nimrodel

Hi, My DC running Server 2008R2 has crashed big time! The disc, which was in RAID mirror mode, is unbootable. However, I can remove the disc and access all the files. I have a "bare metal" backup but this won't restore. The server is flaky even if I re-install a clean copy of Server 2008R2, so I suspect a hardware fault. I have ordered a new server but if the backup doesn't work (I suspect it is corrupt) then I have no option but to start from scratch. I am inclined to install Server 2012R2 in this case, but is there any way of extracting the data/info for DHCP, DNS, AD & GPO from the old 2008 (non-bootable) disc? Or do I have to accept that I need to start from scratch and re-build the GPOs, AD and DHCP? The school have been without their data for 3 days now :-( Dave

Hi Joanne, I'm surprised no-one has helped with this. Either everyone has the same problem and no-one knows why, or no-one has the problem! Anyway, I gave up after weeks of trying various settings, and ended re-creating the image but this time choosing Gen 1 instead of Gen 2 and using the Legacy Network Adaptor. This worked fine. Shame because it wasted a lot of time and there is no way to change from Gen 2 to Gen 1 without starting over again from scratch and re-installing the OS and all programs!! Dave

I am trying to deploy a reference image to a set of new laptops, but I cannot get the deployment to work unattended! I have created the reference image using a VM, sysprep'd, captured using WDS...all ok. I have created 2 unattend files, the first one specifying the language and formatrting/partitioning the disc and the second one for the OOBE. That one is attached here. I have tweaked many settings and used files found through googling, and even used bits from different sources but it always sticks at the "Enter your Microsoft account details" (or words to that effect) screen. My reference image is Win8.1 with all the required programs loaded, WDS is running on Server2012R2. Can anyone see what I have done wrong? Thanks in anticipation! (Ignore the language discrepancy where I put en-us as this was just another experiment. I have tried all en-gb too) oobeunattend.txt

Thanks guys! It's as I thought, but good to have some confirmation. I'll go for it!

Hi, I have some Lenovo laptops with Hybrid (500gb/8gb) drives. I was expecting 2 separate drives eg c: SSD and d: Mechanical however as most of you probably know they don't work like that. As I understand it, they are really a mechanical drive with a big cache that is non-volatile and some firmware that decides which files go where. My question is, I want to deploy an image to these laptops using WDS and answer files. The answer file I am about to use wipes all the partitioning and reformats and repartitions the drive. Will this cause a problem or will the drive be unaffected by this? I obviously don't want to lose the advantage of SSD. Thanks Dave

Hi, Not sure if this is the correct forum, but I am tearing my hair out with something that should be fairly straightforward. I have 32 new laptops which I need to set up with a whole load of software. Normally, I would set up one of them as a reference machine and use WDS to capture an image and then use answerfiles to deploy that image to the other laptops. However, this time I thought I'd try creating a VM to create the image from, so I used a Win8.1 64bit PC to run Hyper-V and I created a Win 8.1 64bit VM. I loaded all my software, updated Windows and sysprep'd the VM (well, to be honest, I accidentally sysprep'd the physical PC on the first attempt...doh!). Now had I realised about the differences between Hyper-V Gen1 and Gen2 at the time, I might have opted for Gen1 but I created a Gen2 VM. Of course, there is no need for a legacy Network Adapter so I created a Network Adapter, assigned it to my NIC and set it to be the first boot option. Sure enough, as I turned on the VM it started to boot from the network and the screen messages showed that it had received an IP address and was downloading the file wdsmgfw.efi file (downloading NBP file...) but it failed after a few minutes with a PXE-E18: Server Response Timeout. I have spent 2 days googling a solution but nothing seems to work. I have read about EUFI, option 66,67 and all sorts of other things but nothing makes sny difference. Before I give up and rebuild a physical laptop has anyone any idea what I have done wrong?? I should add that physical machines all boot to PXE with no problems. I also created a boot image and a capture image from a the same Win8.1 ISO that I used to create the VM. Any suggestions very welcome! Thanks Dave

