Installation

Yesterday I spent about twelve hours installing, deinstalling and then reinstalling Ruby.

Phase 1
I downloaded all the software ... then, in spite of basic fundamental misgivings, I installed it on my main computer. Moral - trust your gut.

By about 6pm I realised that I no longer had internet access from my computer, so moved into phase 2.

Phase 2
I uninstalled all the added software, including numerous reboots. At the end of this, like about 9pm, I had my system almost back to where it was before I started. So now to Phase 3.

Phase 3
Copied all required s/w to a portable hard disk.

Removed my hard disk, installed a new one, created a Windows XP environment.

Had forgotten XP Service Pack 2. Uninstalled new hard drive, reinstalled old hard drive, copied XP Service Pack 2 to portable hard drive.

Uninstalled old hard drive. Reinstalled new hard drive. Installed XP Service pack 2. Installed Ruby, Subversion, MySQL. All working.

Phase 4
Documentation ... creating categories in my blog.