New HDD needed for TX3XP..?

[JMac1727]

Does anyone know whether it's possible to buy a replacement HDD for poorly TX3XP?

It's running really slowly for a while now and has pretty much given up responding at all this weekend. Various scans have taken a day each and now we are in the middle of a full Scandisk with repair and it is fixing A LOT of bad sectors No viruses were found, so HDD failure appears to be the culprit.

A quick look around for the drive that is fitted (Toshiba MK8007GAH, 80Gb 1.8" EIDE with ATA connector) indicates that is no longer available and the current models all have a different plug connector (ZIF?). I'll not get started on the frustration of having a 16 month old machine that appears to be obsolete when it comes to spares!

I'd rather not pay Sony to get it working again when I could take advantage of the great work available here on how to do a clean install, but if I can't find a replacement drive I'm going to be stuck

[Blencogo]

Hi JMac1728 and welcome.

ZIF is the interface used with 1.8 inch drives in iPods and other MP3 players to save space by using a 40-pin connection.

You need a drive with the ATA 50-pin connection and you can pick from the list here: -

http://www.span.com/catalog/index.php?cPath=23_504_1801

If you want something bigger, have a look at the 100GB drive here: -

http://www.stuff-uk.net/?SectionID=117

[JMac1727]

Thanks for your reply Blencogo, it was v. helpful.

I thought I had posted a thanks some days ago, but have noticed the thread stops with your comment.

I'm now at the point, that the drive is v. dead and Sony are talking £190 to put a new one in for me. You might have seen my other thread about getting up and running with a new HDD, ie with restore partition.

[uptoeleven]

I know I'm replying to a very old thread but others may wish to benefit from my research.

The drive you buy will need to be:

1.8" - to fit in the case

IDE - because although the 915GMS chipset has SATA capability, the drive chosen by Sony for this laptop is an IDE one, the Toshiba is an IDE drive and you'll need to replace it with an IDE.

ZIF interface - and my initial response was - WTF??? As if having to buy a teeny tiny drive that's IDE isn't hard enough, it also has to have a ribbon connector. What's even crazier is they do exist.

I will have to replace the hard drive on my tx3xp very shortly - it has a long standing fault which meant it was terrible under windows - I'm using xubuntu on it which runs perfectly well but I recently had to copy a very large (16GB) folder between two machines in two different locations and for a variety of reasons it was easier to use the laptop (which I was carrying) than a portable drive (which meant a trip home). There were some minor file corruptions and I think the faulty sector is towards the middle or end of the drive, but it's definitely there. Anyway I want an SSD

So I will be looking for a 1.8", SSD with a ZIF IDE interface. Wish me luck (actually I know they exist too but it means buying from China and brands I don't recognise...)