Sony :: Vaio VGN-FW290 Hard Drive And Windows 7 Upgrade
Oct 27, 2009
I have a Sony Vaio VGN-FW290 with Vista Home Premium 64x that I’ve had for approximately one year. I would like to upgrade it by replacing the original 5400rpm HD with a 7200rpm HD and a fresh install of Windows 7 Home Premium 64x.
Here are the questions I have:
Is there a preferred hard drive that works well in this style of laptop? I’m considering a Seagate Momentus 7200.4 or WD Scorpio Black.
If I install the new hard drive, can I boot from the Windows 7 installation disk and go? Will the basic hardware function properly at this point; CD drive, internet connection for Windows installation, etc.? Is there anything else I need to be aware of?
According to Sony eSupport, the VGN-FW290 model is “Windows 7 upgradeable”. Does this mean all the Sony Windows 7 drivers are available to provide the full functionality of the computer with a fresh install? There’s only a handful of Windows 7 Home Premium 64x drivers, on the Sony website, compared to the Vista Home Premium 64x OS. Do I use a combination of Vista drivers along with Windows 7 drivers? For example, I have the ATI Radeon HD 3650 video adapter and a Blu-ray read/write drive, but don’t see a Windows 7 driver for them.
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May 12, 2009
I have a Sony Vaio SR190 with a 160gb@5400 rpm hard drive. I really want to upgrade this with more capacity. I have two main questions:
1) What Hard Drive brand is the best? I was looking at the Western Digital Scorpio and the Seagate Momentus, but I want suggestions on the BEST.
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Apr 17, 2009
I was wondering if it was easy to crack open and upgrade the CD-ROM drive to another hard drive instead. Since customizing a TT is hellaciously expensive and the hard drives they offer are slow and not big enough -I would rather supply my own parts than what they have in stock
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Jul 29, 2009
Sony VAIO VGN-NS140E/L. I've been wanting to replace my 250GB hard drive with a larger drive, but I can't find any instruction manuals/walkthroughs of how to disassemble it enough to make the swap.
I've read pages of other models, and followed it to the point of where I have removed the bottom screws and unhinged the keyboard, but now I can't figure out how to remove the plastic cover that is over the hard drive and other components (in other walkthroughs this part seems to be a seperate metal panel, not a plastic built-in part).
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Jan 31, 2010
Disclaimer: I did do a cursory search for the question I want to ask, but there were like 480 pages that came up in my initial searches.
I have a Vaio VGN A270P that has VERY, VERY low miles on it. It is literally the car that the little old lady from Pasadena drove for like a grand total of maybe 10 hours.
I have ordered the requisite memory upgrade from the current 1GB to 2GB max from Crucial. Now I want to look into replacing the harddrive with something a little more beefy. In doing my due diligence, I found that this machine came with a max of 100GB hard drive. I see drives on the bay for reasonable prices that are as much as 360GB (?)
I am doing this in conjunction with a total dump of windows and swapping in Linux Mint for my OS. Basically I am wanting to try to extend the useful life and functionality of this machine by doing this.
My question is this....what would be you advice regarding the upgrading of the hard drive? Where to go to get it? What should I look for in purchasing the drive? What pit falls should I be on alert for? Do any of you have reservations about what I am proposing here?
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Feb 26, 2009
who opened I believe Z and connected a hard drive to dvd drive connector while leaving dvd drive in for cosmetic reasons. Can't find this thread. Where exactly can the hard drive go? Inside the tray?
I am afraid there will be too much vibration if I put regular HD there. For this reason I would rather put there SSD but is there a way to make this a primary OS drive? Seems like last bios allows to boot from optical drive.
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Jun 25, 2009
I bought an FW configured with a 320gb 5400rpm hard drive, originally with a view to taking it out and putting in a faster one, 7200rpm or even an ssd. However, sony said this would void the warranty so I decided to just stick wit the 5400rpm option.
So my question is that if I bought a 7200rpm drive now, or an ssd when they are slightly cheaper, would I be able to slot that in,
but then if something went wrong with the laptop and it had to be returned, simply slip in the original 5400rpm hard drive so the sony guys wouldn't know the difference?? Or would they be able to tell I had changed the drive?
