SSD in Vaio VPCYB2M1E

[zsongor]

I'd like to share some of my experience during the "upgrade" of my little Vaio from the original HDD to a SSD. Since the HDD was a 320GB Seagate Momentus, I searched for a similar or larger capacity SSD. My first choice was a 500GB Samsung PRO SSD (due to the performance and positive reviews), but I couldn't start properly my Vaio laptop with this SSD after cloning the HDD (I've tried 5 different programs during 2 days). I've tried also a smaller, 240GB Kingston HyperX Fury SSD, wich caused no trouble at all after migrating the OS, the laptop booted quickly and the OS was loaded under 1 minute.

My end-conclusion: the Samsung SSD is not compatible with my Vaio laptop's controller (AMD A50M Fusion)!

The only SSD manufacturer that I've found publishing compatibility information for my Vaio's specs was Crucial, so I've bought a 500GB Crucial MX200 SSD. After cloning the Seagte HDD to this Crucial SSD (with Macrium Reflect - that was the program that I've considered the best from all that I've tried) and mounting the SSD in my Vaio, there was no trouble in getting to my OS. The entire boot process went to the half time compared to the original HDD (25 seconds to the login screen and 35 seconds to the Desktop with preloaded apps, instead of the initial 2 - 2.5 minutes).

But, since Sony has made a quite balanced laptop (my VPCYB2M1E has a dual core AMD E-350 cpu, which is rather slow), using an SSD instead of the original HDD get me aside some speed, a bit more fan-noise. The small cpu seems to have more load and activity due to the higher read/write speed.

I hope, that the above information could be usefull for those searching to upgrade their HDD to an SSD on similar Vaio models.

[takrzem]

Interesting to know, thanks for sharing.

I will soon be replacing HDD in my wife's trusty VGN-NR21Z - can anybody share their views on this?

I'm interested in both technicalities (i.e would any SSD drive work okay from the outset - and why if not?) as well as OS-related points, i.e.how to perform the exact cloning of all partitions (incl. recovery ones) to ensure that all works after the replacement?

VGN-NR21Z is as per the original spec, including 7 year's old Windows Vista Home Premium OS.

[alashou]

I upgraded to "Intel 530 180GB SSD SATA3" with no problems. I am planing to upgrade again to Samsung 850 PRO SSD 1TB. Can i expect any complications?

Vaio SVE14A3C5E

[takrzem]

Just to follow this up for the benefit of all (some?):

I eventually upgraded wife's laptop from HDD to SSD few weeks ago. Process was smooth as silk and I had not encountered any problems. In essence:

* I went for Crucial SSD of the same size as HDD - it is very nice of them to have compatibility checker on their website just in case. Also, it was quite good to receive complimentary license of Acronis True Image 2015 to assist with cloning as well

* I also purchased S-ATA to USB cable at the same time

* Firstly I installed True Image and created boot DVD-ROM from there

* Next, I shut Windows down and swapped HDD with SSD inside (15 mins job, no complications. Plenty of videos on Youtube to assist you with this process if required)

* I then booted off DVD-ROM, connected old HDD via S-ATA to USB cable and created a cloned copy of its content to newly installed SSD

* Once finished, I shut laptop down, removed DVD-ROM, disconnected old drive (unplugged USB) and restarted it.

And voila, job done! Laptop is now as fast as new again, without general Windows Vista HDD-thrashing-related sluggishness (well, one can feel that processor / graphics is a bit dated sometimes). Entirely sufficient for general browsing / simple office work even though it's nearly 8 years old.