When I got home from work on Friday, I basically did all I needed to get done before taking a long break. After all, once I shut it down, I wouldn’t be able to use it properly for at least 12 hours. And honestly, installing a computer from scratch takes time, especially when you’re supposed to transfer old data and settings to the fresh install.
Let me just guide you through my experience, shall we?
Components to install:
- 500 GB Western Digital Scorpio Blue harddrive (SATA interface), replacing a 250 GB harddrive
- 2 GB Apacer DDR2 RAM (SO-DIMM interface), replacing a 1 GB RAM module (upgrading from 3 GB to 4 GB)
Installation media (all from the Microsoft Partner Network):
- Microsoft Windows 7 Professional, 32-bit, DVD
- Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2010, DVD
- Microsoft Visio Professional 2010, DVD
- Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 Enterprise, DVD (only used to install the client software)
- Microsoft Project Professional 2010
In addition, I had downloaded an installation file for Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 Professional. The day before, I had received full license keys from my boss, who had to fetch them from the Microsoft Partner Network website (using his login). You know, so it’s all official, and not pirated.
Tools used:
- Philips head screwdriver, long (for the smallest screws)
- Philips head screwdriver, wider (for the slightly larger screws)
- Flat head screwdriver (to pry open the lid after unscrewing)
- Kama Connect IDE/SATA-to-USB adapter (to transfer data out from the old harddrive)
- Small soft towel (to minimize pressure on the laptop screen while pushing down to screw/unscrew)
And, of course, plenty of lights and patience. Speaking of which, additional supplies:
- Lethal Weapon 1-4 on DVD (to pass time while everything is being installed)
From the time I started clearing my workspace (read: desk) so I could replace the hardware properly, and until Windows 7 and Office 2010 was installed, including all updates from Windows Update, about 6 hours had passed. And since I started about half an hour past midnight, I was going strong-ish until about 7am Saturday morning. On any given Saturday morning, I’m usually asleep at this time, but I stayed up all night on this one. Most of Saturday was spent transferring documents, pictures, music and web files (local copies of websites I’m working on), but these could be left pretty much unattended, so I was able to have a little social time with my family.
I did snap a few photos during the Friday night upgrade (hardware and base software install) using my phone camera, and they’re all up on my Flickr account, in their own photo set.
