X1 Carbon 3rd Gen Boot SSD

[Scorpion8]

My X1 Carbon Gen 3 has a 256GB SATA-III boot SSD. It has resisted all attempts to replace it with a larger 500GB/1TB PCIe NVMe SSD even though the original specs say the machine could have come with either. I'm using the latest DiskGenius to clone the boot drive, but a no-fly zone seems to have been established.

Any thoughts or guidance? What am I missing, something in BIOS (both point to ATA HDD0 as the boot device).

Update - Tried two known-good M.2 SSDs that were not SATA .... no joy. Am I stuck with a SATA-drive even if I source a bigger one? The installed SATA is a B-Key, and am trying to use an M-Key.

The entry in PSREF states: "M.2 SSD / PCIe 2.0 x4 or SATA (e.g. xxxG SSD PCIe or xxxG SSD)"

[axur-delmeria]

IIRC the X1 Carbon 3rd Gen doesn't have BIOS/UEFI boot support for NVMe SSDs. There was a brief transition period where early PCIe SSDs use the AHCI interface (same as SATA SSDs), and this is what the X1C G3 had. Note that there was a spirited attempt to mod the BIOS/UEFI on the winraid forums, but it remained unsolved.

You could boot from a USB flash disk that has Clover bootloader installed which can then be used to boot the NVMe SSD.

[Scorpion8]

IIRC the X1 Carbon 3rd Gen doesn't have BIOS/UEFI boot support for NVMe SSDs.

I guess that makes sense, since a working drive in other Thinkpads gets the cold-shoulder in the X1 Carbon here.

So, for the record, replace only with another SATA-III drive of larger size, same M&B Key format?

[axur-delmeria]

I guess that makes sense, since a working drive in other Thinkpads gets the cold-shoulder in the X1 Carbon here.

So, for the record, replace only with another SATA-III drive of larger size, same M&B Key format?

Yes, M.2 SATA SSD with B or B+M key. I don't think you'll be able to find a PCIe AHCI SSD in this day and age.

[Scorpion8]

I guess that makes sense, since a working drive in other Thinkpads gets the cold-shoulder in the X1 Carbon here.

So, for the record, replace only with another SATA-III drive of larger size, same M&B Key format?

Yes, M.2 SATA SSD with B or B+M key. I don't think you'll be able to find a PCIe AHCI SSD in this day and age.

Thanks for the help!