CM786

Thanks for the replies.. @meastaugh1 - I don't know what the ESE tools are? The UPS is a 800VA Belkin one from PC World: http://www.pcwb.com/catalogue/item/BELUPS14 I think this should be sufficient (for the price). I have used the Belkin Bulldog Shutdown software on my own home PC and its not bad. I really don't want to have to wipe the server but I may as well becasue: 1) It was setup in 2004 and had no "revamp" since then. I usually work 1/2 a week so very hard to get access to it when no one is accessing it. 2) The organisation has got abit messy so a nice clean new start is better 3) I can add a few nice extras such as BGinfo, updated wallpaper, redirected desktops etc. 4) I am also going to reimage all (IT Suite) client PCs too, so I will be very busy! Thanks for the help guys!

Sorry for the slow response. You were right... the DNS Server had stopped running for some reason. Restarted it and all working again. Thanks for the help!

Thanks for the reply. Yes I have done a CHKDSK and it did discover bad sectors on the disk No other DC on the network. We have decided to get a new hard drive and wipe the server clean and set it up again.......their go three days of my Christmas holidays

MORE WOES After thinking that the worst was over, something seems to have happened to AD now. When I try and view the Computer accounts in Active Directory Users and Computers I get the following error: Data from Computers is not available from domain controller xxxxx.xxxx.local because: An operations error occured. Try again later, or choose another domain controller by selecting Connect to Domain Controller on the Domain context menu. I have 3 PCs that won't connect to the domain, the others seem to be working. Help........ 8O Ideally I would love reformat/replace the hdd and start from scratch, but its a poor time of year for me to be doing it and I only visit the school for 2 half-days a week, so not enough time to get this done quickly enough.

Hi, This is very strange. 8O FirstClass (the schools email/collaboration client) just does not connect to the authorities FirstClass Server anymore when the IP address used by the computer is assigned by DHCP. I tried putting in a manual address and it works fine. With the DHCP IP address, the internet and all other network functions work fine however. The client has worked fine for months using DHCP before and works in all my other schools? I think it has got something to do with the DHCP server in school. All I can think of is to restart the Windows 2003 Server box that issues IP Addresses. Anybody else experienced this? Thanks, CM786

Another thread update! Had to go and buy some licenses for MS Office 2003 at £31 each which really doesn go against the whole idea of using OpenOffice.org. But I have changed file associations so that all documents are opened by Open Office apart from MS Excel doucments so it works with Target Tracker. @eean - you are right - it is very slow and prone to crashing!

Just updating the thread The school has no SLA MIS agreement with the local authority - -they just have to deal with Capita direct. In the end the school went for the AMD based system and it flies! Also makes use of the AMD Cool'n Quiet technology so that it uses less power when the PC s not being used and can throttle back performance for less demanding tasks. Just need a better back up solution. Thanks to everyone that contributed!

Hi guys, Thanks for the help. It seems that some of the start menu shortcuts have become corrupt. As soon as I open a redirected start menu folder such as \\dc1\users\menus\y6 and click on some of the shortcut icons (they have lost their icons too) the server just locks up and explorer crashes. I have recreated the shortcuts on a different partition on the server and updated the path in group policy, so that they now work properly. However, my concern is what has happened to the hard drive? Because I cannot access certain shortcuts. Is the hard drive damaged or have the icons just become corrupt? PS UPS has been ordered!

Hi guys, A school of mine had a power cut/surge yesterday and the schools Server 2003 DC went off too. It wouldn't restart, but after changing the power lead it came back on and booted up fine. The next day I had users complaining that the user profiles we so slow to load and use that they were unusable. I thought I would just give the Server a restart to see if that make a difference. I did that and the server would just get to loading Windows and then restart constantly! I manged to use the Recovery Consle and by using chkdsk got it to boot up again. The problem is that when someone logs in (I am using redirected folders), the start menu -> programs bit just doesn't appear or takes a looooong time to crawl up. The other redirected items (My Docs, Desktop) seem to be fine. I can't really see anything unusual in the Event viewer. Permissions?? When the server come back on the firsttime after the powercut, while windows was loadining up it did say "rebuilding indices" - whats that? 8O Thanks for the help CM786

So I could in theory instead of buying, build a few PCs from the masses of spare parts we have, install MS DOS and then get an upgrade to XP Pro? Saving the school substantial amounts of money! I doubt their was any "OEM" version of DOS at the time, so how do I proof the install is actually an upgrade? I'll have no COA? Do I just keep a DOS floppy disk for each PC as proof? Thanks, CM786

Ok sorry Geoff! (Doh!) What about if the PCs had MS DOS then?

