Replacing noisy hard drive on Vaio PCV-W1/G?

[neil.scott]

Presumably a noisy disk means I need to replace it sharpish. Can anyone answer the following questions:
1. Will I be able to do this myself or do I need to send it in?
2. Are there instructions for removing the back of the case (not just the little sliding bit at the top) anywhere, and even for removing the drive? Or is it easy?
3. Is it a 2.5 or 3.5", is it 1/2, 1/3 or full height? Can I get the biggest drive on the market or am I limited by the machine in some way?
4. Will I be able to attach the new drive as a slave, and do an image copy from the old one, I don't want to install all the software all over again?
5. Will I be able to use some free software (like Western Digital Data Lifeguard Tools) or will I have to fork out for something like Norton Ghost?
6. All I have found on the web is horror stories about doing the above, is that what I've got ahead of me?
7. All I got with the Vaio is a recovery CD, is this a bootable CD and will I be able to do the above with it? If not will I find out how to create a bootable CD in the documentation somewhere? Or should I be looking to something like BartPE?
Any other tips would be much appreciated.
Thanks
Neil

[babysmile]

I try to explain as much i as can..

1) You can try to open yourself but of course no more warranty on this.. If u have the guts to open then should be no problem.
2) No instructions.. You have to use the screwdriver to get the nuts and bots out.. pity hard for a begineer.
3) mostly 3.5" . Full height? NO ideas. Are u trying to get a 1TB? i think about 320GB or 400GB is more than enough .. You have to check the motherboard specifications..
4) You can use to "copy" by ghosting it using Norton Ghost. If you saying slave hard disk, i think the only choice is u can use the new hard disk in USB or firewire connection.
5) Norton Ghost will be just fine as mentioned on q4.
6) depends on how knowledge u have in ur mind.. Should be easy since u can ask these questions.
7)Try to check the CD first b4 u format the hard disk then you shall understand how to use it.. I can't say anything on this cause i didn't use W1 b4.

Hope these helps..

[neil.scott]

Thanks babysmile, I have in the meantime moved on and have my own horror story to tell:
Opened the case fine, identified the full height 3.5" Seagate disk, bought a new 250GB one, bought Paragon Drive Backup 8.0 which was all they had in the shop - no Norton Ghost, but it was cheaper and really easy to use, also bought an external USB case for an IDE drive as there appeared to be no useable cable for master/slave connection in the W1, the image copy went like a dream BUT when putting the new disk in the Vaio I got the IDE connector in the wrong way and pushed in a pin, easier than you might think. I could have thrown it at the wall......and then the noise turned out to be the fan, I get the noise even with the new disk! I have temporarily fixed the new disk with a cut off pin from the sewing box, and hope Seagate might help me with a repair or new PCB, or maybe I'll find one on eBay. SeaGate's SeaTool disk analysis software kindly came with some adware: whenusearch, which annoyed me.

Thanks and bye for now.
Neil