Well I have been playing (or is it called working) with Microsoft Network Operating Systems for almost 10 years commercially now, over 15 if you include my school and college years when I was hacking the school and college network . In all those years I have never really looked at another OS, I spent some time on one of my Jobs looking at OS/2 as we were having problems getting it to talk to different subnets on the network but that was about it. I used to also try playing around with Linux, Red hat was the build I tried to install, never got that far, I then managed to install Mandrake but didn't get very far with that.

In recent months I have been looking at Ubuntu, you can download it free from www.ubuntu.com or you can request a free CD from them (it takes up to 6 Weeks to be delivered but still worth getting a copy as you get several different builds sent to you). Any way so I downloaded an ISO image of Ubuntu 32-bit 7.10. The installation was so straight forward. although I do have some spare kit I wanted to try installing it on a Virtual PC first so I created a new Virtual Machine on my Laptop and to my surprise there was an option in VMware for Ubuntu if you select Custom Settings for your Virtual Machine.

So I decided to keep all my settings as default for this Virtual PC and see how the installation went.

I set the CD Rom as the IS image I had downloaded and then booted up the Virtual PC that I had assigned an 8GB disk to.

The installation was so straight forward, where as my experience of Linux installations years ago I usually ended up killing my Harddisk or accidentally wiping my windows machine if I was trying to dual boot. I jsut left all the settings as default in the installation and I had it installed in no more than 30 minutes. I have to say I was pretty impressed with the way it installed. I didn't need to install any other drivers and it picked up the bridged network adapter I had assigned to it so I was able to browse the Internet. Then just as I thought it couldn't be any better looking through the menus I saw an option for updates!

I have to say that I am Impressed with Ubuntu I am sure that all builds of Linux are as good but the simplicity of the installation and then browsing my network as well was great! So if you have a PC that can run guest operating systems I would recommend that you try Linux on there any build you wish but I would have to recommend Ubuntu

For some time now I have been playing around with VMware's Free Product of VMWare Server. I have found it very useful for a few testing scenarios, and also for a couple or DR Purposes. I have also found it very handy when I needed to do a restore of our Domain from the Year End backup for 2003, since then we have upgraded to Windows 2003 and also got rid of the old kit!

We had a need several months ago to do a restore of Exchange from 2003 as some one had deleted and email and apparently it was very important!, Well at the end of 2003 we were still running Windows 2000 and Exchange 2000 on HP NetServers. The DC was an LC2000r and the Exchange Server was an LH3000r, well as it was requested in September 2007 all our unused HP kit had been disposed of or cannibalised for spare parts! Unlike Windows 2003 Server, Windows 2000 is very picky on what hardware you restore it on to, so I thought that I would try restoring on to Virtual Servers. I had a Dell PowerEdge SC 440 with 2 HDD's in it, 1 x 160GB and 1 x 500GB. so I installed the Host OS on it just a basic Windows 2003 server and then installed VMWare Server 1.0.3 on (can be downloaded for free from Vmware).

I created 2 Virtual Servers on the host, and then restored the servers as I would have done if they had been physical and to my astonishment the servers booted up with no problems what so ever, ok so there was the slight problem of the partition numbers not matching up to those in the boot.ini file, but that was fixed by creating a boot disk loading up windows and then modifying the file accordingly.

OK so I got the Admin Pack running on Windows Vista through manually registering the DLL's. The next step in my testing was Windows 2008 Server, so like most other techies I decided to download Windows 2008 Server from our MSDN Subscription. The install was identical to Vista, with the exception of being asked if I wanted to install a console version or the windows version.

So I have installed windows and all is running fine, I then tried to installed the Admin tools and Exchange System Manager. I had the same problem as I had with Vista, I ran the setup for the Admin Pack and it installed, however when I went into my MMC and add in Active Directory Users and Computers I got the following error:

I got the same error when I tried to add the Active Directory Sites and Services.

I ran the same script that I had to run on Vista and it seemed to work.

