Z11 - Replace DVD with HDD - Working Solution

Greetings again,

I've seen many posts from people who want to use a traditional 2.5" HDD in their new Z11 laptops instead of the DVD/BR drive. I have a working solution.

I picked up a Lenovo Ultrabay III adapter for a W510 I had on order and subsequently canceled after 2 months of delays in shipping.

The DVD drive is attached via a micro-SATA connector. If you haven't seen one before, here's a comparison to a regular SATA connector.


More shots


Here are some shots of the Lenovo Ultrabay III adapter


Here is a shot of the adapter's interface. Just to the left of the SATA connector, there is a plastic nub that locks it in place on the Lenovo. I cut this nub off cleanly.


Here is the Ultrabay installed within the Z11. Perfect fitment


Tight shot of the connector:


RST sees the drive


Windows boots, here is a snap from Disk Management and Device Manager


There are two problems with this setup.

1. You have to cut additional holes in the Ultrabay adapter to clear a path for two keyboard mounting screws:
EDIT: You only have to cut to expose the bottom screw hole, not the top one. (huh, "screw hole")


2. The Lenovo part leaves a rectangular hole. Not sure how to address this yet.



I'm working on a solution to mount the adapter right now. I may be able to reuse the mounting bracket from the DVD drive. Alternatively, two pieces of double-side sticky tape may be enough.

Edit: More pics with the keyboard attached.



EDIT: John566 accomplished the same result with a different adapter. LINK

EDIT: Added pics of the optical drive with the bezel removed. There's an eject button under there. LINK

 

Very cool! I think Sony's HDD adapter may be sold by Sony later, but at a high $$.

Is it possible to add the new SSD to the RAID set?

Edit: Sony doesn't actually have an adapter that replaces the DVD drive not using the ribbon leading to the same interface on the motherboard, so I think Sony may not have a solution after all...

 

Don't see why not, but you would generally want to use like-drives in a stripe.

I think this is more practical for adding large storage to an existing SSD-based machine. Throw a 640GB in there with a 512GB SSD and you have a over a TB of space

 

Wow thank you very much for this information.

Can you test the speed of replace hdd drive? is it work at full speed sata2?

 

It appears to be. Apparently the drive I'm using has some bad sectors



It has been a long time since I've run speed tests on a traditional 2.5" HDD. This look about normal for a 7200 RPM drive?

 

That's pretty cool. I'm surprise how well it fits in there even though it's for a whole different notebook.

 

Why do you think that? I've never seen Sony launch a new Vaio add-on after the initial release. Ever.

 

Thx you for your benchmark. I think the result is fine. ^^

More question Can i swap dvd drive and this bay without take off the keyboard ?

 

Nope. The cable keeps it from being conveniently hot swappable.

 

i was making my mind for the Z ,thinking that i will sell the SSDs but i guess thats not possible as it uses 1.8"

 

It's smaller than a 1.8" drive

 

thats bad news , i read somewhere on the forum that its available for $1700 ordered by phone

 

Most Excellent!

How did you even get the idea to try this out?

Is this particular adapter just something you happened to have laying around or what?

 

I did the same thing last night and just got around to posting it. I accidentally put it in the Sony Owners Lounge. I have a bunch of pictures.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?p=6043317#post6043317

ZoinksS2k, I would have mentioned you in my post but I hadn't looked through the forums today and didn't realize you already posted this. Thanks for all the great info and pictures you share with the community.

 

Oscar,

Third line of the first post *natch*

John566,

Nice! I'm not at that level of commitment, at least not yet. I'm returning the model in this thread sometime next week.

How did you close it up?

I put a link to your post in the top of this thread

 

Ahh, yes. I was so excited to read through what you did that I completely overlooked the first 3 lines

 

Thanks for the link. I also placed one back to your thread.

When you mention closing it up do you mean the end of the optical tray? Mine is open for now. I'm planing on cutting a piece of foam rubber that I can mount the cover to and then press it snugly in place. I think if I get it the right size it will work and hold securely. If you come up with a better solution I'm all ears. I will post pictures if I get it to work. I could just leave it off and durring a hevy gaming session if the GPU gets too hot I can just blow in the computer to cool it off.