Cheers Woodham. Haven't tried it yet, but it looks like exactly what I need. :-) Dave

This thread seems to answer part of the OP's question ie to stop IE11 being installed, but how can I remove IE11 once it has been installed? I am now using WSUS but wasn't a few weeks ago, and IE11 went and installed itself on all clients. There are so many issues with it, main one being it is incompatible with RM Easymail. I know there is a workaround, but I really don't want IE11 on the domain but don't fancy going to each PC in turn and manually removing the update. Thanks Dave

Hi Michael, I already followed that guide to check I had done everything correctly. I had, but it still doesn't work. I created a GPO for all PCs then set up a test group in WSUS. All the PCs are showing up under "all computers" and I have moved 2 test PCs into the new "test" group. All computers show "Not Yet Reported". I disabled the firewall and still no joy. I waited for 24 hours but still the same. I forced the 2 test PCs to report using wuauclt.exe /resetauthorization /detectnow but nothing. I should add I am running Server2008R2 with all Windows7 machines

I never managed to get to grips with WSUS and has each computer installing it's own updates from MS. Problem is with netbooks where the auto updates caused massive disruption to lessons as quite often they only get to use the netbooks for about 10 minutes and half of that time can be logging on! Because I wasn't using WSUS I had to go to each netbook and disable auto updates (with the idea of mass updating every few weeks!). With the advent of the IE10 & 11 problems, I now need to roll back to IE9 or at least be able to manage the updates. I installed WSUS and all the other add-ons that are needed for it. I have followed all the advice I can find regarding WSUS but none of the clients will report in. They are actually updating but on WSUS they all say "Status unknown" and "Not Yet Reported". I have tried the wuauclt command with various switches but no joy. Any ideas? Dave

I understand the security implication but really have no choice. I have very limited time (10 hrs a week on my own to include all repairs, maintenance, upgrades...you know the score) and absolutely no budget. I don't have the luxury of a spare PC to make MSIs on. I wouldn't do this in a secondary school unless I encrypted the password which is possible. Just getting things like WDS to work can take several weeks of work, and the removal of IE Maintenance has caused a week or so of head scratching which takes up all of my time. Thanks for the advice though. I know it is the best way, just hellishly time consuming Dave

Hi dfinan, I do this as follows: Download a program called "CPAU.EXE". It doesn't need installing. Just save it in a network share. In your NETLOGON share you may have a .bat file which allocates shared drives etc. Add this to that file, or create a file for it. if exist "C:\Program Files\MyProgramFolder" goto :eof "\\MyServer\MyShare\cpau.exe" -u domain\administrator -p password -ex "\\MyServer\Path-to-the-exe-file\MyProgram.exe /s" -lwp -cwd Assuming: MyProgramFolder is the folder created when the .exe is actually installed (Install it manually to find out what this is) MyServer is, of course, the name of your server MyShare is the shared folder where CPAU.EXE lives domain is your domain name password is the administrator password Path-to-the-exe-file is erm the path to the exe file stored on the server MyProgram.exe is the exe file you wish to install You may have spotted the problem with this....the password is there for all to see should they be so inclined. It is possible to encode this (google cpau to find instructions) but as I work in a Primary School I don't consider this necessay. The /s switch after the filename sometimes needs to be /silent or /q or /quiet but usually one of those will work so that you don't need user input. Dave

Hi, Why on earth do MS work in this amateurish way?? How do they get away with it?? I blocked IE10 because I wanted to use Internet Explorer Maintenance GPO. I then decided that it was a bit backward-looking to do this especially with the release of IE11 making IE9 2 versions old! Didn't want to appear a dinosaur so I allowed IE11 and tried to use GPP instead of Internet Explorer Maintenance. Then of course I hit the problem of this only working up to IE8!! Unless I install Windows8!! WTF??? Oh, of course, I can get round it by changing an XML file and manually altering the value of IE8 to IE99. Great!! Very User Friendly, Bill! So all is well until today when suddenly I'm getting called to all the classrooms as websites won't work, email can't be accessed, passwords are not accepted....and after investigations it seems as though an update has altered the security level of IE11 affecting all flash, java, activex scripts!. Thanks a bunch MS!! We pay you a fortune in licences and this is the customer service we get!! I have got around this now by using GPP to set the security level to medium, but I shouldn't have to do this. I also can't now set favourites after the demise of IEM so have created a "homepage" stored on the server on which I store the school faves in HTML format!! Anyone else completely fed up with MS?? If I could get Google Chrome of Firefox to pick up my homepage from a GPO I'd just delete all traces of IE. Anyone know if this is possible?? Maybe the answer is a Linux based school system ;-) Dave

