How to upgrade hard drive in Sony Vaio PCG-V505DXP

Here’s how I upgraded the hard drive in a Sony Vaio PCG-V505DXP laptop. This laptop had an older 60GB 4200RPM IDE hard drive (Toshiba MK6021GAS). The original hard drive failed and I decided to upgrade it with a faster one.

I upgraded the laptop with an inexpensive 120GB 5400RMP WD Scorpio IDE drive (WD12000BEVE) and it works like a charm.

The drive replacement procedure is pretty simple and here it is.

First of all, unplug the battery. The hard drive compartment is located on the bottom of the laptop under the cover. Remove five screws and remove the cover.

Now remove two screws securing hard drive brackets to the base.

Carefully lift up the hard drive and unplug it from the connector on the motherboard.

Now you can unplug the hard drive cable.

You’ll have to transfer mounting brackets to the new drive. There is one bracket on each side of the hard drive.
Remove bracket from the right side.

Remove bracket from the left side.

This is my new WD Scorpio hard drive. You’ll have to use an IDE drive, not SATA.

Connect both brackets to the new drive, connect the cable, install the drive into the laptop and install the cover.
As you understand, the new drive comes without software. In order to install the operating system and applications you’ll have to run recovery discs.

Hopefully, you’ve created a set of recovery CDs or DVDs while your old hard drive was in a good working condition. If not, you’ll have to contact Sony and purchase recovery discs from them.

Boot your laptop from the first recovery disc and follow the wizard on the screen. This process will reimage your new hard drive to factory defaults.