@echo off

set filelist=adprop.dll azroles.dll azroleui.dll ccfg95.dll
set filelist=%filelist% certadm.dll certmmc.dll certpdef.dll certtmpl.dll
set filelist=%filelist% certxds.dll cladmwiz.dll clcfgsrv.dll clnetrex.dll
set filelist=%filelist% cluadmex.dll cluadmmc.dll cmproxy.dll cmroute.dll
set filelist=%filelist% cmutoa.dll cnet16.dll debugex.dll dfscore.dll
set filelist=%filelist% dfsgui.dll dhcpsnap.dll dnsmgr.dll domadmin.dll
set filelist=%filelist% dsadmin.dll dsuiwiz.dll imadmui.dll lrwizdll.dll
set filelist=%filelist% mprsnap.dll msclus.dll mstsmhst.dll mstsmmc.dll
set filelist=%filelist% nntpadm.dll nntpapi.dll nntpsnap.dll ntdsbsrv.dll
set filelist=%filelist% ntfrsapi.dll rasuser.dll rigpsnap.dll rsadmin.dll
set filelist=%filelist% rscommon.dll rsconn.dll rsengps.dll rsjob.dll
set filelist=%filelist% rsservps.dll rsshell.dll rssubps.dll rtrfiltr.dll
set filelist=%filelist% schmmgmt.dll tapisnap.dll tsuserex.dll vsstskex.dll
set filelist=%filelist% w95inf16.dll w95inf32.dll winsevnt.dll winsmon.dll
set filelist=%filelist% winsrpc.dll winssnap.dll ws03res.dll

for %%i in (%filelist%) do (
echo Registering %%i ...
regsvr32 /s %%i
)

echo.
Echo Command Completed

again copy and paste this into a cmd file and then right click on the cmd file and select Run as administrator.

The Exchange System Manager was the same I ran the setup and it would not install:

I had to copy the DLL files over and then register one of the DLL's as I did on Vista:

What you need to copy to your %systemroot%\system32 folder:

• From your Exchange\BIN folder in my case: G:\Program Files\Exchsrvr\BIN\
  • address.dll
  • escprint.dll
  • exchmem.dll
  • glblname.dll
  • maildsmx.dll
  • pttrace.dll
• From the %systemroot%\System32 on the Exchange Server:
  • netui0.dll
  • netui1.dll
  • netui2.dll
• the DLL you need to register is the maildsmx.dll, to do this you will need to create the following CMD file:

regsvr32 c:\windows\system32\maildsmx.dll

Save the CMD file as maildsmx.cmd in to your documents folder and then browse to the folder and right click the CMD file and select Run as administrator.

Hey presto you can now use these tools on Windows 2008 Server.

OK so my previous post was for getting subtext running on your local vista machine. but this is no good if you cannot connect to your database. So what you can do is create a new Database in your SQL 2005 Express instance on your computer or make a back up of your live database and then restore that on your local computer.

Creating a new Database is very simple. load up the SQL Server Management Studio Express and login as your sa account:

Once logged in right click on Databases and select new.

for the example I have called my database Subtext_offline. Click on ok and that is your database created.

Make sure that your web.config has its data connections pointing to your localhost and the new database. If you are wanting to create a new database then all you need to do is load up your offline subtext in your web browser and go through the installation process. If you want to have a copy of your live database you will need to make a backup of it and then restore over your local Database.

to make a backup you wil need to use the management tools your hosting company use, they are usually pretty straight forward to do. Once you have made a backup of it save the backup file to you local computer.

Right click on the Database that you created and go to the following option:

Select From Device

Click Add and then browse through your computer for the backup file
Select the File and then click on OK

Click on OK again

Check the option to restore the Database

Then click on the

Make sure that you set the restore paths are set to something that exists on your computer as the backup sets may contain the paths that they existed on on the live server.

Also make sure that you Check the Overwrite the existing database option other wise you will not ba able to restore it.

once you have done that you will then have a copy of your live database on your offline site.

So I have been using Subtext for quite some time now.. ok so my Blog only looks like it has been running since Jan 2008, but I had some issues on my Database I tried to repair it but no joy so I decided to kill it and re-start with a fresh one.

When I started my blog originally I had an "offline" copy running on my XP on IIS 6, however since then I have got myself a new laptop running Vista Ultimate. so I installed IIS on it and downloaded a backup of my Subtext Database and then created the website. ha ha not that simple in IIS 7.0! so here goes my "how to" to get subtext up and running on Vista.