Sorry, last posts crossed. THANK YOU! I reckon that was the problem. First tests show that a new client will now join the domain with DNS set to auto AND the GPs seem to be applying ok (I say seem coz I've learnt in this job never count your chickens....). Anyway, thanks very much for pointing that out to me. I should have realised this but I missed it as I think I've been staring at it for too long! ;-) Dave

I'm guessing I need to delete the above 3 addresses and replace with the IP address of the server? And if so, should the clients have the server IP address as the DNS server or should they be set to automatic / dynamic? Many thanks Dave

If I look in DHCP scope Options, it gives the DNS Servers as: 127.0.0.1, 82.219.4.24, 82.219.4.25 Is this the problem? Thanks Dave

Hi, Can anyone shed some light on a problem that is driving me mad! I have tried to solve it on and off for months but can't make sense of it. My server (we just have the one) is DHCP & DNS server. DNS forwarding is set to the the correct ISP settings plus 127.0.0.1. These are in the order DNS1, DNS2, Local-loop. Any new PC will not connect to the domain unless I change the DNS setting on the client Adaptor from auto to the IP address of the server. Then it joins ok. IPCONFIG /ALL lists the DNS as just the IP address of the server. If I revert the settings back to auto after joining the domain, it will now log on to the domain successfully and IPCONFIG /ALL reports the DNS as 82.xx.xx.1, 82.xx.xx.2, 127.00.1. Linked to this (I think!!) is the fact that my folder redirection GPO will just not work. If I force the GP to work by GPUPDATE on the client I get: "The processing of group policy failed. Windows could not resolve the user name etc etc. " when the Client DNS is set to auto. Changing back to static DNS (Server IP address) I get "User policy update has completed successfully. Computer policy update has completed successfully." However, folder redirection has not worked nor have any of the GPO settings. When I check the GPO, it is correctly linked to the domain and the filtering is listing the correct security group which has the correct membership. Has anyone any idea what I might be doing wrong? Thanks Dave

A good idea in theory. I did try Clonezilla a few years ago but for some reason which I can't remember, I didn't get it to work. Anyway, just spent 3 hours today trying to create a clonezilla USB stick but no joy! 1.5 hrs to extract the files from ISO and then hangs at 33% creating bootloader. No option to re-start and just create bootloader...seems I would have to sit for another 90 mins waiting for it to overwrite files that are already there! Grrr..... Anyway, the boss wants the netbooks working, so I have decided to install Windows & the relevant software manually on each one. At the end of the day, it will only take a couple of days at least it will definitely work! Thanks for your help with this.

I tried to use WDS a year or so ago and spent a few weeks (which I could ill afford to spend) trying unsuccessfully to get it to work. The main issue was that the clients would hang without ever picking up WDS from the server. Trouble is, the documentation is about 500 pages long!! As I work 10 hrs a week I just haven't got the time to read it all. There are other resources on the internet but nothing "concise" which would allow me to get it working within a few hours. This is why I ended up with a USB stick with Ghost on. It means going round to each PC that needs imaging but in the long run it's quicker than trying to get my head around WDS. All I want to do is to capture an image of a reference PC (netbook in this case, with all the software installed) and then put that image on other identical netbooks. I don't need to sysprep really as the netbooks will not be joining the domain. It should be easy, and it was with Ghost, but the WDS method seems very long-winded and complicated, unless I have the wrong end of the stick completely! Thing is, by now I could have installed Win 8 and all the software individually on all 6 netbooks manually but instead I've spent probably about 20 hours trying to get automated methods to work! :-(

