Vaio S Series BIOS Boot Information

I am currently thinking of buying a new Vaio S series notebook and I was wondering if the BIOS has the capability to boot from a USB 3.0. The reason is that I want to have the ability to have a separate installation of Windows without having to dual boot my main drive. An ODD hard drive caddy would be amazing but as this model does not allow for quick removal and plug-in of such a device, this does not seem like a viable option. Therefore if anyone owns this notebook or knows the boot options of this model please let me know.

Thanks in advance.

 

I've installed my clean Windows 7 installation via memory stick, and surely from USB optical will also work.
(I've booted and installed in UEFI mode, but Legacy is no issue too)

Not 100% sure about this, but it seems that you can only boot from the USB-2 port (and not from USB-3 ports). I've read this somewhere sometime on this forum...
Please correct me if I'm wrong (I can actually easily test this out myself...)

 

Seems to me that the original poster is specifically interested about USB3 for the obvious speed benefit it provides... It would nice of you if you could test it...

 

First off thank you for the reply. If you could find out for sure that would be awesome.

Also if it is not possible to boot from a USB 3.0 port, is there another way of adding a second HDD/SSD besides removing the CD/DVD drive?

I have noticed that SONY SSD models come with dual SSD's (eg. 128GB is basically 2 x 64GB on RAID 0). How can they connect the second SSD if there is only one SATA connector? Is there an extra connector that comes with the SSD models? If there is, can you buy this part and install it yourself?

Again any information would be greatly appreciated.

 

The dual SSD setup Sony uses is a proprietary one... both SSD drives reside in the physical space of a single laptop drive and with a single connection...

 

So theoretically if I buy an SSD model I'll be able to upgrade the disk space with any two after-market 2.5'' SSD's/HDD's with the single connection SONY uses.

Correct me if I am wrong or if I am missing something.

 

No, the Sony SSDs are a proprietary size and use a special connector. They both fit into the standard 2.5" space, you cannot install two standard-sized drives unless you remove the ODD.

 

Thanks for the reply.

Ye I thought it was too easy

One last question, are the new VAIO's coming out SATA III unlocked or are they still shipping out the locked SATA II BIOS?

 

Still locked.
And I will try if you can boot from USB-3 tonight (if correct I should still have that memory stick floating around somewhere....).

 

Thanks again! It would be awesome if it did. Fingers crossed :thumbsup:

 

I can confirm that it also boots from USB-3 port.
When I did a clean install, I used USB-2 instead. Now I'm thinking back about it, I think I did this to prevent issues with respect to (not existing) USB-3 drivers in Windows 7 during installation. Someone did write a note about that. But it is probably a non-issue. The installation was way faster anyway (compared to optical).
The bootable USB I'm talking about is a home-made UEFI-bootable Windows 7 installation. You can find the instructions by following the links found in the first page of the Sony Owners Lounge - S-series.

Oh and for your info:
When your BIOS info screen passes by too fast (as in my case), so you do not know which key to press...
Keeping the F11 pressed while booting jumps into the alternative boot devices (of course: these must be enabled in the BIOS by pressing F2)

 

I think OP asked about 2 OS when one on hdd and other on any drive connected to USB. Not the case when using usb 3.0 just for installing os on the internal drive
I doubt it gonna work. Bbut you can use eSATA connection with external HDD for tho\is if Sony has eSATA.

 

The S13 doesn't have eSATA.

And why it isn't possible to boot on external drive with other OS (and use this full featured)? With Windows it might get tricky (but Windows 8 Enterprise has a 'Windows On The Go' [USB] release). But with OS'es like Linux these dual setups are perfectly possible.

 

This is great news. Thanks for checking it out!

On a different issue, I have recently contacted SONY Europe and SONY USA via email about the SATA configuration of the SSD's.

Shockingly, in America they configure them with SATA 2 and in Europe with SATA 3. Does this mean that if I buy one with an HDD, I will be able to upgrade to an SSD with SATA III? Or do they unlock SATA III only when someone upgrades to SSD? This is definitely a BIOS issue.

 

I got a German S15 and it's only SATA-II unless I put it to sleep and back on with the ODD disabled.

It's the same for everyone it seems. Not that I notice the speed difference anyway.

 

Weird I sent a follow up email to make sure and I am still waiting for their reply. In the mean time have a look at this German review:

Review Sony Vaio SV-S1511X9E/B Notebook - Notebookcheck.net Reviews

The Read/Write performances of the SSD's are amazing and MUST be SATA III.

 

Those are in RAID 0 though, hence the "higher" speeds. A single 2.5" SSD won't see those speeds (without a BIOS mod)

 

Mind that those support guys from Sony many times also talking bullsh_t (nonsense).

About SATA-2/3: there is a complete thread available. Just check back some pages. I'm from The Netherlands, and I also have SATA-2 (after reboot), but there exists a small loophole: disable the optical and resume from sleep. Then my SSD can use SATA-3. But you won't feel the difference during normal use unless benchmarking.

As mentioned: those high speeds are from special RAID-setup (Sony's own proprietary SSD)

 

Now that's definitely true

Its like they are forcing you in a way to buy the SSD's from them rather than upgrading to SSD yourself. To me this whole SATA 2/3 issue is ridiculous! They have a more than capable motherboard installed in this laptop that can handle high speed data transfer and their custom BIOS literally inhibits the whole system's performance. Not to mention future upgradability options.

You just expect a bit more for the money your going to be giving you know?

 

Yup, the pre-configured Vaio with the RAID SSD setup from Sony comes with SATA-III enabled by default, it may be something special in the connector or firmware that the BIOS sees and enables SATA-3 based on that.

Everyone else has to sleep \ wake the PC with the ODD disabled in BIOS for some reason.

There's an old BIOS for the SA ones that enables SATA-3 but tbh it's not worth the trouble for the small real gain.

 

easy to back up both bioses and compare them.