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    t420s SSD and mSATA

    Discussion in 'Lenovo' started by Mikeydoesnt, Jan 19, 2012.

  1. Mikeydoesnt

    Mikeydoesnt Notebook Enthusiast

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    Good day all, I have a Lenovo t429s with a nearly maxed SSD. I want to add or replace it with more juice and possible a "dual boot" system. I am considering all three drive bays as options and wonder if the mSATA might be the best option for the Win 7 boot.

    Any thoughts? ps: the other OS would be XP pro.
     
    Mikeydoesnt, Jan 19, 2012
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  2. Thors.Hammer

    Thors.Hammer Notebook Enthusiast

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    What size is your current SSD? 160GB?
     
    Thors.Hammer, Jan 19, 2012
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  3. Mikeydoesnt

    Mikeydoesnt Notebook Enthusiast

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    It is 120 GB, i5-240M CPU @ 2.60 GHz with 8.00 GB RAM and 64 bit OS Win7
     
    Mikeydoesnt, Jan 19, 2012
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  4. John Ratsey

    John Ratsey Moderately inquisitive Super Moderator

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    An mSATA SSD would be the best way to boost capacity without sacrificing performance. You would need to look at ~120GB to have some useful spare space after Windows is installed. The alternative would be to get a bigger 2.5" SSD and then hope to recover some of the cost by selling your current SSD.

    John
     
    John Ratsey, Jan 19, 2012
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  5. Mikeydoesnt

    Mikeydoesnt Notebook Enthusiast

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    Thank you Sir! any thoughts on "dual boot" (Win7 and XP pro) software? A Linux program maybe?
     
    Mikeydoesnt, Jan 19, 2012
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  6. Thors.Hammer

    Thors.Hammer Notebook Enthusiast

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    Regarding running Windows XP, would the program you need on XP run in a virtual machine?
     
    Thors.Hammer, Jan 19, 2012
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  7. Mikeydoesnt

    Mikeydoesnt Notebook Enthusiast

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    It's more about "legacy hardware" and associated drivers and software...I have an Alps Dye Sublimation Photo printer and some photo scanning hardware no longer supported and not compatable with Win7 as well as some older media readers I need to be able to drive or I will have to keep the old PC to access the stored data.
     
    Mikeydoesnt, Jan 19, 2012
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  8. Mikeydoesnt

    Mikeydoesnt Notebook Enthusiast

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    By the way, thanks John, I looked into the mSATA further since your post and am going down that path!
     
    Mikeydoesnt, Jan 19, 2012
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  9. Thors.Hammer

    Thors.Hammer Notebook Enthusiast

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    Gotcha. I have never installed XP second so I am not sure how that is going to work out with the mSATA.

    I had a 120GB SSD in the primary bay of my W520 with the 80GB mSATA. That worked very well from a storage perspective.
     
    Thors.Hammer, Jan 19, 2012
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  10. Mikeydoesnt

    Mikeydoesnt Notebook Enthusiast

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    Cool, I'll look into which has the faster transfer rate through the motherboard but your option shure would make life easier.

    Maybe I can use the BIOS to boot from one or the other giving the choice of OS's but the 32 vs 64 might be a problem no matter which way I go!
     
    Mikeydoesnt, Jan 19, 2012
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  11. cn_habs

    cn_habs Notebook Deity

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    Isn't that a 1st generation Core i5 used on the T410s? I thought T420s got the 2nd gen CPUs.
     
    cn_habs, Jan 20, 2012
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  12. Mikeydoesnt

    Mikeydoesnt Notebook Enthusiast

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    You are correct! Sorry for the poor quality info. I have an Intel i5 2540M CPU.

    It's tough getting old!.... uhhmm...What was I talking about???
     
    Mikeydoesnt, Jan 20, 2012
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  13. John Ratsey

    John Ratsey Moderately inquisitive Super Moderator

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    Regarding the dual boot, having the two separate bootable drives, each with a different OS, would get round and possible conflicts in getting W7 and XP to boot off the same drive.

    Did you try seeing if you can get your old hardware to work using XP mode. I think it's quite good at getting to the external hardware.

    Yet another option, if your XP usage is occasional, is to put XP on a HDD into a caddy in the UltraBay. The previous generation UltraBay HDD caddies are reasonably priced and work fine on the T420s. That would leave your two SSDs free for Windows 7, programs and data.

    John
     
    John Ratsey, Jan 20, 2012
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  14. Mikeydoesnt

    Mikeydoesnt Notebook Enthusiast

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    Thanks again, that makes a lot of sense....I assume I can use BIOS to boot from the "ultrabay" since it should "see" the Ultrabay as DVD/CD drive. I have the ultrabay adapter, just haven't yet tried to boot from it.

    I'll give it a go!
     
    Mikeydoesnt, Jan 20, 2012
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  15. John Ratsey

    John Ratsey Moderately inquisitive Super Moderator

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    Press F12 at the BIOS screen to get a one-time boot menu.

    John
     
    John Ratsey, Jan 20, 2012
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  16. Mikeydoesnt

    Mikeydoesnt Notebook Enthusiast

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    Thank you sir, it's He** getting old, how could I forget the "one time' boot menu.

    You guys are the greatest, I am realy glad to be part of the group, I hope I can contribute something from 3+ decades of computer use!
     
    Mikeydoesnt, Jan 20, 2012
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  17. John Ratsey

    John Ratsey Moderately inquisitive Super Moderator

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    I started my computing using punched cards. :p (So my advice may be getting unreliable due to fading brain cells, but one of those F keys give a one time boot menu (maybe its Dell that uses F12).

    John
     
    John Ratsey, Jan 20, 2012
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  18. Mikeydoesnt

    Mikeydoesnt Notebook Enthusiast

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    I still have a strip of the 1" punched paper that kinda looks like a player piano roll but was a "data storeahe device.

    Anyway thank you all for your help!

    PS; Oracle has a "great" and free VM program for multiple OS's on virtual machines...

    oracle virtualbox download - Google Search

    Chow for now!
     
    Mikeydoesnt, Jan 21, 2012
    #18