[THINK TANK] New Sony Z - Replacing DVD drive with HDD/SSD

Hey all,

I got my new VPC-Z today, and I teared it apart already

I wanted to perform the same trick, as in old Z - to connect the Micro SATA "Slimline" connector for DVD to the additional SSD with simple cable adapter.

UNFORTUNATELY it looks like Sony decided to stop this practice Additional drive will not be seen.

I spent some quality time figuring out why, and I finally found the reason - POWER. Sony is not delivering power anymore through standard "slimline" microSATA I used voltage meter, and all I got was measly 1V !!!!

To prove that, I connected the SSD to the external power source, and also to the new Z via SATA data part...

Guess what? IT WORKS! - so, either Sony has some new standard for optical drives, which I doubt - or, they built in some kind of protection that detects optical drive behavior - and if it doesn't find it, it cuts the power down to the microSATA connector, which is why I am getting those low voltages..

Question is: - All we need is 5V source, as 2.5" drives only need 5V. It has to have decent power in order to drive HDDs if you wish.

Has anyone already done that? I guess USB would be the best place to get 5V from, but the problem is - everything is so small It is going to be real PITA to do it...

 

Check out this thread
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=469244

I also add intel X-25M G2 160GB follow his instruction and this is benchmark result

 

Hmm interesting - I made the adapter by myself (simple wires and connectors) and that worked on old Z,

But maybe Lenovo Ultrabay does something in addition to pure voltage routing

I will order it asap

Thanks!