Just thought I would share the findings from my SSD upgrade.
Thanks to tribedude for a great post on how to do this (above).
My Yoga 2 Pro is the non-Chinese version, model no. 20266.
I have upgraded the SSD by replacing the stock 256GB Toshiba card with a Samsung 1TB EVO (model MZ-MTE1T0BW mSATA internal). My notes below are added to tribedude's upgrade procedure.
Here is what I did:
1) Download Macrium Reflect software. The free edition will let you clone a Windows 8.1 drive. You can get it here: http://www.macrium.com/pages/downloads.aspx
2) Get a USB to mSATA adapter cable or kludge something together like I did (mSATA to 2.5" SATA enclosure and then put that in an external 2.5" HD housing) and connect that to your Yoga 2 USB port.
a) I went with 'MyDigitalSSD Bullet Proof' USB3 enclosure. The 'Kingwin' USB enclosure seems to be a popular alternative.
i. I went with ZTC Sky Board mSATA to USB 3.0 SSD Enclosure Adapter Case. Support UASP High Speed 6Gb/s 520MB/S. Model ZTC-EN002. It was cheaper and had good reviews. For those that don't know like I didn't, this is a case that you open and install your SSD into. Then, you plug a usb whire to this case/SSD card connection. This case is nicely built and now houses my old SSD which could be used as a portable small SSD. I also add that when you put this in, the SSD likes to angle at about 45 degrees from the case. You just push it down and install the screws. It's very easy once you see it...
b) Mount the SSD card in the adapter / enclosure and plug it in to the Yoga's USB port. I found that the 'MyDigitalSSD' enclosure does not work reliably in a USB3 port (write I/O errors). Plugging it into a USB 2 port, however, works fine.
i. I tried the clone process using the USB 3 and also failed to complete the cloing process. I tried in USB 2 and it worked first time.
3) Clone your boot drive with the Reflect software. It is a 3 step process and the software leaves any extra space on your new drive 'unalocated'. More about that later.
a) There are 7 partitions involved, containing roughly 45GB of data (in my case).
The cloning step took approx 45 mins through a USB2 port.
This left a large unused partition at the end of the drive volume.
i. Cloning is very straight forward. Once you load up Macrium, it immediately shows you the original SSD. You just click the clone link underneath and then select new SSD. If cloning failed, you can probably just clone what didn't successfully clone, but to be safe, I deleted the newly established partitions on my new SSD and started over. To do this, you start as you normally would to clone and pick the drive that now has partitions on it but before you start you'll see option to delete partions.
b) Optional: At this point I used EaseUS Partition Master to move partitions 6 and 7 along to the end of the drive volume. I did this by moving partition 7 into place first (but leaving approx 1MB of unused space at the very end of the volume), and then moving partition 6 up next to partition 7.
This has the effect of shifting the unused space so that it is next to partition 5, which is the C: partition. I then extended the C: partition to absorb this unused space. It became approx 915GB. Yay!
i. I did this too, but I left all partitions in their original order. To move partitions within EaseUS, you just click on them and drag them to where you want them to be. You need to have unallocated space to move a partition. To do this, you just move the existing partition over by clicking on it and pulling it to where you want it. I couldn't figure out how to change the size of unallocated areas. I had to drag the partition into the unallocated space to decrease the size of unallocated space. I kept doing this over and over again (20-30 times?) until the unallocated space at the end was 380ishKB in space. Note that you don't need to worry when using EaseUS. The changes you're making don't take effect until you click apply. So, you can mess around with the partitions until you have them as you like them. If you accidentally move something somewhere you didn't want it, you can click undo.
ii. To make the C: drive larger, you just click on the right side of teh C-drive box/left side of the unallocated box and drag your curser all the way to the right.
iii. Throughout this process, I took care to not change the size of the partitions. Maybe you could and get yourself more storage space; however, Lenovo one key has always appeared finicky to me. So, I figured everything would have a better chance of running correctly if I left everything the same size--except the C-drive, of course.
iv. After you're done, you hit apply. It restarts your computer and goes to town. This takes 30 minutes or so. I did place a fan on the enclosure that housed my new SSD b/c the enclosure felt awfully hot/warm...
v. When I was done, I attempted to boot from USB 2. It didn't boot. Maybe I was too impatient or maybe it would've worked if through USB 3, but at this point just figured I'd wing it and moved on to installing the SSD permanently.
I would include a picture of the partition tables here if I could work out how!
4) Turn off your Yoga 2 Pro. Ground yourself with a static armband. (I disipated stratic by touching a copper water pipe as I was in my basement). Unscrew all the torx screws on the bottom and put them in the box or bowl. Using a credit card carefully go around the seam with a slight twisting motion the the credit card and the case should come apart. Take off the back.
5) Unplug the battery at the motherboard as seen here http://download.lenovo.com/consumer/mobiles_pub/lenovo_yoga_2_pro_hmm.pdf
6) Unscrew the one phillips screw holding in the factory SSD. Put in your new SSD and replace the screw.
7) Reconnect the battery. Replace the back on the Yoga 2 Pro. Boot up your computer and you should see the familiar screen as on your old SSD. If it booted up OK, screw all the torx screws back in.
a) The boot cycle failed to work first time for me. It stepped through each of the four boot options (UEFI boot, Lenovo Fast Boot, USB boot, PXE boot), failed each one, and then shutdown. The second attempt, however, succeeded and the UEFI boot fired up Win 8.1.
This is weird. Another user (here) has seen the same behaviour.
i. No issues with mine. It started right up.
8) Make sure the case fits around the touchpad buttons below the keyboard. I had to press on the plastic a bit below the touchpad bottons so the case snapped back around the touchpad buttons because they should move freely when touched.
9) When I looked at Disk Manager I saw that the drive size had no increased. DON"T PANIC! The space is there, it is just 'unalocated'! Go into Disk Manager and look for that unallocated space and create a 'simple volume' out of it and it will appear.
I guess maybe I could use partition magic or some other software like that to adjust the size of the partitions later, but for now, this will do.
a) At this point I now have a 915GB C: drive, plus the original 4GB D: drive.
Additionally, the PBR_DRV partition (partition no. 7, 11.2GB) is no longer hidden and it is mapped to E: drive. This is probably a side effect of shifting the partitions around.
If any one can tell me how to return the PBR_DRV partition to its original partition type setting, I would be grateful.
i. I, too, would like to return this partition to original setting.
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