Sony Vaio T Series SVT15115CXS Hybrid 1TB + 24GB SSD Replacement Drive

I bought a used Sony SVT15115CXS laptop and the owner took out the hard drive. I was combing the specs online and it seems like it comes with a 1TB + 24GB SSD Hybrid drive. I was wondering if anyone knew what type of drive was in there or is it a custom one? I can't seem to find anyone that carries the 1TB + 24GB SSD combo. The only one that comes close is the Seagate's, which is 1TB + 8GB SSD. I wanted to get a replacement one that was basically close or the same as the one that came from Sony.

The laptop I'm talking about is this one:

Sony VAIO T Series Ultrabook 15.5" TouchScreen Laptop 8GB Memory SVT15115CXS - Best Buy

The Seagate drive I found:

Fast Laptop SSHD, HDD Hybrid SSD | Seagate

 

There is no single device with 1TB+24GB SSD available currently. You should be looking for two separate components:

A 1TB 5400 RPM HDD (highly NOT recommended, if system responsiveness/performance is your goal). And a 24GB SSD that along with software, will be used to cache the mechanical HDD. Again; highly not recommended to buy an SSD with such low capacity and performance/reliability.

The Seagate SSHD is also highly NOT recommended if you're expecting SSD-like performance in all aspects of your workflows and weekly/monthly maintenance sessions (eg. Windows Updates...).


As it seems like you have a notebook that comes with an mSATA connector - I would recommend an M4 (Crucial) 256GB SSD as your boot, O/S and program drive. The regular SATA bay could be populated with a HDD - ONLY if you really need a lot of capacity 'on the go'. What you'll be compromising with this setup is that the notebook will not be as robust/durable/reliable as a fully SSD only setup. (Drops, bangs and moving/carrying the system while on could incur a head crash with associated data loss).


If you were to put only one SSD device inside (either mSATA or 2.5" SATA...), I would recommend using the 2.5" drive bay instead of the mSATA slot: more/better choices and you can always add the mSATA drive at any time down the line to expand your storage capacity.


This thread offers more suggestions to get the most from your new system:

See:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/solid-state-drives-ssds-flash-storage/718208-asus-ux32vd-db71.html



Hope this helps.


Good luck.

 

Thanks for the link. I think I'll just stick to a 2.5" SSD drive, I figured I wanted to put back the original drive later down the line if I wanted to sell the laptop. I can easily get cheap SSDs nowadays. I know those hybrid SSDs are crossovers for budget + speed but to me, I rather get the speed than the storage capacity.

 

I thought you bought this system with the previous owner removing the HDD beforehand?

If you're talking about the 24GB SSD... I would remove it now and sell it while it is still worth something...

It is definitely not needed for the notebook to operate.


Glad to have helped a little.

 

I've serviced the identical but smaller 13 inch model of this machine before, possibly the fiddliest most difficult machine I've ever worked on. NEVER FORMAT THE ORIGINAL HDD!!!!!!!!!!! Sony has some kind of custom UEFI extension & recovery schemes with their preinstalled Windows 8 that is stored on the HDD, long story short, you won't be able to authenticate your OEM key or perform Sony system recovery without the original HDD. Don't even try to clone the original HDD, the partition layouts are really messy, just cut your losses and install fresh on new drives. Without the original HDD, SOny will not honor the Warranty.

Now that the preamble is over, lets get to servicing the thing, be warned, this machine has many many traps that can brick it due to poor BIOS implementation. You have to be very clear as to the performance level you want vs capacity as you can actually have both a large SSD and HDD at the same time with this machine but you don't want to fiddle any more than neccessary.

I will need to know if this machine originally came with Windows 7 or Windows 8, i'm betting its the Windows 8 model so the first thing you have to do is enter the BIOS and enable Legacy Mode plus disable the secure boot function. (If you want to UEFI boot then unfortunately I can't help you)

Things you need on hand:
1. A Bootable USB stick with Gparted
2. Knowledge on how to access the Sony BIOS
3. Screwdrivers
4. Balls of steel

The thing is, that machine uses an Intel RST caching scheme. This means there is a 24gb mSATA SSD buried deep within the machine that caches frequently used data from the HDD. Before we begin modding, you must disable this.

You do this by first ensuring there is no 2.5 inch HDD installed (this will force the machine to POST with BIOS advanced settings), then boot the machine and enter the IRST config menu by spamming Ctrl+i at the POST screen. Once in the IRST screen, disable the cache and format the mSATA until all you see is unallocated space. For the machine I serviced, it was difficult to enter the BIOS screen without the original HDD since I had the newer Secure Boot UEFI Win 8 model but if yours is the Win 7 model its easier.

