Upgrade for N31Z?

[pringe83]

I have had my N31Z for about 2 months and unexpectedly have almost filled up the HD! I don't want to use an external HD and have a few ideas in mind - I was wondering if anyone knew the answers to any of the following:

• Is it possible to add an additional HD? i.e. is there a spare space and SATA port?
  
• If not, will the laptop accept a higher capacity replacement HD?
  
• I am also looking to see if there is a spare PCI slot - any ideas?
  

Thanks for any help!

[Blencogo]

Hi pringe83 and welcome to Club Vaio.

Laptop hard drive storage has increased about 5 times over the last three years from about 40GB to 180GB. Presumably this will continue as we now have 320GB Monsters from Toshiba on the horizon.

You do not have space for an additional drive so you are limited to an external drive or to changing the internal drive for another, larger one.

Most people will go for the external drive because: -

1. This is cheaper.
2. This acts also as a backup in the event of HDD failure
3. It is safer until your warranty runs out - an internal change may invalidate your Sony warranty.

[pringe83]

Thanks for your reply Blencogo - unfortunately space (physical space that is!!) is a bit of an issue, as is the importance of me having all my data available when using on the go. I've seen this Toshiba 200GB drive that looks great. Do Sony authorise certain repair centres to perform upgrades that won't invalidate warranties?

Also, I have been hunting but don't seem to have found any info on the PCI slots on my machine, or the manufacturer / model of my motherboard - is it a SONY bespoke?

Thanks again for the help.

[Blencogo]

I don't know of any Sony authorised repairers as they have their own repair centres and don't do upgrades. You will have to either ask Sony or go ahead and hope they don't notice.

All Sony laptops have a custom Sony main board. What are you trying to connect by PCI? A laptop will not have the usual PCI slots found in desktop computers as they are not expandable or upgradable by adding a PC Card. They do, however, use a PCI interface for some internal devices and usually have a Card Bus PCMCIA connection.

[pringe83]

Yes sorry my mistake...I found reference to the PCI slot from a search on upgrading hard drives on another sony machine and didn't notice that it was referring to a desktop.

Thanks for your help, I'll get on to Sony.