when the bloody mPCIe card fits, but does not work

[DiTBho]

yet real-world case: is mSATA SSD in Thinkpad X61 laptop possible?
Well, the bloody mSATA card fits the miniPCIe slot, but the card does not work.
(my deep ignorance)

Better know - why - ? 

Well, here it is a great article 

[SiliconWizard]

mSATA is not directly PCIe as far as I got it.
I think the only type of SSD that is fully generic PCIe is the NVME type, but please correct me if I'm wrong! Have not been exposed to mSATA in ages.

[DiTBho]

mSATA is not directly PCIe as far as I got it.

Yup, as far as I understand, the miniPCIe socket "can" have a sATA lane.
If it's present, then mSATA is supported.

[SiliconWizard]

mSATA is not directly PCIe as far as I got it.

Yup, as far as I understand, the miniPCIe socket "can" have a sATA lane.
If it's present, then mSATA is supported.

Yes, so it must be explicitely supported on a given socket, it's not generic PCIe.

[DiTBho]

Youtube, "Explaining the Difference Between SSD NVMe and M2 SATA and mSATA"

(I am still ignorant about some details
'cause I am still using old technology)

[ejeffrey]

My understanding is that mPCIe came first, then people wanted a compact form factor for storage, and it was easier to reuse the socket for mSATA than to make a new one.  So they are two different standards that happen to share the same form factor, but a given socket can support just PCIe or PCIe or SATA.  Supposedly SATA *only* is also possible but not used in practice.

M.2 at least knew this would happen and is keyed for the various signalling configurations. It's still confusing, especially if you want to figure out what protocols something supports before buying it.  At least now NVMe is common enough that there isn't much need for SATA M.2.

[Nominal Animal]

There are mPCIe cards with a SATA chipset on the board, like Advantech EMIO-200SA sold by Mouser (923-EMIO-200SA-MP01E, 25€, but unfortunately not in stock) and Digikey (also not in stock), which has *two* SATA III ports.  To repeat, it is not an mSATA M.2 card, it is an mPCIe card with a SATA chipset on it, from 2015 or so.

(As of 2023-02-01, the only place that I can find that claims to have them in stock is micro-semiconductor.com in Hong Kong.  However, if I wanted one, I would definitely look at Advantech Online (EU), and enquire about it, because the page shows "Available for Delivery".)

[Nominal Animal]

DFRobot FIT0771 is another mPCIe SATA card with two SATA ports, and is actually available (Mouser has a few in stock for 20€ apiece), but it uses A+E keying.  If it fits, it should work for DiTBho.

[Nominal Animal]

(mPCIe A/E keying is what most WiFi mPCIe cards use, so I do believe ThinkPad X61 should be able to use the DFRobot FIT0771, at least if you run Linux on it.)

[DiTBho]

I have to try and see 

First I have to  unsolder the SATA connectors to fit the miniPCIe card to the laptop chassis; otherwise I have to operate with the bare laptop motherboard on the table.

But it also seems like the bios is stuck-up on a dirty list of mr.Lenovo approved cards. In this case, the firmware would have to be hacked and re-flashed to unlock the restriction.

But, but, I think I also need a true mini PCIe card for my banana router (yet another hack-this-and-that story here), so I will buy some and try