sony vaio & SSD patriot 64GB

any of you tested/used the SSD 64GB patriot or any other SSD with the Sony Vaio vgn sz-120p under WinXP pro?

I read around there are issues with multiple read and write occurrences, any comments?

thanks
ralph

 

ok, at the end I bought the SSD, ...but it doesn't work on my vaio vgn-sz120p

these the several attempts:

- disk clone with Acronis,
- tryied to setup a new winXP installation
- fix mbr from winXP installation disk and several MBR tools

The sony support doesn't support HD upgrades.

After the disk clone, I cannot make the laptop to load the SSD.
I managed to do so, plugging the old HD, press F8 and while the system was waiting I switched to the cloned SSD. In this way I managed to boot the SSD. and it was working fine and fast.

I can only get the CD rom to boot, if I first connect the old HDD and
then when I ear the CDrom starting I switch it with the SSD and I'm
sure doing this the system doesn't read something properly.

Actually the only CDrom I managed to boot keeping the SSD plugged, is a old collection of boot tools in DOS.

so I managed to start a new windows installation (1st part of the
installation: delete all partitions, format the SSD, and copying the
files on the SSD)
but then when the installation call a reboot, the system isn't able to
access to the SSD. same problem as before.

I'm assuming that during the win installation, the installation itself
take case of writing a new MBR,

At this point I guess my bios/system has troubles reading the SSD...

I also checked that I've the last release of bios for my laptop.

Do I have to say that my sony vaio isn't compatible with SSD ?
I also wrote to the sony support, but they don't support HDD upgrades.

I hope there are still many sz120 around (bought on 2006),
it's still reasonable to upgrade them to get a much faster laptop.

if you guys come up with something else let me know
thanks

 

the Sony support was very fast, but they don't provide any info on the replacement of the internal HD and keep suggesting an external HD...

reading around I learn that changing an HD in a sony vaio SZ isn't the easiest thing of this world. Because of a possible limitation somewhere...
any help is welcome

thanks

 

First of all, SSD or not, it's still a HD, so your laptop will see it as a HD, nothing more than that. So, there is no such a thing saying it is not compatible with SSD. I have no idea what you did, but can you try this:
- Burn your DVD recovery with the Sony utility (from your old HD)
- Change the HD with your SSD, and now try to restore your HD with the DVD recovery.

 

Hi NHT,

I burned the SONY recovery DVDs,
connected the SSD HD, but the laptop doesn't boot from the DVD.

no other bootable disks will boot when the SSD HD is plugged.

The DVD or the SSD HD boots immediately if I unplug and then plug back the SSD HD.

suggestions are welcome.

 

It's a little wierd. Try to format your SSD HD before booting from DVD

 

already tried, same behavior.

thanks

 

Hi,

i own a Vaio SZ2 M/B and had no problems upgrading it with a 64GB Patriot WARP V2 SSD. Works fine! I think the SZ1 and SZ2 models are nearly identic.

What's your Boot Sequence in BIOS? Already tried to load BIOS defaults? BIOS update?

 

both my SZ4 and my Z3 supports Intel X25-E 64G. the only problem of SZ4 is the SATA 1 mode which bottlenecks the performance down to 125MB/s while Z3 unleashes all the performance up to 250MB/s.

 

hi thanks for the posts, I actually didn't do any research to check if those other Vaios are similar to the SZ-120p on the bios, SATA...

The Patriot support saying that Standard HHD have a different controller and interfacing process than SSDs.
And they suggests that I should check the power supply as well as the BIOS are compliant with SSD technology,but unfortunately Sony doesn't support HD upgrade on my model.

Since the SSD starts if I connect it after the bios starts, I'm thinking that I should put an external switch for the HD on the keyboard, so I can use it

thanks

 

Hi sz2mb and sniper_sung
do you know the release year of you vaios?

thanks

 

Hello Ralph401,

I ran into the same issue with a SZ120 and a SSD.
Did you find any solution or work around?

Any links or pointers in the right direction will be appreciated.

 

Hello, i bought mine september 2006

 

SZ2MB,

It sounds like your SZ is not the USA version, is it?
Are you doing XP, Vista, or 7?
If it is not too much to ask, what is your bios number?

If I remember well, there is something inside my laptop that says it was manufactured Feb2006.

I will check in the Sony Europe support, as many times the two sites present differences.

Thanks for your help,
I definitely want to crack this