Sony S15 2012 Disassembly + ODD Caddy Video Tutorial

hi wizzardxexe,

I followed your guide to replace ODD with the original HDD in my new S15, windows can see the drive and such so I think install should be correct. However, I notice that everytime whenever reset the lappy, I will hear a loud "clack" sound, like the hdd is parking head or something (laptop is on table, not moving). It only happens when rebooting the laptop, not when wakeup from sleep or something.

Not sure if this means I am missing some software/driver with my fresh Windows7 install. Am I missing some drivers or something to handle the hdd when shutting down/reboot? The loud clack sound really troubles me as not sure if it means I will spoil hdd very soon.

Would you be able to shed some light on this? Thanks!

 

My guess is that it's probably just the hard drive you have, and that you shouldn't worry. Most hard drives make some kind of noise on wake. I didn't come across this problem, so I'm not sure what the exact fix could be.

You could try updating the BIOS if you haven't yet using the software from sony's site. Other than that I really don't know I'm sorry.

 

Thanks for the guide!

Did anyone hear of an option of a second battery in the odd bay? (something like the lenovo ultrabay battery)?

Thanks

 

I doubt that verry much. Since there is not connection port where the odd is ath the moment.
Also this battery wouldent be that large either since the odd is only 9.4mm high in the vaio. In the lenovo its probably a 12.7mm odd

 

There is no Optical Bay battery as far as I know. I don't think it's possible.

 

And with VAIO S or any other VAIO, there is no connection for battery to connect in optical bay.

 

Hi, I am thinking about replacing the ODD on my S13 with a Blu-ray combo UJ167. Is the layout of S13 significantly different from S15? Thanks.

 

From what I know there is one hard drive screw that is located in a different place under a cable, but otherwise the process is the same

 

Its very straight forward and easy. There is only 1 'hurdle' to take:

One screw of the drive caddy is located under the ribbon cable (of the HDD/SSD) and you can not push it aside. Follow that ribbon to the mainboard you see that the connector is secured with two screws. Remove them, carefully pull/push the cable connecter up (via the edges of the connector). Now you have full access to the caddy.
Remove the caddy and change the HDD/SSD.

 

I have already updated to latest bios. Hopefully this sound is just normal, will keep fingers twisted that the knocking sound does not extend into normal operation. So far it's pretty quiet...

Thanks wizzardxexe!

 

On some reasons I don't want to install Windows on SSD. I'd like to leave it on HDD and use SSD as cache.

Is it possible to use SSD (replaced one) as SSD-cache?
Chipset should support Intel Smart Response technology. But to enable it in Intel Rapid Storage drivers we should set RAID HDD mode in BIOS. Can we?

 

how well ventilated do you think putting a HD in this ODD caddy is? I'll be moving the stock HDD to the caddy and placing a SSD in place of the main bay. The stock HDD will be used for storage and for downloading torrents and files to (to prevent excessive writes on the SSD). I'm just concerned about heat accumulating in that confined space.

 

I have no idea, sorry

It shouldn't matter, HDDs don't make very much heat at all. I've been using mine for a couple months now and I haven't had any problems.
The s15 is a pretty cool laptop anyways

 

Has anyone seen or read about the Sandisk 32gb msata cache SSD that actively caches your most commonly used programs? Do you think it would work if I took out the ODD of my S13P?

 

are there any power management features for the odd. the zenbook folks put their os on the issd then the hdd shuts off after a while...

 

I have no idea. This is a good question for the main thread.

 

you should add that if they are having trouble with the odd side trying to remove the keyboard. there is black clip that can be pushed from where the battery sits.

also the caddy should be sata-sata 9.5mm

 

Hello, I'm a noob at these things, need some help please.
I want to use 128 GB SSD for Windows 7/software programs and use 500-1000 GB HDD for music/videos/etc.

My questions are:
Is 128 GB SSD enough space?
Which hard drive should I use the in the main drive and which in the conventional drive?
Is it easy to clean reinstall Windows 7 and pre-installed programs by Sony?

 

Better to clean install windows 7. Before installing, backup the activation file with ABR in case the license key at the bottom of you laptop doesn't work like mine. A fresh install gives your VAIO a new breathe of life with the bloatware gone.

