Can the internal Z12 SSD drive be used outside the Z12

Apologies if this has already been answered, but I couldn't find an answer.

What I'm thinking is that if, for example, the motherboard dies, I'd like to take a copy of the data before I send it to sony for repair and wait a decade or two before receiving it back (perhaps I exaggerate a little!). If it were a standard 2.5" drive, it would be simple as you can chuck it into an external drive to extract the data. But for the sony SSD, it's probably not going to be possible because the hardware is non-standard and it uses RAID.

Am I right, or is there actually a way to do it?

 

Well the problem is the drives being in RAID0. Even though the hardware is proprietary, as long as you have the right cables, you should be able to use it as a drive in any computer since the actual connection isnt some crazy sony invention (thank god, for we all know how sony likes to go with formats no one else uses). In any case, I'm not an expert on RAID0, so i'm not sure if you could re-RAID them and read from them, because it's not like the drives failed on you, it was the motherboard, but i'm not sure how you'd go about reading from them. Anyone else have an idea?

 

For Z12, yes. You can pull it and hook it up via a microsata-->sata cable...ensuring that your adapter has 5V>3.3V coversion built in (if it doesn't you will fry the ssd). Except it's raid 0, and you'd need to hook it up to a board using intel raid and "hope" that board recognizes the array (I would think a modern board with intel chipset would recognize it correctly).

Not sure if Sony would service your machine if the ssd is ripped out though. In fact, they may even try to void your warranty since that is not a user-serviceable part.

 

Thanks beaups for the clarification, i wasnt entirely sure if the other board would recognize the RAID0 since i figured you'd have to tell it that your drives are in RAID or something other...

In any case, this is again another reason for backing up your data

 

^Not sure, but I would think another intel-raid machine would be able to read the raid markers just fine.

The BETTER solution would be to backup or image your data...then restore or wipe the machine before sending it into service....of course, that's if it powers on still when you need service.

 

Many thanks for all the answers. I was thinking of taking it out, copying the data, and putting it back in, before sending it for repair.
I see that standard SATA chucks out 3.3V as well as 5V, so I assume something like this would do the trick as an adapter:
12IN Micro Sata Pwr Adapt Cabl for 1.8IN Ssd Hard Drives

However, it sounds like it's the RAID that's going to be the major problem. As you say, I think I'm just going to have to backup very regularly!

 

^I'd be careful with that and would not buy anything that does not specifically call out 3.3v support. Check out newmodeus.

Also, you'll likely need 2

 

That's good advice, and this one claims to support 3.3v drives:
Micro SATA Adapter | 12in SSD Micro SATA to SATA Adapter Cable - F/F | with SATA Power

I'd forgotten you would need two

 

That should work then...and yes you'll probably need 2.