Upgrading Dell M4700 from 500G HDD to 1T Samsung Evo 850 SSD v-nand

Below is a list of things encountered when upgrading a Dell Precision M4700 laptop with Windows 7 with a 500G HDD to a 1 terabyte Samsung Evo v-nand 850 SSD.

• Used HDClone 7 Free Edition to make a copy of the current harddisk. Copied onto a Samsung T5 external SSD.  HDClone very nicely copies over everything, even from a live (running) Windows 7 machine. It creates all partitions also on the external SSD; these are visible as separate drives when reconnecting the USB drive. It can be even made bootable, but I didn't need that.


• Swapped in the SSD as shown here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D6Cn3bONxEo
  Note how the SDD has to "click" with the notches of the bracket (metal frame).


• Put in the Dell Windows 7 SP1 DVD. It installed. For quite a while it shows "Windows is loading files...", but in the end it got through, after about 5-10 minutes.


• After logging in, the wireless device was not detected. So no internet. Also other drivers were not installed yet or failed:
  
  
  
So: "Ethernet controller", "Network controller", "PCI Simple Communications Controller", "SM Bus Controller", "Universal Serial Bus (USB) Controller", "Unknown device"


• Then tried to use the Dell 'Resource Media' DVD to install the drivers. But the usage of the program that starts then is just plain impossible to understand. E.g see the screenshot below:
  
  
  
  
  The touchpad is marked as installed (I think that the checkbox indicates that). When I then installed any other driver, no checkbox appeared at all on the left of any of them.
  Plus, what is the order to install the drivers? Found this post but seems a lot of manual work. Plus you have to know which devices you have in your machine to know which driver matches. Eg this post shows what driver to look for for one specific error. That list you should be able to find on the bill when you ordered your M4700.
  
  In the end managed to get the ethernet driver installed (filter on the word 'ethernet' on the Dell drivers page, you should find "Intel I2xx/825xx Gigabit Ethernet Network Controller Drivers")
  


• Then managed to get the internet connection working via a wired cable after installing the above ethernet driver. Then used the Dell's Analyze Detect Drivers option  to update the correct drivers in the right order.
  All but the 'Unknown device' errors where gone in the Device Manager. Didn't dare to update the BIOS since that was working fine before.


• After that about 180 windows updates to install and then all worked fine. Score of machine is now 7.3 on a scale of maximum 7.9 (no idea what it was before I upgraded):
  
  
  
  
  
  But I do notice the difference in startup for example: complete Windows 7 startup from powered off state is about 10-15 seconds. Not bad :)


• And then the tedious job of installing all non-OS software began...

Lessons learned for next time:

• HDClone is very handy
• Export all browsers's favorites before taking out the old disk. You can find the favorites back, but not in an easy importable format.
• Impossible to understand the Dell Resource Media DVD.  
• Keep the service tag of your M4700 ready.

Upgrade to iTunes 10.1.2.17 iOS 4.2.1 on Windows XP 64bit

Over a year ago I managed to get iTunes 9.x.y working on my Windows XP 64 bit machine.
I had to try so many stuff, that I didn't really keep track of what I did :( The only things I wrote down were:

• http://skunkwerks.wordpress.com/2008/04/13/getting-itunes-to-work-with-windows-xp-x64/#comment-77


• http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2151665&start=75&tstart=0


• At startup of iTunes 9 I did get iTunesHelper is not installed correctly or something. I just clicked it away, it didn't seem to hurt anything.


• In the end everything worked, though I manually always started Mobile Apple Device service


• I do always get the popup about not being able to burn CDs. No problem.
  
  


• When plugging in the iPod I still always get this popup:
  
  

But now (february 2011) I wanted to upgrade my iTunes 9 to iTunes 10 because my OS on my iPod Touch was still at 3.x, and more and more apps are not running on 3.x anymore, they require 4.x and higher.
I knew it was going to be a nightmare, remembering the iTunes 9 installation. But this time I decided to keep track of it as detailed as possible. Hopefully it helps somebody...
I'll write down the steps as how I did them, so read through them all before trying yourself, you might be able to skip certain steps because they didn't work... WARNING: it is definitely not a clean walk-through!

1. Goal is to follow the steps from http://skunkwerks.wordpress.com/2008/04/13/getting-itunes-to-work-with-windows-xp-x64


2. Downloaded the 64b Vista version iTunes64Setup.exe from the Apple site


3. First thought I could just try to run the .exe, since it's just an upgrade. But after some thought, thought I needed to modify the .msi file(s), since they do a check at startup. And, since all I need is an updated iTunes I don't think I even need to run all .msi files, only the modified iTunes64.msi (with the edits from the first post, NOT the deletion of entries as in this post).


4. Installer starts successful, see screenshot (sorry for the Dutch):
   
   


5. Let it install where the 9.x.y was already installed: C:\Program Files (x86)\iTunes


6. A popup showed saying itunes+quicktime needs sp2 or higher. See screenshot:
   
   
   
   Just hit OK, install continues afterwards and it said successfully installed.
   


7. And iTunes starts fine! Note that I still manually have to start the Mobile Apple service. I do that before starting iTunes, then plugin the iPod (with popup see screenshot), Then start iTunes.
   
   
   
   I also still do always get the popup about not being able to burn CDs. No problem.
   