After installing windows, my 128gb is left with about 100gb. After install 2 games from Stream, it dropped to 50gb! But I will uninstall them when I'm done playing, so it's ok. if you can afford, 256gb is merrier

Btw, my windows temp and tmp, documents folder, IE cache are all in my HDD drive. Sort of slow down performance a bit but i can live with that.

 

256GB 2.5-inch SSD 830 Series (Notebook)
Specs - Solid State Drives MZ-7PC256N | Samsung Memory & Storage

^^Does this fit in the Vaio S15?

 

HI, any idea where I can buy the "black film/paper" protecting the 2 flat ribbon cables under the HDD? I may need to send my S13P for servicing and I am afraid the crumbled black paper is a dead giveaway that I have opened up the laptop (my main batter sometimes work and doesn't work at all).

 

Ive done this mod and noticed that when i restart the computer the disk that i put in the odd caddy, wich is the original 750gb disk that was included with my vaio.
It makes a really loud clicking sound.
Its like a loud "snap". It sounds like the reading arm on the disk hits the wall of the disk or something. And it sounds really loud most times. Some times its abit fainter. But its never silent.
This sound where not there when i bought the laptop and the disk where sitting in the normal disk spot.

Am i the only one with this sound? And should i be worried?
I almost never restart my laptop its almost always on so i havent really noticed this untill now.

 

Just did this in my S13p, there were a pair of notable differences compared to the S15. The soft brushy thing slides away from the screen to unlatch it, this can be reached from inside the primary HDD bay and makes unlatching the left side of the laptop much easier. There is also a small bracket attached to the rear of the optical drive that needs to be removed, there are some thin cables that you need to move aside to see the screw. Aside from that, it's much the same process. Thanks wizzardxexe for the video!

 

It is normal for the hard drive to make some noise on first boot. Mine is silent, but it depends on the hard drive. The noise is caused by the realignment of the heads on the disk.

 

So it's possible to remove the main drive and replace it with some other hybrid drive? What if my model uses the conventional rotating one and not the SSD?

 

You can replace your main HDD or SSD (though I don't see why'd you want to replace Sony's RAID drives) drive and your ODD as well with whatever disk that's 2.5'' 9mm high or smaller, compatible with SATA-II \ SATA-III.

In a nutshell, yes, to both.

 

Nice to know that it's pretty easy with the 13P as well.

Did you just grab a caddy off ebay?

 

I've found a product that combines the caddy for the 2,5 SSD and has a cool case for converting the ODD into an external drive as well. I think it will be 100% compatible with Vaio S but want to ask before buying it. Can you assure that?
SilverStone Technology Co., Ltd.- TS06

And another question, my Vaio S comes with a 1 TB HDD drive, what would you recommend, installing there the 256 GB SSD and move the 1 TB into the optical drive or mantain the 1 TB and install the new SSD into the optical drive?

 

That probably won't work, it's too big to use inside the S15 from what I gather. If I recall it well the biggest caddy that fits is 9mm high.

Also, use SSD as the main drive of course, you cannot boot from the caddy HDD afaik.

 

Ok, the dimmensions of the tray are 128mm(W) x 13mm(H) x 128mm(D). So probably won't fit the Vaio insides because of the height. It was a great solution to continue using the ODD as an external drive, I will look for another similar product but with a 9,5 mm height caddy.

 

I am really looking into buying this laptop and thus, adding another hard drive. Would you recommend getting the sony SSD and adding a HDD? Or getting the stock HDD and adding a SSD?

 

Stock HDD, no doubt. It's cheaper that way plus you get to choose the SSD you want.

 

For the SSD take a look at the new Samsung series 840 pro. It beats the competition by a large difference, not only in terms of speed but also in consumption, improving battery life. I've bought the 128 GB model for 148 €, it's expensive but worth the money I think.

 

Is there just no way to get a Sony S15 running with third party SSD drive at full SATA 3 speed permanently? That makes the S15 a far less attractive buy. I was considering it as an alternative to the Asus U500 and Retina MacBook Pro that would be easier to upgrade myself.

