CF-19 SSD options, while retaining physical 2.5" drive?

I have a CF-19 MK6, I'd be interested to know if it's possible to keep the existing physical 2.5" hard drive for file storage that doesn't need to be accessed as quickly as the OS or other programs that I'd like launched fast; While integrating an SSD somewhere.

I'd also prefer to keep all the other features intact (the wireless card, etc) if possible.

Some of you may be asking why, since flash memory is quite a bit faster than regular magnetic storage; I have had several modern NAND flash devices, be them USB thumbdrives, micro SD cards, etc, which have been bricked through usage (file transfers, not as an integral part of a system). I would imagine that using one for an OS would put it through the same sort of stress, and I have files on my toughbook I would rather not lose (I do backups regularly, this is concerning data written to the toughbook before it gets backed up)

 

No room on a CF19 for a second drive

 

For another 2.5" drive no; I realize I prefaced this post by saying I don't want to sacrifice any features that are currently on my 19, however my particular example does have a WWAN card; Is that m-pcie slot fast enough to support an m-pcie SSD?

I don't have a need for WWAN access, would I lose bluetooth? All the info I can find doesn't suggest the WWAN card has bluetooth on it.

 

I see the following options for SSD integration:
1) mini-pci ssd ... switch mini-pci wwan card with a mini-pci ssd ... thinkpads even offer this as an option in the web configurator ... 2.5GBits mini-pci should be way faster than the toughbooks throttled sata3 interface, bluetooth should be integrated on the wlan card, thus still function correctly after removing the wwan card... you may or may not run into heat issues, as this is a sealed, fanless laptop and a ssd might drain more power/generate more heat than a wwan card...
2) pcmcia ssd
3) sd/mmc cards ... get a good one or use a pair of cheap ones as raid1

You can prolong your SSDs lifetime by limiting the amounts of writes, e.g. by
1) disabling swap on linux or pagefile on windows
2) disabling hibernate/suspend-to-disk feature and using sleep/suspend-to-ram instead
3) using noatime mount option (unix only)
4) putting /tmp on a ramdisk (unix only)

Also choose a SSD which is known for longevity, Samsung 8xx series seems to score well in this category.

 

1) miniPCI WWAN has only USB lines so no way to install an mSATA SSD and boot from it
2) PCMCIA and ExpressCard SSD is doable but there will be no way to boot from them. I am using the Panasonic PCMCIA P2 cards and also a Wintec FileMate ExpressCard 34 SSD. They are expensive for how much capacity they have compared with a 2.5" SSD.
3) SDXC cards work fine but again not sure if you can boot from it. Try to get a good one which has 80~90MB/s write speed because they use some kind of NAND flash on newer ones. Old models are too slow at writing.

For storage only 2) and 3) work fine in CF-19.

 

The WWAN slot is NOT a full mini-pcie. It has a usb interface only. There is no pci interface there. It is physically the same connector but electrically it is different.

I have had mixed results using a mini pcie to usb adapter card. Then plugging a nano usb stick into the adapter. But like the OP said, I would not trust the usb stick for daily use like a SSD or HDD.

Best solution in my opinion is save up and buy a large SSD. Partition it into several drives.
Newegg has a 960gb SSD for $249. Throw in a 128 or 256gb SD card if you want some removable storage.

Mk6 Bluetooth is on the WLAN (wifi) card as far as I know.

 

one can pick up a used ssd on ebay very reasonably .
i use a 128 gig in my '19 and an external usb hdd ... this works out well for me as i can then plug the usb hdd into several other machines as needed .

 

There are no wear problems with modern SSD's.

 

I haven't had any ssd problems from Intel X25 G2 Series up, I think my worse one is at 90 percent life left. And this is from used, SSD's.

 

I stuck a samsung 1tb ssd in my mk4, its been in there about 6 months and very hapy with its performance

 

I had some issues with OCZ SSDs that after 6 months the life expectancy was 0. I guess it is a firmware bug. I am still using that SSD and there are no issues. Also with SanDisk mSATA SSDs I had issues after 500 working hours it moved to a read-only mode and it is not possible to do anything with it. Old data can be read fine only if I put it in a mSATA-USB external box and read it from Linux. Windows SanDisk tool doesn't detect it at all.

 

about on-topic ...
i have noticed that many different flash drives (make/model) that are not *readable* or capable of being formatted in/through windows disk management is the opposite in/with a 'nix disk tool set .