Sony S series laptop disassembly for upgrade / repair / hard drive removal

How to disassemble / replace the hard drive

Note: You do NOT need to do anything with the screen/LCD during this process, leave it alone. Relax. If you need instructions for any other Sony vaio laptop, look Here.

Disclaimer: This is for informational purposes only. I take no responsibility for any damages or loss of warranty incurred during this process.


1) Remove the screws from the bottom highlighted in figure 1. We will remove the others later, put these screws somewhere safe where the cat won't bat them around.

fig. 1

2) Flip the laptop over and open the screen. You will notice two tabs at the top of the keyboard holding it in. Depress the tabs with a flat object (a credit card or flat head screwdriver will work). (fig. 2.0) Once the tab is depressed, lift the keyboard above it, one side will rest on the tab as you do the other side. Once both sides are free, the keyboard will pivot toward you, lay the keyboard flat on the palm rests upside down, exposing the ribbon cable (fig 2.1)

3) To remove the keyboard, disconnect the ribbon cable by lifting the right side of the brown clip, and the cable will come out. (fig 3)

4) Now remove all the screws on both sides with the split arrow symbol pointing at them. There are 17 including the two holding the memory cover on, and one is under the ram cover. Put these all in the place where the cat won't bat them around.

5) Remove the battery. You should be able to figure this one out on your own =)

6) Turn the laptop right side up and open it. You will notice two speaker connectors, remove them like shown, do not pull on the wires. (fig 6).

7) Remove the two ribbon cables, these are not held in by clamps so you can just pull them right out like shown: (fig. 7.0 and 7.1)

8) Make sure the screen is reclined all the way, and you can start popping the top (silver) panel off, I started at the upper right corner, but I don't suppose it matters where you start, just be sure that all the screws signified with the split arrow are removed before this step or you may damage the laptop. Now when popping off the lower right corner, you may encounter a situation where it seems to be stuck near the power LED. Don't panic. The trick here is to pop this off after popping the rest of the cover off, by pushing the whole cover downward like shown in figure 8.1

9) Now as you can see, 2 of the 4 screws that hold the Holy Grail er... i mean hard drive... are already removed. So remove the two here, and unplug the ribbon cable from the motherboard side (its easier that way believe me). Now you can swap the hdd, be sure to swap the non-conductive sticky mat from the old hard drive to the new one to avoid shorting the hdd to the motherboard. Now is also a good opportunity to take a can of air and blow out all that dust.

To Remove the CD/DVD Drive:

10) Remove the one screw that is holding on the PCMCIA carriage (2), along with the ribbon cable (1) which is connected next to the HDD ribbon cable. Now you can remove the PCMCIA carriage.

11) Now remove the ribbon cable for the CD-Rom drive (1) by lifting the brown clip like you did with the keyboard cable. Remove the four screws holding in the CD drive. (2,3,4,5) Now you can remove the CD/DVD drive.

12) Reassembly is pretty strait forward, just follow my steps backwards if you have to. Nothing tricky here. Now if you feel so inclined, bill your client an extra $5 and donate it to me! Paypal ID: jerrodj [at] gmail [dot] com.

Sony Vaio VGN S150P/B, S170P/B, S480P/B, S430P/S, S460P/S, S470P/S, S380P/B, S260P/B, S270P/S, FS500P/S, S360P/S, S560P/B