Replacing msata ssd - just one *easy* query

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Martin1265

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Oct 23, 2015
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Hi there,

New to this excellent forum and thankfully most of my questions have been answered via search so thank you all for that :)

My remaining query is.......

I want to replace the 120Gb mSATA SSD in my laptop with a larger (250Gb) version. I have replaced HDDs with SSDs in laptops before with no real issues (save for the usual hair pulling at error messages, but all solved!) so I'm not exactly a novice as such.

The mSATA drive is my C: drive so I want more space for programs to be installed, I have a separate internal drive for data. Normally I would clone the boot drive using a SATA to USB cable and then simply swap the drives over. However - it being an mSATA drive this would mean buying a whole new external enclosure to do this, which seems pointless when...I have two mSATA slots in the laptop. (Yes I can have 3 hard drives in this machine)

So - my plan is
1. Insert the 250Gb mSATA drive in the spare slot
2. Clone the existing 120Gb drive to the new 250Gb drive using EaseUS
3. Swap the drives over and *maybe* format the old 120Gb to use as extra storage...or I may just keep it somewhere else as a backup boot drive.

The reason for swapping the drives over physically is there are apparently less "heat issues" with one mSATA slot over the other.

Can anyone see any potential issues with this plan? Especially if I go ahead and format the old 120Gb drive and use it as extra storage (which is doubtful to be fair..teh data drive is 500Gb)

I can't see any issues but having already messed up once (by getting a SATA and not mSATA drive to replace it) I'd rather check!
 
Solution
Barty1884
Your plan seems fine.

Generally speaking, a clean OS install is preferred when installed a new primary boot drive, but that's a whole other topic.

What you've suggested should work well.
You would then select the 'new' mSATA as your boot drive (c:) and the 'old' mSATA you can do what you want with.

Needless to say, wait until you're confident the new drive is working (including activations etc) as intended, before you format the other drive.
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Barty1884

Barty1884

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Apr 16, 2015
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Your plan seems fine.

Generally speaking, a clean OS install is preferred when installed a new primary boot drive, but that's a whole other topic.

What you've suggested should work well.
You would then select the 'new' mSATA as your boot drive (c:) and the 'old' mSATA you can do what you want with.

Needless to say, wait until you're confident the new drive is working (including activations etc) as intended, before you format the other drive.
 
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N

nomoreupgrades

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Dec 23, 2010
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I was wondering about your outcome!
I have an issue very much like yours. I have a MSI GT70 computer maybe two years old which came with a 128gb ssd and a 1tb HDD. It did not take long to figure out the 128 ssd was not going to get it. So I purchased a Samsung 850 1tb SATA drive to replace the 128. When I opened the computer I found that it was set up with an mSATA ssd on a board which some have called a daughter board which holds 2 mSATA drives side by side. My setup had the 128 mSATA in one slot and the other slot was and still is empty. I got my 1tb mSATA did the clone thing and swapped the drives out. All seems to work well, however I am not very pleased with this Win 10 stuff, problems with programs, etc. So I plan to get in there and really screw it up. But, before I do any of that I am thinking about if I should install another 1tb mSATA next to my C: drive mSATA

So I am thinking I can get another mSATA and drop in beside the one in the original location then go to my disc management and format it as an additional drive, like maybe F:

This seems to be something like what you were wanting to do so I wondered what your outcome was, Terry
 
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Martin1265

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Oct 23, 2015
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I haven't actually done the replacement yet - I will at some point but based on my experience of cloning drives in several laptops I can't see an issue.

With regard to your plan though....what research I've done has suggested there may be physical limits to total drive size - ie: some motherboards simply may not support 2 tb of drives..or in your case potentially 3tb (if i'm reading it correctly).

Also - I would argue 3tb is overkill - actually I would argue 2tb is overkill for a laptop but I guess it depends what sort of programs you use. If you're doing lots of image/video work for instance then maybe it makes more sense.

But anyway - I would check to see if there are size limits to storage capacity but otherwise I would go ahead :)
 
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