Back when I did Uni, I distinctively recall the lecturer illustrating that as code developers we are the engineers and we should adhere to those practices that deliver a solid...

Some of the replies here are spot on.

$ admin shares can only be accessed by accounts with admin privilege.   So either a local admin on the box itself,...

well that's interesting. Certainly wouldn't want to rely on it, unless that is behavior in the standard.

Actually I found your latest version of the job quite interesting.

My only thoughts are that it sounds way too much for one person. I hope you are going...

Are you sure it's going to be called SQL 2011?

Would use a hybrid of what Leo has done.

You can pretty much pre-prepare your whole environment by Mirroring your databases across to the new server, log ship if you want....