http://www.insidemylaptop.com/how-take-apart-sony-vaio-vgn-sz-series-laptop/

Step 17. What type of connection is this please.

Need to buy a new one. And as ever there seem to 100000 options

Cheers

You need a  new hard drive or a new ribbon cable? The drive is a 2.5" SATA.

Edit: The drive sits in a caddy which allows it to screw into the chassis, so you'll need to unscrew the old drive from the caddy and put the new one in. It's difficult to see whether the ribbon connector goes straight into the drive, or whether it goes via an adaptor built in to the caddy. Either way, the part number for the ribbon connector is A1178618A (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sony-Drive-Caddy-Cable-A1178618A/dp/B001DF83IM). It's almost certainly a proprietary Sony part.

Thanks Rowan.

It's a new drive I am hoping to fit to make the old laptop a bit swifter. Was going to an SSD as that speeds things up no end especially on boot where the main frustration it.

It's just I need to make sure the ribbon cable fits. I was hoping it was some standard drive type and I did not have to buy Sony.

Wondering if it isn SATA II or III

eg http://www.ebuyer.com/246998-kingston-96gb-v-100-2-5-sata-ii-ssd-read-230mb-s-write-180mb-s-svp100s2-96g

That laptop is SATA I, but all the SATA versions are backwards compatible, so you'll be safe with any 2.5" SATA I, II or III drive. The difference is theoretical speed of the interface. If you get a mechanical drive, you won't be able to saturate the SATA I interface, let alone anything newer. Even with a current SSD, you'll be lucky to saturate a SATA II link.

Thanks Rowan

Are you saying that and SSD on that connection wont really be noticably different? IE mechanical drive is all that is worth putting in?

No. I'm saying it'll be incredibly fast, but not quite as it could theoretically be on SATA II. In daily usage I doubt you'd notice the difference.

Thanks

I am super impatient, I am happy if it turns on quick. Like iphone / ipad .