install samsung 830 in T400, what should I do

Hi,

I have a ssd samsung 830 128gb bought from Amazon, just the drive without any kit along with it. I believe this ssd is 7mm thick, which is perhaps thinner than traditional hard drive for T400. What should I do to install this ssd fit perfectly in the slot, I'm totally new to this kind of thing. If anything I need to buy in order to install this ssd in, please give me a link, truthly appreciated

Note: I'm not adding 2nd drive, I'm just replace old hdd by ssd

 

I believe you can put the Samsung 830 SSD in the primary bay caddy (as illustrated by the T400 Hardware Maintenance Manual). Mechanically, I don't think there will be any concerns. Any forum friends who own T400 and have tried something similar, please chime in.

Now, the other thing is to create a Windows environment on the SSD. If you want to start from scratch by doing a clean install, follow the Hearst guide or the Lenovo guide (do a search).

If that is the case, stop reading further.

Alternatively, if you've used the T400 for a while and don't want to spend time re-installing your programs and re-entering your preference settings (in so many separate places), you can consider "cloning" the current SSD. What I'm about to outline is what I've done a few times for friends and family members. I used Crucial M4 SSD with Transfer Kit, which bundles the below.

Step 1: Buy the Apricorn SATA Wire (for about $20).



Step 2: Keep the current HDD in place. Connect the Samsung to the T400 with the Apricorn SATA-USB adapter. Put the Apricorn Transfer CD into the optical drive and follow the on-screen instructions. You may want to read some background information here.

Step 3: After the cloning procedure, the Samsung 830 becomes Windows-bootable, with all your programs and settings preserved. Replace the HDD by the Samsung. Reboot. Ta-dah!

 

Thank you for the fast response

I just read this thread and the guy said that the screws probably are good enough without any further mounting spacer.

Now my another question is, there are some stuff already existing in the ssd, if I choose the cloning option, will it automatically format the stuff already in the ssd or I have to do it by myself. If so, how? Would it be simply plug it in as USB device in window mode of the old hdd and perform a regular window format type?

Thanks

 

There is "no stuff already existing" on the new SSD. When you connect the SSD via the SATA-USB adapter, you can initialize and format the SSD as you would any brand new drive.

Alternatively, the Apricorn cloning software will detect the SSD and do whatever required before transferring the HDD system information over and taking care of block alignment properly.

EDIT: Oh, I read again and realized that you had already put some files on that Samsung 830. In that case, just format it.

 

I've installed a 7mm SSD in a T410 which also has a 9.5mm bay, the screws will hold the drive inside the flimsy caddy and held in place by the two rubber protectors so it's not going anywhere.

 

Hi ttran,

Just fold a 3x3 Post-it note couple times, leaving the sticky side out for one side, and so that it becomes 0.5"x3".
Make sure the folded edges are completely flattened by going over the edges with a pen or pen cap against a hard desk.
You'll need two of these to put near the two edges where rubber bumper wraps over.

I did this for my 7mm x25-m ssd in a x61t over 3 years ago. It's probably not a good idea to just leave it without any support because the SATA port could be wiggling when you move around your laptop without proper fit.


For backup and recovery, I use Paragon Backup and Recovery 2012 Free. It is completely free, and you can make a image of the whole hdd you currently have to a external usb hdd. Then create a USB bootable flash drive with Paragon Backup and Recovery, power off the computer. Then swap internal hdd with ssd, then use the flash drive you created to boot up and restore from the backup image from the external hdd to the ssd. It's very easy to do this, and you don't need to buy anything as long as you have a external usb hdd, and a 512MB flash drive.

 

hp79's recommendation about making a paper shim is sound. I did the same for my 830 in my T420 (although I used index cards.)