When your laptop needs a hard drive upgrade

In order to run all the virtual machines I carry in my laptop and to have more space for the host operating system (Windows 7) partition I needed more space so I went from a 320 GB to a 500 GB hard drive and I did everything manually. Obviously I always have partitioned the hard drive, as the best choice for organizing your data, your system and your upgrades. I could have created an image of the partition but instead I decided that re-installing the OS was a better idea, and I was right. My laptop, with the same programs I had before, now boots, runs and shuts down faster. The way Windows 7 was intended to be. Since I always put all my important data (documents, pictures, web sites, development, reference material, logs, etc.) in a single partition (it was A:\ before) other than C:\ I copied through my wired LAN all the data partitions and did not mind about "system images", e-mail profiles, etc. Everything is recreated later without a problem. HARD DRIVE: I went for the Seagate Momentus XT 500 GB, which is not entirely a solid state drive but uses some of this technology, after doing my homework. PARTITIONING: I didn't allow the OS setup disc to take care of partitioning the new hard drive but rather let Seagate DiscWizard, powered by Acronis, take care of the job. Excellent. SYSTEM SETUP: the OS setup disc took care of it. Caveat: even having an OEM setup disc (Dell) I had to reinstall all the drivers and utilities manually. It does not do it for you. That's probably the hardest part. This is my list, first to last, of what you should install once Windows 7 is fired up for the first time in the new hard drive.

RECOMMENDED ORDER (just my suggestion):

1. Dell (or your manufacturer) Wireless driver (Wireless WAN, WWAN)
2. Intel Gigabit and then Intel Centrino  (or the corresponding network devices)
3. NVidia drivers (or corresponding)
4. Go immediately online and install all Windows 7 updates (50, in my case) or if possible go for the SP1 at once
5. Devices and printers (I assigned my PC to download directly from Internet 'realistic' icons and corresponding drivers)
6. Other drivers: touchpad, sensors, etc.
7. Now you are ready to start installing your applications: Office, Adobe CS, Microsoft development tools (which will take care of the .NET Framework), etc.

Your system performance should be by now even better than before with the added bonus of extra hard drive space.