 

I think you can wiggle the faceplate off of the DVD drive. Might try that with a little more hot-glue.

I think most of the warm-bits are on the other side of the chassis, so cooling shouldn't be an issue.

If it becomes a problem, be sure you a post video of your lung activated cooling system, I'd like to see it

 

Great stuff.

I prefer separating work and non work with completely different boot drives. On my current laptop I just swap between my work and non-work drives as needed, but cannot do this with the Z.

Does it seem like I'd be able to go into the BIOS and disable the standard RAID0 drives so it only sees the drive in the optical bay when I want to use that one, then do the reverse to go back to the work set?

 

Yes it works. I installed 2 copies of Win7. One on the SSD raid and one on my 160GB Intel X-25. I switched the 640GB HDD out for the Intel SSD because I was getting clicking from the HDD. Not sure if it was a bad drive (seems ok now in external USB enclosure), maybe a voltage issue or something else.

 

Thanks - will be doing the same thing.

 

Sweet, post some pics with your setup when you are done

 

I know the UK version of the Z comes with an option of both with Optical (no HDD) or without optical (with HD). I would assume one could purchase it from Sony as a spare part? Anyone on this thread who lives in the UK and can order a spare part from Sony UK? I'd be willing to pay premium for it.

 

Finally got around to working on this...

Zoinks, how did you secure your Ultrabay adapter? I'm thinking of making a *tiny* hole in it and using the only DVD mount that lines up, then a strip of double sided tape. I've noticed that my adapter is slightly different. It has less metal inside, mainly. Still will work, just interesting.

After reading the writeup and John566's comments, I'm considering a different way of doing this - basically mounting the new SSD directly (tape) and using the old DVD bay door to fit in the space. Will be lighter (overall) and no hole.

I'm also thinking a nice mod for the Ultrabay adapter would be the ability to swap drives without taking the Z apart. Shouldn't be too hard, just don't know how ambitious I am feeling. Not for today, anyway.

 

In this image there are actually 4 potential screw holes. The two immediately to the right of the ribbon cable (the holes with metal inserts) are odd... they are not used at all. In fact, one gets covered by the DVD bracket entirely but has nothing screwed into it. The other just sits there.

To the right of each is another screw hole. The lower one is used to secure the DVD drive and the upper one passes a screw through to the keyboard. In my UB Adapter I was able to use the lower right to hold it in place, partially.

*Edit* Screw wouldn't reach, double sided tape all the way. Hate that solution, will fix later.

 

I haven't permanently attached it, but two pieces of sticky tape should do fine with the adapter.

I don't see why doing it your way wouldn't work, although weight savings would be minimal. Just make sure the drive is really secure.

These additional screw placements are for attaching the PCI adapter and WWAN card. Check my Unboxing thread for pics

EDIT: Here's a shot with the WWAN and PCI bridge

 

Bah typed a reply and it got eaten.

What I did was nearly identical to your mount, but more screw less tape; externally it looks the same.

I also removed the front bracket from the DVD drive. It mostly just pops out but part of it was stubborn, so I heated it up a bit and it came out once the plastic was slightly soft.

This was my first disassembly of the Z. I can't get over how little there is in the thing. And I mean that in a very appreciative way. I've opened up many laptops and netbooks and never have seen one so sparse. It really is a marvel of engineering.

 

Been playing with this for a while -- I cannot get it to boot off of the drive in the optical bay. Any suggestions? In BIOS I don't see anything that allows me to shut off the optical or standard drives, so it always boots from the normal SSD and shows the new one as available space.

It's not the end of the world, but it's clearly not what I expected. If this is all it gets me, I'm likely to drop the DVD back in.

 

Can you change the boot order of the normal SSD and the one in the optical bay? I think the option is in the BOOT section of the BIOS.

 

To John566 and Malarkey,

Is the SDD in the optical drive bay recognised as a drive in Intel RAID configuration? Are you setting it as JBOD? TIA.

