superatticman

Having a few issues with the Sil3125 RAID card and 3x HDD's. Locking up in windows 7 when approaching the end of the install and running a little too slow for my liking if we try windows XP. Putting the former down to the driver which is apparently 7 compatible but is only passed for XP/2003. Just a quick question really. As I've only ever been familiar with RAID 5 in a server based environment, will RAID 5 cause any performance issues if used with a workstation OS?

Currently undergoing the 'migration' route, as the software has a migration utility to move from 1 pc to another. Will build a brand new image using Windows 7, and then migrate the CCTV software across.

Thankyou for the answers so far. Looks like getting RAID 5 to work is the easy part, however, transferring the image across to a new disk configuration is going to be the tricky part!

Hi We have a CCTV system which relies on a Windows XP based system for monitoring and storage of video. Recently this suffered a hard disk issue of which a chkdsk managed to repair. However, we would like to add some redundancy and it has been suggested that we should add a hardware based raid controller (which can support raid 0-5) and create a raid 5 array which will give us a good level of redundancy. We can then clone the current image across to the new logical drive etc. However, I am not convinced Windows XP Pro will support raid 5 and googling some articles seems to back this up, including those from microsoft. Am I totally wrong here? Can it be done? Regards

Hi We have always gone with Dell Latitude for our laptop needs. The last generation of 4:3 that we ordered in were the D530 model which we ordered in in about 2008-9. Since then we've had e5500, e5510, e5520 which are all widescreen. Does anyone know whether there are any newer models with 4:3 screen? Just want one for myself and I prefer 4:3. Regards

Lets say you are walking along with your mother or partner, and someone for no apparent reason calls here a total bitch, slag, whore, hooch etc. Now...thats their right isnt it? Freedom of speech and all that. However, you, on the other hand will have probably stopped putting your right boot through whats left of their cranium long before the plod saunter along. Thats your right to do that isnt it? Probably not, but you will certainly feel like doing so. However, thats the reason there are laws in place to stop the situation from hopefully occurring in the first place. ie defamation, libel and slander.

To be honest, I'd have no problem with a couple of gays sharing a bed if I ran a BnB. Why would I turn down their money in any case? However, the absolute hysteria that some are getting into regarding 'equal rights' and 'prejudice' has gone over the top. Its got to the point that a load of over sensitive left leaning white middle class do gooders are taking offence where it doesnt actually exist. The vast majority of us are tolerant, intelligent beings who judge people on their attitude rather then race or sexuality. Britain now has arguably the most tolerant indigenous people on Earth. Those who disagree might actually want to talk to or socialise with black/Asian/gay people and form and opinion before spreading their divisive gibberish. You may actually find the majority of 'minorities' are happy with the way they are treated in the UK. Not everything you are told in the Student bar is true! Long live Britain's tolerant society and shame on those bigots from all sides.

Has anyone on here used them? We've got quite a bit of kit to get rid of. Projectors, Pentium 3 and 4 laptops too.

Hi Like many on here, we've taken to doing our controlled assessments in ICT suites. And maybe like many on here, its proving to be a total bind for our support team. Whilst we are given a schedule in advance, ad hoc CA's are happening more and more frequently. Currently, we turn a classroom from standard use to CA by using Group Policy, dragging an entire room from one container to another. This works, but from an admin view its becoming a nightmare. We have thought about teachers the ability to turn a classroom from standard to CA and vice versa. The thought of giving them some kind of even very limited access to AD is a scary one! Has anyone come across some bespoke software or found a workable solution for this? Regards

Hi We have retired a number of Sanyo SE15, SE20 and XU41 projectors. Quality of image is varied from pretty poor to just about acceptable. We are planning on disposing of them. However, is there anyone who will take them off our hands, refurbish them and maybe maybe make them usable elsewhere? Otherwise the refuse tip awaits! Thanks

All depends on what your priorities are in life. I've always had a nice car since the age of about 18. Am certainly not rich, in fact I'm probably pretty much your 'average worker'. But I don't really drink, don't smoke, don't spend much money on consumer electronics and don't have kids. My dough has generally gone towards having a decent motor and holidays. Have never had anything newer than 6 years old and have generally gone for bigger cars where you get a hell of a lot of car for the money. Currently driving a 1999 3 litre honda accord coupe. 1 owner, bought it with 45k on the clock 2 years ago. £2000. Its fully loaded, leather seats and drives like a dream. Yep, fuel bills are high, but when you are paying little for servicing thanks to good old tough honda parts and paying no interest to the likes of car giant, it works out to be economical motoring in the long run.

Hiya Can anyone recommend reliable backup software for windows 2003 server? It doesnt have to be anything advanced and is plugged into a standalone tape drive. Its a server with 8 user accounts on and about 2.5gb of data to back up. Just want something which gives you a little more flexibility and information than the Microsoft Backup utility. Cheers

Videolan fixed with that shortcut edit. Will be trying the CS3 fix on the next build. Out of interest, can we do a partial copy of profile data to default user in windows7? Ie in windows XP, you could copy folders from c:\docs and settings\user\application data which included the likes of videolan, quicktime etc to c:\docs and settings\default user\application data ? This would then allow user settings for particular programmes to becomes default rather than the whole profile. Will be looking into our profiling method too.

