Thinkpad X270 SSD upgrade

[lionel64]

Hello ,

I just bought a lenovo Thinkpad X270 with a 256GB SSD M2 PCle-NVMe hard disk . they were supposed to upgrade it to 512GB SSD M2 PCle- NVMe but they didn't have time to do it before i had to pick it up.

So now what can i do ? 256GB is too small, can i install a second SSD disk on the lenovo X270 or should i change the original one to a bigger one ? But in this case how to do with the windows 10 which is pre install in it ?

thanks for your information.

regards,

lionel  

Moderator edit: Added detail to subject

[HawkeyeQ]

Hello.

What you could do (since today, to my knowledge there's no external caddy for NVMe) is to use some image creation tool like Paragon Hard Disk Manager. You can create a VD backup with it on an external drive and, of course, a Recovery Media (USB stick) directly from the tool.
Once you have your backup, you can switch the NVMe drives (place the larger one in the laptop), connect the external drive containing the backup to a USB port, boot from the Recovery Media, and do a full restore.
When the restore finishes you will have a bootable, larger NVMe. You will login to Windows and expand the existing disk so that you can use the extra space, or create a new partition etc.
I went through this procedure recently with my X270...

[lionel64]

Hello,

thanks for your reply. so if i understand i need to replace the original 256 GB hard disk by a 512 GB hard disk ? I cannot had a second one 256 GB ?

I have one more question : Is it possible to add a 8 GB RAM memory to reach 16GB RAM or there is only one shot on the X270 motherboard ?

thanks

regards,

lionel 

[HawkeyeQ]

Hello.

  The X270 has only one slot for RAM. Hence, if you need 16GB (like I do), you have to replace the existing 8GB DDR4 SO-DIMM with a single 16GB one.

  In the X270 you can add a 2nd M.2 2242 SSD in the WWAN slot (if you don't have or need a WWAN card). But... although this used to work, after a BIOS update it has issues. Check out this thread:
https://forums.lenovo.com/t5/ThinkPad-X-Series-Laptops/X270-Bios-Update-v1-11-Broke-my-M-2-SSD-WWAN-...

  Thus, if you need more disk space I'd suggest to do what I did. I replaced the factory installed 256GB Toshiba NVMe with a 500GB Samsung 960 Pro, using the method I described in my previous post. Of course, you can use any other NVMe drive you prefer.

  Hopefully, in the future, the issue with the M.2 2242 SSD in the WWAN slot will be resolved and I will be able to enjoy my secondary storage drive again. And you will be able to add more space as well...

Regards,

[lionel64]

OK thanks a lot. THe guys where i bought it dind't tell there is only one shot and  me let me bought a second 8 GB RAM . 

I guess now i have to buy a 16 GB RAM one. 

Thanks for the hard drive information. I still didn't set up my computer so i will try to do as you said in your previous message.

thanks

regards,

lionel

[HawkeyeQ]

This might help you...

https://download.lenovo.com/pccbbs/mobiles_pdf/x270_ug_fr.pdf

Page 138 (120 in the index) describes memory module replacement.

You will find other useful information as well...

[lionel64]

thanks a lot. I guess it will be very useful. I think now i will be able to manage it.

But for the hard disk it seems more difficult, i afraid i cannot make it. Maybe better i consider an external disk .

[HawkeyeQ]

  The NVMe replacement is not so hard as it seems.

  Use some software like Paragon Hard Disk Management or Acronis to take a full VHD backup of you current NVMe on an external drive and create a bootable recovery USB drive.

  Restart the laptop, press F1 to go to BIOS and disable secure boot and the internal battery (the laptop will shutdown after you save changes).

Remove the external battery, open the bottom cover and replace the existing NVMe with the new, larger one.

  Put the cover back, connect the bootable USB you created with the software you decided to use (Paragon, Acronis etc.) and the external drive you put your backup on and connect the charger.

  Start the laptop and keep pressing F12 till you get the boot menu. From there, select the bootable USB drive. Once it boots you should find the option for a full restore from the backup you took. Use it, select the target drive (the new NVMe in the laptop) and browse to your external drive and find the backup. Press OK/Next and let it do its thing.

  Once this process is over, restart the laptop, go to BIOS and enable Secure Boot, remove the external drives you used and let it boot into Windows. Voilà... you have a new larger drive! Next and last thing is to go to Windows Disk Management to expand your existing partiotion(s) or create new one(s) so that you can use the extra space. Same (and easier) could be done using the same software you used for the backup (1st step).

  That is all. The whole process should not take you more than 30'-45'...

[zoltanthegypsy]

One other option for migrating from the original NVMe SSD to a new, larger one:

Make your recovery media (you should anyway...) and use that to recover the factory image to the new drive.

That doesn't clone the drive and whatever you've installed or configured, it takes you back to OOBE.  Maybe not desirable for a machine that's been in use for a while - but for a new one as this one seems to be it's an easy option with the benefit of recovery media.

(I haven't seen an external adapter for NVMe drives either...)

My $.02,

Z.

[Jungstar]

If you just need simple storage for movies or documents or other things you can also buy a 256 GB SD card and just keep in permanently. It is not going to be a fast drive (80 mb pr second) but it will work fine some simple stuff and its is cheap.