Frustrating how each manufacturer has to come equally close to making the ideal machine then chuck in one crappy feature just to put geeks off.

 

I don't know anything about your PC usage, but there's barely any noticeable difference between SATA2 and SATA3 during normal PC usage, especially because random ops which comprise the large majority of operations do not saturate SATA2 BUS, so unless you do plenty disk-to-disk operations (which would be limited anyway by USB3) you won't really notice the difference.

You can always put it to sleep for a split second whenever starting and it'll start functioning as SATA3, at least with the Samsung 830, if you have the ODD disabled.

It's probably something to promote the SSD RAID that Sony offers and if so a crappy tactic, but I doubt this makes the laptop a far less atractive buy for the large majority since it basically affects nothing for the common user.

 

Thanks. I still don't feel entirely happy about buying a laptop at a premium price that requires tricks like the one you mention to get full performance out of third-party drives. It just makes me nervous about Sony - why booby-trap your machine to trip up enthusiasts? The $1000 Sony ask for their 512GB SSD is really a ridiculous price, though it would be nice to put a big SSD in there.

Add that to the fact that people are having to hack the BIOS to get the video card up to speed and I'm a little unsure about this machine. I would love to have a full-power machine that weighs only 4.4lbs though.

 

Can anyone tell me how the ODD harddrive behaves? Is it just read as another HDD/SSD by the computer?

Because I don't know if I can afford a fully fledged SSD and I am unsure if I want to go through a reinstall hassle (unless my W7 pc can update to W8 and install itself onto the new ODD-converted-to-SSD).

How should I go about this?

PS. SSD-cache thing I mentioned and was looking at: Amazon.com: SanDisk Desktop Caching SSD - ReadyCache 32 GB SATA 3 Solid State Drive SDSSDRC-032G-G26: Computers & Accessories

 

It will be recognized by windows as a normal hdd/sdd but i haven't been able to boot from ODD-HDD so far.

However, i'm not sure its possible to configure ssd caching with our bios.
See the following link.

We do meet hardware requirements, but i'm not sure about raid configuration of our SATA controller.

I'd certainly advise to spend the additional 50$ to buy a 128gb ssd to use as primary drive for your OS and installing the HDD into ODD caddy.

 

Again, it might just be a novelty issue since for most common operations the SATA2 speeds won't hinder your experience in the times to come. I usually put mine to sleep for the satisfaction placebo effect but this time I've been running it for hours after forgetting to do so and wouldn't notice if not for answering your questions, lol.

All manufacturers put some kind of crap in their laptops, there's no such thing as the perfect (or perfectly supported) laptop, there's always some software or hardware bug that may range from minor annoyance to a major c*ckblock. In fact, I've seen quite a few that seemed specifically designed to fail not long after warranty expires.

That being said, this SATA3 "bug" may as well be a dirty marketing tactic for people to buy their SSD versions (and then be locked into "Sony" SSDs because the connector is missing), which for me personally results in a minor annoyance.
Also panels seem not to have the best color gamut (again, minor annoyance for me, the panel is beautiful otherwise and I don't find the fault unless I go look for it specifically), hinge extension blocks a bit of the exhaust hole (this could've been better designed, but it's possible to remove it), speakers could be better (although they aren't bad really after a few settings, just could be better).

Also NVidia Optimus sucks and can be pretty unreliable, but AMD Enduro seems not to be better and well, if you want GPU power + battery life you'll have to compromise with one or another system anyway. At least we get the physical Stamina \ Speed switch which helps.

And that's about all the faults I found in the laptop, everything else is top-notch and I'd say this model is a big keeper for people that can compromise with what I said above.

Just as a side note, the BIOS hack is actually a good thing and not bad, most laptops can't have the GPU core overclocked and this is a pretty easy and painless way to transform the GPU into a GT650M that actually consumes less power due to lower voltage.

I'm not a fan of Sony, but this laptop has so far won my seal of approval (TM).

PS: It hasn't been discussed recently, but I feel the need to reiterate that the chassis is fully made of a magnesium alloy, not plastic. There are a few glued plastic pieces on the inside for mounting, etc, but no more than that.

