VAIO TZ -- swapping DVD drive for 2.5" hard drive?

I jumped the gun and ordered all the parts so Ill let you guys know how it turns out Im thinking to get the 500GB sata drive to put in there. Can the OS be booted off the sata drive?

 

If it helps any I have the official sony docs for disassemble the laptop and reassemble but not sure if I can post them here.

 

I think you can boot from sata drive. There is TZ with just 2.5 drive as stock option from Sony.

I plan to do the swap too but now I want to wait.
I want to put in a 2.5" 32GB SSD in my TZ and keep the 1.8" 100GB as data storage. It's easier to find a 2.5" SSD than 1.8" SSD. But then the parts are about $200 and the 2.5" SSD is $400, that's $600. And I have to find a new cloth for my TZ's DVD drive.
The price makes me want to wait for the Z releases and see if I'm happy to keep my TZ or switch to Z.

 

Thats cool I may just use the 2.5 drive and forgo the use of the 1.8 all together. Any idea which speed 2.5 drive I can put? I saw there is sata 150 and sata 3gbs.

 

skippy, you might as well go for 3Gbps, but from what I've heard the difference will be minor, as this is rarely the bottleneck. I don't know whether the SATA port is 3gbps or 1.5. However if you go for a 500GB hard drive, make sure you don't get a 12.5mm thick one, as I'm quite certain it would not fit. The only I know of is the Samsung spinpoint M6, with more to come soon. In that case, the only available drive is 3Gbps, if I'm not mistaken. Obviously there's a serious price premium on a recent drive like this, but it's a sweet addition.

for felmken, the 1.8 SSD uses as zif connector, which I believe is a PATA interface in this case. It is quite possible that, if the laptop comes with ONLY the 2.5 drive, then there is hardware missing inside for a 1.8" drive: the 1.8 drive fits into a cage (#310627102), much like the 2.5" one, and the connector to the MOBO may have 2 ports instead of 3 needed to add the SSD.

 

Quick question, I know the dvd drive is hooked internally to a usb port to allow the system to turn it off to save battery. Now the 2.5" hdd is not hooked to this same port is it? If so I doubt booting from the 2.5 would work

 

the way I understand it: if you buy the cable for upgrading the dvd drive to a hdd, the new cable is triple ended. 1 end for the 1.8" hdd, 1 end for the 2.5" sata drive, and 1 end for the usb port board. so my guess is that it's cable select for master/slave on the hard drives.

even if you can't set the 2.5" as primary, you can have your boot loader on the 1.8" directed to the 2.5" where your operating system resides to boot.

btw - i ordered the samsung spinpoint m6 500gb to go with my kit.

also - has anybody found a super-slim external drive enclosure to mount their dvd drive in, yet? i've seen slim (12mm drive height) enclosures, but not super slim (9.5mm).

 

Its not slim but this is what I bought: http://www.sonystyle.com/webapp/wcs...10151&productId=8198552921665087279&langId=-1

Btw where did you buy the samsung and how much was it?

 

I got the samsung drive from mwave's ebay store, techtreasure. They show it out of stock on the mwave.com website, and it looks like there aren't anymore left on ebay either.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=380043947637

 

have you gotten this drive yet? from reviews at amazon, it's not usb powered, and has to have an ac adapter to work. is this really the case?

http://www.amazon.com/review/produc...cm_cr_acr_txt?_encoding=UTF8&showViewpoints=1

 

speaking of USB power, I have tried to hook two 320GB USB enclosures (WD and Maxtor), and none of them worked. They worked fine on a bigger laptop (in this case a macbook). And they did not even work using both usb ports to power them. Have any of you used USB HDD on the TZ? do these 320GB drive exceed the power capacity of our usb ports?

 

It works fine for me I have a special usb plug that came with my external harddrive, it has a thick cable and thin cable both connecting to one usb plug. I think one provides data and the other some extra power, so yes the dvd drive works fine for me. Also any external harddrive Ive hooked to the tz works great with this cable

 

Here is the cable im talking about: http://cgi.ebay.com/USB-2-0-Mini-5-...yZ139831QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

 

i've used many externally enclosed notebook drives on just 1 usb port on my vaio tz without any issues, including a buffalotech 500gb (Hitachi drive inside).

 

My friend complained of a similar problem with his dell laptop and said that you have to use the SHORT usb wire that comes with WD drives and not a longer one. I was really surprised to hear that but he said that it was true and that he had heard others had this problem as well. Let me know.

