Need some SSD reccomendations for Vaio VPC-Z2 laptop

[ekbkhan]

I have the Vaio VPCZ21C5E laptop which came with a 128GB Samsung SSD drive but it's simply too small for use right now (Windows installation, with updates etc take up half of the useable space on the drive) and I want to upgrade it to at least a 256GB SSD Drive.

I've been having real throuble trying to find what kind of SSD would be compatible to replace it with as I know its the microSSD style of hard drive they have in their. I'm guessing because of the age of the latpop (Purchased late 2011), intimate details for it are not so readily available so I'm in a bit of a fix.

Sony support are useless, the 'direct line' that the sales team reffer me to only sends me to an automated system that tells me that my laptop is no longer covered by warranty and I should call their premium rate support line for support (scumbags!) but the premium rate support line only gives me the option of submitting my 15 or 7 digit support reference numbers which obviously don't exist as I haven't spoken to anyone yet!

The drive itself that is in the laptop is a samsung thing with the following model and serial numbers respectively;

MZRPC128HACD & S0T6NY0B900625

Although searching using these as a reference point, I haven't been able to find anything of actual use or no way to confirm if various other 'sony vaio hard drives' that i see in the amazon results as an example would even be compatible with the Vaio.

Can anyone give me some pointers here or reccomendations?

[Blencogo · Accepted solution]

Hi ekbkhan and welcome.

Have a look at this old post: -

http://community.sony.co.uk/t5/PCs-Accessories/Upgrade-SSD-on-VPCZ1-series/m-p/557225#M15800

The 256GB version is MZRPC256HADR and it is available on Amazon - but it is very expensive: -

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sony-SSD-256-GB-MZRPC256HADR-000-05S/dp/B00D5OUD0K

It is cheaper from the US even with shipping costs added but you may find an alternative if you Google

http://www.super-laptop-parts.com/new-256g-ssd-samsung-mzrpa256hmdr-lif-for-sony-svs15-svz13-laptop-...

http://www.aliexpress.com/store/product/Original-RAID0-256GB-LIF-SSD-For-Sony-vaio-S13-S13P-S15-S151...

Good luck and let us know how you get on.

[ekbkhan]

Thanks so much for this!

I picked up the one from Ali Express shortly after your reply and it actually arrived today so I'm going to try my hand at fitting it in.

I have actually fitted it in and confirmed that the bios could read it, but then i realised that I hadn't created the installation media so I've had to put the original back in and burn the media...disc 3 is almost done...

Will let you know how it goes once the OS is installed!

[ekbkhan]

...aaand my current issue is that the SSD's raid seems to be consistently failing after the install process nears its end.

Without knowing how hot the laptop is meant to run normally, i can't say for sure if its simply running too hot but it does feel very hot to touch on the back of it.

The RAID config shows that one of the 2 128GB SSD's on the 256GB drive has failed and simply doesnt show up in the device list - i noticed that this RAID status was actually like this before i started the recovery so I had to break the raid, restart and return to the config program before the other 128GB segment was actually listed in the config.

It did, after that, let me rebuild the RAID and the reinstall program did see the RAID appropriately and let me go through with it all.

Going to open it up one more time to see if theres anything obviously wrong and then put the original SSD back in to confirm that it is a unique issue with the one I recieved.

Edit 1:

Old SSD is back in and i can confirm that it does indeed run much much colder than how hot it was running previously. Rest of the system checks out although I can't figure out how to make the intel rapid storage utility to run at boot when i want to so that i can compare the details i had on the other drive.

So the old drive would cause a bluescreen during the installation when it failed, and only once did I manage to get it to show one of the failed drives after a failure without breaking the array first (that one time, windows loaded, but immediately blue screened before reaching the welcome screen).

Going to return this to Ali Express and see if they will exchange for another one in the hope that it actually works.....

D'oh