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May 16, 2010
How to replace Hard Drive for Sony Vaio Z...
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Jan 10, 2009
I am looking at one of the 7200rpm 320gb drives from either Hitachi, Fijitsu, Seagate and Western Digital.
Sony says the systems are not designed to be upgraded (by the end user). I guess they want only overpriced tech to do it. I have already popped my system apart and put it back together so I know how to do it. I have been building and repairing my own PC since 1990 so I am not afraid to do this. I would hate to buy the drive and find out that the BIOS will not support it.
Has anyone had any issues with Hard Drive upgrades on the SZ 330p/b model?
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Jul 7, 2009
I'd like to upgrade the hard drive on my Vaio, and I found a number of options here to purchase a new drive to make sure I get a compatible one. I'm leaning toward the 7200 rpm 320 gig model.
What I'm concerned about is doing the actual upgrade after cloning my current drive to the new one, as Sony says that hard drives are not user-upgradeable.
I've replaced a hard drive before on a Toshiba laptop, and on a TiVo, and many times on a desktop computer, so I have some confidence that I could probably do it if I had instructions, which I don't. I saw the instructions here about upgrading a different model -- is it probably sufficiently similar that a moderately geeky girl could manage this herself?
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Dec 9, 2009
I was thinking of upgrading my HDD to 500gb. What is the compatible hd for my laptop? [vgn-fw270j]
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Apr 20, 2009
Will pick up my VGN-TT180c this week and planning to upgrade the stock hard drive to a 7200rpm Hard Drive.
how to do the upgrade?
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Jan 16, 2010
so does the Vaio F have a second bay? I'd really like to throw in a SSD to boost the boot time
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Oct 27, 2009
I was thinking about upgrading to a 7200 RPM hard drive for my VAIO SR190.
I'm sure this voids warranty, but in the event that you need to send the laptop to Sony, couldn't you just put the original back in and they wouldn't notice?
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Jan 30, 2009
I'm about to pull the trigger on a FW, but it has a 320GB 4200rpm. HD.
I've planned on buying a WD Scorpio Black later and the replacing it.
How complicated would that be? What I mean is, that I can do the hardware replacing and all that, but is it enough that I would do a recovery disc with the original HD inside and then replace the HD's and then just boot from the disc. Or do I need to fiddle around with the SATA drivers,
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Apr 8, 2010
I'm considering a Vaio Z. I would have bought the latest one, but unfortunately the headphone plug is in the front which is a deal breaker for me as I most often use it on the treadmill to watch movies and it needs to "stand up".
So, when looking at previous Z's I noticed the headphone plug is one the side (as it should be. if you ask me). Blu-ray is a must and I want SSD. I found a few models with Blu-ray, but it seems that all models only have a regular 320GB hard drive, so my first question is:
- Does a Z of previous model with Blu-ray and SSD exist?
In case no such model exists I was thinking of buying the VGN-Z790JAB and replace the hard drive with a SSD myself. I was browsing this forum and found a few threads on the topic, e.g. these:...........
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Mar 9, 2010
Is new Vaio Z can manual replace default sony ssd with 2.5' hard drive ?
If not, Can i manual replace dvd drive with second hard drive or it need special part, May it run at full speed SATA2, and can i boot from it ?
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Jun 10, 2009
provide explanations or pics for the under keyboard removal on this Sony Vaio VGN-N150P laptop?
I can tell you that I've not found it in all the stickies... some of the models are 'close' but NO CIGAR. Google has not helped, seems like Sony has tried its darndest to BE UNHELPFUL. Even chatted with them, no joy.
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Feb 11, 2009
Just pulled the trigger on a Vaio VGNTZ290NDB for $1,439 on clearance from Sony Style.
Seems like a nice unit.
Question:
This unit comes with a 64GB SSD (1.8" PATA) and a 250GB HDD (2.5" SATA).
Given the age of the model line, I'm assuming that the PATA SSD is not of the same performance level as the new SATA SSDs, e.g., Intel X25-M.