So First things first if you haven't done so already install IIS onto your Vista Machine, you can do this through the Control Panel and instead of Add/Remove Programs its called Programs and Features. Then in there you can Turn Windows Features on or off. Make sure you also install classic ASP as well.

Right one that is installed load up your IIS Manager:

As you will see the IIS manager in Vista is quite different from that for Windows XP but then again I guess the Difference in XP was pretty big from that in Windows 2000 (that long ago I cannot remember)!

For this example I had an offline copy of my Website sitting in C:\Website\Offline\ but it doesn't really matter where you place it, if you wanted to you could put it in your wwwroot folder in inetpub.

Also make sure you have a copy of your subtext Database restored in your SQLExpress if not then there will be a post on how to do that later on.

The next thing to do is to add a new Virtual Directory

enter in the details for the Virtual Directory.

For my Alias I called it Subtext_Offline

Enter in the Path; my path was:

C:\Websites\Offline

Click OK.

The next thing you want to do is Convert the Virtual Directory to an application to do this right click on the Virtual Directory:

Once that has been done you will need to change your web.config to point to your local database. You will then have an offline copy of your subtext website working on vista.

OK so I have got XBMC running on my Softmoded xbox and every time I start it up it goes into the evox dash.

To save time and to make my life easier I wanted to make my xbox load directly into XBMCto do this you need to replace the default.xbe file with a shortcut to your xbmc default.xbe file.

To do this you will need to download the XBE Shortcut Maker. Locate your XBMC default.xbe file, make a note of where it is located on your xbox. mine was stored in: e:\Apps\XBMC\default.xbe

Launch the XBE Shortcut Maker and set the Target Path to "E:\Apps\XMBC\default.xbe"

Click the "Create Shortcut" button.

once you have saved the shortcut open up your FTP Program I use SmartFTP but you can use FlashFXP too and connect to your xbox.

Do you have an old xbox that you bought years ago and played games on it for all of about 6 weeks? wondering what to do with it? well you could turn it in to a Media Center. that is what I did with mine, not only that you can put a bigger Hard Disk in too.

I have my xbox running with a 250GB HDD, have an F: for Music, Movies, Pictures etc.... and then a G: that I can copy my games on to! saves me having to find the Games when I do decide to play on it.

well if you want to know how its done then I will be posting up some links here as well as writing my on FAQ on how I done it.

one thing it is worth to remember is if you are swapping out your HDD do not bin your old one keep it as it is and put it in a safe place as that will be your fall back option! if you do not have that to fall back on in the event of any failure then you will be up the creek with out a paddal!

Rather than posting a complete guide myself to Hack your xbox I thought I would link you in to the one that I used:

Please note that no one other than your self can be responsible for anything that happens to your xbox

• http://forums.afterdawn.com/thread_view.cfm/228232

This hack uses the splinter cell game and loads the hack through the game save.

To put it in simple terms these are the basic steps:

1. Copy the gamesave on to the action replay
2. Copy from the action replay to the xbox using the xbox dash board
3. load up splinter cell
4. load the game called Linux
5. then follow the on screen instructions!
6. then once installed load up your new dash board and set the FTP details.
7. then get a copy of the XBMC and copy the files across using ftp!

http://forums.afterdawn.com/ provides some good threads on anything to do with xbox softmodding

To Find out more about XBMC visit the XBMC Website

I thought I would post this article up as I do not know about you but I spent ages trying to work out what was causing a particular problem that I was having with in my DMZ.

This is the layout of my DMZ:

The DMZ is configured as so:

Webserver1:                  10.100.1.128
Webserver2:                  10.100.1.130
Webserver3:                  10.100.1.132
ISA Server:                    10.100.1.126
PIX int:                          10.100.1.29
PIX Ext:                         212.43.179.86
                                     212.43.179.87
                                     212.43.179.88
                                     212.43.179.89
                                     212.43.179.90
FrontEnd Exchange:       10.101.1.132
Client1 on LAN:              10.101.7.154
Exchange Server:           10.10.1.130
Client2 on LAN:              10.10.7.166

OK so you have the IP address for the components in the Network diagram now.

