Installing Mini PCIE SSD y560

[Nate]

Support has no idea what SSD the Lenovo's contain so forwarded me to Sales. They have no idea what SSD Lenovo's are shipped with either. From what they said, apparently there are a few guys in a warehouse somewhere that do...

I believe (and this was illuded to by someone along my travels that almost had a clue) they use a Hybrid SSD / Spindle drive. Most likely a Samsung or something.

Regardless, this is no excuse for them to cripple a BIOS so that it doesn't recognize an open standard interface such as a drive connected to mini pci-e. I would find it very hard to believe that the motherboard doesn't support it.

I chalk this up as a failure on their part.

[scotty85]

Would it be possible to throw in one of these Intel 310 Soda Creek SSD's in one of the open mini PCIe slots in the new y560p?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=100008120%20600038517&IsNodeId=1&name=Mi...

I don't see why not seeing as though some y560p models come with a RapidDrive option which I opted out of.  I also understand that their are some compatibility issues with mini PCIe that don't support mSATA in certain notebooks.  And I already know I can nix the DVD drive, throw an adapter in and buy a 2.5" SSD, but I'd rather keep the DVD drive.

Has anyone tried this?  Or confirm that this would definitely work at least?

[csp0811]

It's not a mini PCIe SSD, but a mSATA SSD that uses the PCIe form factor but with SATA electrical wiring. The Intel Soda Creek 310 is a mini-SATA SSD, so presumably it would work, at least electrically. However, I believe that Lenovo would most likely blacklist anythng other than the standard SSD used (the specsheet states 32 GB, thus I suspect it is a Samsung SSD: the "PM800").

Since they share the mSATA standard, you won't short anything while trying, however, since it is an OEM only part, it will be tough to find a seller that will accept returns, so be sure you can toss $100 in the trash before buying an intel 310 to test out. And that's assuming that Lenovo left the capabilities on in those y560ps without Rapid-drive. After all, if Lenovo claims there are switchable graphics in select models, and is able to disable completely the function in other models of the y560p, then I would assume they would be able to do the same for non-Rapid drive enabled notebooks. Caveat emptor.

[lenovosucks2011]

you cannot use these pcie ssd drives as a boot drive. my y560P has one, and windows won't see it to install on it.

[IngoPlaczek]

Hello, I have two questions:

1.) Does the Y560 supports the new mSATA Intel SSD 310?

2.) Can I install my operatinsystem (Windows 7) to the SSD and boot from it?

best regards

Ingo Placzek

[IngoPlaczek]

hi, for your Information, I orderd an Intel SSD 310 with 80GB for 150€, hope it'll work in my Y560

[lenovosucks2011]

it should work, but not how you want it to. windows won't install/run from an ssd installed in the pcie bus.

[csp0811]

  I checked the bios menu in my y560p, and it appears that the PCIe slot shows up as a bootable device, so it seems that it is at least not off. If you can't install it directly, you may have to install onto a HDD and clone onto the SSD. Make sure to align. I know that much, but I am not familiar enough with that process to explain it here. Try googling about how to align SSDs. If I recall correctly, cloning a full image can result in the partition data from the old drive being used, so the alignment will be off, even if you align the SSD before hand. I think you have to clone an image of a small partition, so you would have to align the HDD, resize the partition containing the system data to a size smaller than the ssd, align the SSD partition, and then clone the HDD partition onto the SSD partition.

@IngoPlaczek

Good luck with that! Make sure to set the PCIe bus as the highest priority boot device in your bios, and take care to optimize your system for an SSD if it does work. Let us know how it goes.

[lenovosucks2011]

my results may have been tainted by a bad ssd. I'll re post once I get my new ssd.

[holymacaroni]

I too have ordered an Intel 310 80GB Mini-PCIe from Amazon (Just shipped today)

I plan to install it on my recently purchased Y460p.

For those who tried in the past but failed, this may be redundant info, but does this link below help?

How to re-install Windows on Lenovo Rapid Drive: http://consumersupport.lenovo.com/au/en/HintsandTips/hints_show_12870415982811.html