Windows 7 - AGG! Sony Viao Notebook

hi all,

Recently a freind of mine wanted me to look at her Sony Viao PCG-R505GL notebook, she said it "was running funny". Anyway I turned on the notebook and it booted into Windows XP just fine. I did notice that the hard drive was very NOISY! Hmmm probably hard drive issues. made a note of it and decided to check her system config and OMG she still had XP SP1 on it.... first thought.. fake install? I ran a validation and it came back genuiune. Anyhoo... she didnt have any AV installed much less any WU lol
Luckily Windows Update installed SP2 and SP3 and all other updates (4 hrs later lol)

I installed Avast AV...ran a thorough scan ... system surprising clean!!
Thru all this that poor 30GB HD was screaming for mercy lol! since the notebook is totally updated I decided to check the Event Viewer. Holy cow.... disk errors (bad block) errors everywhere.! I then went to esupport for Sony and thier support totally lacks any!! I couldnt find any BIOS info for her system on HDD limitiations.

I guess my question is and hope you guys can help is:

What is the largest IDE notebook HD does this Sony notebook support?
Here are the specs:

Sony Viao Notebook PCG-R505GL
Intel Pentium III
256 RAm
30 GB IDE (needs replacing!)
Intel Graphics Chipset

I told her her hard drive was living on "borrowed" time.

Thx in advance!!!

Not sure about *that* machine, but I had a Compaq Armada 1500C with a Celeron 366 Processor (Pentium III) and 32 MB onboard (expandable to 160 Max) and I pumped a 60 GB 7200 rpm drive into it without any problems - I ran a Jackass! Gentoo mirror for about a year on it.

I had an extra 120GB notebook drive . I installed it (hard drive replacement in a Sony is a total take apart lol) Anyway.. the BIOS didnt even see it. So I figured a 40 GB min and 60GB max would work. She is kinda tight with money lol. I did find a Fijitsu 40 GB on newegg for 60 bucks... told her.. she looked like she was gonna faint lol!!

Strange how a 160GB can cost almost the same as that 40!!!

thx for your ideas!!

You sound rather knowledgeable, so I will assume you double and triple checked BIOS settings....

yep... double checked everything. I even reinstalled hard drive just to make sure all connections were good. Installed the same hard drive in a Dell laptop that is about the same age and the hard drive was recognized in that BIOS just to make sure the hard drive was in good shape. the Sony laptop doesnt show any other errors so I am fairly positive its her hard drive thats failing

I checked sony website for any BIOS updates for that system and unfortunately there wasnt any. her laptop has latest BIOS

since I cant seem to find any info about HDD limitations for that Sony Notebook, I think a 60 GB would work and she definitely would get more bang for her buck!

Yet another reason to not buy SONY computer products.

Amen to that !!!

Stop it now, I just ordered a Sony laptop yesterday

Return it.