Guide to : Upgrading Sony SR HDD & Ram

Hi,

Use this guide at your own risk, I am not responsible for any loss or damage that is caused. You are doing it at your own risk.

You need a BOOTALBE windows disk to be able to install on the new harddrive!

If you do not know what you are doing, then just don't do it

So as few of you might know I got my SR from newegg yesterday and everything is perfect about it.

However I wanted a faster harddrive and more memory, and not having upgraded harddrives in a laptop before i was a little nervous.

But it was very easy to do and I was taking pictures along the way so I will explain (if needed) after each pic.

Tools I used was just a small screwdriver, it would have helped alot more if it was magnetic too >.< but nevertheless here it is:

(Click on thumbnails to enlarge it)

1. Turn off your laptop (doh!), unplug it and remove the battery. Then lift the left cover by unscrewing 2 screws. That covers the hdd so you will have:



2. Unscrew the other 2 screws on the right side of the black sheet/paper thingy!



3. Take the hdd out, no force or anything needed it comes out very easy



4. Now there are 2 screws on each side of the hdd which attach a metal piece to hdd. Unscrew all 4 and remember which metal piece go which side and how it was positioned. Then gently unattach the black sheet from the side of the hdd (the upper in the pic). The black sheet is slightly glued to that side but not very much so just gently remove it.

Once you do that disconnect the hdd from laptop, which is connected via a cable easily disconnected



5. Top one is the hdd came with laptop, bottom one is Hitachi Travelstar 200gb 7200rpm (from newegg)



6. From here you are going to do exactly reverse of what you did so far:
- Attach the new hdd to the cable
- Reattach the black sheet (the sticky side) to where it should be
- Place the metal pieces on each side of hdd and screw it back
- Place the hdd in its place

After this you should be looking at this :



Place the cover and screw it and you are done!

Upgrading Ram is really easy, open the bottom cover take the ram out and place the new ones in.

So at the end of this I was left with :



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It took me about 20min or less to put this post together and windows vista ultimate 64 bit just finished installation so now I gotta install drivers!

Hope it helps some of you

-Moe

 

Wow.

I didn't realize that the SR is so much different from the Z internally...because I know the harddrive in the Z is under the left palm rest like the SZ.

Too bad the Z doesn't have a cover for its harddrive...

Anyway, it's an awesome guide!

 

awesome guide!
i will surely make some use of it soon

 

I linked it from the SR owners thread, hopefully to keep people up to date with this great topic. Thanks for the guide!

 

Any particular ram I need to get if Im upgrading from 1GB to 3GB? First time doing this!

 

Isn't a guide supposed to help people that don't know what they're doing?

 

Is the graphics card upgradeable? Or is it soldered to the motherboard?

 

A guide is supposed to guide you thru something, I meant if somebody cant tell hardwares apart from each other or doenst know how to reinstall their windows should seek some knowledge before doing this.

I meant you got to have "some" knowledge of what you are doing. I cant just find a guide on the internet on how to fix my car's engine and go start doing it!

 

Hi,

@tehguardian: I'm planning on buying the SR model here in europe, but the high end version comes with a 200GB 7200rpm HD. Is this the same HD that the one you bought??

Also, with this new HD, did you notice any difference (besides speed ) regarding vibration, heat and noise??

Thanks

 

where did you get the Vista 64 drivers?
i need to upgrade my system to vista 64 but i'm not sure which drivers are the right ones?

my model is: VGN-SR190C

thanks.