RobC

When you say loads of unknown hardware, is this in Device Manager after you have re-imaged a system?

My disaster recovery policy: Phone Fujitsu & tell them to pick up the pieces... Ya know, this managed service lark isn't 100% bad!

Well, you see... First the mummy penguin & the daddy penguin start kissing, and then the daddy penguin puts his...

I've safely used the Server version of PartitionMagic to increase the boot volume of a server before. It's called Volume Manager as opposed to Partition Magic.

As far as I'm concerned, Ebay is off-limits to all staff here regardless of Teacher or Admin staff. The only people who I think would kick off about it are people who annoy the hell out of me anyway so I'm not really bothered, but if anyone does have a problem I've found the clause in our Council AUP (which also applies to us) which says no personal financial transactions. Either way, I would block completely simply for equality. You can't be seen to allow for one group of staff and not for another even if on the basis of working/not working with kids. Teachers won't see it that way & then they'll be even grumpier (if that's possible!).

mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmPenguins

Yep AJB, that Domain Admin is indeed the DRA, but that account can't access the files either. I can't find a certificate in either account.

Oh well, she's buggered then. The linked post gave a link to a KB article which basically said that if you do not have a backup of the user's EFS Key or the DRA's EFS Key then ur up Faeces Creek with out a paddle. And I can't locate either key where they should be. That'll teach her not to encrypt things without asking the Admins. :twisted:

Ok, has anyone ever had to recover files encrypted using 2k3/XP's Encrypted File System? One of our office staff decided to encrypt an archive of files held on the Staff Shared drive when she started last year. Unfortunately her profile appears to have lost the EFS key and she now can't access these files. And neither can I. Anyone got any ideas?

Funny that they can provide a cached copy of a page linking to a page with the same title, but can't provide a cached copy of the actual page with the actual content... [i would like to add that this post is entirely my own opinion and in no way representative of anyone other than myself! (Just in case...)]

Well, I haven't had any problems installing MySQL under Windows, and I don't see much load at all on either 2k3 or XP. I've run it under both on my home systems.

Just wondering then... You say you can get into ghost.exe through the RIS menu on boot. Once in ghost, can you select a multicast? (GhostCast menu, Multicast) If so, you can fire up the Console on the server & from there run the GhostCast server manually. Enter a session name (I use Q cos it's easy), select your image name & accept clients. You then put in the session name on the client machine & it should find the session. Tell the server to Send when all clients are connected. No need to install anything on the client at all. Let me know if that's any help...

Are you still having problems with this Inox? I assume when you say booting into the Ghost Console, you mean as part of a GhostCast session? If so, I had a LOT of problems trying to do this using 8.0, to the extent that I gave up completely. I've now upgraded to Ghost 8.2 & everything works a treat. I'm not sure of a way to do it in conjunction with RIS, but you can select computers or machine groups in the Ghost Console to run the Clone task. Set this up with the image you want to use for the machine(s) and execute the task. With any luck, Ghost will reboot the machines and they bill boot straight into the Ghost DOS client. The session will then start transferring as soon as all the clients are connected. Hope that helps... Rob Cowan.

Christ Diello, you must be uber stressed... Even your desk's got piles!

As long as it wasn't flying B17s upside-down INTO bridges!

Stuart, you're bang on with that. The software is Desktop Sidebar & it's great. Took a bit of setting up to get it working with our proxy setup, but I find it invaluble. And you can see it in this piccy too - this is my work desktop.

Here's my home desktop. I'll post my work one tomorrow (although it's infinately less interesting!).

Works fine for me Ric.

XP/2003 Server on the main school network, 2k on the Computing/Business Studies network. We also still have a couple of 98/ME ( ) standalone systems lurking about.

@FITS: I'll be reading through a lot of the FITS documents shortly so I'll try & tie it all in together. @Ric: You're right, there are loads, but I always feel that none of them are quite right for me or for the school environment (yes I'm a picky sod!). Plus, I really need to put my DB skills to use & justify the O'Reilly Access Design book I've just bought.

Why the question mark Russ? Not sure if you've got the right day?

I'm guessing that the license for the Beta software prevents you from letting other people install it... (yes, yes, I know. It's microsoft!) I would love to check out the Beta, but there is no way in hell I can afford an MSDN subscription.

Just for anyone who's interested, I am currently trying to create an Access DB that will stretch from Asset Management, through consumable use and on to Helpdesk logging. I just need to re-learn everything about proper DB design so that it all fits together in the way I want it. I'm currently using GLPI to store all of this information. GLPI is PHP/MySQL based, but the problem is that due to the restrictive nature of our managed service, I can't run either on the servers so I've had to resort to hosting it outwith school which is impractical. At least with Access, I can store the DB locally on our network. So (in summary!), once I've got this off the ground I'll put it up for general use. And if anyone can help with the initial design of it, I would be grateful. Rob.

Russ, I hope you're not making fun on the Independant Realm of Scotland!!!!!!!!!

Russ, not only have I seen it, I am suffering from it right now! The schools in Moray are all under a managed service from Fujitsu. Now I won't say that there service is bad, because some of it is very good & we do have up-to-date kit. However, admin is tricky & there have been several occasions where I would have been able to fix a problem in 30 seconds flat, but it has taken more than a week (or two in some cases) to get the job done simply because it has to go to the Fujitsu helpdesk, and then be passed into a job queue before being completed. Case in point: File Restore from Backups. The backups are all done on the school's main server (we have two - 1 File Server/DC & 1 Exchange/Proxy Server) each night & I am responsible for changing the tapes. If we need a file restored, we have to log a call with Fujitsu. Once that call gets to the top of the job queue the local Fujitsu office (in Inverness, which is a different council altogether who also use Fujitsu) phone me up to get me to put the correct backup tape in. They will then restore the file & e-mail me to say it's done & that I can put that night's tape back in. Total time taken: 1 Week+ I can do this in 5 minutes, and that's only because it takes 3 minutes to walk from my office to the server room! But because we are not allowed direct access to the server, we cannot do these tasks. So there you have it. Managed services are all well & good from a financial point of view, but are completely useless from a "I need this file restored ten minutes ago because this pupil has to hand it in to me today or he fails his course & all the forests will burn down & the horsemen of the apocalype will ride!" point of view.