How can I upgrade harddrive for X301

I guess you could purchase that 256 gigs ssd from lenovo and found out for yourself first hand.

 

My suggestion is that those drives are probably flawed in some way, either in hardware or software, instead of some other reason why X301 simply cannot take 256GB SATA SSD drives in general. It makes little sense, since SATA drives are modular. Unless you can come up with even a plausible reason why a windows notebook cant take 256GB SSDs.

BTW, I looked into that thread, and the error code being reported by the user is due to access limitations. This error occurs even for non lenovo 256GB SSDs (e.g. 3.5" HDDs, etc). Most of the cases they are bad drives.

Is the X301 just limited in its capabilities or are those SSDs just flawed? That is the question.

 

Well we are about to find out if the Crucial 256gig SSD will work on the X300.
I ordered one and its here. I just haven't decided which Win 7 version I'm going to load. Its either going to be 64bit pro or enterprise. If anyone cares I can update this thread tomorrow when I'm done.

ym

 

If it does not work, then make sure to verify its not the drive's fault too if you can.

As for your OS version, you are the only one qualified to choose it but I'd suggest the enterprise version.

 

I can report that the Crucial 256gig C300 drive does indeed work fine. So for those with a X300 your in the clear with Win 7. Since I don't own a X301 and don't know what the difference is other than the cpu change "if the CPU is all there is" then The following drivers - intel chipset are needed the rest below are all up to the user. WAN/LAN all works.

Bluetooth
Intel WAN wireless and Lan drivers
Unltra Nav tool and driver - this is a must for me since I use the track point only.

If someone can please post the sata bios hack the enables faster speeds that would most appreciated. I think its from the same guy that wrote the one for the x61 but I can't find it. ATTO tools is showing 116778 write and 142448 read so not bad but not smoking fast as this drive is capable of. All and all I'm really happy that it worked since I really needed the space.

Oh you guys will love this. boot time from dead till you hear the chims 27 secs.

ym

 

Thanks for reporting back.

I guess it supports the idea that those 256GB drives in the X301 from the other person in the other forum, must have been faulty drives. Basically that error code occurs for other harddrives too, even on desktop systems too, as the error code only relates to access limitations.

27s boot is nice.

 

From the way I read his thread was it was the lenovo 256 gig drive that had issues. So at least we have an option now. I'm still hunting for that faster
Sat a bios......

Ym

 

If you read the thread linked from the lenovo forums, the user of the failed 256GB drives claimed to have tried both the lenovo drive (which was probably a rebranded samsung FDE SSD) and the kingston drive. Both he claims failed, so probably just bad luck with the first batch high capacity SSD drives.

 

Guess I need to go re-read that thread when I have time. For now all I care about is a bios workaround to switch from sata 1.5 to 3. From the thinkpad site threads at least from what I can understand our 300s use the same or similar as the t61. I'm still hunting but this drive bumps right up to the limit.

Ym

 

So after 6 hours or more hours of searching I found it. Here's the link so if anyone else with a X300 doesn't have to go through what I did.
Also the X301 has the Sata 2 already turned on so there's no need for this on that model.
A few notes on the update. Leave your or put your old SSD HD back in.
I tried the CD flash option and got a bitlocker warning.
I'm running Win7 Enterprise so thats why but UL has that as well. So its just easier to pop the old drive back in copy the file over
and do the update while in windows. The Drive I have is the Crucial C300, my Atto tools max write/read

Before Sata 1
116megs write
142megs read

After Sata 2
214megs write
281megs read

So basically the difference is massive you also can choose to swap the FN and ctr key if you so choose. Here's the link. Enjoy.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/lenovo- ... ion-8.html


ym1