Vaio
UX flash memory hardware modification
Project: Upgrade a Vaio UX50 with a 30Gb hard drive to 64Gb solid state
using USB flash and memory cards.
Components:
SanDisk 4Gb Extreme IV compact flash card
Generic 16Gb compact flash card
Lexar 4Gb USB flash memory
Adata 16Gb USB flash memory
SanDisk 8Gb micro sd card
two generic 8Gb micro sd cards
'spider' USB hub
USB micro sd reader
Photofast CR 5400 dual micro sd to pro duo adapter
ZIF PATA to compact flash adapter
The hard drive has been removed and replaced with a ZIF to compact
flash
adapter.
The compact flash card must be
set to fixed mode for the Vaio to boot.
A special SanDisk utility called ATCFWCHG.COM was used to enable
booting from the 4Gb
compact flash card.
The USB hub shown above before fitting inside the Vaio UX.
The input to the USB hub is connected to the ribbon cable normally going to the
side USB port and one of the hubs four outputs is connected back to
the side USB socket.
The USB hub is fitted into the space next to the compact flash slot.
The circuit board of the internal Lexar 4Gb USB flash memory can
just be seen
under the hub inside the
Vaio at
the lower left.
External USB boot and operating system install
works through the hub.
With the rear panel open the 16Gb removable USB
memory is accessable as
is the micro sd card reader.
The rear housing underneath the rear panel was
cut away to allow room
for the USB socket and micro sd reader.
A magnetic latch holds the rear panel closed.
The housing on the Adata 16Gb USB flash memory
was removed and the circuit board protected with clear heatshrink
tubing.
Two 8Gb micro sd cards in a twin adapter. The drive appears as a single
16Gb volume.
16 Gb compact flash card in the standard PIO
mode slot.
Project complete:
The internal 4Gb USB and the 16Gb compact flash and 16Gb removable USB
have been set up as fixed disks
using the Hitachi Microdrive driver.
With the remaining 8Gb micro sd card in the micro sd reader the total
flash space
is now
64Gb spread across all drives.
Disk speed tests: 50MB size, all results in MB/s
|
SanDisk 4Gb |
Adata 16Gb
|
Lexar 4Gb |
dual micro sd 16Gb |
micro sd 8Gb |
CF 16Gb (PIO mode)
|
Sequential Read :
|
29.103
|
25.344
|
14.568
|
7.891 |
13.693 |
0.825
|
| Sequential Write : |
12.618 |
8.588
|
2.567
|
8.737
|
5.888 |
0.812
|
Random Read 512KB :
|
29.004
|
25.194 |
14.552
|
7.835
|
13.667 |
0.568
|
Random Write 512KB :
|
6.916
|
1.279
|
1.458 |
3.425
|
1.577 |
0.473
|
| Random Read 4KB : |
8.165
|
4.301 |
4.390
|
3.859
|
3.994 |
0.773
|
| Random Write 4KB : |
0.100 |
0.015 |
0.037
|
0.042
|
0.022
|
0.009
|
Extra item
4 x micro sd USB card reader
Components:
4 micro sd card readers
USB Hub
black heatshrink tubing
Vaio UX repairs available at axiom