Read and replace Sony Vaio VPCZ13M9E internal SSD RAID drives

My VPCZ13M9E has two internal ssd drives stacked together using a plastic separator that holds them in place. Each one of them has its own connection. The two drives connect to the same ribbon cable which has the Y shape, and the resulting ribbon connects to the motherboard. Each drive is a Toshiba 64GB SSD. By default both are configured as RAID 0 on the motherboard.

I would like to know which type of connection are so I can replace them with bigger capacities. Also, would like to be able to read the drives once removed from the computer, for example via USB.



Top side of the Toshiba THNSNC064GMMJ:
205B8253
FW CJSA0201 +3.3V
1036KBZ
LBA 125,045,424
RoHS_COMPATIBLE,_[[Pb]]>MCV
TSD-THNSNC256GMMJ(B)
E319571
SERIAL ATA
MADE IN PHILIPPINES
TOSHIBA CORPORATION


Bottom side of the SSD:
HALOGEN/LEAD-FREE
9A23108000
MDK 430V-0 N


SSD connector to the ribbon cable, drive side


SSD connector to the ribbon cable, ribbon cable side


This is the ribbon cable:
Sony A1781464A 1-882-162-11 COMPL PWB FPC-217(SSD_TOS) (S)

 

O, after some investigation, it seems clear that both internal ssd drives use a Micro SATA (also called uSATA) connection type. Warning: it's not mSATA, that's a different connection.
After knowing that, bought from amazon two adapters in order to be able to read any of those drives from the USB directly:

Delock Converter SATA 6 Gb/s 22 pin > USB 3.0-A male + USB 2.0-A male (item 61883):



Delock Adapter SATA 22 pin > Micro SATA 16 pin (item 61675):

 

THIS IS ADDITIONAL HARDWARE THAT SHOULD WORK BUT NOT TESTED:

Delock 1.8″ External Enclosure Micro SATA HDD / SSD > USB 3.0 (item 42487):





Micro SATA Female to SATA 22-Pin Male Adapter
Product Code: UADAP009500
https://usb.brando.com/micro-sata-female-to-sata-22-pin-male-adapter_p02848c0042d015.html








Delock 1.8″ Converter Micro SATA 16 Pin > mSATA full size Item No. 62520





Delock 1.8″ Converter Micro SATA 16 Pin > mSATA half size Item No. 62519

 

Here's a youtube video that shows how to remove the ssd drives among other things. Those are the same exact type that my computer has, with the same ribbon cable and everything:

Sony Vaio VPCZ1 Teardown [YouTube]


More useful forum threads:

Vaio Z SSD Upgrade
New Crucial SSD drive Vaio Z fit?
How to replace the SSD in Vaio VPCZ11 and VPCZ12 with non-Sony SSD
Replacing Sony Vaio Z SSD RAID

 

Well, finally arrived my DeLock 61883 (Delock Converter SATA 6 Gb/s 22 pin > USB 3.0-A male + USB 2.0-A male), and unfortunately, it doesn't work. It uses the chip ASMT1051 and is made in China. Windows 10 detects it as ASMT 1051. It looks that that chip is a pile of crap, several issues have been reported:
External drive not recognized
External usb hard disk with switch doesn't work/mount properly

It's not the first time I buy from DeLock, as I stated in other threads, I also own the "Delock Express Card > 1 x USB 3.0 item 62425", which makes the operating system freeze randomly when the express card is under heavy use.

That said, I notice that DeLock is having severe quality issues, or they hardware is badly designed in the first place. I STRONGLY RECOMMEND YOU TO AVOID THE DELOCK BRAND, IT'S FAILING CONSTANTLY AND THEY ARE NOT TESTING ENOUGH THEIR PRODUCTS.

Luckily, I had another SATA to USB 2.0 male, that worked perfectly, although it's USB 2.0. It just works. It's from a generic brand, exactly like the following picture. It has two leds, one red and another blue to indicate both power and activity:



Also, bough a generic micro sata to sata. Will try to find another sata to usb but being 3.0.

