Installing Plextor M3 in T500 = Problems. Help!

I have a T500 and I just bought a SSD, the Plextor M3. I just tried to install it and it is going badly. I put the SSD in, set the SATA in my BIOS to AHCI and then put my recovery boot disk in. While in the BIOS I noticed that it saw my drive as a Plextor M3, so I thought that things would go fine. Then I got exited the bios and allowed the recovery discs to do their thing. Once the recovery process was over I rebooted. Now I get an error:

"ERROR
2100: HDD0(Hard disk drive) initialization error(1)"

I looked in the bios again and it said that HDD0 had an error and could not be found. I tried the recovery process again and it doesn't work. I keep getting the message "Cannot find the recovery .ini file".

I don't know if the drive is defective, my recovery discs(I believe I used them before without problems), or both. Please help!

 

Most likely it's the drive that causing the problem, I had this before when I used to have a Corsair SSD in my T61 - sometimes it works, sometimes it gives me a 2100 error for no reason. I swapped it out for an Intel SSD and the problem completely vanished after.

If there are any firmware updates for the drive try doing that before doing the recovery process, if the problem still persists then I would contact support for a replacement drive or maybe even a refund from where you bought it.

 

Hi Hearst. Thanks so much for your reply. Here is an update.

- I did some research and found that some people who were having this problem recommended to others that they update their BIOS. So I flashed my BIOS to the latest version and that went well. My bios is at 3.22 now.

- After I did this my drive was sensed and Windows install wizard went on properly. So I thought I was all set.

- My recovery discs are working properly.

- Now once again, I am getting this error again.

- I haven't updated the firmware of the SSD. I will do this and try again.

Over all I think you are right Hearst, but I am a bit confused. Why is this happening, why the compatibility problems? I thought this would be a simple drop in. I will try to update the SSD firmware and see it things get better. This is probably the worst kind of problem, where the drive works sometimes and other times not. If things work now and later on down the road it stops working when my return policy is over, I am stuck with a non functional drive. Are there certain specs/brands I should stay away from? I thought SATA was SATA?

 

Are all your firm wares, drivers and bios updated with thinkvantage? Is it possible to upgrade the ssd's firmware?
If you're all updated, unfortunately you may be out of luck. This is why many users recommend getting the solid intel drives.

 

I don't really use the Thinkvantage software but I have updated my BIOS to the latest version. I just updated my SSD's firmware, so now that is on the latest version as well. Drivers are after the OS is loaded, so I don't believe that will help my system detect my SSD. Is there any other firmware I can update? Can you updated the chipset or storage controller firmware? Not sure if that is even possible?

The main problem is that the machine detects the SSD sometimes and sometimes not. Its hard to predict. For example I am using the drive to type this message right now. I find that right after I use the recovery discs to restore the machine back to original and then reboot, it has trouble seeing the drive. But once it finds the drive once, it seems to find it after that.

Now that the drives firmware is updated I will use the recovery discs again and then see if the drive is found. I bought the drive at Newegg and I believe I am still in the return period. I am worried that I will think the drive is ok, and then is later undetected.

I had no idea that these SSDs/machines are so picky. I thought it would be a drop in job and done. This stinks. This plextor SSD uses the marvell controller and is very reliable. Are you saying that I can only use Intel drives reliably in my T500? How do you know what SSDs you can use in a Thinkpad?

 

Hmm. The intel drive is highly recommended above most other brands simply because it is reliable and reliably fast You do pay a bit of a premium.

I would suggest you boot 20 times and see how many times it does not detect. If it detects all 20 times, then I would leave it as is. If not then I would see if you can exchange it for a more proven intel drive.

Thinkvantage allows you to simply update all your drivers\bios\firmware so you don't have to go searching. I would give it a shot. Unfortunately if it is already fully updated, there isn't a whole lot you can do.

 

After updating the SSD firmware, things look a lot better. I upgraded my firmware and then did another recovery and things seem better. Before this I was getting some kind of error with a file after the recovery was done. Now I don't when I do a recovery. I have shutdown, hibernated, restarted and I haven't had one detection issue since the firmware upgrade. I agree, I will try to reboot/shutdown/hibernate a bunch of times and if things are ok, I am set. I will keep an eye on it for a few more days. So far so good

 

great. keep us posted. system is much quicker now?