silicon pop culture!

Hi
I have a Sony Vaio PCG-TR1MP which suddenly died some time ago. I am looking for a replacement hard drive but could it be anything else?

I have tried running the recovery disc but it never manages to get to the end.

Any help or suggestions would be gratefully received.

If it is the hard drive where can I get a new one in the UK.

Many thanks
Riccardo

copy and paste into eBay uk search:-

300217493951

110245519108

140227274366

Or if you can find the conversion kit for Toshbia you can use this (see the SSD HDD Topic for images of Hitachi / and Toshibia mounting and connectors)

180234854768

ssd…  that’s a hefty investment

Thanks Ultimate Fn Combo Master

You were spot on and they did have used one on Ebay but the biding was closed by the time I got there.

Thanks for your help though and I’ll keep an closer eye on Ebay but if you or anyone else have any ideas on where else I might pick one up I’d be grateful to hear about it.

Thanks again for taking the time
Riccardo

HI Bladerunner
Thanks for getting back to me on the forum. I missed the 1st bid but put in the number at the bottom of your post 180234854768 which is a 1.8” Hitachi 40g travelstar used. Will this fit into my PCG-TR1MP, do you know?. Sorry to hassle you but only a couple of hours left.
Many thanks
Riccardo

Or does anyone else know please?

No as said you need the toshibia connector / mounting hardware for that one see the imges in my posts in the ssd topic it explains all.

there are two types of hdd that fit TR series both will fit any TR but the hardawre to mount and connect is different. so if you have an Hitachi you can fit any other 1.8” hitachi with the same connector type, and vice versa. if you want to fit a toshibia but have a hitachi you need the toshibia conncetor and again vise versa. you do not want any ssd hdd with a zif type connection, again the ssd topic it explains all in detail…

Hi Bladerunner

Sorry to be a pain about this. I understood what you said about the different drives but was not sure is they were all interchangeable provided they had the same pin layout.

I think I have found one and have attached a picture. If I am making some sort of obvious mistake and you read this I would be very grateful if you could let me know.

I am buying this as seen and second hand though the guy says that he has tested the drive with an IDE to USB cable, and has formatted the drive but other than that no guarantees.

Again thanks very much for your time,
Riccardo

Yep that’s the one you want and it will be a direct swap / plug and play (in theory) as long as your TR currently has an Hitachi HDD. You’ll notice when you swap the drives over your one, if original will have a plastic membrane around it and a rubber foot, ideally swap this to the new drive, I think it’s just to stop the drive shorting anything out if it moved about, not strictly necessary but it’s prudent to keep, it’s only fixed with sticky tape..

Thanks Bladerunner

I thought it was the one and was I successful at auction lol I beat the last bidder by 70 pence with 4 seconds to go before auction ended. Now for the nerve racking experience of replacing it but the instructions are good.

Thanks for all your time you have been really helpful.
Riccardo

You may want to print out my text walkthrough below, (this is how i do it)

http://www.siliconpopculture.com/forum/viewreply/55677/

there is also a link to a walkthrough with pictures

Bladerunner

Thanks again this will be really useful and I’ll let you know how I get on or if I hit any major problems I may ask for some more advice if you don’t mind.

In the meantime you have a good weekend.
Riccardo

Hi Bladerunner

Well I got my drive and managed to install it without any problems, however, now when I turn it on I get a message saying press F1 as hard drive failure is imminent. So it looks like I’m going to have to look for another one which is a pain as I paid almost £60 for this one.

So I have a question for you or anyone else if you don’t mind folks. Is there any way to test a drive before I buy it apart from the obvious one of installing it and if there is will I know whether the drive is about to die or not?.

At the moment I’m not sure if I got conned or not as the guy that I bought it off seemed helpful and straight. He said that he had managed to format the drive but couldn’t guarantee anything else about it.

Any responses to this question will be gratefully received as I don’t want to repeat the process and just waste more money.

Also I still have to leave feedback for this guy on ebay and I want to be fair and it would be really helpful to know if he would have known the drive was dying or not.

Thanks in advance
Riccardo

have to be a quick one:-

SMART measures some 50 (give or take) parameters of HDD operation and
decides if they are inside or outside of a given threshold in an effort to
predict failure. Sort of like a cardiologist determining that a cardiac
event is imminent based on high blood pressure, coronary artery disease,
diabetes and morbid obesity, even though from your perspective your heart is
“apparently working normally.” (now you wouldn’t argue with your
cardiologist would you?

You can run the manufacturers diagnostic utility which may or may not detect
a failure depending on whether what SMART found is included in the
manufacturers test.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-Monitoring,_Analysis,_and_Reporting_Technology

http://www.ariolic.com/activesmart/index.html

http://www.techspot.com/vb/all/windows/t-42870-1170-Hard-Drive-Detects-Imminent-Failure-F1-to-boot-F10-to-Setup.html

You can turn off smart in most machines by going into BIOS and disable SMART disk reporting. Depending on your OS you can just re-sys the HDD from the boot floppy or you will have to reinstall the OS. When it registers a non-system disk it says that the boot track is not usable.

......and if it were me I’d be sending it back for refund as it’s not fit for purpose

Hi Bladerunner

Well I’m not sure that I want to turn SMART of unless there are any benefits in doing so but it does seem like a useful tool.

I would return this drive as I agree with you that it is not fit for the purpose that I bought it for. Unfortunately the guy was very clear that he offered no guarantee as to the quality of the drive apart from the fact that he could format it.

So I am stuck with the loss and all I can do it let other E-bayers what my experience was regarding my dealings with this guy.

also I still not 100% convinced that it was not an honest mistake though I am erring to the side that says that he had a fair idea of what he was selling.

Thanks for all your help.
Riccardo

Hi Bladrunner

Another question I’m afraid but a simple one I hope. Will the Hitachi 1.8” drive fit a Sony Vaio PCG-TR3 CN.

Hope that you’re enjoying the good weather, hmm that’s kinda assuming that it is good where you are.

Best wishes
Riccardo