 

Exactly the same. My 1 TB HDD placed into the dvd drive makes a click strong sound when laptop boots from shutdown. It's frightening, seems it's going to break.

By the way, great tutorial, great results placing a Samsung SSD 840 pro for the windows 8 and programs. The laptop simply flies... :thumbsup:

 

I grabbed the Cache SSD for 37.99 on Amazon. Am going to try to get it working. Does anyone already know enough about the ODD->SSD/HDD behavior that can tell me whether or not this drive will even be recognized? Going into this blind. X_X

I hope something can just go right for once otherwise. x.x

Would these Caddys work?

http://www.amazon.com/Drive-Unibody...rds=SATA+Optical+Bay+Hard+Drive+Caddy+Adapter

http://www.amazon.com/Micro-SATA-Ca...rds=SATA+Optical+Bay+Hard+Drive+Caddy+Adapter

http://www.amazon.com/JacobsParts®-...rds=SATA+Optical+Bay+Hard+Drive+Caddy+Adapter

Thank all in advance~

 

The first and the third caddy both should work.

The SSD will be recognized, but you cannot boot from it. Look for tutorials on how to make a drive to be used as cache drive.

 

Hmmm... I don't need to boot from it though, as Sandisk is providing a Cache software that comes with the SSD. Sounds good to me so far, will report back after further action.

 

Hi guys,

I'll be getting my Vaio S 13 mid 2012 series in the next days and im thinking of applying this mod.

Is this caddy a good pick http://www.ebay.com/itm/Apple-Macbook-Pro-Unibody-2nd-HDD-SSD-9-5mm-SATA-bay-hard-drive-caddy-superdrive-/221157142917?pt=US_Drive_Bay_Caddies&hash=item337dfe3185?

Thx in advance.

Greetings from Germany

 

That seems ok, I picked this one for my S 15,5", it's really solid.
http://www.ebay.es/itm/2nd-SATA-HDD...omputing_Networking&hash=item4ab71c77ef#rpdId

 

I had ordered a 15" MBP prior to buying the S15, and ordered a caddy for that MBP. The MBP is going back to Apple.

I'll try it out in the S15 and hopefully it will work. Looks like the same form factor.

 

The caddy for the MBP should work fine, as it's 9.5mm as well.

 

The caddy on my first link had to have some edges cut in order to allow the sliding plastic felt cover back in. Otherwise, the SSD in the Caddy went right back in and connected well. however, Sandisk's software isn't finding the drive in its ReadyCache program (not allowing the software to install because no devices were found). But the SSD can be recognized as a Sandisk Milpitas SSD w/o in Windows Device Manager. It says that it doesn't have any storage size but it has an option for Windows "write-caching". Will continue to tinker around.\

EDIT: What exactly does Intel Rapid Storage Tech. do? Refreshing it will cause my SSD in ODD drive to not show up anymore until a reboot.

EDIT: Drive was seen correctly labeled and recognized once. Installed software and I could see the drive was 32 gb. After software install, drive reverted back to visible but unresponsive state. Want to vaporize a room full of Sandisk and Sony employees. Drive is seen in an MPR format with 0 usuable space. Drive still seen as Sandisk Milpitas ATA SSD instead of the serial number that appeared the first the I got the drive to work.

 

Sorry if it is already answered, but the CPUs on these things are BGA and not socket, right?

Hard to imagine room for a socket in such a thin laptop, but I thought I would ask.

 

Phew!

Those were a couple of nerve-racking hours. When I finally managed to open up the laptop, I noticed that the 12.7mm caddy is indeed too big. It would fit fine, but as mentioned by pokiworms, the felt cover for the dvd slot won't fit because the caddy is just a little too big. And as I didn't have any tools to cut the corners, I had to put everything back together.

I didn't notice if anyone had mentioned, but when you swap the dvd drive for your hdd caddy, unscrew the little 90 degree thingamabob from the original drive. The video in the first post gives the impression that you just leave your hdd caddy inside the laptop, but isn't this the actual thing that keeps the drive or caddy from moving inside the laptop, when you put it all back together?