Upgrading Hard Drive on Sony SZ - Accelerometer?

Hey guys, my Sony SZ came with one of those Seagate 160GB Hybrid HDDs. Needless to say more of a gimmick than anything so I'd like to upgrade to the latest WD Scorpio 7200RPM and I had a few questions..

- My SZ came with a tool that parked the HDD heads if it detected a fall - using the accelerometer. Will I lose that accelerometer function if I upgrade to a different HDD? Is the accelerometer mounted/integrated with the stock HDD?

- How will the 7200RPM vary in terms of heat, and power consumption / battery life? I know as a faster drive usually there's a trade off, but I hear newer drives are quieter and produce less heat?

Thanks!

 

Sony provides HD protection software for the SZ series. I believe that you own a model equivalent to the SZ6. It looks like you can download this software from the Sony website.
http://support.vaio.sony.eu/computing/vaio/downloads/info/info.aspx?l=en_GB&url=Vaio/Original/HDD Protection Driver 1.1c.zip&m=VGN-SZ71WN_C&ip=Preinstalled_Drivers.htm

It doesn't look like though that your drive came with built in G sensor software.

This should be your drive right?
ST91608220AS
http://www.seagate.com/docs/pdf/datasheet/disc/ds_momentus_5400_psd.pdf
http://www.seagate.com/docs/pdf/sales/Seagate_ICC-2007-2.pdf

I would suggest that post in the WD thread in the hardware section to seek more advise about this drive.
http://forum.notebookreview.com/har...7500bpkt-750gb-7200rpm-western-digital-7.html

 

Thanks for your help!

Yes, at the moment with stock hardware, if I go into the Vaio control center, I can see the 3-axis accelerometer readings if I nudge my laptop. And yes, that appears to be my HDD. I'm guessing the accelerometer is built into my laptop and not the HDD itself then, meaning it's safe to upgrade my HDD?

 

I tried this on my SZ7 and i could not get this to work. I have an SSD installed and HD protection serves me no purpose. However, i haven't been able to get the software to work and i'm not sure why that is.
I have W7 64bit installed and a small XP partition. I tried in W7 but since my install possibly could create issues with the software i tried it in XP. This was again a clean install but i have all the necessary Sony 32bit drivers installed so it shouldn't cause any issues.

The original drive in my SZ Fujitsu MHY2200BH does not appear to feature the G sensor software protection but Sony lists my model SZ71WN/C as supporting this.

May be it's a challenge to get it to work after a clean install.

 

I can't be 100% positive as my screen got broke the other night (grrrr...) but:

If I remember right, the WD Black I have works with the Sony software for my model. I'm 99% sure on this.

I beleive my Seagate did as well (came out of a 500gig external drive), but I would recommend the Black even if this did work with it.