sony vaio aw31zj/b upgrade to SSD ???

[spolmleczus11pofma]

Hi everybody. Siple questions I have. Is it possible to upgrade my vaio to SSD drive, and if yes what schould i look for. I mean any special drive or just any 2'5" ?? Apreciate all answers.

[Blencogo]

Yes it is possible - at a price!

If you look here you will see some guaranteed compatible SSD upgrades for your model: -

http://www.crucial.com/uk/store/listparts.aspx?model=VAIO%20VGN-AW31ZJ%2FB&Cat=SSD

[spolmleczus11pofma]

thanks for help. ok than. first i've done i opened laptop, there is second empty caddy for HD but.... i cannot see any slots(pins) to connet hard drive . Where can i get any instruction for my model??

thanks

omg /.... i have to put this...just found out guy who opened his vaio and discovered no empty caddy but no sata cable  !!!!!  is this for real, did sony left me with no second sata cable and now how to purchase it before HD arrives??? whe would i even foun one ???????????????

Message was edited by: mahryni10

Message was edited by: mahryni10

[stephanius]

Retrofitting an SSD into a notebook is only straight-forward when you are going to replace a standard form factor 2.5" mechanical hard drive.

Whenever you want to add an SSD to a regular HDD in a notebook, there will be problems. Let's look at the typical cases:

1. chassis with room for two 2.5" hard drives (such as the AW).
   1. If your model is using two HDDs originally, you can swap one of them for an SSD in most cases, since raid controllers can be set to non-raid and single drive setups suit you just fine.
   2. If your model comes with only one HDD installed, it's tricky. The mainboard and SATA controller might or might not be the same as for models with two discs. Assuming it is, there might not be a connector for the other drive bay. As annoying as that is, consider the waste on thousands of units who's owners don't want to add more drives. Your best bet is to do some research and try to order the part from VAIO Support or a repair partner (see out of warranty support).
2. chassis with room for one 2.5" drive (most VAIO models) have two options:
   1. replace the HDD with a retail 2.5" form factor SSD. This gets expensive if you try to get a high capacity SSD. It's important here to determine how much space you really need if you consider tidying up, moving seldomly used data to an archive (external HDD/NAS) or just an SD card.
   2. replace the optical drive with a montage frame for a 2.5" form factor SSD, move the optical drive to a USB case. There are a bunch of kits sold to achieve this, but this is tinkering territory and won't necessarily be super smooth cosmetically and require some hands on skill.
3. chassis offered with HDDs, single SSDs or SSD arrays (such as VGN-Z or vpcZ1 Series)
   • The SSDs used in production don't come in a - mostly empty - 2.5" form factor box, but are boards held by custom frames instead, more alike with a memory module than a regular hard disk drive if you ignore the SATA interface. That's both great - for space, weight, heat and so on, but a real showstopper for post purchase upgrades. Retail bought SSDs won't fit, buying the custom frames and cables isn't comfy either. If you order one of these high end VAIO's, judge the capacity you need and order it. Don't assume you can upgrade later.

4. chassis offered only with SSDs - see point 4.

I hope this helps. Good luck with your upgrade!

Message was edited by: stephanius

Message was edited by: stephanius