[dbates]

I thought I'd post this in case someone else can benefit from my boneheadness :-)

I bought a 10V, after previously owning a mini 9, and wanted to duplicate my great SSD experience. So I bought a 32 GB SSD drive, namely the OCZ vertex series 30 GB drive from buy.com through Amazon to replace the hard drive in the 10v.

I wanted to get some help on installing the drive (looking at the memory installation procedure made my heart stop momentarily). I found a video walk-through on youtube of a guy replacing the hard drive on his mini 10. Seemed close enough.

And everything worked okay, except for one miscue. The hard drive in the 10v sits inside a small metal cage that attaches to the computer body with a single screw. The guy on the video tutorial said that the SSD drive wouldn't fit inside this cage, and not to bother using it for the SSD installation. He felt that the tight fit of the connectors was enough to keep the SSD drive attached.

Well, I installed the drive, and got it to work, but after a few days I was getting the dreaded:

PXE-E61: Media test failure, check cable
PXE-M0F: Exiting PXE ROM.
Operating System not found

which essentially means that the drive isn't attached to the computer. Sure enough, when I shook my netbook, I could hear the drive rattling around in there! It turns out that there wasn't enough friction alone to keep the drive attached properly.

I went back to the original hard drive and unattached the drive sled. It turns out that the SSD drive would fit inside this sled! I attached the sled to the SSD and attached the sled to the computer with the single screw.

So far, everything's working fine. I doubt I'll have further problems.

And, hopefully this will help anyone who's thinking about replacing their har drive. Use the sled!

[Thorsteenster]

Um yeah, the SSD case is built just like a 2.5" drive so it does fit in the sled. And even if it doesn't I would put something between it and the case to keep it from coming disconnected. Better safe than sorry, keep everything secure and in place!

[w7ox]

Originally Posted by dbates

I bought a 10V, after previously owning a mini 9, and wanted to duplicate my great SSD experience.!

So what are the pluses of a 30 GB SSD vs. a 160 GB HDD?

Phil

[underwhelmed]

Originally Posted by w7ox

So what are the pluses of a 30 GB SSD vs. a 160 GB HDD?

Phil

Oh, I don't know. Let me think.

Faster boot time.

No hard drive noise.

Better battery life..

I am sure there are others, but I'm tired.

[w7ox]

Boot time I understand, also other things should be faster where the drive is concerned.

Others have reported no substantial battery life improvement, but that should depend on CPU intensive vs. drive intensive.

My HDD is totally quiet, so that's not a factor.

Phil

[jxanthony]

Originally Posted by w7ox

Boot time I understand, also other things should be faster where the drive is concerned.

Others have reported no substantial battery life improvement, but that should depend on CPU intensive vs. drive intensive.

My HDD is totally quiet, so that's not a factor.

Phil

While I doubt your HDD is "totally quiet," the SSD is incomparable to an HDD in terms of longevity--SSDs will outlast any other component in your netbook. You also will have little to fear in terms of disk or head damage. The faster a smaller HDD spins, the more likely the head is to snap and cause irreparable damage to the disk; you won't have to worry about that with an SSD.

Hope that is helpful.

[w7ox]

Originally Posted by jxanthony

While I doubt your HDD is "totally quiet," the SSD is incomparable to an HDD in terms of longevity--SSDs will outlast any other component in your netbook. You also will have little to fear in terms of disk or head damage. The faster a smaller HDD spins, the more likely the head is to snap and cause irreparable damage to the disk; you won't have to worry about that with an SSD.

Hope that is helpful.

Not really. My particular HDD is totally silent, your doubts notwithstanding.

Many posts on SSD failures, so not sure I agree with your longevity argument: Theory and reality often differ. And re speed: 10v HDDs are slow as drives go. Since I do a weekly backup using SuperDuper I'm not too concerned.

Performance (speed) is the clear plus. But for that you do give up capacity.

Phil

[Slothtyper]

I think it's a simple capacity Vs. price issue. If I only needed 32 or 64 Gigs I'd use a SSD, if I needed more it would be a conventional drive, just due to the price. If SSD's were the same price as conventional drives I'd bet we wouldn't be having this discussion and would all be using them.

@ the OP, good info!

[EldRick]

Your hard disk may not make much noise, but it certainly causes vibration of the Mini.

Here's another reason: unlike a SSD, it will probably break if you ever drop the system.

And other installation tips:

- Use a strip of masking tape to attach the keyboard to the palm-rest before opening it. You can then tilt the keyboard up 90-degrees, and install the SSD without disconnecting the Extremely Fragile keyboard connector at the motherboard. How do I know it is so fragile? Don't ask...

- Put a piece of foam between the far end of the SSD to keep it from backing out of the connector.

[dbates]

Originally Posted by w7ox

So what are the pluses of a 30 GB SSD vs. a 160 GB HDD?

Phil

Original poster here... the main reason I switched out to the SSD (and what I liked about my mini9) was durability. I just didn't worry as much about my mini when an SSD drive was installed. I could toss the machine around and treat it a little more cavalierly, which was a plus for me. In fact, I used to pack my mini9 into checked luggage when flying without much worry. It just gave me a bit more flexibility.

And, in the end, I just use this mini for an internet cafe web surfing machine, so I didn't need all of that extra space. 30 GB is just fine for my needs.

So speed might be a little better with an SSD (maybe) and longevity might be a little better with an SSD (maybe), but for me, it was all about durability.

So far, so good (fingers crossed).