Yann "Bug" Dubois

Développeur WordPress freelance à Paris
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Taking apart a Sony VAIO to replace the hard disk drive

24 August 2010 Par : Yann Dubois Catégorie : English, tech

Swapping the drive

The hard drive can be swapped with any similar 2.5 inches SATA hard drive. Please be aware that power consumption and heat specifications need to be as close to the original disk drive as possible. The original stripped hard disk drive being a 160 Gigabytes Hitachi 2.5″ mini-SATA (Model: HTS541616J9SA00 / 5400 RPM / 5V / 700 mA DC / 160 GB SATA made in Thailand, P/N: 0A53664 on 26 Jan 08), I first replaced it with a similar model that I found inside a Verbatim external USB disk drive enclosure (Same Model and specs, except a bit earlier revision: P/N: 0A28844, manufactured in the same factory in November 2007). Once my data was later completely recovered from the original crashed hard disk (thanks to the excellent data recovery service of Pierre Husson from SOS Disque Dur), I chose to upgrade it with a 500 GB Travelstar drive from the same maker which has very close specs (Hitachi Travelstar HDD: 5K500 B-500 / Model: HTS545050B9A300 / 5400 RPM / 5V / 700 mA DC / 500 GB SATA 3.0 Gb/s made in Thailand, P/N: 0A57915 in November 2009), except of course for the drive total volume that is 3x bigger! Both replacement HDD for the Sony VAIO worked perfectly, performing exactly like the original factory-fitted Hitachi unit. I could then install a complete Ubuntu GNU/Linux system, which is fully compatible with all of the Vaio hardware, in addition to the original Windows Vista and Sony recovery disk partitions that were copied from the original disk sector-by sector after hardware recovery. Both the Vista and Ubuntu system can freely mount and dismount disk partitions from the other system, making it possible to access all my data at all times, regardless of the OS.

Re-assembly of the laptop

Once the failed hard drive has been completely removed and the new disk drive is secured into its bracket, just re-plug it in place inside the laptop chassis, and lock it in place with the bracket screw. Then put the side USB port assembly back in place an re-screw it.

You can now put the back-side dark plastic cover back in place and tighten the 20 screws that hold it tight. Make sure that the small plastic tabs that keep the cover assembly inside the hinges assembly on the back of the laptop fit back inside the chassis (they have a tendency to pop outside, avoiding a tight fitting of the cover, and risking to break up later on when you open or close the computer).

Once the cover is back in place, you can re-attach the memory module cover and the battery and perform a startup test.

Re-installing the system

Be aware that the new HDD will be completely blank, and will not hold the special recovery partition of the original VAIO hard drive. You can boot from a USB key or CD or DVD in order to re-install a system. I recommend using Ubuntu GNU/Linux, which is freely available for on-line download and is totally compatible with the VAIO laptop, and has all the basic tools you would need to re-install a system, including copying the original VAIO system utility partition from another VAIO disk drive (performing a sector-by sector copy for example). You can easily create a bootable Ubuntu GNU/Linux USB Key by downloading a free utility on another machine wether it be GNU/Linux or Windows.

I hope you enjoyed this fully illustrated hardware disassembly guide to the Sony VAIO laptop, and maybe found it somewhat useful!

Further reading:

La version française de cet article est ici

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