Thanks for this, will give it a go. Its going to affect our VDI based machines a lot more, as it more or less runs a new session every time the user logs in. Hope we can start chipping away our our issues! Will give you any feedback re the CS3. cheers

Hi Seems its a bit of an issue with windows 7! XP allowed you to copy the profile across even if it wasnt officially supported by microsoft. Someone, somewhere has produced a 'fix' which allows you to perform this. Windows 7 Customizing and Copying Default user profile with Windows Enabler It works 'okay', but isnt really looking like providing a reliable solution. We don't use Microsoft based deployment tools and already have an efficient form of imaging. Apparently theres a way of doing this using 'sysprep' and an .xml file. What we really want to achieve is to customise applications so they don't run 'first time' splash or registration screens when a new user logs in. We've managed to achieve other stuff like shortcuts, IE options and homepage etc via 2008 GP. The main applications we want to 'fix' at the moment are: Adobe CS3 = gives registration screen on new user login Videolan = gives options screen for 'updates' and a couple of other things on new user login Quicktime = wanted to disable 'content guide' for new user login. Has anyone actually managed to lock down the above using registry edits out of interest? That will fix the issue for now at least. Or am I missing something here and should we be installing the above as 'packages'? We install Office 2010 and a few others bits as packages. I'm sure there will be more like wanting to customise sound card settings for cubase etc. Any help on this will be appreciated! Thanks

Thanks for this. I think I stumbled across this earlier but thought it was some kind of hoax for what is a relatively simple task!!! Talk about needing a sledgehammer to crack a nut.....

Hi When building images before in XP we used to copy and paste the 'application data' folder from whichever profile we used to configure the software settings to 'default user'. This would then mean when each new user logged on they wouldnt get any of the first time run nags etc. It would appear windows 7 has changed the way how this works. Have found the C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs area which has seemingly replaced the 'all users' profile for tidying up start menu and setting up shortcuts etc. What is the correct procedure in W7 to allow new users to open their software without all the nags etc? Its probably something obvious which I've missed! Thanks

Cheers, keeping a pre-sysprep image sounds like a good idea. I guess its a case of then re-imaging, booting up, running sysprep, and then doing the usual. I guess the only thing to look out for here is not to boot it up plugged into the network as there will be some kind of network name clash if you do it withe multiple machines. Are we also safer taking the image as a workgroup PC rather than joined to a domain? Or does it really not matter.

Hi This our scenario. For system imaging we've traditionally built a hardware specific image and used 3rd party imaging software such as deploycenter or currently clonezilla. Its a very much hands on approach but has so far been a reliable if slightly labour intensive form of imaging. However. We are now using Windows 7 as standard. We've ran into a few issues, mainly regarding the sysprep utility. It would seem every time we try and 'sysprep /generalise' the image a second time, ie after modifying the image we're getting an error message and sysprep is not working. Its something we are looking into and suspect it could be something to do with KMS and licensing. Never had this problem with XP sysprep. It may be time though to start getting a bit more radical with our imaging process. I know Windows 7 has a built in imaging tool called ImageX and DISM etc. How many people on here use the Microsoft way of imaging? I am presuming you can have a single disk image that can be loaded up with applications that can be deployed to different hardware. I presume individual drivers for specific kit can be configured along the line? Or is it a case of only being able to push out a copy of windows to different types of hardware with applications being installed as packages afterwards? Thanks in advance for any advice! cheers

The 'surprised you don't know' This particular specimen is often the source of much entertainment and guaranteed to generate sarcastic replies in return. To be fair, he's not always a 'know all' and admits to his own limitations. But this guy will almost get into a state of distress when you put your hand up to not knowing (usually the following) technologies: "What do you mean you don't know scripting? All good IT people know that" "What? You don't know anything about SQL?" "Come on! You need to know exchange like the back of your hand" Its usually those three, all of which are considered a bit 'specialist' by most general support people. However, unlike the 'know all' who if he does know will simply fix it without bothering to explain to you what he did, the 'SYDK' will usually at least attempt to run through it with you and ensure its documented.

My first piece of advice would be to take your time, don't rush into it because you are interested in the technology, and to make sure there is a clear business case for the implementation. Weigh up the pro's and the con's and ensure you factor stuff such as remote access into the equation. If you are planning on implementing it in an ICT suite, then be wary that it doesnt really run multimedia applications such as video or audio editing applications as well as a decent physical PC. Theres also a few issues with some flash related applications.

Am in the process of carrying out disaster recovery disks for our servers. Theres several options in Arcserve to produce this. Traditionally, we used to make a 'machine specific' disk and made a floppy disk with the DR info on. This was then inserted during 'ASR' mode (press F2 isnt it?) and the machine recovered from there. However, theres now new options available: Are there any major benefits of choosing on of the others? Apart from the reliability and speed of CD/DVD being better than FDD? Cheers

The 'Catch 22', thats got to be the most interesting variant yet. You could probably rename that to.............'The Network Manager'

Probably time to change the accent of the thread a little and state which one you feel you fit into! I'm the itchy feeter. However I'd say I have a casual interest in IT and arent doing it simply because I fell into the job.

I guess a variation of the 'itchy feeter' 'malcontent' is the 'beyond my payscaler'. This is the one who clearly isnt happy either with their employer or their job role. When given the opportunity to punch above their weight, they decline to even have a go. More than happy to see a major problem affect productivity until someone who's 'better paid' comes to sort it. Obviously someone who is a genuine Junior technician cannot be expected to fix a deep rooted network issue that requires experience and a degree of knowledge, as it may only make things worse. However, when given the chance to step up a level, they simply arent interested.