|
|
Hard Drive Replacement Time
In last week's issue, I answewred subscriber Peter Lieurance's questions about reinstalling Windows XP.
This week, I finally did the hard drive replacement that I wrote about recently. Ultimately, I returned unopened Seagate 200GB drive that I had purchased and got a Seagate 250GB drive for the same price from the same vendor. Now, that's a deal...
I decided that, even though I could use the Seagate software to copy my Windows installation to my new hard drive, I would rather do a clean install to get rid of any leftover junk.
So, I looked up last week's newsletter to refresh the process in my mind.
FIRST, I backed up my data. As usual, I used Replicator (free for personal use, but you have to buy a license to use it for any type of business use) to back up my data files across my home network to another computer. I do this with important data files each night automatically, but this time I wanted to make sure I was selecting everything. [See my article Backing Up My Data]
Repeating the steps from last week:
- Disconnect from the Internet and your home network
- Install Windows XP
- install Kerio
- install AVG Professional
- connect to Internet and do MICROSOFT Update (WinXP will default to Windows Updates, so be sure to manually pick Windows Updates from the Start/All Programs -- and then, once it opens, pick Microsoft Update on the right-hand side of the web page
- AVG will probably update at the same time
- reboot (probably mandatory)
- install Spysweeper and let it update
- proceed to install MS Office or anything else you want.
- if you install MS Office, reboot, then do Microsoft Updates again to get all of those for Office
- the install any other software
The reinstallation went very smoothly. Microsoft Updates were more "fun" (I immediately selected Microsoft Updates instead of Windows Updates).
My first update included only 3 items: one critical Windows XP update, the infamous Windows Genuine Advantage" and one other. Then, the forced reboot.
The next update found 49 more critical updates that I needed to run.
Then, I reinstalled some other software, including XP Repair Pro which uses Microsoft .NET 2.0. Of course, that took yet another cycle through Microsoft Updates because there were critical security updates issued for .NET 2.0. Whee!
Finally I got to the stage where I could copy all my data files back from my other computers. I still have a few files in a partition on the hard drive that I removed.
In order to load those files, I'll connect that drive into an external drive case that I bought a couple years ago. I'll be able to plug it into a USB 2.0 port and copy the remaining files easily.
By the way, one reason I use Replicator instead of Windows drag-and-drop to copy my files is that it handles errors well. If Replicator has a problem, it logs the error and keeps going (e.g., unable to copy a file because it's in use). On the other hand, Windows Explorer's drag-and-drop function just dies...
Link to this page — just add this code to your web page!
<a href="http://www.terryscomputertips.com/computers/hard-drive-replacement-time.php">Hard Drive Replacement Time</a>
Copyright © 2006 Terry A. Stockdale. All rights reserved.
|
|
