Where is my HD?

Just got a vgn-ns150 and there doesn't seem to be an external way of accessing the hard drive. In fact there is only one panel on the bottom and it just contains the RAM.

 

Many sony notebooks require dis assembling a large part of the casing off in order to access the hd. not sure about warranty on this.

 

Well a better solution would be someone to tell me what HD I have so I can get the drivers for it so I can load XP up. I keep getting BSOD, so I guess I gotta slipstream, unless I can put the drivers on a floppy and use my usb floppy drive?

 

Umm I don't think you need driver for the HDD...lol
somebody correct me if I'm wrong..
But I have never had to install any driver for any hard drive

 

Unless you're replacing the HD, taking it out is major overkill. Right-click on "My Computer" and go to "Hardware" and then select "Device Manager."

Do you see anything like this picture? It should be Intel XXXX AHCI SATA Controller. If you have see the same thing I do (or something similar - as long it's some sort of Intel AHCI SATA controller), these are the drivers you want to slipstream.

Note that you must slipstream ONLY those SATA drivers. Sony laptops will act up if you install other SATA drivers, so don't be like me and try to take a shortcut by slipstreaming the Mass Storage driverpack and end up wasting a whole night troubleshooting the cause of the problem.

 

You are wrong, SATA and RAID drives require a driver WHILE you are installing XP and Vista.

Gary

 

Scuderia can you help me?

Device manager says I have ST9250827AS.

I put that in at the seagate site, it is a seagate drive, but I can't find a driver download for it for XP.

I want to install XP but as I said I keep getting the BSOD because I can't find the driver to slipstream in.

 

the drivers come from the chipset manufacturer, in this case my guess would be Intel for Z-seiries VAIO

EDIT: for example (just an example, use the correct one for your chipset) see here:

downloadcenter dot inteldot com /filter_results.aspx?strTypes=all&ProductID=2991&OSFullName=Windows+Vista%2A+Business%2C+32-bit+version&lang=eng&strOSs=154&submit=Go%21

 

As cc9cii said, the chipset is what determines the drivers NOT the brand of the hard drive. As I don't own a Z model, I can't suggest which drivers you need.

Gary

 

Another option if sony provides it to you in the VAIOs is to access the BIOS upon boot up and disable AHCI completely. This should remove the BSOD problem during XPs installation, just make sure that you have at least your ethernet driver for xp for your system on a flash drive or CD before you nuke Vista. One thing to note, however, is that by disabling AHCI, you do take a small performance hit. Is it big enough to notice with day to day use, no. However, more intensive applications and usage may become more apparent at times.

Have fun.

BBGus