starscream

OK the ADAPTEC controller says RAID 5 After wikiing this it looks like I need to put in a like for like replacement drive. Will the array automatically be rebuilt? Is there another way to get the data off? Basically I just want the data off the drives ASAP. If another drive dies then I get data loss.

Can anyone suggest some steps I can take to fix this... Basically I have a Viglen Vigstore network attached storage server. It fails to fully boot into windows 2000 server but I could access the shares on it sometimes so it must of had some network functionality. Anyway it had been crashing a lot and I found out it was a fauly CPU fan and replaced it and it was stable again. I had to relocate it so had to power it down and when I fired it back up it didn't connect tot he network, shares were no longer available and it locked up at the same point on the "starting up" server 2000 screen. Anyway my plan was to recover the data from the 4 IDE drives and then format it and install server again. However... I have no idea if it is running raid, it probably is but I don't know which raid. HDD 1 has failed, I can tell this as when I plug the power in to this one only I can hear all sorts going on inside the drive and I think it is a lost cause. Now if this is raid how did I read the raid array to recover the data before I format? Will knoppix or another linux distro live work or will I have to reinstall server 2000? Can I repair server 2000 from CD somehow and remove the broken hard drive and will the array still be available for me to recover? If it is set up in raid striped then does that mean that 1 drive failing is fine and all data is still there? If it is set to mirroring then again all data should still be there. Will raid be set up in the adaptec raid controller card so it does not matter that OS I use it will still see the raid array? Please help, I havn't much experience in this area and I don't think I can simply plug each drive into another PC and recover data that way.

ohhh, I could try that! I never update office! Bad, bad Starscream!

I use ghost at the moment but looking to replace it with RIS/WDS. Basically I don't want hardware independent images like you need with ghost. Would be nice to be able to reinstall windows from scratch with all updates and drivers for all hardware streamlined into it. I have not set up WSUS on our server yet so I suppose I could use that for the updates site of things but it doesn't fix the issue of hardware independant installs. Do you tend to have software in your image or use MSIs and just have the basic windows install with drivers as your image?

That's hilarious! This is where my rule of wipe first thinking later comes into play. If I am fixing a PC for friends and it is totally screwed or at least getting there I use knoppix to copy all the personal files to a backup hdd and then wipe the computer and then drop the files back on. Does that mean I stole the files if I back them up to do a wipe??? I hope not! Or I aint ever fixing a PC again! When you wipe a PC you have to back up EVERY personal file there. I think it is also a duty that if there is anything illegal or at least that threatens people's health then we need to report it. Even in knoppix you see the file names as they are copied. Lots of people have been caught doing illegal things by IT techs in the past. I'm not condoning seiving through people's personal files, nor would I do it myself, but if you saw a suspicious file name during the copy process then you're surely going to be curious, what if you uncovered some major plot! To be fair though, any techy worth their salt would be too busy to even consider this! For me it's a case of getting the thing up and running ASAP so I can get rid of it! heh

I have been trying to add a windows image to RIS on Server 2003. It works fine from the original CD but when I streamline XP updates and/or driver packs into it I get the message "The required INF file is invalid. Please review the INF file and try again." Does this mean I can't used streamlined XP sources with RIS or WDS? I have a vision of having all the hardware in my schools streamlined into XP along with up to date updates and hotfixes as an efficient way to deploy XP on my networks but this seems to be preventing me making the modified XP source in RIS. Is there a simple fix or is this a no entry sign to my plans? Ta!

It isn't that hard to apply vinyl decals. I have done it myself in the past. It just comes on two sheets (backing and application) and you apply it like an elastaplast. Pull the backing sheet off, push the sticky side of the vinyl down and run a cloth or something over it to ensure it all sticks to the surface then remove the top sheet and hey presto. I have applied it to car windows and pc cases in the past. I like the idea of buying online to get competative prices. Round here, if anyone does this I bet it is one company meaning higher prices. I can try though I suppose!

Anyone know any online companies that offer the vinyl solution? I fear that getting existing laptops etched would void the 3 year warranty we have on them. Obviously if you get it done at time of purchase by the vendor this is probably not the case.

I remember intel even updated their drivers to allow to explicitly change the setting for the client card. Previously the cards used to please themselves. I think the key here is to get the very latest drivers for the client onboard wifi card and if that doesnt work, then change out the card with a better one. Usually the same make card and ap works well but I would always try and go with cisco to get the cross manufacturer compatibility that cisco kit seems to offer.

Sometimes it is down to the client card on the laptop as to whether they connect to the wireless network before domain logon. As far as I know only Intel Pro Wireless onboard cards do this best.