 

that could be part of my issue, since resistance increases with length, it's this much power lost for the HDD. I'll try with a short cable I have. But since others seem to be doing just fine, I'm wondering what's going on.

cheers

Julien

 

turns my two original usb ports are not pulling their weight. I tried with the new one I added with the mod, and it works fine. So I checked the voltages, and sure enough the one on the left are both at 3.3V, while the one on the right is at the expected 5V. Now, I remember I had a USB hub plugged in the ones that have a problem, that hub died, and I never investigated further. I know very little about USB: anyone know what malfunction would cause the voltage to drop from 5 to 3.3V? Other than that these ports seem to work fine, in terms of data transfer, or even recognition of peripherals (probably those that do not require the 5V). Let me know if any of you has any idea, and if someone with a voltmeter could confirm the two usb ports on the left should read 5V....

 

I got the parts today. I ordered them on 7/8, and they shipped them out on 7/9 via usps priority mail from Kansas City, Missouri when I chose standard shipping. Not Bad, Sony!!!

Now if my 500gb samsung drive were here...

Here's a picture of all the parts:

 

well, one of the parts i got from sony is defective. it's either the cable or the sata adapter that goes on the end of the cable to the hdd.

my hdd works just fine in an external enclosure, but won't work in the laptop. the bios doesn't see it. i tried 2 different drives, neither worked. the existing 1.8 hdd continued to work on the new cable, and so did the 3rd usb port, which leads me to believe it's the adapter.

anyway, i'm dealing with sony now to get those replaced......argh! and now they're on backorder.....double argh!!

 

Dang bro I hope mine doesnt come defective too. Any chance you can take pics of how all the parts go together and go inside the tz?

 

I WAS WRONG!!!! NONE OF THE PARTS I GOT ARE DEFECTIVE!!!

A special thanks to jmuffat for his suggestion, which solved the problem.

What ended up being the solution was resetting the BIOS to factory default, and then it saw and powered up the new internal HDD. I never thought to reset the BIOS previously, as I hadn't made any changes in the BIOS that should have changed the ability to detect a second drive. Oh well. I'm a happy camper now.

My 500gb drive arrives tomorrow! Woo Hoo!

 

glad it helped. I remembered from old posts about hardware and sony computers that strange things happen when the BIOS is no longer at "default". The crippled BIOS is such that many settings that get reset in that "default" settings are not actually available to modify by hand. But it should always be the set of parameters to try when something goes wrong. Have fun with your 500GB

 

Anything I should keep in mind when opening and installing the new harddrive? BTW sony.com/dapc still shows my order as open and no tracking number yet Is this normal?

 

Mine never showed a tracking number after 72 hours like they said it should, or any information other than "open". But it arrived quickly. Hope yours is the same case.

Not much I can think for you to keep in mind other than, be careful, there are a lot of delicate (and expensive) parts in there.

Oh, when removing screws, there is a screw hidden underneath a rubber foot to the left of the battery if the battery is furthest away from you. Also, there are screws under 3 plastic pieces along the front lip. One more screw hidden in the memory compartment, and a silver screw in the battery compartment. All other screws are visibile.

 

Which parts need to be removed to install the harddrive?

 

just the cdrom unit and connector cable. i'll post some pictures this evening when i open it up again to install the 500gb.

 

I got a nice big box from sony with only 3 parts in it! The rest is on backorder.

A-1289-823-A
A-1289-822-A
3-218-870-11
3-106-270-01
1-874-035-11

 

I called and the other parts will take like 1 to 1.5 weeks to arrive. The rep said that there are 6 orders for the same exact parts and lucky me im the only one on back order. Damn you sony! Also was 2-680-715-31 really necessary? The kapton tape, looks like a normal piece of tape except i was charged 4.80 for it.

 

yeah, the kaptop tape and the felt spacer seemed unnecessary.

i also needed a couple of screws to mount the usb board to the frame, but luckily i had the right size screws in my scrap parts bucket.

 

What was the part number for the felt spacer? Maybe I can return that and the kapton tape and save a few bux.

 

Here are the pics I promised:

 

Neat thanks, now I have something to look at until the rest of my parts come. How is the bootup speed with the 500gig drive?

 

You do now about the power consumption and access times?
If not, you may want to read this.

If it's not your maindrive you could use poweroptions to power it down as soon as possible.

Edit: Oops I just noticed you already have it build in.

 

Hi,

Does any one know where the hd gasket and the kapton tape goes on this swap?

 

i don't. quite frankly i think they were a waste of my money.

edit: somebody posted this picture of the inside of a laptop in another thread, and it shows the gasket on top of the new usb port.

http://dsm-corp.com/tz90/IMG_4330.JPG

 

I don't know, since I haven't moved my OS to the 500gb drive yet.

