Plextor M5M 256GB Mini-SATA (mSATA) MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) PX-256M5M

Pros: Works fine, very quick drive. I installed it as a boot drive into a Lenovo Y500 notebook, didn't feel like overpaying for their 16GB SSD so I ordered without. Instantly recognized. Boot time is very quick, SATA 6Gb/s and seems to be using most of it. No blue screens or errors. Very solid product. Good size for a boot drive and seems to be at the value price point. I didn't sit there and try to time my boot time from hitting the power button, but the psychedelic Windows logo doesn't finish. Boot also does seem faster than my Workstation which boots from a 256GB Samsung 840 Pro. I did get it from newegg, but at $209.

Cons: Though it never said they were included it would be nice if the package also had 1, maybe dare I say even 2 or 4, M2x3mm screws to secure the drive into the slot. Come on - they cost a whole 20 cents retail and probably 1/2 a cent to manufacture. They cost more to ship than they are worth, and for $200+ people should not have to wait for or initiate a second delivery to be able to close their notebook and use their product.

Overall Review: It took a while to track down the spec for the screws. They are standard and are also used to secure the WLAN cards in the notebooks. Drive is great I would recommend it. Great option for all those stuck with Windows 8 notebooks and have an mSATA slot. Good size for Windows 7 with assorted applications.

Pros: Worked perfectly in the StarTech SAT2MSAT25 2.5in SATA to Mini SATA SSD Adapter enclosure. Was detected immediately when first connected to my system externally. Wish I'd gotten to do more with it than that.

Cons: Failed immediately while having a drive cloned to it. Was locked, unable to be firmware-updated, initialized, formatted, or secure erased. Plextor's own PlexTools stated the drive was dead. Possibly bricked. Details below.

Overall Review: Unfortunately, the drive failed in the midst of what should have been a simple cloning session and hasn't worked since. Using a an 2.5" drive adapter dock, I was able to successfully connect the drive to my Windows 8 Samsung Series 7 Ultra via USB without a hitch. The drive was recognized and all seemed well. I fired up the latest version of Acronis True Image Home 2013 (with Plus Pack) and began cloning my ultrabook's 128GB mSATA drive. All partitions were properly detected, it knew the drive would have to be converted to GPT, and the process, set to shut down the laptop when complete, began. After two minutes away from the notebook, I returned to find the system had inexplicably rebooted and way before the process should have completed. Now the drive was no longer connectable to any of my systems via USB (the USB connect/disconnect sound would just happen every few seconds). Using two different tower systems (Win 8 and Win 7), I connected the drive via SATA internally, The UEFI and BIOS were able to detect the drive, as well as Device Manager. Disk Management saw the drive momentarily as unallocated but it couldn't be formatted. I attempted to update the firmware to v1.03 via the bootable upgrade ISO from Plextor. It failed, returning an error of "PxCMD_CLO is not cleared", confirming that the drive was locked and not writable. I then examined the drive via PlexTools SSD software which surprisingly declared the drive health to be at the end of its useful life and stated that it should be backed up and replaced immediately. Parted Magic and GParted confirmed no partitions had been created from the cloning and would not allow me to create a new partition table nor erase the drive. Unrecognized disk labels were cited, plus the lock was likely preventing the procedure. Even a secure erase of the drive was not possible, unfortunately.

As many great things I've heard about this mSATA drive in other reviews, I'm not going to lambast it because it's quite possible that I just received a lemon. While there have been issues with people using Acronis saying it had issues with GPT partition tables at one point, I don't necessarily think that was the culprit here. In any case, I'll happily give the drive another chance try again with Clonezilla or something else when I receive the replacement. Will review again afterwards, but am forced to give it one egg in the interim.