The external IP’s for the Firewall are all linked to DNS names:

212.43.179.86 – www.mydomain.co.uk port 80 – http
212.43.179.87 – www.mydomain.co.uk port 443 – https/SSL
212.43.179.88 - @maydomain.co.uk port 25 SMTP
212.43.179.89 – email.mydomain.co.uk port 443 – https/SSL

All servers in the DMZ had their default gateway set to the internal IP Address of the PIX.

The problem I was having was when I checked the logfiles of the webservers to check to see who had been accessing the websites the source IP address was that of the ISA server not the client making the request. Although in the grand scheme of things this is not important if you then want to use the log files to get stats on who has been visiting your site etc… you will not get any results as you will only have 1 IP Address showing up, the IP of the ISA server

My immediate thought was that I had not checked the option in ISA to forward the requesting IP, however I had done that. Some other solutions were saying I needed to create a public/private ISA setup. One other possible solution I came across was to set the default gateways on the webservers to the IP of the ISA Server not the PIX. I tried this and I started getting the IP Addresses of the clients accessing the website, however any client in my LAN could not access the webservers.

What I needed to do was manipulate the routing tables on each webserver to point any traffic for the LAN subnets to use the PIXs’ IP Address as the gateway no the ISA server IP.

The way to do this is very simple it turns out. Use the route command from a dos window:

For the subnets I wanted to see I added the following persistent routes:

Route ADD 10.10.0.0 MASK 255.255.0.0 10.100.1.29 –p
Route ADD 10.101.0.0 MASK 255.255.0.0 10.100.1.29 –p
Route ADD 10.110.0.0 MASK 255.255.0.0 10.100.1.29 –p

After I added these static routes I could access the webservers from within my LAN using the internal DNS name where www.mydomain.co.uk = 10.100.1.128.

.

OK so I got the PFN_LIST_CORRUPT Blue screen again, rebooted and got this one! that is after the Dell engineer replaced my motherboard and RAM, well supposedly replaced my RAM.... took the suspect stick out and funnily enough my PC boots up OK   so who knows did he or didn't he replace my RAM???

From looking around at some forums and googling the error a lot of people point it to a driver issue. however in my case I do not think so.

A lot of time a blue screen can be fixed by booting into safe mode and uninstalling drivers etc... however if it blue-screens going into safe mode then you can be pretty sure that it is not a driver issue. The only time I have had that problem is on a Dell Precision Workstation 370 where the RAID config wasn't right in the BIOS, set to AHCI as opposed to SATA, a simple change in the BIOS fixes the problem.

Ever seen the above blue screen error message either during an XP Installtion or on an Installed PC? Switched my PC on at work this morning and had it!! done you jsut love those blue screens of death!

Did a goodle on the error and it appears to be pointing to the Memory, changed the memory config.... moved one DIMM in to another slot etc.... but still got it! I think that it is more thank likely a hardware fault rather than Software as it is now happening during install! I have tried it with the on board graphics, PCIe graphics plugged in, different memory and a new hard disk but still getting the error so I think that this one will be a call in to Dell to get an engineer/technician out here to replace my motherboard as that is the only think I can think of what might be causing this problem!

OK so what has Microsoft now done with the Run As command? it appears they have replaced it with the Run as administrator command:

The Run as administrator will only allow you to run applications as the local admin, so if you want to run an MMC as the domain admin, (as MS best practices is to not run interactively as a domain admin) what do you do?

My first thought was that of what I thought before; System Admins are going to need to run two OS's if you are wanting to try out Vista...

1. Your Vista Machine for playing around on and testing
2. Your XP Machine to do your daily Admin tasks.

I did a search on the Internet for a solution to this, I was given several results one option is to run this from a command prompt:

H:\> /env /user:tmau-akemp@domain.com "mmc %systemroot"\system32\dsa.msc"

but I got the error:

Error 740: The requested operation requires elevation

I then found an article on the Internet to change the policy for the Admin Approval from prompt for consent to prompt for credentials.

1. To do this create a shortcut to GPedit.msc and then run as administrator.
2. Go to Computer Configurations\Security Settings\Local Policies\Security Options
3. Double click on "User Account Control: Behavior of the elevation prompt for administrators in Admin Approval Mode" and change the value from Prompt for Consent to Prompt for Credentials

now try to run your mmc shortcut as administrator you will be prompted for the credentials of an Administrator.

Tip if you are wanting to run as a local admin then use the .\ before the username this will default you to the local machine.

