Here is the link to the Express Card NVME adapter used: www.aliexpress.com/item/1005005608563019.html Here is the link to the Express Card "external" adapter: www.ebay.co.uk/itm/114615122512 Here is the Thinkmod adapter card link: thinkmods.store/products/expresscard-to-nvme-adapter And here is the link to Coreboot for the brave: doc.coreboot.org/mainboard/lenovo/t430.html Please consider buying The Doctor - Seasoned Thirteen Audiobook here: www.audible.com/pd/The-Doctor-Seasoned-Thirteen-Audiobook/B0BZQTQRP9 Or here: www.audible.co.uk/pd/The-Doctor-Seasoned-Thirteen-Audiobook/B0BZQRD365 Where you can listen to the book without ambient TARDIS sounds in the background (but maybe you prefer it that way?! :D ). Plus the Audiobook sites and apps will allow easier flicking between chapters and to where you last read to :) First published through KZfaq beginning in 2021, then published in book form through Amazon as The Doctor - Seasoned Thirteen. Now, finally, available in audio book form. Please support via Patreon: www.patreon.com/leithes Substack: doctoralex.substack.com/ Paypal: www.paypal.me/AlexLeithes Amazon: www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09DWJNJ1D Take care. Doctor Alex Content now appearing on Substack! doctoralex.substack.com/?r=qsiks& The entire series is already available as a novel on Amazon: "The Doctor - Seasoned Thirteen" Paperback: www.amazon.com/dp/B09DN16TVD Kindle: www.amazon.com/dp/B09DWKMZY3 Hardback: www.amazon.com/dp/B09DMW9KKK KZfaq: kzfaq.info/sun/PLWdIQronRkylgZY6mhdOONZHQoUuqdWhX The previous series, The Doctor - Seasoned Twelve, is available on Amazon, and free on KZfaq! Kindle: www.amazon.com/dp/B09DBWSGF4 Paperback: www.amazon.com/dp/B09CTR159C Hardback: www.amazon.com/dp/B09DLTLPCR A very exclusive and rare hardback version is available as the top tier Patreon reward: www.patreon.com/leithes?fan_landing=true kzfaq.info/sun/PLWdIQronRkymrXsd4FgPPms0_SGH4UpQY My older work is also available on Amazon and on KZfaq as The Doctor - Regenerations Past: Kindle: www.amazon.com/dp/B09DBW233Y

Very nice, I really have a special place in my heart for my old T430 and T430s that I still have, upgraded of course.

very interesting. I've heard of some people doing a similar things with older cheese grater mac pros, installing a small, fast grub installation onto storage that the firmware can boot from only to load some drivers for pci-e storage and continue booting from there. Very cool.

Hint the Trackpad on these earlier Thinkpads is actually a very cheap easy to replace sticker no need to replace the actual trackpad unless it is damaged

So on a t430 you can get (in theory, ignoring the ridiculous pricing of these drives): 8 tb 2.5" SSD in stock hard drive bay + 8 tb 2." SSD in Media bay enclosure adapter + 2 tb in the expresscard / nvme adapter + 1.5 tb microsd card = 19.5 tb potentially!

You can get touchpad stickers for your thinkpad too. VERY cheap comapred to t470+ era.

Very nice idea! And it works :) It was quite a struggle to get there, so this is not for everyone. But that is beyond the point that you have proven that it can work. Keep in mind though that not all classic Thinkpads having an MSATA slot will support ssds in it. My Thinkpad X201 tablet has a MSATA slot for the 3G wireless module, but it will not even accept MSATA drives. The successor model X220 did support MSATA, so it may also support NVME. I have thought of buying a USB 3 Expresscard expansion for my X201, but that will also not do very much. The maximum speed will go up from 30 MB/s to about 40-45 MB/s which is hardly an improvement. On another note: upgradability in general has been fantastic with these old generation Thinkpads. Compare that to the latest models, where the only thing you can change is the ssd... CPU, RAM and even wifi chips are soldered nowadays, a real shame.

:-) that is nice , thanks ,,, yes enjoy it,,, now a T430 and do it 🙂

I used to have a Lenovo ThinkPad T510. There is a chipset issue where the nvidia graphics chip kind of murders itself. Linux nvidia drivers for the 510 were also not very good.

this should work with grub installed on usb thumb drive for example

Muchas gracias, un saludo desde Colombia