Hi guys, Thanks for the suggestions, but I'm no further on. My version of Ghost is just will not work with Windows 8. I have never had much success with WDS (hence why I used Ghost for Win 7 deployment), but the netbooks will not be part of the domain (standalone workstation teacher netbooks) and WDS seems to need Server 2012 whereas I'm using Server 2008R2. I currently have 3 netbooks still boxed up, 2 that I've tried to image (with Ghost) and completely broken and 1 working one. I'm thinking I'll have to install all the programs on each one in turn and re-install Windows 8 on the broken ones. Only other option I can see is to make them all Win 7 machines and use Ghost. Thanks Dave

Hi, I am in a bit of a fix and could do with some advice! for years, I have been using a Ghost bootable memory stick to image PCs and laptops, both Win XP & 7. Works perfectly by booting to USB and copying image to external hard drive. I now have 6 new Acer Netbooks running Win8. I set up the first with all the software I needed and created an image as I always have done. however, UEFI boot confused me and I had to go back to legacy boot to get it to boot from USB. I then ran sysprep but it ran for hours so I had no choice but to close it down. Bad mistake. Netbook is now corrupt. Meanwhile I used the image I created to set up one of the other netbooks. Appeared to work but "no bootable media". So, I have 2 disabled netbooks and desparately need to find a way to get them working. Does anyone have any advice for anything that will clone/image a Win 8 64 bit netbook (no CD/DVD drive)? If the answer is WDS, I would need very clear step by step instructions as I have never managed to get this to work even on XP and 7. I should add that I am running Server 2008 R2 but these netbooks will be standalone workgroup teacher laptops, not part of the domain. Half term now so no rush but any help greatfully received. Cheers Dave

Hmm.....I'm clearly making some fundamental mistake here! Please bear with me as I try to explain my problem: To test your method, I created an email account on EMBC and sent and received a few emails just to populate it a bit. I then created a matching account on Outlook (2010). The emails synch'd and Outlook showed the emails as you would expect. I found the .PST file and backed it up I created an email account on my own personal web site. I created a matching account for that on Outlook and of course it was empty. I copied the .PST file from the original EMBC account and replaced the empty one with it. Outlook synch'd again and immediately all the emails disappeared! What am I missing?? Dave

Thanks Synaesthesia, I have to do this in 2 schools for a total of about 30 staff! Sounds like the way to go though. I have absolutely no confidence in Capita sending me the .PSTs and certainly they would charge for this. The only thing I can rely on them for is to send me three emails when one would do! Those of you who suggested export/import.....it doesn't work properly. All the dates are changed to the time of import and some of the folders don't get imported. Syn*, did you use one instance of Outlook and create multiple accounts or did you do this on lots of PCs? I was trying to avoid going to each teacher and using their laptops but I can see that 15 or so accounts on one outlook might be a problem? Thanks Dave

Hi, I'm thinking lots of people must have done this (or planned how to do it) but I can't find any reference on here or the rest of the web..... My school is leaving EMpsn and moving to another provider. Currently we use EMBC's (or rather CAPITA's) email accessed via Outlook Web Access. Obviously, come Oct 31st all these emails will disappear or be inaccessible. All the teachers (and of course the office and head and me!) will need their email backing up and I thought this a simple (if laborious) process as follows: Configure Outlook 2010 for each person's email account, set as IMAP. All emails synch and appear in Outlook 2010 Backup to offline file at the last minute Change mail server settings to that of the new provider Outlook 2010 synchs and all emails disappear. Re-instate backup sorted! However, I tried this on a dummy email address and it doesn't work as I thought it would. If I use EXPORT to create a backup, when I IMPORT, only the inbox gets comes in. Also, all "email received" dates are replaced with the current time and date thus losing the date stamp (although the date is correct when the email is opened). Other methods have similar problems Has anyone done this? If so, what did you do? Any ideas? Thanks Dave