0

I want to increase the capacity (240GB) of my old Linux powered Thinkpad x201s and I bought a bigger SSD (480GB) in the same brand (Kingston A400).

After a disk cloning + LVM resizing using an USB-SATA adapter I discovered that the 480GB is not detected when plugged in the SATA port. No boot.

My ancient USB2 no-name USB to IDE/SATA adapter: usb sata adapter

A search found a compatibility list here https://superuser.com/a/1275966/86175 where 500GB seems to be accepted but 480 (the original vendor reference is gone). Edit: I just noticed that while this question asks for HDD/SSD the answer only lists HDDs.

Can you tell why, in the same brand (Kingston), same technology (SATA 3 / SSD) and same serie (A400) a model could be supported and not another? I hope I will be able to avoid that issue in the future.

Edit 2: looking on a SDD merchant site the 480GB Kingston is supposed to be compatible with the Thinkpad, and also bigger models (like a 960GB of the same serie, up to a 2TB of smae brand but different serie). I am a bit puzzled on the issue.

Edit 3: the SSD is not bricked as I can boot on it from another laptop in AHCI mode. On the Thinkpad I tried SATA AHCI and compatibility modes without success.

Improve this question
11
  • 1
    Is the 480 GB drive shown in the BIOS?
    – Andrew Morton
    Commented Jan 29, 2023 at 11:32
  • There is no general reason why it wouldn't work. With SATA if it fits, it's compatible. You can try to update drive's firmware using another computer.
    – gronostaj
    Commented Jan 29, 2023 at 11:34
  • 1
    Try the disk on another computer. It might just have died.
    – harrymc
    Commented Jan 29, 2023 at 11:49
  • @AndrewMorton no, the boot menu does not have it thus without bootable usb key it only tries to boot from LAN
    – Seki
    Commented Jan 29, 2023 at 13:33
  • @harrymc I just managed to boot on that SSD in another old laptop (Dell lattitude e6400)
    – Seki
    Commented Jan 29, 2023 at 13:35

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
1

After some research I noticed that the laptop was missing the last 5 years of firmware upgrade (my bios version was 5 years older than the last release).

Fortunately the last bios version is still available from Lenovo. And that upgrade fixed the detection of the 480 GiB SSD.

Improve this answer

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .