11-17-2005, 06:43 AM
Update because I hate threads that don't have closure.
It turns out I was worried about nothing. I was prepared for the worst though. I had everything backed up to CD-Rs (about 10 of them) just in case I couldn't get internet connectivity restored immediately. I had drivers for everything on disk just in case.
The drive went in fine. Although my case is large and pretty easy to work in, the cables were bundled fairly close to the harddrive slots which made replacing the drive a tricky procedure. I had to move them out of the way until I had the new drive in place and then move them back.
The Windows install was boring, which was good. The slipstreamed XP disk with SP2 worked fine. I plugged my network cable in long enough to authorise the CD-key (and prayed that Windows was able to supply some sort of driver to my network card, which it thankfully did), then pulled it out until I installed Kerio. I suppose I was being a bit too paranoid, but better safe than sorry I guess.
The first thing I did was hit Windows Update. 31 critical updates. I am glad I am not on dialup. After rebooting I hit Windows Update for hardware updates. It supplied me with the correct updated sound, video, and network card updates.
The total time invested up to this point was about two and a half hours, most of which was watching hockey and waiting (the Leafs beat the Rangers 2-1 :) ).
After I was sure that Windows was updated properly and that all my parts worked, I went ahead and started installing things like Firefox, Thunderbird, WinZip, Adobe Reader, etc. Then I got tired and went to bed.
The end result is that everything went about as well as it possibly could. Everything worked the first time. I still have a few things to do, like install the software for my digital camera, but I don't foresee any problems.
The only thing I forgot was to back up my email address book, but I can always plug the old drive back in and export them. I might not bother though because 90% of the addresses there are out of date and unusable.
My new drive (Western Digital 80GB 7200RPM 8MB cache) makes a sound. I'll have to get used to this. My old Maxtor 30GB 5400RPM was absolutely silent, and the WD has a very faint noise that is almost mosquito-like.
It turns out I was worried about nothing. I was prepared for the worst though. I had everything backed up to CD-Rs (about 10 of them) just in case I couldn't get internet connectivity restored immediately. I had drivers for everything on disk just in case.
The drive went in fine. Although my case is large and pretty easy to work in, the cables were bundled fairly close to the harddrive slots which made replacing the drive a tricky procedure. I had to move them out of the way until I had the new drive in place and then move them back.
The Windows install was boring, which was good. The slipstreamed XP disk with SP2 worked fine. I plugged my network cable in long enough to authorise the CD-key (and prayed that Windows was able to supply some sort of driver to my network card, which it thankfully did), then pulled it out until I installed Kerio. I suppose I was being a bit too paranoid, but better safe than sorry I guess.
The first thing I did was hit Windows Update. 31 critical updates. I am glad I am not on dialup. After rebooting I hit Windows Update for hardware updates. It supplied me with the correct updated sound, video, and network card updates.
The total time invested up to this point was about two and a half hours, most of which was watching hockey and waiting (the Leafs beat the Rangers 2-1 :) ).
After I was sure that Windows was updated properly and that all my parts worked, I went ahead and started installing things like Firefox, Thunderbird, WinZip, Adobe Reader, etc. Then I got tired and went to bed.
The end result is that everything went about as well as it possibly could. Everything worked the first time. I still have a few things to do, like install the software for my digital camera, but I don't foresee any problems.
The only thing I forgot was to back up my email address book, but I can always plug the old drive back in and export them. I might not bother though because 90% of the addresses there are out of date and unusable.
My new drive (Western Digital 80GB 7200RPM 8MB cache) makes a sound. I'll have to get used to this. My old Maxtor 30GB 5400RPM was absolutely silent, and the WD has a very faint noise that is almost mosquito-like.