Finally, before replacing the hard drive, be sure to create the Sony recovery CDs or DVD before you remove the factory drive. With all the new Vaios, Sony includes software to make your own recovery cd's (it does it using the data on the hidden recovery partition that is on the Sony installed hard drives). Then, after you put the new hard drive in, you boot to your recovery cd and re-install everything you need.

Begin the disassembly:

On the underside of the laptop, any screw with a little arrow by it needs to be removed...which is ALL of the screws on the bottom of the laptop. Also you need to remove the memory module bay because there is another screw INSIDE there that needs to be removed, so that you can remove the keyboard.