Replacing SSD on the ThinkPad T430s is so easy

This is my Lenovo ThinkPad T430s laptop, with Microsoft Windows 10 Pro as operating system. I bought it refurbished before Christmas last year. I want to have a bigger drive. I deceided to replace the 120 GB SSD (Solid State Drive) with a 250 GB SSD.

It is so easy to change drive on this laptop!

The User Guide by Lenovo for the laptop is the main source how to do it. 

My second source of information is guides by Microsoft for the software. 

As always, before starting any software or hardware job, take backup of all data. 

Make a list of all additional installed software and make sure to have license key, software etcetera for reinstallation. Take a second thought if any software is not needed anymore. 

Then I created a Microsoft Windows 10 Pro Recovery medium (Återställningsenhet in Swedish) on USB memory stick. This took some time, for sure more than an hour. Possibly I could instead have created a Lenovo Rescue/Recovery medium, I did not investigate that. 

The easy hardware upgrade: 

• Turn off the laptop
• Disconnect all cords and wires, USB connections etc etc
• Remove the battery. It is the bottom left part of the photo above. No screw, just to move latches
• Remove the one single screw that holds the cover for the momory slot. It is in the bottom right part of the photo above
• Remove the cover
• Pull out the SSD (can be a bit tricky to get hold of it)
• Move the two rails on the side of the SSD to the new SSD (no data on this SSD)
• Insert the new SSD 
• And so on

This took only a few minutes! 

Then connect the power cord, insert the USB recovery medium and turn on the laptop. The USB medium was found automatically. I followed the instructions on screen and Microsoft Windows 10 Pro was installed on the new SSD! Because I only replaced the drive, the license key worked automatically. Less than an hour to reinstall.

I like that the laptop is built for maintenance and upgrade. This is more common on business/professional grade laptops in comparison to consumer laptops. But also newer business/professional models may be less modular that those older ones. 

Specification after upgrade: CPU 2.60 GHz Dual core, RAM 8 GB and SSD 250 GB. 14 inch screen with 1366x768 resolution.

Henrik Hemrin

10 May 2020