ZBook 17 G1 Msata boot disc?

[KoboShriner]

Greetings one and all.

I recently aquired a ZBook 17 G1 (i7 4800 with K3100 GPU) to replace by beloved Lenovo T420 which still works great but for editing my family videos the dual core i5 processor and intergrated GPU just wasn't cutting it anymore. 

One upgrade I made a long while back to the T420 was to take advantage of the Msata slot and install a Msata SSD, making that the boot drive.  As of this writing it has a 1TB Samsung Msata drive along with a 1 TB platter drive.

With the ZBook having ample space for two 2.5 drives I'm not concerned about trying to cram more storage space into the unit but that Msata slot keeps staring at me and I'm wondering if I can do the same as I did with the T420: use the Msata to put in a 512gb or 1TB Msata SSD, possibly using it as the boot drive. 

Hunting around prior to posting this I found a number of posts asking the question but no definitve answers.

If the slot can only be used for storage is there a limit to what size Msata SSD it will accept (I think it originally could come with a 128gb). 

If I cant really use it for anything so be it, Im already happy with the results so far doing video rendering tests; the ZBook easily cut in half the time it took on the T420 to render a video.

Thanks in advance for your thoughts and time.

K

[erico]

a 1TB SATA3 SSD will work without issue.

Crucial memory sells a guaranteed copatible SATA3 SSD for your mobile workstation.

https://eu.crucial.com/eur/en/compatible-upgrade-for/HP---Compaq/hp-zbook-17-mobile-workstation

[Huffer · Accepted solution]

The Zbook 17 G1 has an mSATA slot which can be used as primary storage or as "flash cache" with Intel Rapid Storage so HP offered a 32 gig or 128 gig mSSD as options and here is a link to what the 128 gig looks like:

https://www.amazon.com/HP-732294-001-MSATA-DRIVE-128GB/dp/B014VU08MO

However, it also has dual 2.5inch hard drive bays. I tend to agree with @erico that your best way to do this is to get a 2.5 inch SATA SSD and install that as the boot drive. mSATA or SATA they are all very similar in performance so there is no speed advantage to using the mSSD slot as the boot drive. The 2.5 inch SSDs are more widely available although I see mSSDs are not much if any more expensive. 

So what you have there is a highly flexible machine with lots of storage options and one of them is to use a mSSD as the boot drive if you wish. 

[joHP13]

Hello!

I also have this question for Huffer !!
My Envy 17 "also has a slot for msata and I would like to use my 250GB msata kingston as a flash drive with the boot system on it and use the original sshd (system, boot) formatted 1TB as storage. Do you think this can work?

[KoboShriner]

Thank you.