Can I use an mSATA drive to boot an OS with an X230?

I'm going to be upgrading from my X220 to an X230 (I know Haswell will be coming soon, but I can upgrade to the X230 for a minimum amount of money, whereas I probably wouldn't be able to afford the upgrade to a new Haswell anyway) and wanted to know if I could boot Windows (and programs, etc.) from a 256GB mSATA drive and use a 1TB WD drive for mass storage? I've heard that for some reason the mSATA drive should only be used for cache storage, but why would this be and is there any workaround? Or does it actually work, but is just too unstable?

 

it works fine. I run a 256 mSATA / 1T in my x230 and a 256mSATA / 720 in my X220

it just registers as a hard drive during windows setup and you install it as you would any dual drive laptop

here is the basic procedure
How to Install a mSATA SSD drive in a laptop (X220) - YouTube

 

I shouldn't have any issues physically installing the mSATA drive, just wondering if there'd be any software issues. Do you know if it would be possible to clone the stock HDD to the mSATA and then set it as my boot device?

Also, does the X230 support 9.5mm hard drives? Just thinking as you said you use a 1TB drive which has literally just been released in a 7mm factor.

 

the first time i installed mine msata ssd I copyed the hdd with lenovo backup tool and restored to the ssd and it was working fine so I think you can too on x230... I did on mine t420s
I don't know if the problem was only mine but I had to change the bios mode from UEFI to make my windows7 on ssd to work...

 

It does not. You can dremel down some tabs in the hard drive bay and a 9.5mm drive will fit without the bumpers. You should probably note that doing so may have consequences for your warranty.

 

Thanks for the info. I did think it only supported 7mm drives as standard, but luckily 1TB has just been released in that format. I did take apart a 9.5mm SSD to fit in my X220, but I'd rather not tamper with the laptop itself.