8. But now i get popup saying "itunes requires a newer version of Apple Mobile Support. Please uninstall both Apple Mobile Device Support and iTunes, then install iTunes again.". See screenshot:
   
   
   
   So it seems I do need to run AppleMobileDeviceSupport64.msi.
   But first edit it also. And instead of deleting entries, also here I just change 600 to 501.
   Starting AppleMobileDeviceSupport64.msi gives again needs SP2 or higher.
   So I also changed (VersionNT=501 And ServicePackLevel>=2) Or VersionNT>=600
   to (VersionNT=501 And ServicePackLevel>=2) Or VersionNT>=501.
   Yup .msi starts now, installs update in C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Apple\Mobile Device Support
   Got popup saying it didn't pass windows logo testing. Continue anyway.
   Again for USB driver.
   And again. ipod goes on/off. Shows popup again that tries to open 2 programs when inserting ipod.
   Successful!! Note that it didn't require a restart and that I did not re-install iTunes.
   Started iTunes
   Yeah: ipod lights up, sync in progress
   


9. It now asks for 4.2 upgrade of iPod software! yeah! See screenshot:
   
   


10. Hit Download and update, then it says automatically checking for updates is disabled. If you hit cancel, nothing happens. So you have to select "Check this time":
    
    
    Then iTunes says my iPod isn't synced, are you sure to contiue? Canceled and did that sync first, making sure all my apps etc are in iTunes too.
    
    Selected Upgrade again, yup started downloading 4.2.1, see screenshot:
    
    


11. Crap, got error 1603/1604, while popup Find new hardware wizard was suddenly showing up!
    
    Apple support link with some more info: http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1275
    Crap, can't find a driver (usbaapl). Seems it didn't get installed?
    So did this order of .msi running:
    1) AppleApplicationSupport.msi
    2) AppleMobileDeviceSupport64.msi
    3) iTunes64.msi
    Selected "recover" each time.
    Still didn't work, got 1604 error or something.
    Note that iTunes does see that the phone needs to be recovered, but it just fails after a long time with a 1603 or 1604 error. That indicates something is wrong with the USB connection.
    


12. Then I manually got the driver from AppleMobileDeviceSupport64.msi as described here (using lessmsi*.exe): http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=5619588
    Yeah but which one do I need, the 64b or 32b? Guess the 64b, that's named usbaapl64.
    Note that you need to do Have disk as in http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1538
    Ah now got 1604 error (device was sometimes recognised, then windows says new device found again etc)
    Did what is says here for error 1604 (turn if off etc):
    Showing Preparing iPod for restore... for a long time... minutes... Again 1604 error.
    So the USB driver is just not set up correctly.
    You hear when you try the restore (if the device is recognised in iTunes), the USB ping "rings" twice, meaning something is happening twice or something.
    Don't think that should happen. I also see the ipod flash shortly, then it's just dark.
    


13. I did read somewhere that in this case you're kindof lost, so you need to restore the iPod OS via another PC/Mac for which everything is working. After that's on the iPod, you can restore from the 64b iTunes...
    Luckily I have such a PC around: XP 32bit. Downloaded the latest iTunes 10, installed, and plugged in the iPod. iTunes detected it needed restoring so it put 4.2.1 on it! Note that I didn't give my device a name at the end of the restoring (thinking that should come from the XP 64b iTunes anyway...).
    


14. So after this, plugged it back in on the XP 64b. But it was not seen/recognised by iTunes! Though in the Windows Device Manager it said Apple iPod!


15. Then I did update the driver as in here in the part Troubleshooting iTunes <-> iPhone Link/Sync
    After that, the Device Manager says Apple Mobile Device USB driver! See screenshot:
    
    


16. And (since) iTunes was already started, it started immediately restoring apps! Yeah!! See screenshot progress:
    
    
    Darn! An error occurred restoring this ipod (-402620395):
    
    


17. Before hitting OK, I removed any provisioning files I had on the ipod as said here in the post "bkynaston post: Posted: Jun 23, 2010 6:45 PM"
    
    Hit Ok. After this it tries to sync again.
    
    Yes! It says: iPod sync is complete. OK to disconnect.
    


18. And yes, finally, finally, after about 1 day of working on this, my iPod is ok again! Even the language is back to English!
    Finally! Hope I never have to do this again...

Misc
Here's some other knowledgebase tip(s) that I looked at and tried

• http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1286

How to sign a Firefox 3 addon

Of course you've noticed that Firefox 3 has been released (and that it didn't go that smoothly, trying to break the world record).


One of the major changes in the new FF3 release is that add-ons (plugins, extensions, whatever you wanna call it :-) need to either use an HTTPs updateLink, or if it is an HTTP updateLink, you need to sign the .xpi. The exact info on how to do this is quite scattered, so here I summarize it all in one place, in three steps! :-)

Below I'll focus on Step 2 mentioned in the high level migration steps: providing secure updates.

Step 1
Add the updateKey tag to install.rdf inside the em:updateKey tag. For details see here. Follow the mentioned McCoy link. In short: create a key with the tool, rightclick on the key you created, select Copy and put that inside em:updateKey tags within install.rdf, below em:updateURL.

Step 2
Create the .xpi and add its sha1 hash (right click on the .xpi + select properties in Windows.) to update.rdf as mentioned here. Note that you should put the em:updateHash below each em:updateLink you have in your update.rdf. Also don't forget the sha1: prefix.

Step 3
Add the signature to update.rdf. See here for an example signature. Select the key you used in Step1 in the McCoy tool. Click Sign in the menu. You'll be prompted to select your update.rdf. It will then generate (and overwrite!) your update.rdf, with the em:signature in it. I guess you can reuse this generated update.rdf for next updates (you'll need to re-hash and re-sign it when you update it), but to be save I also made a backup copy of my original update.rdf).

All in all not too complex, but the information was scattered. Useful in getting my mind around it and how it all relates was this thread.