PCG-Z1WA Hard Drive Replacement

Sony Vaio PCG-Z1WA Hard Drive Swap Instructions

When I needed to find the instructions, I found your post. I couldn't find the directions so I just figured it out. Hope this helps. 1- Turn device over. Remove battery. Remove all 15 screws indicated by small arrows. 2- Turn device upright, open cover to 180 degrees. Using small slotted (flat head) driver, gently remove the plastic hinge covers. Applying gentle pressure from the outside. It is not necessary to remove the screws from the LCD. Remove screw from right hinge area. 3- Remove keyboard by using small slotted driver to gently pry it up using light pressure between the F8 key and the speaker housing. Board will rasie up from rear, then break free once clear. Be very careful to lift the keyboard up and then laterally towards the LCD, as the ribbon is very short. Use small slotted driver to pop-up the brown plastic release for the ribbon. Completely remove keyboard. 4- Locate the remaining screws, and remove them. 5- Carefully remove additional ribbon cables (x2) 6- Separate the entire top half of the silver frame, including cover piece. Cast aside. 7- HD is in the lower left quadrant. Remove the 3 screws (4th is one of the rear screws, make a note of it!) that secure the frame rails. This will free the drive. Gently remove cable. 8- Remove frame rails from drive. Attach rails to new drive, re-insert and secure frame rails. Perform Steps in reverse to reassemble. I hope this helps, as it took me forever to figure out, but my HD crapped out (Toshiba MK6021GAS HDD2183) like yours did, so we must be comrades-in-arms! Out...

The following link may help.

Notebookreview.com's Guide

I too need help with this issue. The instructions does not seem exact. I am struggling with finding all 15 screws.

Flip the unit over.

You will see 3 pieces of gray tape along the edges.
Use some sort of tool to lift them. Mark those as silver screws with blue thread.

Remove the four screws along the outsides of the the black area. These are the short ones, make sure you do NOT put them anywhere else.

Remove the two screws that are medium length in the black area. These connect to the keyboard bottom.

Then remove the remaining silver screws with red coloring on the threading.

I think thats all the ones on the bottom.

Then to lift the whole large palm rest up...
Use a flat head and lift the hinge covers on the LCD off.

Lift the palm rest on the right hand side by the LCD and as it lifts, move it to the left to push the whole large palm rest off.

There will be various connectors you need to unplug to lift it. On the top is the one for the power board and along the bottom is one for the touch pad.
There is another on the top, I can't remember what it goes to.

Once the palm rest is off, you'll see the hard drive.

Thank you for your help, it work as described for me.