Would it be simple enough to put in an X25-M in place of the 250GB HDD and then make it the boot drive? Or is the system limited to booting from the PATA SSD?
A dual SSD ultraportable would be... well... sweet.
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Dec 24, 2009
does anyone have a tutorial for sony vaio vgn-p530h hard drive replacement
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Jan 16, 2009
Im having a major issue with my SR290 and Sony Repair Center specifically.
Ok, I just noticed that my hard drive have been running constantly and never under an idle state about 3 weeks ago.
I restored the computer twice but every time I turn it on, the hard drive and the fan makes really loud noises. Even when there are absolutely no applications running,
the hard drive runs and makes obvious noises. I used to be sitting late at night surfing the internet and having absolutely no noise from the laptop, but now even when I just turn it on, its really loud. If I leave it on for over a few hours, the fan exhaust starts to expel really warm air
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Apr 24, 2009
I just have a question regarding aftermarket upgrade of blue ray for Vaio Z series, did any one try upgrading with any aftermarket blue ray drive for Z series? If so what is the compatibility criteria and did anyone find one for Z series
I found a notebook blue ray rom for $79
[url]
but it is IDE interface I am not sure what interface is for Z series.
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Feb 15, 2010
I have a new i3 CW running Windows 7 Home. It is set so that the power button and lid send it to sleep mode. The power management is set to balanced. I removed the fluff software but still have the main Sony programs. I am not running an active anti-virus.
My issue is the hard drive is constantly being hit. The light blinks about once per second. This has to be robbing power and wearing on the HD.
Does anyone know what is causing this and how it can be stopped? If this is saving info for the sleep operation I would think it could happen far less often.
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Apr 10, 2009
I am finding my fan is constantly changes pitches, kinda of a whiny, siren sound. I don't think the actual sound at any given time is unnormal,
its more just that it is constantly changing, so it becomes annoying. I don't mind if my fan needs to be louder at times, but I would like for it to be loud at a consistent tone.
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Nov 15, 2009
I own a VGN-Z37GD VAIO and I'm wondering what happens to the recovery drive once Vista is upgraded to Windows 7? Does the recovery drive also get updated or is it necessary to create a new one yourself?
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Nov 12, 2009
I recently purchased a VGN-SR490PBB which came with preinstalled XP Pro. According to all the literature, I am entitled to a Windows 7 Pro (32-bit) upgrade.
I proceeded to install the Recovery Media Kit that came with my laptop. The recovery media says basically, "Use this Recovery Kit to recover the preinstalled operating system and applications..."
It installed Vista Ultimate (64-Bit). I am being shipped the Windows 7 Pro (32-bit) upgrade from Mentor Media. So you can probably see the issue already, 64-Bit OS installed, 32-Bit upgrade disks in the mail. Not going to work.
So here's what happened so far (whole process below took 2-hours).
1. Chatted with a live person from Sony's Tech Support person, who directed me to Mentor Media .....
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Oct 24, 2009
I have a Sony VAIO VGN-FZ240E and found out on release day that Sony will not support me in upgrading my Windows Vista system to Windows 7. I had purchased a pre-release from Microsoft of the Home Premium version.
I have seen some replies in other treads that imply that some users have been partially successful and would like this tread to be the master for solutions. Do not use this tread to rant about Sony - even if you are mad as hell just like I am
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Aug 30, 2009
Keeping in mind, not just speed, but battery usage, drivers compatibility, headaches, etc.
I have access to full professional version of Windows 7 dvd through our university, and am considering whether I should take this route.
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Nov 13, 2009
I have a Vaio FW450 and I just finished the windows 7 upgrade. Just the upgrade, not a clean install. Everything works flawless except the bluetooth. The computer can't detect it's bluetooth hardware. I tried installing the driver from esupport, but still no luck. how I can get this working?
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Dec 19, 2009
I just recently upgraded my Z from Vista x64 to Windows 7.
I am having a problem with the function keys though.
Everything works except the brightness controls both in stamina and speed mode.
I tried reinstalling numerous drivers but nothing seems to work.
Does anyone know the fix for this issue?
I have a Z790CJ model if that is any help
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