Well I finally decided to think about using Windows Vista, we have a copy of it at work for use with our MSDN Subscription. So I commandeered a decent laptop with plenty of RAM and good processor and installed Vista on it.

The install was pretty straight forward, installed the OS, installed the drivers, installed some updates and we were ready to rock and roll.

I then installed the Active Directory Tools, these went on no bother. Then I thought I'll install ESM 2003, now, as this needs IIS 6/IIS 5 installed I thought I'll install IIS. question was where? I opened up control panel went to find Add/Remove Programs... .... where was it??? found out I had to go to Programs in control panel and then Turn on or off Windows Features.

So I install IIS and then tried ESM 2003 but....

... the computer said NO. you need to have IIS Admin tools installed. Which I had done.

So I did a google on "Exchange 2003 Management Console and Vista "

And found this link:

http://forums.microsoft.com/technet/showpost.aspx?postid=946915&siteid=17&sb=0&d=1&at=7&ft=11&tf=0&pageid=0

And it said:

"The Exchange Management Console and Exchange Management Shell are not currently supported on Vista (and for that matter, neither is Exchange System Manager from previous versions of Exchange).  Support for Vista for the Exchange 2007 tools will be provided in a future service pack. "

I mean what are Microsoft thinking, if we want to keep up to date with the OS etc... we cannot do our job as a System Admin if their products do not support previous versions of their own products.

Any way back to the problem. There is no actual way to get ESM running on your Vista Machine, but what you can do is manually register certain DLL's to give you the Exchange Tabs in Active Directory Users and Computers.

The only other way to get to the ESM is to either RDP on to your Exchange Server or install a Virtual XP Machine to run some of your Admin tools.

What you need to copy to your %systemroot%\system32 folder:

• From your Exchange\BIN folder in my case: G:\Program Files\Exchsrvr\BIN\
  • address.dll
  • escprint.dll
  • exchmem.dll
  • glblname.dll
  • maildsmx.dll
  • pttrace.dll
• From the %systemroot%\System32 on the Exchange Server:
  • netui0.dll
  • netui1.dll
  • netui2.dll
• the DLL you need to register is the maildsmx.dll, to do this you will need to create the following CMD file:

regsvr32 c:\windows\system32\maildsmx.dll

Save the CMD file as maildsmx.cmd in to your documents folder and then browse to the folder and right click the CMD file and select Run as administrator.

I got the info here from http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/930056:

You experience installation errors and compatibility problems when you install Windows Server 2003 management tools on a Windows Vista-based computer

Download the Adminpak.msi for Windows 2003 Server SP1 from MS if you do not already have it on your network: click here to download it.

Once you have installed it and you run the ADUC you will get the following error:

MMC could not create the snap-in.

You will need to create and run the following CMD file. This will register all the DLL's needed for the Adminpak to run, you can just register them yourself but this may save you time.

cut and paste the following into a CMD file called Adminpak_vista.cmd for example.

@echo off

set filelist=adprop.dll azroles.dll azroleui.dll ccfg95.dll
set filelist=%filelist% certadm.dll certmmc.dll certpdef.dll certtmpl.dll
set filelist=%filelist% certxds.dll cladmwiz.dll clcfgsrv.dll clnetrex.dll
set filelist=%filelist% cluadmex.dll cluadmmc.dll cmproxy.dll cmroute.dll
set filelist=%filelist% cmutoa.dll cnet16.dll debugex.dll dfscore.dll
set filelist=%filelist% dfsgui.dll dhcpsnap.dll dnsmgr.dll domadmin.dll
set filelist=%filelist% dsadmin.dll dsuiwiz.dll imadmui.dll lrwizdll.dll
set filelist=%filelist% mprsnap.dll msclus.dll mstsmhst.dll mstsmmc.dll
set filelist=%filelist% nntpadm.dll nntpapi.dll nntpsnap.dll ntdsbsrv.dll
set filelist=%filelist% ntfrsapi.dll rasuser.dll rigpsnap.dll rsadmin.dll
set filelist=%filelist% rscommon.dll rsconn.dll rsengps.dll rsjob.dll
set filelist=%filelist% rsservps.dll rsshell.dll rssubps.dll rtrfiltr.dll
set filelist=%filelist% schmmgmt.dll tapisnap.dll tsuserex.dll vsstskex.dll
set filelist=%filelist% w95inf16.dll w95inf32.dll winsevnt.dll winsmon.dll
set filelist=%filelist% winsrpc.dll winssnap.dll ws03res.dll

for %%i in (%filelist%) do (
echo Registering %%i ...
regsvr32 /s %%i
)

echo.
Echo Command Completed

Browse to the folder where you saved the CMD file and then right click on it and select Run as administrator this will then go through and register the DLL's.

