at hand, I called to place a phone order for the 256GB mSATA for my T420 and asked the customer service rep @Crucial if he knew whether the drive was compatible with the T420. Put me through to tech support and was told that the Thinkpad T420 is not listed as compatible with the Crucial mSATA. The tech had no idea why. I think they probably haven't tested it with a T420 and so aren't willing to promise it will work. But I am guessing that it will work like it did in the OPs W520 at 3Gb/ps. Am going to pull the trigger, since they said I could return it for a full refund if it did not work.
     
    yrc, Jul 23, 2012
    #13