SSD only recognised as an HDD on an old Toshiba laptop

SSD only recognised as an HDD on an old Toshiba laptop - Printable Version

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+--- Thread: SSD only recognised as an HDD on an old Toshiba laptop (/showthread.php?tid=3376)

SSD only recognised as an HDD on an old Toshiba laptop - m654321 - 10-07-2016

[size=1em]I'm setting up a Windows Vista laptop (Toshiba Satellite Pro A300) with LL3.0 (single boot) for my sister.[/size]
[size=1em]I've replaced the original HDD with an SDD (Kingston HyperX 3K SH103S3, 240GB).[/size]

[size=1em]However, both in the Computer Settings, under the heading 'boot' (F2 key press), and output from the inxi command in LL's terminal show the above SSD listed as an HDD... Is the PC failing to recognise the SSD, because the BIOS may be out-of-date? The BIOS version that came preinstalled is listed in Settings as version 1.6.[/size]

[size=1em]Here is the output from LL's terminal:[/size]

Code:
marie@marie-Satellite-Pro-A300:~$ inxi

CPU~Dual core Intel Pentium Dual T2390 (-MCP-) speed/max~1067/1867 MHz Kernel~4.4.0-38-generic x86_64 Up~6 min Mem~530.4/1990.7MB HDD~240.1GB (2.4% used) Procs~201 Client~Shell inxi~2.2.35

[size=1em]Is it possible to update the BIOS in LL, or can this only be done in Windows OS? I have downloaded a BIOS update but this is in a *.zip file suggesting that I can only do the BIOS update in Windows OS...? I only have experience of updating BIOS in Windows 7 or 8.1, but not in Linux.[/size]

[size=1em]Mike[/size]

Re: SSD only recognised as an HDD on an old Toshiba laptop - torreydale - 10-07-2016

I doubt that. The program probably just refers to all storage as HDD.

Now that you have an SSD in that machine, you want to make sure TRIM is set up properly. Go to the Help Manual (Menu > Favorites > Help Manual) and click on Install in the left panel. Then in the right panel, select Enabling TRIM on your SSD.

Re: SSD only recognised as an HDD on an old Toshiba laptop - rokytnji - 10-07-2016

Just info.

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/fstrim/+bug/1449005

https://github.com/torvalds/linux/blob/e64f638483a21105c7ce330d543fa1f1c35b5bc7/drivers/ata/libata-core.c#L4109-L4286

it behoves one to check and make sure trim is supported or not on ones ssd drive before enabling it.

Code:
harry@harry-Latitude-XT2:~$ sudo hdparm -I /dev/sda | grep "TRIM supported"

[sudo] password for harry: 

       *    Data Set Management TRIM supported (limit 1 block)

harry@harry-Latitude-XT2:~$

I only mention this because my zif ssd drive on my atom netbook cannot support enabling trim on it.
Enabling trim makes that zif ssd drive unbootable. I have fixed it using live tools. Restore backup fstab and rc.local files. Move /fstrim back into /cron/weekly. Then my atom netbook would boot ok again then.

Lastly. Anymore. I trim my ssd manually instead of on every boot.

Code:
harry@harry-Latitude-XT2:~$ sudo fstrim -v /

[sudo] password for harry: 

/: 2872553472 bytes were trimmed

harry@harry-Latitude-XT2:~$ sudo fstrim -v /home

/home: 120884785152 bytes were trimmed

harry@harry-Latitude-XT2:~$

leaving my boot and cron jobs alone.

Re: SSD only recognised as an HDD on an old Toshiba laptop - m654321 - 10-08-2016

(10-07-2016, 03:13 PM)rokytnji link Wrote: Lastly. Anymore. I trim my ssd manually instead of on every boot.

Code:
harry@harry-Latitude-XT2:~$ sudo fstrim -v / [sudo] password for harry: /: 2872553472 bytes were trimmed harry@harry-Latitude-XT2:~$ sudo fstrim -v /home /home: 120884785152 bytes were trimmed harry@harry-Latitude-XT2:~$
leaving my boot and cron jobs alone.

@rokytnji & torreydale - I've always used manual trim for root, home & data partitions for all SSD setups in sig - the auto-enabled TRIM looks like a lot of work to setup ... :-\

Mike

Re: SSD only recognised as an HDD on an old Toshiba laptop - m654321 - 10-08-2016

(10-07-2016, 01:03 PM)torreydale link Wrote: I doubt that. The program probably just refers to all storage as HDD.

Now that you have an SSD in that machine, you want to make sure TRIM is set up properly. Go to the Help Manual (Menu > Favorites > Help Manual) and click on Install in the left panel. Then in the right panel, select Enabling TRIM on your SSD.

You're right - the default is HDD. I ran the inxi command in the terminal of setups (1) to (3), listed in signature, and each time inxi showed the internal drive(s) of the PCs as an HDD, not SSD.
I did finally update the BIOS yesterday on my sister's Toshiba Satellite Pro A300 (from version 1.6 to 1.8 - the latest dating back to 2009!). However, in the absence of any advice for updating BIOS in LL, I had to resort to a basic fresh install of Windows OS to do this - didn't take long. Even when the BIOS version 1.8 was installed, it still didn't recognise the SSD in the boot device list, the drive continuing to be listed as an HDD. I guess that's not surprising since the most recent BIOS update is already 7 years old, which is before the time when SSD-use became widespread.

I'm therefore marking this, as solved as I seem to have confirmed the statement I put in the thread header, i.e. the reason for the Satellite Pro A300's failure to recognise the drive as an SSD is probably down to its age - that said, it works much better with an SSD than an HDD...

Thanks for your interest torreydale - do let me know if you hear of an LL-way to update BIOS in the future... Wink

Cheers
Mike