**Disclaimer**
This is for your information only follow at your own risk I cannot beheld responsible if for any reason it goes wrong.

This Tutorial will guide you on how to replace your HDD in your xbox with out affecting the original one, so if anything does go wrong you will still have a functioning xbox.

OK so you have a softmodded xbox and you want to replace the original 8gb HDD with a bigger one, after all bigger is better.

Assumption that you are using the evox or unleashedx dashboard's

Equipment you need:

• Softmodded xbox (goes without saying)
• Torx 10 and 20 Screwdrivers (to open your xbox)
• A Blank HDD make sure it is a lockable Disk http://www.xbox-hq.com/html/modules.php?name=Xbox_HardDrives will give you a list of Disks that are compatible. I used a Western Digital HDD
• FTP Software (I use smartftp)
• A Blank CD or DVD depending on the Size of your ISO Image
• xboxhdm 1.9 (found at xbins in the directory /XBOX/Operating Systems/Linux/distributions) or if you cannot get there contact me and I will sort out a copy for you.

Process:

1. Once you have downloaded xboxhdm 1.9 extract the files onto your PC. this will create a folder called xboxhdm within that folder there will be several subfolders.

2. On your xbox's evox/unleashed dash go to the system utilities and select backup. Once the backup is complete run your FTP Program and go to E:\Backup_Linux and download a file called "eeprom.bin" to the xboxhdm\linux\eeprom folder. The go to the root of your xbox and download the full folders of C and E to your PC's xboxhdm\linux folder and overwrite any data that is already in those folders on your PC.

3. In the root of xboxhdm there is a file called make-iso-win. Run this file. Once finished burn the iso called linux.iso that is in the root of xboxhdm to a CDR or DVDR (dependant on the size it is)

4. Shutdown your PC and disconnect all your current HDD's. and connect the HDD you want to make as an xbox HDD as the Primary Master. Make sure that your BIOS is set to boot off of CD. Put in the recently created CD/DVD into your PC's CD/DVD Drive and boot up your PC.

5. Select option 1 (keying in "1") and press enter to boot VGA Console with xbox-drive utilities (default). Type "xboxhd" when it asks you for a login. This will bring up a further list of options. Select option 1 again (it will say "Build a new xbox HD from scratch"). It will begin to format and write the partition table and data to the disk. If you put the C and E Folders on to the CD/DVD then when asked about them type "Yes", also if it asks you if you would like and F drive select yes. It is all pretty self explanatory. once completed re-boot your PC. If that worked you have a nearly-usable xbox HDD.

6. You now need to lock your HDD. Boot from the CD again, but this time select option 3 and hit enter to boot linux with locking/unlocking utilities. Then type "lockhd -a". It will search for the eeprom.bin on the CD and will automatically lock the hard drive. Turn off your PC and disconnect the HDD and put it into your xbox.

7. Have fun playing with your xbox

If your HDD is bigger than 137GB you will need to format the remaining space using unleashedx or XBPartitioner (available from xbins)

This how to tells you how to create a slipstreamed Windows 2003 Server with SP2 Installation CD.

What you need:

• Windows Server 2003 or Windows Server 2003 with SP1 Installation CD.
• 1.2GB of free disk space (only for the creation you can delete the files after
• Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 2 download for free from Microsoft
• ISO Buster download for free from Isobuster
• Nero (I tried with Sonic but you need Nero to set the settings)
• 1 Blank CD-R

You can do this on any computer running Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Server 2003 or Windows Vista.

What you need to do:

Create a folder: C:\W2K3

Then insert your Windows Server 2003 CD in to the CD Drive and copy the entire contents of the CD to that folder.