Be warned, this is the first TRAP, you can only restore the original RST scheme by performing a Sony recovery from the original HDD. Hence, KEEP THE ORIGINAL if you want warranty.
TRAP #2, if you skip this step and go ahead and install the new mSATA Drive, your machine won't boot at all and everything will end in tears.

OK, assuming you have disabled cache successfully, you must decide now on what config of machine you want. The reason is you pretty much have to strip down the whole machine as the mSATA is buried on the keyboard side of the motherboard. You can go for:
a) 128/256gb mSATA + 1TB HDD setup which is the most ideal but expensive and difficult to do on this machine
b) 2.5inch SSD only setup which is easier to implement but also allows for optimal speed (thus leaving the 24gb SSD as onboard storage)
c) Windows on the 24gb SSD and a 1tb HDD which is the cheapest and easiest thus saving your sanity (I don't recommend this option as the 24gb SSDs in this machine have a reputation for poor reliability)

You have to tell me what you want to do so I can post the relevant information. The problem we face is that the Sony BIOS actually doesn't allow you to specify which drive (mSATA or 2.5inch) is the Main boot drive. It will default to the 2.5inch drive if it is present which will complicate our installation should you want to boot off the mSATA.

 

hey Marksman30k, thanks for this post, it's been really informative because I have the Sony vaio t13 and I've just ordered a Samsung 840 Pro to put it in it sometime this week. I'd like to go with option B in your post and I was wondering if you could post the instructions/information for that specific configuration assuming that I want to boot from my ssd and not the msata. Also, given it's reputation for poor reliability, is the 24gb msata worth using as incidental storage on the machine or would you just keep it unallocated and essentially hidden once I have windows set up on the new drive? Thanks in advance for your help!

 

#Marksman30k
thanks for info, i have also been interested in how to disable 24gb ssd sony cache.
im wondering is there possibility (or sense ) to extend 2.5 ssd with this msata drive ? for egsample raid JBOD to have one data space.
btw, could you make recovery dvd/usb using sony creator before removing hdd ? with this recovery you should be able to format hdd, use it as usb storage and still you can recover your vaio.

#npmckee
if you get new drive let us know how this works for you
if windows see this drives separate in explorer you can benchmark them ( cristal disk mark or atto).

 

I got everything working and I've gotta say it was pretty simple and straightforward, with the things Marksman30k mentioned in mind. I pulled the old hdd out, booted it to the RST configuration screen, disabled/deleted the cache and msata drive, then started back up. I had the battery pulled for all of this and I had a weird issue when I put it back in. I got a flashing orange light and it wouldn't boot but it came back up just fine when I pulled the battery back out. Installed win 7 on the ssd this way and when it was done I was able to put the battery back in and boot up with no problems. Now i've got the stock 32gb msata as an NTFS storage drive and all is well. Haven't had a chance to run benchmarks but when I do I'll report back. I put a samsung 840 pro 128gb in it and so far it's pretty blazin fast. Thanks for your help Marksman30k!

 

Hi Marksman, I just had to replace my fan and stuck a Plextor 256GB mSata drive in to replace the 24GB mSata drive, and was wondering if you could give me a little advice on moving Windows 8 Pro from the 1GB HHD to the 256 mSata drive. I'm reasonably capable with computers but I saw where you said it was difficult to do on this machine (option a) above. Here is the "Computer Management" screen and you can see that the Plextor is unallocated. Thanks if you do spare me the advice. Ken

http://forum.notebookreview.com/images/styles/NotebookReview/attach/png.gif

 

Hello Marksman30K,

Not sure if you will see this or not, but i have this very laptop and the factory hard drive was driving me crazy. Way to slow. I upgraded to an SSD drive using driveclone and it worked. I actually was able to boot and everything seems to be running fine. I don't have the recovery partitions though as i had before but that is ok. I will keep a backup elsewhere.

One thing i could not for the life of me get to work was to disable the msata drive. I tried just about everything. My bios is the more up to date and i have the windows 8 UEFI, turned it to legacy, used another drive, used no drive, no advanced BIOS options came up and nothing with control I. I've loaded the Intel RST software and i can see the msata but can't do anything with it. I'm tempted to delete it in windows disk management but worried my system will be unstable if i do that.

any advice?