Sony Vaio S 15" HDD/SSD upgrade?

Hello everyone


I am new here. Such a great forum.


I am a current Mac user and I am thinking about buying the new Vaio S Series. The 15" customized model (SVS151190X).

Now that I found that Sony's disk customization/upgrades are a rip off, I found out that Crucial sells their 512GB SSD for $399 ( Amazon.com: Crucial 512 GB m4 2.5-Inch Solid State Drive SATA 6Gb/s CT512M4SSD2: Computers & Accessories ) .

My question here is twofold


1- How can I replace the HDD with an SSD myself on that particular Sony model? I rummaged through the Internet, no avail. All videos/instructions are for old Vaio models

Any special tools (e.g.: screwdrivers) I'd need?

Where is the HDD slot (or rather, the two slots since this model can have two disks as the customization implies) located on his particular model? Is it just below a panel, or I have to remove a lot of parts to get to it?

Even Apple (which is known for its proprietary artifacts) had very easy-to-follow instructions for DIY change of HDD. Sony does not


2- Since this laptop comes with a RAID 0 controller, can I install two SSDs, 512GB each and have a 1 TB SSD RAID 0? given the price, I can get two drives for $800 and still have the 640GB HDD I will remove as a backup HDD.

Sony only offered 256x2 SSD setup. Are there any limitations for the size of the two disks?


Thanks everyone for helping an IT veteran, yet a Vaio noob !

 

First why you wanna buy raid 0 config version? Just buy regular HDD version and swap out with ssd. Its very easy to do... remove 2 screws from back batter/hdd cover to access hdd. There is a video for you Sony Vaio S15 Disassembly and ODD Replacement Tutorial - YouTube replace with ssd and do clean install. There is another tread with issues where ssd dosent run on 6G you should read that one thought.

 

Thanks for the reply.

I want to have RAID0 so I can have two SSDs x 512 GB each.

I do not want to remove the optical drive.

Can you link me to the 6G SSD issue thread please?

Thanks for the info re the simple installation/back HDD cover.

Does it mean I should find two SATA connectors there ?

 

I have seen the video. It's very helpful. Thanks !

Question is, how does Sony sell the same laptop with two hard drives (2 x 256GB SSD) when there is ONLY one SATA ribbon cable?

What screws are used to hold the drive to the mounting bracket (so I can unscrew them and screw it back on the new SSD)


Thanks for the help and sorry for bugging you. I am getting the laptop over here to Egypt from the US with a family member and I want to buy everything I need for it (screws, SSD ....etc.)

 

You don't need any screws just used the ones thats already there, I used it for my samsung 830 SSD. The reality is that there is not 2 ssds but one single ssd set to run in Raid0 its managed by software controlled raid. As i said before dont buy that version as u end up paying extra just get regular hdd version and replace your ssd.

 

Thanks. I asked about the screws to make sure I have the proper screwdriver. For my current MacBook I had to buy the Torx driver.

OK. I bought the basic HDD version (640 GB). Will buy this SSD

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004W2JL3Y/ref=ox_sc_act_title_4?ie=UTF8&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER

and replace the HDD with it.

Any further advice? Your help is really much appreciated . THANKS

 

I used General Screwdriver set from home depot. As far for the SSD am not big fan of Crucial after their firmware snafu but I believe they have become stable now. My personal prefences are Intel and Samsung both proven very reliable (except Intel 320 series capacity issue). Also make sure you buy extra memory stick unless u buy directly from sony. If you find helpful please rep +

 

Hi there.

I bought myself a Sony VAIO S1512, the new one with Windows 8.
It comes with the 640GB 7200RPM HDD.

I'd like to keep this HDD and put an extra SSD(Samsung 830 265GB) in it to run all my programs including Windows 8.

So I'll have to format the HDD and add the SSD.

Should I put the SSD in the normal place and the HDD instead of the ODD or doesn't that matter?

I think you don't get a repair-CD with this laptop, so how should I install W8 on this SSD then?


I've never done this particular task so please give me some tips

Thanks
NGDM

 

hi sorry to resurrect this, but is the HDD 7.0 or 9.5 size? thanks