Hi guys, Interesting one..... I have seen a few cheap PCs that come with no OS except DOS? Likes of eBuyer etc. Does a PC that comes with DR DOS 7 from the manufacturer qualify for the the Academic Windows XP Pro Upgrade License? I emailed Ramesys to ask and they said it was fine (aslong as the PC has a previous Microsoft operating system). This seems like a way for schools to save money then, buying Windows XP Pro Academic License for £30 rather then the OEM version for £80+. Now where can I buy DOS from these days?!

Hi guys, I have recently gone into a school where they have SMART Notebook on all networked PCs, but they don't have the gallery content installed. I have copied the gallery content to a network share and then by adding the "\admin" switch to the Smart Notebook shortcut I have gone in as admin and added the Gallery content in. This works great. I have done all the PCs in the IT Suite in this way and was just wondering if their was a easier way to specify the path to the gallery, maybe a .reg entry that could be put in a script etc..? They will need the same doing in the classrooms too and the second IT Suite. I have set \\dc1\smartgallery as the path to the machines I have done manually. Please help save my fingers! Thanks

Unfortunetly the LEA are currently pushing it like crazy and the SMT think this gonna save them loads of work!

Hi guys, I have been told to install Target Tracker onto our school network. Problem I have found is that it seems to require Microsoft Office almost exclusively to work! This school uses (quite happily) Open Office 2.0! Arrgh! Is their anyway of making Target Tracker work without having to use MS Office? Thanks, CM786

Thanks SYSMAN I just thought that it would have been integrated in Server2003 R2 anyway.

Just a quickie if I may? Do we need this if the server is running Server2003 R2? I'm experiencing slow logins too- around 3 -4 mins on a XPSP2/Server2003R2 network via a 100Mbps connection. All group policies/software installation is working great - the logins is are just so slow. I might have a DNS issues, but I'm not sure what I should look for? I had a look at Event viewier both on the server and the client PC I logged into and couldn't see any red circles with crosses on. :oops: The login itself is actually quick, its when the PC gets to the "applying personal settings" bit that it takes ages. This is a new network, so their are very few saved profiles on the local client. I am applying a few user group policies at login: Folder Redirection, Student LockDown, Proxy Settings, Startup Scripts and just an Install Office Computer Policy. Any help appreciated.

Nothing that I can remember, but I am back at the school on Monday, so I will double check.

Yep, used exclusively at one of my schools and its pretty decent with a wired connection!

Hi guys, I am using AD with GPO to install the following software in an IT Suite of 20 PCs:- OpenOffice.Org, SmartBoard, Clicker 5. All PCs are the extact same spec and have XP SP2. The problem I have is that 16 of the PCs install the software fine and everything is okay, the remaining 4 just don't install it! All PCs are in the same group (ICTSuiteUnitTwo) and OU and have the same network adaptor driver (Nvidia nForce4 networking controller) and the PCs where the software installation polices don't run on are working fine on the domain apart from this issue. I have tried gpupdate /force and no joy.... Any ideas?? Thanks, CM786

Hi guys, Hope you had a good summer (if you were off!). I have just been given a classlist to create a few accounts on a new Server 2003/XP Network I setup over the summer. Over the summer I created OUs for Nursery, Y1-Y6 etc. I have now been told that the classes are infact mixed ages, so we have Class5/6, Class 3/4 as well as Class 6, Class 3 and Class 4. What would be the best way to put this in my Active Directory structure, so I don't have to do too much reorganisation? I thought about just creating groups... Any advice appreciated. Cheers!

Hi Richard, The software you deploy via Group Policy needs to be a .msi file. I have just deployed Clicker 5 and it is really easy. You install it onto your server and the network install creates an .msi for you which can be deployed via group policy. Once this msi is created you put it in a shared folder (usually called managed apps or whatever) and then you can create a new group policy for clicker 5. In the Computer Configuration options, choose software installations and right click to install a package. Browse to your .msi file on your network share and set it to be assigned. Set your group policy to apply to your computers group and then next time you reboot your PCs they should automatically install the software. If it doesn't work first time a gpupdate /force usually does the trick. This is off memory so hope it makes sense! I have found this website useful too: http://grouppolicy.editme.com/ Good Luck

YES!!!! Its working!! The firewall was on actually, but turning it off made no difference. I then rolled back the driver to the earlier microsoft version (1.12 instead of the 1.16 which was installed) and after a gpupdate /force the software is installing as I type!! Thanks for the help and also welcome to patshaw101, you were spot on!

I'm sure I turned the firewall off, but I'll check...cheers

WORRYINGLY I have another school that I am supposed to visit at the end of August that has a whole itsuite of SIS 900 LAN adapters... :twisted: Anyway... Just off to work now, so the first thing I am going to do is rollback the driver to the standard XP SP2 one as suggested by ajbrittion; (I think I have installed the one off the AsRock website) and hope it works, otherwise I'll try the new driver. @ajbritton - not running sophos, and will check PC event log. Thanks for the help so far....