 

You can change the boot order but only of the top level devices, eg;

Internal HDD
Internal Optical
Network
External Device

There's no place to specify which internal HDD to use and if you set Internal Optical higher in the priority list it simply boots off the original SSD anyway.

As far as disk config, the RAID controller (vai CTRL-I at bootup) actually shows the new SSD as offered for use. I'm sure I could set it as JBOD and have three disks or stripe across all three. I've read that you can't create a RAID 5 array with this BIOS, but that would be a neat option.

I still just want to boot off the new SSD :/

 

(Speculation) It feels like the Intel controller is designating one of the attached disks as the 'primary' disk. Within the RAID configuration within the BIOS, is there any option that allows setting of this 'primary' disk? Hopefully the designation is not via physical wiring of the cables If it doesn't show in BIOS, how about the Intel Storage Manager?

 

A good suggestion, TofuTurkey.

I have the impression the issue lies within the BIOS. I also feel that the boot priority of the optical bay SSD and the original SSD is mutually exclusive - ie. you can only boot from one when the other does not exist. This explains why the HDD version of the Z have no problem booting from the HDD.

Suggestion: If you are really brave try disconnecting the original SSD from the system and try booting from the optical drive bay SSD. It may work.

 

There are disturbingly few BIOS options in the main BIOS and even fewer in the RAID BIOS. None let you set primary disks, etc.

You need to take the whole thing apart to move cables - I'm OK with disconnecting it but I doubt I'll pull it apart again before the weekend.

Even if it does work, it really doesn't help as that's not viable to swap between the two. :/

 

I removed the bezel from my bluray drive today. It is very easy to do.

Just press down on the tab and pull the bezel toward you. It will come off at an angle, kind of like it is on a hinge.



More pics:


Somewhat surprisingly, there is an eject button and LED activity indicator under the bezel. The LED doesn't work, so it is disabled somewhere, but the eject button works.



Unmodified image:

 

Nope, even if you enable access to advanced menu in BIOS, it is still not possible to change the boot order between SSDs / additional SSD.

I am quite sure this is completely hardcoded, as Sony definitely fiddled with the boot code (e.g. removed UEFI boot and boot selection menu, for example) - and this time they did it more thoroughly than in the old Z where certain "loopholes" allowing e.g. UEFI boot were possible.

Intereting though, if you check the BIOS setup via. EzH2O you'll see that the advanced boot option is still present in the setup data, but it is just deactivated.

Even if you physically disconnect the built-in SSD, you will not be able to boot from the second SSD/HDD attached to the DVD SATA port.

For example, if you try to install Windows from e.g. USB drive, everything will work as long as USB drive is connected (all install phases, reboots, ...) but as soon as you remove it, next time you try to boot the system you'll be greeted with "Operating System not found" message.

 

Is there still no way to boot off the ulratra bay ssd? just got my ssd in and about to tear my Z open

 

I have no problem booting off my old OCZ Summit in the optical bay with the Sony Quad SSD.

My setup:
RAID mode - Sony SSD in JBOD (haven't tried RAID 0 but it should also work) and Optical Bay SSD in JBOD
Boot Order - Internal Optical followed by Internal HDD

Install Windows 7 as usual. Select the Optical Bay SSD as the installation drive.

 

Can you do this with the Sony Recovery disks? i just tried, but it would only let me select from the raid disk. Using an OEM win7 disk & my serial would give me more options, no? Was trying to take a shortcut so that i wouldn't have to install all of Sony's required files afterwards :\

 

I thought I read a thread stating using ultrabay HDD will eat up the power due to conflict with system seeing the HDD as a spinning optical drive.

 

For the setup described above I installed OEM Win 7 and all original drivers from a USB stick - took around 15 mins to install everything.

