Cenkaetaya Tips: Hard drive in DVD drive of Sony Vaio Z series - Howto

[silva27]

get a HDD enclosure from modeus. clean and prevents HDD from moving.

[hamidalimalik]

I was looking for a simple video that shows how to strip open a vgn-z to clean out my fan for dust etc. You're a life saver man, thanks!

[beldog2]

Thanks so much for this video, it has been very useful :)

[SonyFan4]

So you basically sacrificed your disc drive for another HDD? You could have just upgraded your current HDD to a higher amount of memory or used a external HDD.

[GabriKnight]

5. If everything fails, how could I restore my system from my 5 rescue disks without a DVD player? Do modern BIOS have external USB drivers?

Thanks in advance

[GabriKnight]

4. Does the drive speed match usual internal drive?

[GabriKnight]

3.

a) What type of drive works best / fastest? Sata / eSata / 1 / 2 / 3?

b) Is the left hand side plug for the power? Please link to example adapter.

c) Is the right hand side plug for data? Is that plug what originally connected for DVD data or does it involve another adapter / extension?

[cenkaetaya1]

@GabriKnight hey, I actually have the z12 myself now.

I did it wayyy easier this time. Go on ebay and buy a thinkpad T400 caddy, i got one buyitnow 12bux. Just open the z, and take out cd, and the thinkpad tray fits perfectly. There i a tiny 1.5mm x 5mm gab in one corner but its not a big deal. The screws wont fit and some folks drilled holes in the Caddy for placement. I didnt screw it in, it fits tightly enough when you put the keyboard on. Unless your laptop bashes the floor, it'l stay in.

[GabriKnight]

2.

Will it work with my Vaio Z12 (Big hard drive for files in addition to the 4 x 64 SSds for OS & progs)?

[GabriKnight]

Thanks for vid!

1.

Which Vaio Z is this?



[SilverWing9999]

u shud put black electrical tap on the side so no red sticks out

[cenkaetaya1]

ya, i dont think it really matters what hdd it is.

[emdy32]

nice video. i was wondering if it would be possible to replace the current harddrive with a 500gb 2.5inch? thanks mate

[emdy32]

hey nice video. i was wondering if i could replace the current hard drive with a 500gb 2.5inch? and am guessing its a SATA right? thanks mate

[cmsb5]

I got the cord you suggested, but I don't know how to attach the hard drive to the supplied power connector. If I am to correct to assume you used a separate adapter, could you give me a link to where you got it? Thanks in advance.

[cenkaetaya1]

@cmsb5 hey, sorry i should have made that more clear. You just need an SATA power adapter. I got mine from an old PSU. You can really get it anywhere, just cut it off, and attach the wires by the same color and you are good to go.

Its just the adapter comes with a standard Power Adapter, but you just need to swap it to an SATA power adapter. its basically the same thing just with different ends.

i actually just now upgraded by z's second HDD from a 140g to 320 :)

[cenkaetaya1]

@cmsb5 the SATA power cord i have has the wires in the following order Orange - Black - Red - Black - Yellow

I connected the first Black and red wires, and they are the only ones connected since the power adapter only has 2 wires. Just tape the other wires up and your good to go.

[cmsb5]

@cenkaetaya1

Ok thanks. Now I guess I'll have to go salvage that out of my old Dell.

[cenkaetaya1]

Alright, if you need the Z MANUAL for any reason.. its a bit hard to find.

its on my site. (just CTRL+F - vaio z and you will see it in the list) @

findariver com / images

[cmsb5]

@cenkaetaya1

Ok and I was planning on connecting my boot drive to the old DVD drive connector. That should work, right? I know I could boot from the drive before taking it out so I'm thinking it will. I just don't want to have to move around more stuff than I have to (ie the current HDD).

[cenkaetaya1]

... you should have no need to move or even unplug the current HDD. i would even touch it. You can boot from which ever one you want in BIOS, i am guessing unless the Vaio Z restricts it. I boot from the Main drive so in never tried.

You can swap the two drive or what ever you want. I mean its basically the same as if you were to do it in a desktop. Just imagine you have a desktop with 2 drives.

To power down the drive (go to device manager) Note: make sure no apps are using the drive when so

[cenkaetaya1]

This is because if something is using the drive, it will not shut down and tell you "you gota restart the comp" if its not being used, it just turns off fine.

Also make sure to close any apps when turning it on. once it changed drive letters for me, but after i restarted it turned back to normal.

I use drive 2 for downloading usually, so i just gota turn off Utorrent before doing any drive changes.

Note: it sucks about 35-40mins of battery life, not so bad. I almost never turn it off.

[lookinbarrel]

does sony put anything in there that indicates that you've opened it?

[cenkaetaya1]

as far as i know.. no.

There is nothing you rip off or undo that you cannot put back exactly as it was. Either way it should not matter because this is not a very dangerous mod, and i think warranty should still be given if the machine fails.

[ajony]

hi, any idea where I can get the sata ribbon from ?

[cenkaetaya1]

@ajony no, i am not really sure.

If you have the Z, you just use the cable from the DVD drive. Otherwise.... you could look on ebay.....

It should not really be that hard of a part to find.

The Adapter i gave a link in the description.