Anyone know if the HD is easy to replace a sony vaio PCG-R600HFP 2

[breakit]

Re: Vaio laptop harddrives...
Hi guys

Does anyone know if the HD is easy to replace a sony vaio PCG-R600HFP its clicking, If so whats the max I can go to . Also Is there a way to get the operating system installed without using an iLink cd rom, as that seems to be the only way as far as I see and I only have a external USB cdrom, I do have an IDE connverter cable cable that would alow me to rig the new HD up to my desktop pc, dunno if I could load the OS like this but thought I would ask anyway.

Cheers
Breakit

 

[micker377]

http://ciscdb.sel.sony.com/perl/select-p-n.pl?template=EN

Sony support - couldn't find your model listed. Perhaps you could contact (email) someone at this site.
----------------------------------------------------------

http://www.impactcomputers.com/pcg-r600hfp-parts.html

A parts site, showing hard drives listed for your computer

----------------------------------------------------------

If you install (adapter) on a desktop, you will install all the hardware of the desktop. Maybe with a "bare bones" computer, you could bypass this problem. However, many laptops have drivers specific to the unit. You will need these to get it to work even after you get an operating system on the hard drive.

 

[breakit]

Thanks for the info micker377 When you say bare bones do u mean a pc without all the cards exept the graphics card ? silly isnt it that it it wont boot off the usb cdrom, I have all the nessacery drivers for the lappy, so if i load the OS on my pc it will obviosly pick up all the drivers it needs to work with the pc mobo then if I transfer it to the lappy it will boot up wanting the drivers for the new mobo its just detected. Am I correct in saying this. the parts company link you posted seems on the pricey side to me. I called a local Pc parts place and got a quote for a Fujitsu 30 GB notebook harddrive for £56.00+vat.
but Im unsure if Its ok to just put any brand of hd in the machine.

Thanks Breakit

 

[micker377]

That drive source was just the first one I came across that listed all the different sizes. Laptop harddrives are basically all the same. The only thing you have to watch out for is the thickness of the drive, there are 3 different sizes. Yeah, "barebones" is just enough to get it to run (put in as few drivers as possible). You are using Win 98, I hope - Win XP doesn't allow swapping harddrives around.

 

[breakit]

All good news to my ears thanks micker377. The only bad bit unfortunatly is the OS is XPpro and you say that Win XP doesn't allow swapping harddrives around, oh poo looks like i have to use an Ilink cd rom thats gonna cost £100quid. Im getting sick of sony they suck u in to buy extras, I already have a USB cdrom why the hell sony could not configure it to work the same for booting from the cd is beyond me. anyway cheeres matey now Im a little more educated to the wise now.

Breakit

 

[lesgray]

If you have a floppy drive, you should be able to boot from floppy into windows xp (

http://www.bootdisk.com/bootdisk.htm)

and press F6 to load additional drivers. You should have drivers for the USB CD-Rom drive that came with it and that should allow you to access the winXP CD...

Les Gray

http://www.creartec.com

 

[breakit]

Hi Les
Thanks for the advice but I dont have a floppy drive on the lappy, as its just a notebook. No onboard CDrom or floppy. the bios does give me an option to boot from cd rom but it wont use the usb cd rom. It seems that the boot from CDROM option in the Bios just refers to an iLink cd rom only, unless sombody corrects me here. it does say that I can boot from HARDDRIVE/CDROM/REMOVABLE DEVICES or NETWORK BOOT. i would have considerd the usb cdrom to be a REMOVABLE DEVICE,

Breakit

 

[lesgray]

and I don't suppose there is a bios option to boot from USB or other?

Les Gray

http://www.creartec.com

 

[breakit]

Nope thats it.. I can boot from HARDDRIVE/CDROM/REMOVABLE DEVICES or NETWORK BOOT. daft init

Breakit

 

[lesgray]

Well, I guess you could always setup Win98 on that hard drive on a desktop machine using a $10 laptop HD to IDE adaptor, pop the HD into the laptop and load the USB drivers for the CD and put in the XP disk and upgrade your system...

Truly a last resort before shelling out for the iLink CD-Rom. BTW iLink is firewire, right? Maybe any Firewire CD drive will work - maybe a friend of yours has one you can try...

Les Gray

http://www.creartec.com

 

[breakit]

Thanks again Les. Yeah that looks like the way to go. I have a laptop HD to IDE adaptor. Unfortunatly no one I know has a firewire cdrom, as rare as a rocking horse turd round these parts. not doing it til mid next week will post back with the results. cheers guys .

Breakit