I hope someone knows about this... :hSo, I bought a Sony ultrabook bout 17 months ago.Great specs, I7 processor, 8G ram, 256G SSdrive.Had it up to Windows 8.1 and I love the computer and W8.OK, here's the issue. About 2 weeks ago after closing normally night before I got a message like "Can't see operating system" next morning.I was at my sons at time and he's about 3 times more computer literate than me. With the phone help of a friend of his who does computer repairs they figured was drive gone bad.Very frustrating but a new drive only bout $150 on Amazon (SSD really dropped in price lately) and I had discs to reload O/S.When I got home had sons buddy check it in case was some driver or something.He opened up and found these do not use a SSD like you buy to update a mechanical harddrive but some propietary setup that I think was part of the mother board.So now its at Sony with me requesting they consider some kind of help on repair cost. Yup, warranty up bout 4 months ago.So now my question...Does anyone know if ANY of the top brand names use a replaceable SSD?Or are they all kinda built-in which really limits self repair options.Depending on what Sony get back to me with, I may have to give up on this puter if they want crazy money to repair it.Its a shame to spend over $1200 andf be worrying about failure but hey, it happens.Good thing my 6 yr old W7 Gateway that was bout $400 came back to life..:B

I bought an Asus, mainly because they manufacturer components for many many other brands. Other than me during the first 6 months it has not given me one seconds worth of grief.

If you do not want the hard drive right on the motherboard, avoid an Ultrabook... the super skinny Macbook Air looking ones or the tablet/hybrid types. They are mostly on the motherboard. It is more likely you will find one with a removable Hard drive (SSD or Mechanical) if it is a traditional laptop looking style.

v10superduty wrote:He opened up and found these do not use a SSD like you buy to update a mechanical harddrive but some propietary setup that I think was part of the mother board.So now its at Sony with me requesting they consider some kind of help on repair cost. Yup, warranty up bout 4 months ago.I strongly doubt it is a proprietary setup ... not at 250+ GB capacity.What you bought off amazon is likely an 2.5 inch SATA type solid state drive, but what your ultrabook is using is "m.2" or micro pcie solid state drive... they look more like a memory chip than a hard drive.What steps have you taken to confirm the drive is actually bad?

I do believe he means the SSD in the Sony is proprietary and on the mother board and not user replaceable

MrWizard wrote:I do believe he means the SSD in the Sony is proprietary and on the mother board and not user replaceableYup...thats what he meant.;)I never bought a new SSD nat Amazon, just went there to figure outy my worst case senario financially.NOW, I had to send it to Sony for repair at what cost don't know yet.From what one poster said (makes sense) that all/most/???? of the ultra thin laptops will likely have this type storage.I will update once I know cost so others may consider their choices when buying new laptops. :S

Solid State Drives-(Updated. 11/20) | Good Sam Community

donn0128
Explorer II
Nov 04, 2014
I bought an Asus, mainly because they manufacturer components for many many other brands. Other than me during the first 6 months it has not given me one seconds worth of grief.
rwbradley
Explorer
Nov 04, 2014
If you do not want the hard drive right on the motherboard, avoid an Ultrabook... the super skinny Macbook Air looking ones or the tablet/hybrid types. They are mostly on the motherboard. It is more likely you will find one with a removable Hard drive (SSD or Mechanical) if it is a traditional laptop looking style.
GordonThree
Explorer
Nov 04, 2014
v10superduty wrote:
He opened up and found these do not use a SSD like you buy to update a mechanical harddrive but some propietary setup that I think was part of the mother board.
So now its at Sony with me requesting they consider some kind of help on repair cost. Yup, warranty up bout 4 months ago.

I strongly doubt it is a proprietary setup ... not at 250+ GB capacity.

What you bought off amazon is likely an 2.5 inch SATA type solid state drive, but what your ultrabook is using is "m.2" or micro pcie solid state drive... they look more like a memory chip than a hard drive.

What steps have you taken to confirm the drive is actually bad?
MrWizard
Moderator
Nov 04, 2014
I do believe he means the SSD in the Sony is proprietary and on the mother board and not user replaceable
v10superduty
Explorer
Nov 04, 2014
MrWizard wrote:
I do believe he means the SSD in the Sony is proprietary and on the mother board and not user replaceable

Yup...
thats what he meant.;)
I never bought a new SSD nat Amazon, just went there to figure outy my worst case senario financially.
NOW, I had to send it to Sony for repair at what cost don't know yet.

From what one poster said (makes sense) that all/most/???? of the ultra thin laptops will likely have this type storage.
I will update once I know cost so others may consider their choices when buying new laptops. :S
GordonThree
Explorer
Nov 04, 2014
All the pictures I find for the Viao ultrabooks show M.2 SSD's. Chromebooks and the like (not true laptops) often use soldered on flash storage, but those are 16-64GB, not 250+ GB

If the OP is still in possession of the laptop, pictures of the guts from under the back cover and under the keyboard would provide a wealth of information.
v10superduty
Explorer
Nov 04, 2014
GordonThree wrote:
All the pictures I find for the Viao ultrabooks show M.2 SSD's. Chromebooks and the like (not true laptops) often use soldered on flash storage, but those are 16-64GB, not 250+ GB

If the OP is still in possession of the laptop, pictures of the guts from under the back cover and under the keyboard would provide a wealth of information.

Don't have it, gone back to Sony for repair. I did not open it up because local repair dude had called Sony and they said may be warranty which they then backtracked on. I will advise if they do offer assistance on the repair cost.
Here is link to the unit I bought...Sony Vaio SVT13
camping_man
Explorer
Nov 04, 2014
Can't find OS seems to be everyone's complaint about that notebook, too bad your out of warranty. Hope you come out OK.
RinconVTR
Explorer
Nov 04, 2014
I have yet to find an OEM not using another OEM's SSD...OR...becoming more and more popular are mSATA SSD's and M.2 cards. All of which are easily replaceable, so long as you know how to access it.

I am currently working on my company laptop which is running off a Samsung 250gb mSATA SSD right now, and the "older" and original Liteon 128gb SSD is now a secondary storage drive.
1492
Moderator
Nov 05, 2014
I don't think the SSD drive is soldered into your motherboard. But you need to be careful with thin form factor Ultrabooks which tend to use smaller SSD. In fact, its always best to remove the defective SSD drive first, and use that as a reference for a replacement.

For instance, Crucial indicates that this is a replacement 2.5" SSD drive that fits your notebook?

In contrast, my DELL Ultrabook uses an SSD drive similar to the above.

Both of these drives are not proprietary per se. Just compact form factor SSD drives.