Sony Vaio Z SSD connector

[wkhan69]

Question: does sony sells replacement ssd for sony Vaio Z series?

I was just thinking that I may like to change my 2x64gb to 2x128gb in the future...

I was searching in google without any luck...

Thanks.
I asked Sony tech support here in Australia, and they said you can only replace the existing ssd with the exact same one, but you can not upgrade, as the connectors are different. The two pictures on the right show two different sony vaio Z SSDs (one is 384Gb, the other is 128Gb). Note the connectors on the sides of the drive are different for the different sized SSD. I'm wondering, though, if you can replace the connector on the main board.

So, the question is if the following ssd connector on the main board can be disconnected, or is it permanently attached? If it can be disconnected, how? (I'm referring to the first three pictures below - the third one being a close up of the connector I would like to disconnect). I tried playing with it gently and could not disconnect it.

click here for photos:
http://picasaweb.google.com/wkhan7/SonyVaioZSSD?feat=directlink

thanks, Will

 

[fleshconsumed]

Can't help you, but afaik I've read that you can take out DVD drive and replace it with a second hard drive. If you're willing to sacrifice DVD drive that might be a solution to your problem.

 

[ther00kie16]

Supposedly, you can only replace it with the exact same ssd boards. So you can't just upgrade or add in two more on your own.

 

[wkhan69]

That's what the consensus is, I guess. It would be nice if Sony mentioned that in their literature -the internal SSD is not not upgradeable. As you mentioned, there is the replacement of the DVD writer, with a secondary drive.

I've purchased an eSATA expresscard adapter, and an external eSATA drive to work around the issue of needing a bigger drive. It works, but it's clumsy.

Thanks,
Will

 

[frumply]

the dvd drive replacement is awesome. Almost can't tell you added another HDD in there. Add 20-30 bucks for an external DVD drive and you're all set.

 

[nikoskod]

Hi, I have exactly the same SSD but my laptop was distroyed. I know that the SSD is working but I have no way to read it. Anyone knows an adaptor or a way to read the SSD as an external drive at another computer?

Vaio will not do it for me either...I really do not know what is wrong with their customer support.

 

[Rezavoir]

Aloha Nikoskod,

Did you ever find an adapter or enclosure to allow you to recover data & repurpose the drive? I have a pair of 256gb raid SSDs with the little proprietary ribbon cable and would love to recover my data and ideally pop the SSDs into an enclosure or a non sony laptop? Any thoughts? All help is greatly appreciated.

 

[zerogear]

I think people were able to upgrade it by taking out the 1.8" Intel SSD drives a while back and removing the casing and plugging it in (not the Optical Drive)

 

[vivekmoorthy]

Did you ever find an adapter or enclosure to allow you to recover data & repurpose the drive? I have a pair of 256gb raid SSDs with the little proprietary ribbon cable and would love to recover my data and ideally pop the SSDs into an enclosure or a non sony laptop? Any thoughts? All help is greatly appreciated.

If you're still trying to recover your data from these drives, I have a potential solution if you're interested. I have a Vaio VPCZ2390s with 128gbs. I have been trying to upgrade to the 256gb drive. I would be willing to buy the drives from you and back the data up after I install them in my machine. Unfortunately the drives are LIF connectors so they're pretty much useless outside of these machines. Once the drives are in the machine, windows should boot up and I can back up the data.

Let me know what you think. Thanks.