WWAN port as storage drive?

I recently came across an article that suggests this is possible. In the event that this port is not used for its original GPS intent, why not take advantage of the empty port for storage? Anyone, ever hear of this actually working?

 

It's really just a standard mini-PCI express port, though there's not a lot of different devices available that don't have to do with wireless connectivity.

You can't take any other mSATA drive and shove it in. Even though the ports are physically compatible, they are different electronically. The exception is some machines like the Precision M4600/M4700 where you can go to the BIOS and switch the port between mPCIe and mSATA.

So, you need something that actually talks mPCIe. There are some devices that allow you to insert micro SD cards to use for internal storage. (You can use an adapter to insert a half-height card into a full-height slot.) I've seen another card that accepts two micro SD cards, can't find the link right this second.

While there are some SSDs available, since mSATA came around that has become the preferred standard, so you're probably looking at old drives like this one. These drives actually need to have the drive controller on the card itself (as opposed to mSATA which uses the drive controller on the motherboard). If you look around for bigger drives you need to make absolutely sure that what you get is not really a mSATA drive. I've seen plenty of them mis-labeled on eBay for instance.

 

There was a alienware owner putting sata connector there, though I believe it require DIY 5V and space to put the disks.

 

Sure enough, Dell even has these for sale but it would be difficult to put to use in a laptop.

 

The only place I think you can fit extra disk is using msata in optical bay area , but the sata cable will prevent you closing the bottom cover.(it is that good-fit, I had a slight bounced antenna and it refuse to sit flush.) Also, mpcie is limited to pcie x1 which can bottleneck ssd.

 

You'd need a mPCI-E device with a storage controller on it, I think some were made a couple of years ago but were phased out with the advent of mSATA.

 

Hmm, if someone made a cable that was "extra flat" and flexible this might be workable. Still, also have to worry about getting power to the drive.