 

Hi,

I just bought a new TZ150 on clearance at Best B
for 880$ before tax - my first ultra portable under 3lbs.

the SKU is 8390608 for those interested in finding one.


Been messing around and I love it except for the bloatware, and
the slow HDD.

Seeing the price of 1.8in SSD s I was aghast; luckily OCZ came
out with their new core series SSD at a good price and performance.

Small problem, it s a 2.5in but lo and behold i found this thread !

Here s a basic summary of what i gathered is needed from the thread,


Sony TZ 150 US Model

(100GB 1.8in HDD + ODD)



My Goal

A) swap ODD for :
1a- WD 320GB SATA (taken from WD passport) 84$
1b- 250gb SATA taken from a simpletech external drive 50$

or

2- OCZ core series 64gb SSD 284$

B) Primary on HDD/SSD, keep the 100gb 1.8in HDD
for storage, backups ? (might take it out to save on space and energy consumption,
If theres a case for it, might be cool to have such a small external drive !)

C) put ODD in a usb powered external case.

someone (who took out the ODD from a sony tz in another thread) suggested this model on ebay (different seller though)

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dl...s=algo=SI&its=I%2BIA&itu=IA%2BUCI&otn=4&ps=42

cost is 20$

of

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dl...s=algo=SI&its=I%2BIA&itu=IA%2BUCI&otn=4&ps=42

cost is 17 but ships from Hong Kong

D) bonus ! third usb port.

E) Minor thing, measure the weight difference.



Steps

A) Order from sony parts center


http://servicesales.sel.sony.com/ecom/accessories/web/index.jsp

search by part or accessory number


187403511 (FPC-109) flexible ribbon connecting the HDD and the USB $69.78 oos
310627001 Bracket HDD holding the new hard drive 22.31
A1289822A CNX-389 Connector to the HDD 19.87
310627802 Bezel to replace the ODD drawer 25.27
A1289823A IFX-489 USB port 22.31
310629101 Spacer for the bottom of the HDD 6.49


unnecessary ?
321887011 Gasket to insulate the HDD 4.80 oos
268071531 Tape, Kapton 4.80 oos

B) dissassemble laptop and replace odd

[will look later for that info]

when is the best time to add a 2gb stick of ram ?
after making sure the rest works ?

C) reset BIOS to factory default


D) optimize laptop and vista




Is all of this correct ??

 

it all seems quite correct, yes. One thing that remains to be answered is whether the 2.5 drive can be the boot drive.

good luck

j.

 

Hi scottyinco,

could you please post a hires-version of your photo of the sony '187403511' cable? I have the DVD-version and I would like to deduce the assignment of the SATA pins at the MOBO-connector from your photo.

Regards, ojo

 

This is the best image I have. Hope it helps.

 

Do you guys think this swap will work on the Vaio G2? It does use the same Intel 945 GMS Express and frame wise, is pretty similar. I would love more hard drive storage vs the optical drive.

 

Do you see any impact on battery life when you replace DVD with HDD.

 

i would highly doubt the parts for the TZ fitting the G2.

 

THis is getting ridiculous. I now have 3 giant boxes on my desk each with 2 ~ 3 parts in them. And now I am still missing one part. The hdd gasket. I called sony and the woman there told me that I should receive the final part by friday. Grr why cant they just send everything at once and save some money on shipping and packing. Seems crazy to me.

 

The last part just arrived. Man does sony rip us off on these pieces. 1 piece of tape 4.80, a little microscopic gasket which I think was totally unneeded, 4.80. I could have save quite a bit of cash just skipping those two pieces. Ill try to put my drive in tonight and update on the results.

 

just fill out the back of the invoice form and send those 2 pieces back to sony. that's what i did, and i had a $10 credit on my credit card within 3 days.

even the $10 hdd shield was an unnecessary part who's purpose could have been accomplished with other materials you find laying around the house.

 

Will they make me pay return shipping? Also I got the drive installed. It was a scary experience taking apart the laptop only to find the worlds tiniest ribbon connectors inside but I got it all working. Its nice having the extra space but as soon as I was done I was like ah hell I need to burn a dvd. DOH! Oh and I had to do the bios reset to get the 2nd drive to show up. Other than that im good to go. THanks all for the help.

 

I sent those parts back in a padded envelope with a 42 cent stamp on it.

 

Haha good call ill do the same thing.

 

I ended up removing my 1.8" 100gb 4200rpm "ipod" drive, and keeping just the 2.5" SATA drive. I'm noticing my TZ is much snappier. The Vista rating for HDD performance went from 3.9 to 5.5 with the 5400 rpm Samsung Spinpoint.