 

so
i just ordered a vaio z and in advance i already ordered a generic ultrabay adapter off ebay for $12.
now, i understand that the bezel will have a missing ridge when installing it, as the thinkpads need that groove to fit.
my question is if apple superdrives from the new unibodies have the same indentation, so a superdrive adapter would work for our vaios with no "missing" part (aka: a hole)
i want to order an enclosure so that i can use my vaio's dvd drive externally via USB
obviously, if the enclosure has a slot to fit the ridge, then the sony's drive wont even fit it (the opposite of the hole in the vaio).
Anyway, i want to know if i can order an enclosure fitting the superdrive, or do i need to find a plastic enclosure where it may be possible to saw off the plastic blocking the drive's fit.
anyone know?

PS: im pretty sure the connector is Slimline Sata, not MicroSata, from looking at pics
does anyone know any better?

 

Hi just noticed that you purchased and using ThinkPad optibay ..
So you had to mess quite bit with fitting?
If you put the same amount of storage SSD like on pic in RAID utility 59.6 GB would you be able to make RAID 0 stripe triple ? all 3 ?
I was thinking buy optibay for my VGN-AW but here in this link below is for
VGN-FW :
SATA 2nd Hard Disk Drive HDD caddy bay Sony Vaio VGN-FW on eBay (end time 03-Jul-10 15:12:14 BST)

 

so is there any issues with having the HDD in the dvd? as poosed to the ssd? Something one of the other guys said ... seemed like it sounded that conventional laptop hdd would not work. Is this true or will it be fine to use my standard WD 320?

 

Before I buy it, this should work right?

Sata 2nd HD Hard Caddy Adapter For IBM UltraBay Slim 7V - eBay (item 290432940757 end time Jul-06-10 04:47:14 PDT)

 

Hello friends! First post here, but I have been reading avidly
I replaced the DVD with an HDD as instructed (it worked great thanks!) then went forward to remove the RAID (I am planning to use the SSD to store files that I need fast access to) but now when I boot the system it tells me no operating system available!
Clearly it looks at C:/(the SDD) instead of D:/ (the HDD). I tried to change the boot up order from the BIOS but that didn't do anything. *do* I need to install an OS on C: to boot from D: or is there a smarter way to solve this?
Thanks!!!
Alex

 

no thats the wrong one
its a bit misleading since ultrabay slim will make u think that its a slimline-sata, but its the wrong one (u need a one thats compatible with the lenovo t400/t500 series- not t50)

i found this on ebay
2nd HDD caddy Apple OptiBay SuperDrive Replacement SATA - eBay (item 280506952218 end time Jul-13-10 09:01:07 PDT)

its supposed to be for apples, but i am pretty sure (from dvd drive enclosure adapters like here: EXTERNAL CASE FOR IBM THINKPAD T400 W500 W700 DVD - eBay (item 190391575948 end time Jun-23-10 07:17:48 PDT)
that they are the same shape.

why get the apple version?
well im pretty sure (though i could really use a second opinion) that they don't have the "groove" that the lenovo ones have, meaning that the hole that you would see if u use a lenovo one on your sony wont be there with the apple one (the hole pics are in the beginning of this thread).

if you still want the lenovo holy version then this will work:
SATA 2nd HDD Caddy for IBM T400 T500 R400 R500 W500 - eBay (item 250642936561 end time Jul-01-10 00:45:47 PDT)

 

This one should work then. Since it doesn't say Apple, it's about half price.

for IBM 43N3412 SATA 2nd HDD caddy bay T400s T500 - eBay (item 350345523981 end time Jun-23-10 08:28:25 PDT)

 

as i said in my previous post (which i gave that link as well), that will leave a gap in the dvd drive area as the lenovo version has a groove.
The apple version i believe does not, but its your call wether to spend the extra money (i ordered the lenovo one before i knew about the apple one- but i would switch it if i knew it bak then)

 

Hmm... I would think the Apple version would have even a bigger "gap". Looking at the pictures, it doesn't even appear to have a faceplate at all which makes sense since Macs are slot loaders so the whole drive has to fit inside the case. There wouldn't be room for a faceplate since the laptop case is the faceplate. From the pictures it looks like instead of having a little gap on the side with the Lenovo one, you'd end up with a dvd drive sized gap with the Apple one.

Has anyone tried the Apple one?