By the way I am using XP Pro clients not Vista

Ok I am new to WDS and never used RIS before and have been playing about with WDS today. I have it all installed and configured and client machines can get to a file not found when booting on the network. I think this is correct as I have not yet created an image. Now I understand that when a client machine is syprepped I should be able to reboot it and boot from the network and get a menu up from the WDS server asking what to do or what image to deploy to the machine. Well it says file not found and after reading technet it looks like I need to add an image to the install or boot image folder first. How do I do this? I right click and add boot/install image but it needs a WIM file, what is a WIM file and where can I get one? I don't understand how to create one. I am guessing that a boot wim file is a windows xp cd type of installation image. I am also guessing that an install wim file is completed windows xp machine image ready to be deployed to other machines. Now if all this is correct then why do I need to create an image before I capture an image? This is where I am lost. Do I somehow download or make a WIM file that will contain the images I upload to the server? This seems to make sense but like I said I am completely cost as to where to get or make a WIM? Any help would be great and I have been scratching my head all day over this one. It could be that I have it all set up wrong hence where it says cant find file but I do feel i have a loose grasp on the who process but missing out an important step. Cheers

I'll try sync, as I did find that it was ranger that was causing the message, but still the message stayed there! I'll try it and report back

For unicasting I use Acronis True Image Workstation. It is especially good if you can't or can't be bothered to make ghost boot disks. It runs from a CD and doesnt need a server but can create images on a network shared folder. All the drivers for it to run on the network etc are built into the CD!

Future proofing perhaps? Keeping the server upgradable?

by common do you mean system files?

I'll have a look, we have two here than are like 3 years old and we're moving to a new site so I think they're gonna be binned. The batteries are shot I think though thus freeing up the cables. Hang on...

It's all because of that stupid Panorama thing. They looked into it and left it wide open. They always do this. They never come to a conclusion! I think it is a load of tosh and luckily no parents or teachers in my 4 schools have complained, yet. I am bracing to remove the APs should someone complain because you can't fight parents with attitude. I just bought two lovely Cisco 1320s too EDIT: No wait I tell a lie, on friday the Head of a school told me a new starter's parent asked about wireless....yada yada...panorama....yada yada...... And it seems like the Head told them straight out...."We use wireless here, don't enroll your child if you do not wish to have them exposed to it." You can't just take down a whole wifi network for one person. Anyway back to the original post. I agree, people shouldn't be getting oks like this from the Head. It happens a lot to me, the heads ok lots of things and I'm like, woah, hang on for one minute....

Is that the serial data cable to connect an APC UPS to a server?

So for this you mean override the ranger start menu settings with a GPO for the computer room machines that redirects to a different folder on the server? Thus giving each room it's own folder? I believe ranger can only do this for users rather than computers so this should work shouldn't it?

That's exactly what I mean.

Yeah I learned this the hard way today No grey goo yet though either! But seriously, how come bad things can happen when creating reverse packages? I fail to see how different it is to uninstalling something. Am I being niaive?

I would love to not bother with ranger but I had to set up the domains in 3 schools on my own. I don't have the time to become adept enough at AD to manage 3 schools without assistance. I feel ranger gives me just about the right level of support to do what I need to do fast and without third party software. The software deployment feature is one of the better time saving ideas. I don't have time to sit there all day making MSIs or ghosting machines to deploy software cross sites etc. So for some of us Ranger is a god send. For others it is probably a big fat waste of money. I'd like to think that in a few years, if I am still in this position, I would be able ditch ranger and go 100% vanilla. But for now busy busy busy and ranger eases the pain. Oh and my second reason for it is that my wages are so poor that I could jump ship at any given point, so they system needs something that can be picked up or supported by the LEA should I go and ranger is standard now in our LEA.

It's down to personal preference buddy. If it annoys me then it annoys me, I didn't say it annoyed you, that was the whole point in this thread. I also can't say that it doesn't annoy me because you said it shouldn't. I like eye candy, what more can I say? Windows classic just feels old to me. And what with the spec of modern machines I think the reponse times between luna and classic are negligible.

I got picked to do a job evaluation and to be honest it was a right mess. Bascally they have set criteria for your job and you tell them if you do it or not. They did not allow me to tell them the extra jobs and responsibilities I have because my job title is Technician. Now I do a hell of a lot more than what a technician does and an IT Technician is usually someone who works in a team of other IT support people so their job is much more centre of the line and directed to technical support stuff. Being a technician is about 10% of my job. I do so many other things it is unreal but they did not allow me to list these as my job is listed as technician. The idea behind a job evaluation is that you dont get a pay rise, they look at the role as a whole and decide is all technicians in your LEA etc are going to get a rise. So I need to get my job description changed. Problem then is I will have more responsibilities on paper and same pay!