My recent thoughts and experience regarding internal storage

I knew that in my Edge e220s, I wanted an SSD -- mostly for speed, but also for silence and invulnerability to vibration/bumps (I frequently use my notebook in vehicles, as I don't usually drive). But I also loved the idea of having my all my several hundred GBs of data on an internal drive. The HDD wouldn't be accessed all that frequently, so it should usually be in sleep mode.

Now, I'm seeing that I really have no need to keep all my data on me. In fact, I pretty much never need more than a typical SSD can hold, while I'm on the go. So, I tried simply pulling out the internal hard drive. After this, both the trackpoint and trackpad repeatedly refused to work. Basically, the system seems to require a drive in that bay for the pointing devices to work (I sure wish I'm wrong about that).

Seeing as I want an SSD and can live with that being my only drive, I'm considering ditching both the Intel mSATA SSD and the internal HDD, in favor of a standard SSD (probably Intel 510). I don't suppose anyone else has tried having an mSATA-only system? Did you come to a similar problem? I'm pretty certain that no one else here has attempted to fit a 9.5mm drive in their e220s, so I won't bother asking about that...

edit: For anyone that stumbles upon this, my trackpoint and trackpad now both work while my 2.5" drive is not in the bay. I don't know what caused their earlier repeatable failure to work without the 2.5" drive, but at least now I see it's not 100% the cause.

 

I would replace the platter drive with an SSD and utilize the mSATA drive for items like virtual memory and/or backups of folders from your primary SSD (like pictures or documents, all setup via internal backup tool).

 

That's not really worthwhile for me. If I wanted two drives, I'd just stay with what I have now. Presently, my internal HDD is only rarely accessed by me, though it is frequently kept from sleeping by several programs. This annoys me, as it is causing my system to draw more power than is needed. So, that's why I'm looking at a one internal drive solution.

 

Just a heads-up, the 510 SSD does not fit in the X220. Not sure if the E220s has more room, but it might be worth double checking before pulling the trigger.

 

Thank you... I've since pretty much decided on the 7mm Intel 320 160GB:

Newegg.ca - Intel 320 Series SSDSA2BW160G301 2.5" 160GB SATA II MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) - SSD

 

Well well well... I was able to get a Samsung 1TB 9.5mm drive in the bay... it just took some filing down of a tab on the bottom body panel, as well as taking out the fingerprint scanner board and the metal plate beneath it. The body panels now all fit nicely.