Technology

Over the holidays I decided to take the opportunity to rebuild my computer. I replaced the boot drives with SSD's and installed some bigger drives since the old ones were a few years old. I'm always scared to do this because there are inevitably problems you don't anticipate. This rebuild did not disappoint on the negative side, but it also surprised me on the positive side.

Surprise #1 – SATA drive happiness

The new SATA drives I got were smaller physically than the old ones but had more capacity. Also, the SSD's were the tiny 2.5" ones. The surprise is better air flow around the drives and everything running cooler. Cable management also improved a bit because I had a chance to put the drives in the holders in order with the ports. The one true happy surprise was how easy it was to go back to my old OS by just swapping out the cables and power connectors. These new SATA connectors are great but you have to make sure they lock in properly. More than once I had cables coming loose causing a boot to fail.

Surprise # 2 – The Internet Rocks

Normally when I rebuild a computer I spent a huge amount of time installing software, configuring it, getting settings right, and all that mess. This time I just brought up Chrome, installed a few choice extensions such as Xmarks, session manager, and a couple developer tools. Then I was up and running with most of the tools I use all the time. Using these Internet sites instead of installing software and dealing with all the management of it saved a bunch of time. Any more our computers are becoming access points to services on the Internet. That is good in many ways and bad in some, but it sure helped eliminate a huge time waster for me this time around.

Surprise #3 – I was able to access everything

I use a password database called KeePass which is a Password Safe program. I find it impossible to live without. I keep a lot more than just passwords in it. I keep server addresses, configuration settings, logins and passwords of course, and any other kind of information I need to remember but will obviously forget. I keep the database file for it in Dropbox so that it is available to me on any computer I use and my Android. A couple of times I had to go to my phone to look up some information I needed to provide for a login, configuration key, subscription id, etc. I also learned of a couple things I forgot to put in. But overall I had 95% of the information I needed and so the rebuild process went much smoother than normal.

Surprise #4 – Always ask for hardware help

During the process of installing Windows 7, I had a problem that was causing the install to be very slow. Incredibly slow. Slower than watching grass grow in Siberia. After finally reaching a high level of exasperation, I called up my brother-in-law. He thought it was bad memory and had me try a few things including running memtest86+ which didn't find an error, but stalled while testing the 4th ram stick. Pulling it resolved the problem which wasn't apparent before because Windows XP never made use of that stick. I had 8 GB installed and just kept putting off the rebuild. It is my main computer after all and my livelihood so having it down for 2-3 days is a real problem. Getting his help put everything on the fast track so the idea here is to enlist the help of someone else who has a broader view of the situation and can probably see something you won't. I would rather have my machine running properly than to feel stupid for asking someone a dumb question.

Surprise #5 – Seeing the world through cleaned windows

I have enjoyed Windows XP for a VERY LONG TIME. It has been a very stable platform on which to do software development. It has its quirks of course, but over the years I have grown quite adept at dealing with it and being productive with the OS. Now that I have Windows 7 installed its as if I have emerged from a tunnel. Many of the problems my machine had are now working properly. The machine goes to sleep and wakes up properly. It boots extremely fast and doesn't spend 5 minutes after boot loading drivers, startup programs, and all kinds of other junk. And having a clean machine free of 100's of test installed, trial programs, and clean drives as well feels very liberating. I have drive space again, a small list of programs installed, and browsers that don't stall or need restarting all the time. It is amazing how much cruft can accumulate over the years and its affect on the OS.

So if you are postponing a rebuild my vote would be to go for it and just take the pain. Once you come out the other side it will all feel worth it. Just make sure you allow lots of extra time to deal with the problems that will pop up. I had a number of them but in the end I was able to get past them. Now I just have to tell myself not to try out every program I see or better, I should take the old drives and setup a machine where I can try out all kinds of things and not mess up my freshly build development machine.