Member Avatar for gvlral

Looking to find ANY information on upgrading an old Sony VGN-FS980 laptop HD to an SSD. All help will be appreciated. I am trying to speed the system up. I currently have maxed out the RAM and shut down most of the garbage software and Apps. I am currently using it to review the Windows 8 Prelease.

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by CheapestGeek

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Short summary tied to the thread: was right to flag the interface as the key issue; swapping to an SSD can help, but the correct upgrade path depends on whether the VGN-FS980 exposes SATA or an older IDE/PATA bus. Below are practical, non-destructive checks and realistic options so the upgrade isn’t a guess.

Check the interface without opening the case: use Device Manager (devmgmt.msc) or System Information (msinfo32) to inspect storage controllers/drives for “SATA/AHCI” vs legacy ATA names, or note the existing drive model and look up its datasheet. If the system reports AHCI/SATA, a standard 2.5" SATA SSD is the right choice (watch physical height — 7mm vs 9.5mm). If it reports legacy ATA/PATA, then either source a purpose-built 2.5" IDE/PATA SSD or use a 44-pin IDE-to-SATA adapter with caution — some adapters work for boot, others do not because of BIOS handshaking.

Important cautions and steps before swapping: update the laptop BIOS first; create a full backup; clone using a modern tool that preserves/creates 1MiB (4K) alignment (Macrium Reflect, Acronis, etc.) or do a fresh OS install; verify TRIM support after the swap (TRIM requires OS and controller support — PATA/legacy IDE mode often disables TRIM, though modern SSDs have internal garbage collection). Expect big latency and responsiveness gains even if the interface caps sequential throughput; random I/O and boot times improve noticeably.

Further reading on the interfaces and TRIM: Parallel ATA, Serial ATA, TRIM (computing).

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Member Avatar for JorgeM

Two suggestions...

1) if you are just interested in previewing Windows 8, I would just load it as a guest VM. You would need to install a VM application such as WMWare, or VirtualBox which is free. I have a few tutorials that go through the steps on how to install Virtual Box, configuring Virtual Box for Win 8, and installing Windows 8 CP as a guest.

The reason for this is that once you are done with your review, you just delete the guest VM. No additional reformatting or changes to your host system are required.

2) if you want to upgrade your hard drive, then you just need to make sure that your laptop has the appropriate interface to allow for an SSD drive. Remove the old, install the new, then reinstall the host OS. I would recommend you install Windows 7, then install VirtualBox, then run Win 8 as a guest VM.

Member Avatar for gvlral

Thanks for the info.
I don't need VM as I am only running Window 8 Pre Release on this machine. Nothing else as I just replaced Windows 8 Consumer Preview. Thanks again.

Member Avatar for CheapestGeek

I noticed that based on your system's specs, your hard drive is a PATA form factor, not the SATA interface that most SSDs use. You can double check by pulling the drive out, if it has "pins" it is PATA (parallel ATA). Unfortunately the spec sheet only said Ultra ATA, and the first flavor of SATA was also known as Ultra ATA/133, but it's reasonable to think Sony would have crowed about it's SATA capabilities and not labeled it so ambiguously. So a visual inspection might save you a trip(s) to the store to buy and return the drive.

Sony VGN-FS980

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