 

DeLock has a lot of stuff that is actually working well, so I doubt avoiding them altogether makes sense; also they seem to have stuff which they are the only manufacturer for, or one of very few ones.

Sorry, also not sure about the reasoning for your project (the USB part of it). What are the benchmark speeds of these old SSDs? Does it make sense to still invest in them instead of just installing the new ones into the Z. To move your data you could simply back it up to the network or USB storage.

I'm following your thread as I'm interested in replacing the original SSDs in my VGN-Z as well...

 

I also have other DeLock hardware. For example, the DeLock 62460 "VGA to HDMI Adapter with audio" works perfectly:



However, when it comes to pci/sata and alike connectivity, I don't think they thoroughly check they hardware.

The benchmark for my Toshiba THNSNC064GMMJ micro sata SSDs are about 180 MBps write and 210 MBps read when connected to the internal SATA port of the Vaio (no RAID). When using the micro sata to sata + sata to USB 2.0 I get a sustained write speed of 18 MBps which is pretty low (on the generic brand adapter, the DeLock 61883 even doesn't work).

About replacing the SSD drives, it's pretty much straightforward. It depends mainly if you want to preserve the RAID, then you have to replace both at the same time and being the exact same model. If you undo the RAID (like I did), you can remove one of the drives to transfer data from it to the new one, be it Toshiba, Samsung, whatever.
Some people even replaced the two ssd microsata with a M.2 using adapter to microsata.

 

So I did some further research on how a replacement should look like... (following with sources)

Pros for SSDs in RAID 0:
- generally, increased speed vs single SSD
Cons:
- TRIM not supported, only Garbage Collection -> increased wear on SSDs ( http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/279412-32-trim-garbage-collection-beating-dead-horse )

Pros for Single SSD:
- Faster Boot/Wakeup ( http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/replacing-sony-vaio-z-ssd-raid.673704/ )
- Support for TRIM in AHCI and RAID mode for drives not part of a RAID volume ( http://www.intel.com/content/www/us...ts/000005807.html?wapkw=trim+support+for+raid )
- Generally more convenient and safe than RAID 0?

The speed of the single SSD should be similar to RAID 0, because the current drives' speed will be maxed out but by my ICH9M-E SATA 2 controller anyway (~300 MB/sec)

http://www.thessdreview.com/ssd-gui...optimization-guide-ultimate-windows-8-edition​

So taking all this into account, I will go for a single SSD with 500 GB or 1 TB.. to be seen if cased drive or just the board, and if my cable will fit...

Have I missed something? What did you go for?

Unfortunately I have Windows installed now on RAID 0 volume, so perhaps will end up with a clean install, once again..

 

I undid the RAID 0 and installed macOS 10.10 Yosemite (hackintosh) on one of the micro sata drives. The other is empty. Then I replaced the dvd writer with a SATA Sandisk ssd and installed there Window 10 clean install.

 

I totally agree with this. I had bought my VAIO VPCZ1 with the HDD instead of SSD because I needed the extra space at that time, and I simply swapped it out later with a 2.5" SATA SSD. The performance boost is truly amazing.

 

Ok thanks!!

I would go for a single 2.5'' SSD but will it fit into the space and will the ribbon cable fit its connector or would I have to add an adaptor connector?
Otherwise I would order the small board for an SSD without the case.

Here's what is in my Z right now.


Regarding brand, I read Samsung or Crucial would be best for reliability, right?

 

You need an adaptor of course, but I don't think a full 2.5'' inches drive will fit in there. Check the dimensions first. My favourite brand is Sandisk, but Samsung usually offers higher maximum capacity and cheaper.

 

The full 2.5" SATA drive will fit in there (in fact, I had to add padding above and below the drive as it was too thin for the space). Be aware that the drive fits in a cradle that REPLACES your current CD/DVD drive. You will lose the CD/DVD drive.