Next Install ISO Buster, Pretty straight forward. In the Left hand pane select Bootable CD from under CD\Session 1\Track 01:

In the right hand pane right click  the item named "Microsoft Corporation.img" and select "Extract Microsoft Corporation.img"

Save the file to the root of C:\.

*NB OEM CD's from Companies like Dell and HP may have named their img file something different.*

That's you finished with your Windows Server 2003 CD now.

Create the Following Folder: C:\W2K3_SP2

Extract your SP2 files to that folder by running the following command:

location of SP\WindowsServer2003-KB914961-SP2-x86-ENU.exe /x

Type in the name of the folder you want to extract to "C:\W2K3_SP2" and click OK. Windows will then extract the files in the Service Pack to that folder.

Once that has completed you are then ready for the slipstreaming process.

Go to start and click run (or press the Windows Key and R simultaneously)

Type in:

c:\win2k3_sp2\i386\update\update.exe -s:c:\W2K3

press enter. you will then see the following:

Once done you will see:

Once the slipstreaming process is complete the next thing to do is to create your CD.

Launch Nero Burning Rom and create a new bootable CD ROM  compilation. Use the following settings:

• Image file: C:\Microsoft Corporation.img (or appropriate name of the img file)
• Kind of emulation: No Emulation
• Number of loaded sectors: 4

Once that is all done click New. Drag the files in the C:\W2K3 Folder on to the CD area.

Label the CD (I called it the same as the original Windows Server 2003 CD).

Then the best thing to do is create an ISO image of the CD to start with. To do this select Recorder from the menus and then select Choose Recorder (or press Ctrl + R):

Select Image Recorder and click OK. Then click on the Burn Button then click burn again:

Browse to where you want to save the image to and give it and name and make sure you select ISO as the file type (so you can burn it using other writers not only Nero and click save. you will then see the following status window:

Once completed you will see the report:

Now burn your Iso Image to CD and that is you ready to go with your Windows Server 2003 with Service Pack 2 pre installed with the OS.

I recently tried a restore of an Exchange Backup on to a DR (disaster Recovery) system as I wanted to test the diskpart utility as our exchange servers are running out of space.

I ran a full AD and Exchange backup of the live system, then plugged that backup server into a small DR Network.I had already backed up and restored AD. So I restored the Exchange Server's file system, System State, re-booted and all loaded ok. Next thing was to restore the Mail Stores. I kicked that off and as my mini network was running at 1.0gpbs the restore of 202gb mail data only took one and a half hours.

After the restore had completed I opened up ESM (Exchange System Manager) and noticed that the Mail Stores were not mounted. I tried a Manual Mount but I got the following error:

An internal processing error has occurred. Try restarting the Exchange System Manager or the Microsoft Exchange Information Store service, or both.
ID no: C1041724
Exchange System Manager

Microsoft have said that this issue can occur if there is insufficient free disk space on the drive that contains the databases that you are trying to mount... well in my case this could be the cause as we have a 195GB Drive holding all Mail Databases with only 4GB free space..

Their typical "Resolution" is to free up some space on the disk... well that could be a problem if it is only Exchange Data on that drive.

The other solution that MS suggested was to run the ESEUTIL on the Databases in question using the /d switch

The ESEUTIL can be located in the %program Files%\Exchsrvr\BIN folder. The command line is ESEUTIL /d Database Path and Name. What i decided to do was put the Path of the ESEUTIL into the Environment Variables on the Server:

To do that Right Click on My Computer and select Properties and go to the Advanced Tab

Click on Environment Variable and Double click on Path in the System Variables:

Enter in the Following:

;G:\Program Files\Exchsrvr\bin

G:\ is the drive where I have installed Exchange to.

Click OK, OK and OK again. you can now run a Command Prompt and from any path type "ESEUTIL" and you will run the ES Utility.

if you have the same problem as me then you will need to use a few extra switches to set the temp location for the streamed databases and STM files. the command I used was:

eseutil /d EdiPartner.edb /t: P:\edipartner.edb /f P:\edipartner.stm

The Databases are held on the G: but I only have 5GB free and the edb file and stm file use 70GB (edb file is 52GB and STM file is 18GB). The P: on the server has 115gb of free space.

Once that has run you should then be able to Mount your mail store.

It would be worth backing your system up now as well.

My next post will be for the "DiskPart" utility to extend the G:\.