Monday, April 06, 2009

128GB SSD on Dell Mini 9


Click to see the video and pics






Desolder SSD screw holders


Cut the wifi cable holder


Make more room with dremel


This is how it should look when ok.


Put all together and boot.. Done!




So pretty easy hack can give quite much more..

You can check earlier test results here.. original SSD vs 50mm RunCore SSD








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32 comments:

Saperalot said...

you are crazy jkk ;-) but nice video again. hope people be carefuly with the dell devices and dont burn the motherboards. but with a little technic thinking the mod is duable.

hope i get my runcore for my 900 soon, cant whait.

JLM said...

Only one word:
Genius!!!!!

Keith F B said...

Hi JKK with your prompt response will be great!
Can I use Dell Mini 9 SSD to my 901 SSD on primary?

Waiting your answer. Thank you.

Anonymous said...

Wow! Amazing. Thanks for the wonderful documentation of your mod. But - I could not tell if you used the PATA or SATA 70mm SSD?

thanks

Saperalot said...

@ anonymus its pata

Anonymous said...

Is there a risk of the SSD coming lose from the socket (without the screws holding hte end of the SSD to the motherboard)?

96MB Write said...

Would this (see link at comment) work for a Dell Mini 9? Supposed 125MB Read & 95MB Write.

Anonymous said...

Is there any hope of switching the WiFi and SSD positions? It would be easier to use the empty WWAN (3G) space for a longer SSD in the WiFi slot.

Anonymous said...

jkk it has been more than 1,5 month and the runcore pro sata ssds from mdd are not available.d you know anything about it?

Anonymous said...

hello - so i am half way down the path of getting this (128gb 70mm) working and i am wondering what experience you have had with keeping the 70mm ssd in the dell mini from coming lose without the screws. you mention tape to protect the ssd, what kind of tape are you reffering to and have you used tape to hold the item in place?

please let me know. btw, your site is awesome and has been extremely helpful throughout this process. i still cant understand why dell ships mini's with 8gb - totally useless.

Anonymous said...

I have successfully repeated this adding a Super Talent 64GB 70mm SSD. Woo hoooo! Worked great. Mac OS X 10.5.6 runs very nicely now. One slight change - rather than desolder the standoffs I used a small bit and the Dremel tool to drill them out. Took only a few seconds each and very little heat generated. Thanks again for the great mod.

Anonymous said...

JKK Mobile; Great Mod, Excellent video and very descriptive. I'm sure quite a few of those are or already in the process of this mod. I'm quite happy someone thought of a way for us Dell Mini-9 owners to get the 128gigs instead of being limited to 64 with little hope of it going up based on card size restrictions. Please continue to bring us cutting edge (pun intended) hacks and mods for our mobile devices.

Dr Some-what Evil ~~ mydellmini forum user

Anonymous said...

I'm trying to add a runcore 70mm pata 64gb but my mini will not recognize it :(
If I connect the runcore using the usb connector I can see it on windows, so the ssd is not fried...
Any idea if the dell bios A05 may be the problem?!
Thanks.

P.S.: The board from the runcore ssd seams to be a little thinner than the stec one.

Anonymous said...

If I have ubuntu, is there a way to copy the entire OS and files to the new SSD drive?

Anonymous said...

JKK mentioned a program for cloning the whole partition in the first ssd-upgrading video n dell mini 9.

Anonymous said...

That program is called Acronis True Image.

Anonymous said...

jkk-
this is the eeepc 128gb ssd (on the runcore website) hacked into the dell mini9 right?

JKK said...

Yep, runcore 128gb for eee pc

RHodgett said...

>I'm trying to add a runcore 70mm pata 64gb but >my mini will not recognize it :(
>If I connect the runcore using the usb >connector I can see it on windows, so the ssd >is not fried...
>Any idea if the dell bios A05 may be the >problem?!
>Thanks.

>P.S.: The board from the runcore ssd seams to
>be a little thinner than the stec one.

I am having the same problem with a 32Gb Runcore 70mm (yes its PATA). I have connected it at a slight angle without taking it apart yet but the bios shows no internal drive. The connector does seem slightly thinner than the DELL STEC standard drive. Is there something Im missing? (also using the A05 bios)

Anonymous said...

JKK - its great that you post these great how to's but it would also be great if you could answer some of the questions asked. As a reader of your site and purchasing things based on your recommendations, if it does not work we'll naturally come back to you for assistance.

I hope it wasn't a ploy to sell more runcores

JKK said...

Mine has A00 bios

Anonymous said...

I just wanted to add -- I did this hack with 64gb 70mm runcore and it worked. Thank you JKK!

I'll be posting the performance result on my dell mini forum if anyone is interested.

Anonymous said...

Hmmmm.... Modding is fun, but I'm lazy. I just stuck a 32g sd card in the slot.....

2 ez...

The mini9 shouldnt be your main laptop anyways! Who needs 128g in a 9" computer...

It won't game, so you dont need space for far cry or crysis....

Anonymous said...

I would've just used 32g runcore if it's in stock. I paid just $30 more for 64gb 70mm and got double the capacity and better performance. My friend is still waiting for his 32g runcore while I've been using my mini 9 for few weeks now.

Anonymous said...

Great mod. My 128GB Runcore wasn't recognised by my Mini either, but further investigations conclude that they sent me the wrong one, I've got a SATA version... ho hum...

Anonymous said...

Have you seen that you can simply drop in a SuperTalent 128GB SSD now? Now Dremel required?
http://www.supertalent.com/press_view.php?prid=9b8619251a19057cff70779273e95aa6&lid=c4ca4238a0b923820dcc509a6f75849b

Unknown said...

Helloo
love you site!!!!
i need HELP!!! i just brought myself a Runcore 64
and trying to install into my ASUS EPCS 101.
can you please show me how to do IT!!!! i just dunno how to open it
my email is
tommi2@gmail.com

Anonymous said...

I have a 4gb on my mini 9 -910, I am running Ubuntu ~I dont like it and I want to run XP, can anyone tell me the kind of problems I will have with this if I get a 16 or 32 gig SSD and install XP on it? i.e driver issues.

Anonymous said...

Hi, quick question here. Is this SSD much (or any) faster than the 50mm RunCore SSD? I'm looking at doing this mod to my Mini9 but if the speed isn't much greater with the 70mm SSD I don't know if I'm keen to hack my chassis up.
I have WWAN so can't fit double width card so have to chose between the "Pro 50mm" or hacking the case to fit the 70mm.
Cheers

Anonymous said...

I bought a RUNCORE 128GB PRO 70MM MINI PCI-E and no luck getting the bios to register this ssd. Could you please make it a little more clear as to which 128GB Runcore ssd drive you used that was compatible with the Dell mini 9? Thank you

John Anderson said...

First I want to say jkk you have a great and informative site. I noticed reading thru this post that my question is a common occurance

I'm trying to add a pata 64gb but my vostro a90 will not recognize it, bios versions ive tried are a03 & a04. Inside the "Boot" tab in the bios, under "hard drive +" the SSD is detected but under "Main" tab it shows no fixed HDD...weird

If I connect the SSD using the usb connector I can see it on windows & a mac, I can also install an operating system so the ssd is not defective...
Any idea why the dell bios isn't detecting this?! Any help or advise would greatly be appreciated
Thanks.

Anonymous said...

What is the code of the 128gb Drive for the Dell Mini 9? or the url link, I don't find it on the website. Thanks.

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