My Z1 was a HDD model, so it came without the CD/DVD drive, so putting in the 2.5" SSD was totally painless for me.

You could have the best of both worlds - use your existing SSD for the OS and the 2.5" SSD for extra storage.

 

He's asking if he can put the 2.5" drive instead of the two raid micro sata ssd drives. I don't think it will fit there.

 

thank you paloseco and anytimer,

what i definitely want to keep is my optical drive as I see it as a major advantage over most of the laptops sold today. I still have hundreds of cds to rip and like the option do that at home and on the go.

I did see the hdd replacement option but I think anytimer must have another ribbon cable than me. I think I will probably need another cable or an adaptor alternatively. But then probably the 2.5'' will be impossible to fit in anymore.

I have a couple of plans with my vaio (another one is trying to update the wifi card - any hints on that?), plus my windows installation crashed (hanging at blue spinning circles), that's why I haven't opened it yet again.

Will post the results once done.

Sent from my E6653 using Tapatalk

 

oh and forgot to mention, my original SSD has such miserable random write speeds (6 GB/sec! ) which is, besides a higher capacity, the reason to replace it.



Sent from my E6653 using Tapatalk

 

Updates on the micro-sata ssd:

Finally bought a generic sata to usb + micro-sata to sata adapter. It you want to get USB 2.0 speed, connect it to any USB 2.0 port of the computer and it will work directly (like I have in my Vaio Z13).

However, if you want to achieve USB 3.0 speed, you need to connect it directly to a USB 3.0 port where the motherboard supports natively USB 3.0. If you use the USB 3.0 to express card adapter (like the Buffalo USB 3.0 Express Card dual usb 34mm) won't work. I tested it on my Vaio Z13 which has express card and can't get it t work. It seems there's a limitation somewhere. Anyway, USB 2.0 speed is enough since you don't use the adapter that often. This is probably the issue I had with the Delock 61883, that won't work either when connected via express card, but I didn't think of that at that time.

The adapters I bought are the following:

• SATA 2.5" to USB 3.0/2.0 with additional USB power cable and SATA revision 2.6. Cable length: 12cm. Brand: unknown.
  
  
• DeLock 61675 SATA 22 pin to micro-sata 16 pin.
  

So, watch out when connecting SATA to USB 3.0 adapters though another USB 3.0 to Express Card adapter, probably won't work on the computer if the motherboard doesn't support USB 3.0 natively. No idea why it happens, maybe somebody can give us a hint?

 

Benchmarks of the Toshiba THNSNC064GMMJ 64GB SSD using both adaptors (Micro-SSATA to SATA + SATA to USB 3.0), on USB 2.0 and 3.0 ports, with ATTO Disk Benchmark. The USB 3.0 benchmark was done in a Macbook Pro since the Vaio Z13 doesn't have it and using express card adapter doesn't work as stated before.





Even on USB 3.0 port the speeds are quite low, certainly much lower than connecting the SDD to the SATA port directly. I wonder what can be causing this speed slow down.

 

@Paloseco,
I hope you don't mind me asking my questions on thread here. I would open an own one, but as the topic is so similar I thought it fits very well to the audience here..?

I have found the following mSATA to MicroSATA adapter here:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/321065404663?_trksid=p2060778.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT

which I would use for a Samsung EVO mSATA SSD like this:
https://www.amazon.com/Samsung-850-EVO-Internal-MZ-M5E500BW/dp/B00TGIVVKU

Now my last question (hopefully) will be, what was asked already here but not answered yet:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/new-crucial-ssd-drive-vaio-z-fit.677936/page-4#post-10219481

=> Is it right that the EVO 840 run with 3.3 Volt whereas the EVO 850 runs with 5 V?
And if so, does it matter for the parts I have to buy..?

 

http://www.samsung.com/us/computing...ate-drives/ssd-850-evo-msata-1tb-mz-m5e1t0bw/

 

The samsung msata powers at 3.3 volts (which I believe all msata do).The msata to sata should do the proper conversion.