Question 1

I sent this item for replacement, but am having trouble convincing RMA staff that the item DOES NOT come in retail box (only wrapped in air pillows sealed with a sticker). Can somebody please confirm this?

Accepted Answer

Yes, I bought this SSD as an open box deal for a bargain price at Newegg It came naked, no box, no factory papers/manual/whatever, just an antistatic bag and bubble wrapper around it.  I use is as a system disk for a Linux computer.  Looking at it by smartctl, it reveals that my SSD was used for quite a long time before I bought it - way more than 30,000 hours (which is about 4 years), and it also reported about 150 power cycles as well as 117 unsafe shut downs.  However, smartctl reports zero reallocated sector count, zero reserve block count, and zero erase fail count which means that the device is in good health.  Intel web suite reveals that this specific type  of SSD is EOL and a more modern version of it exists  on the market. There is no doubt in my mind that this SSD came from a used server taken apart and sold for parts.   Nevertheless, it works flawlessly for me for several month already in a Linux computer which is always on 24/7.  May be I am lucky, but I have no reason to complain.  Hopefully it is helpful.

Question 2

Does the drive come with the black shim to make it 9.5mm or is it just the bare 7mm drive?

Accepted Answer

Bare drive...no shim.  I have installed these in many laptops without shimming.  It will bolt to cradle just fine.  In desktops I just 3M double sided tape them to the bottom of the case.

Question 3

I plan is to replace the original HD in my HP m8417c Media Center PC with this Intel 320 Series 2.5" 160GB SATA2 SSD and I would like to know what additional cable with connectors I will need and also what data transfer software I should be looking at?

Accepted Answer

You will need a SATA data cable to connect the drive to the motherboard SATA connector, a SATA drive power splitter ("Y") cable if your power supply does not have an unused power plug.  You may need drive mount adapter with screws to mount this 2.5" drive in a 3.5" or 5" mounting bay, as appropriate.  Be sure to download, install, and run the Intel SSD Toolbox to optimize your OS for SSD.  I only "clone" the original drive to the new drive using very old cloning software in offline mode - boot from a CD or USB drive.  There are several good free offline cloning software such as Acronis, Clonezilla, Macrium Reflect, and EaseUS Todo Backup, among others.

Question 4

Did this product work in a PS3?

Accepted Answer

Will this product work in a PS3?  Short answer is 'YES'.  TechRadar,com has an excellent article with instructions.  (Google 'how to add a SSD to the PS3')

At this price, it's well worth the investment for the payoff in performance.  Enjoy the new found speed!

Question 5

Can I transfer just the OS from my 1tb HDD to this SSD to make it bootable ?  I don't want to disturb any other data on my 1tb HDD ?  Also I don't have any drives large enough to back up the 1tb HDD.

Accepted Answer

Is the OS in its own partition in the 1TB drive, hopefully under 160 GB?  If yes, then you can try using partition clone or copy software.  (I have not personally tried cloning partitions to a bootable drive.)  If your data and OS are contained in a single large partition, your only choice then is to remove enough data so your used disk space is well under 160GB.  (Backup all the data to an inexpensive 1TB external drive.)  Then try cloning disk-to-disk.  Also beware that you may have other "hidden" partitions in the 1TB drive that also need space in the new SSD.  However, the most reliable method is to start from scratch with a new OS installation in the SSD by using installation media such as bootable DVD or USB drive containing the OS installation software.  You may be able to create the installation media by running the Recovery utility from within the OS, if your computer did not include the media when you bought it.  However, you will have to re-install any software that you personally installed separately.

Question 6

Is this the same size as a regular hard drive?

Accepted Answer

2.5, inch. do you have a ruler at home? look at the ruler and compare it. Or draw it out on a piece of paper to see the approximately size.

Question 7

will this work in a dell latitude E6420 laptop?

Accepted Answer

2.5 inchs r make to fit most. Most of the laptops.check your user manual to confirm.

Question 8

Does it come with any software to clone my current disk and OS?

Accepted Answer

you can clone your existing disk by downloading macrium free

Question 9

Manufacturer Refurbished?

Accepted Answer

Hello,

A refurbished item is an item that was originally sent back to the manufacturer for reported defect reasons. The item has been repaired to function properly and is now being resold at a discounted price.

We can only guarantee what is listed on our Product Page. Newegg always offers a 30Day return period.

Thank you, 
Newegg Support

Questions & Answers