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  1. RebateMonger

    WHS 2003 interrupts iTunes paly during WHS balancing

    There have been occasional complaints about WHS having resource utilization problems when it's trying to deal with very large files (meaning many Gigabytes in size). The client PC backups that WHS makes are a bunch of "small" files that WHS can easily handle. The daily client image backups...
  2. RebateMonger

    How long before you "trust" that a HD won't fail?

    I can't say that's been my experience. I typically use my disks for at least six years and then often give them away to friends who need disks. In the past I've had LOTS of Maxtors and Quantums die early, but the majority of my other disks (mostly WD and Seagate) are still working after six...
  3. RebateMonger

    WHS 2003 interrupts iTunes paly during WHS balancing

    I'm curious what kind of files you are storing. Are there many that are larger than a couple of gigabytes?
  4. RebateMonger

    Was IBM right? The operating system is just there to sell the hardware?

    I also suspect that IBM made A LOT of money from the (probably REQUIRED) software maintenance contracts for their mainframes. Regarding the PC, Microsoft was on a fast development schedule and the small group in Boca Raton didn't have time or people to develop a new PC OS. And they never gave...
  5. RebateMonger

    External drive not assigned a drive letter in XP

    Remove the disk from the housing and either connect it (internally) directly to the PC as a secondary disk or get a SATA/IDE-to-USB adapter cable for ten to twenty bucks. Those all come with their own power supplies.
  6. RebateMonger

    WinDirStat showing 49GB "Unknown" Space?

    While there's good information there, it doesn't show the space used for shadowcopies. The command-line command, "VSSAdmin list shadowstorage" will show the Shadowcopy space used on all disks in the system. For example, my Win7 boot disk, a 320 GB WD SATA disk: Shadow Copy Storage...
  7. RebateMonger

    Memtest+ Errors

    Yeah, I've seen that happen. There's some discussion of it in the Memtest Forums or FAQ (I don't remember exactly).
  8. RebateMonger

    Yet another customer rant.

    Agreed. It's asking for compatibility issues and gives no advantage to most customers. I'd put x32 on any PC for a client unless they specifically asked for x64 and then only if they understand the potential compatibility problems. I sympathize with your client issue and don't have any great...
  9. RebateMonger

    Hard drive positioning issues?

    I don't know exactly how disk drive bearings are constructed, so my knowledge of this topic is limited. I can see how the spindle could be effectively "bent" (maybe more of a bearing issue than a spindle issue). But it seems like the point where the heads read the disk would remain at pretty...
  10. RebateMonger

    Confused about DHCP server issues

    Since Windows 95, the default Windows setting for TCP/IP is that if an IP address is not manually configured or if the NIC doesn't find a DHCP server, then that interface will be given an IP address of the form 169.254.0.1 to 169.254.255.254 with Netmask 255.255.0.0. Clients verify that their...
  11. RebateMonger

    Which version (32 vs 64 bit) to install?

    Win7 Keys are good for either x32 or x64 versions. However, if using Dell Install media, you shouldn't need to enter a Key during the install process.
  12. RebateMonger

    Erm....Win7 HDD limit?

    You'll run out of drive letters at "Z:". A common reason that disks don't show up is if they've been assigned a drive letter that conflicts with a mapped Network drive letter.
  13. RebateMonger

    "F:\ is not accessible. The wrong diskette is in the drive."

    When unexplained errors occur, the first thiing to do is an overnight Memtest86+ and run one or more disk maker's disk diagnostics program against the hard drives. Run these tests using a boot CD. The images are available on http://memtest.org and on the disk makers' sites.
  14. RebateMonger

    Hard drive positioning issues?

    Years ago there were certain orientations that weren't recommended by some disk makers. I know of no current restrictions by anybody. Modern bearing designs and voice coils (versus stepper motors) for head positioning are the likely reasons. Hard drives have been mounted vertically in some...
  15. RebateMonger

    Windows 7 Home Premium Upgrade Family Pack

    Well, technically, there is no such thing as a RETAIL XP Professional x64 version. ALL copies of XP x64 were OEM. That means that, under MS' licensing policy, opened packs of x64 can't be sold unless they come with a prebuilt PC. A SEALED pack can be sold.
  16. RebateMonger

    original xp disk gone

    Historically, Dell has offered a free set of Install and Driver disks to owners upon request. I don't know if the offer is still valid for XP. Call them and ask.
  17. RebateMonger

    Best NAS solution for accessing spare hds

    If you have an old PC with room in the case for those disks, take a look at Windows Home Server software. It'll accomodate virtually ANY combination of disks, with redundancy if you wish. It's designed for "computer-illiterate" families to use, so it's pretty easy.
  18. RebateMonger

    is this a stolen product key?

    These Microsoft Genuine Advantage Forums include Micosoft and other experts who can help you determine the validity of your license. Go to the appropriate forum, run the WGA validation tool as instructed in the stickies, and post the results on the forum...
  19. RebateMonger

    How long before you "trust" that a HD won't fail?

    I actually work just the opposite. My biggest and newest hard disks are used as backup disks. The disks in my working desktop PCs are mostly six-year-old 200 GB IDE disks. I want my backup disks to be the largest ones I own so I can keep multiple backups on them. Probably 80% of my total...
  20. RebateMonger

    2 different RAM brands in 1 computer,will work fine ?

    In 25 years, I've never had a problem with mixing different brands of memory modules. Note that I don't overclock nowadays and I usually run a multi-day Memtest whenever I build a new PC or add a new memory module. This doesn't mean that mixing brands or models can't have consequences...
  21. RebateMonger

    Google Chrome

    Here's a year-old thread nearly identical to yours: http://ubuntuforums.org/archive/index.php/t-1244618.html If it was my computer, I'd rebuild it from scratch or restore it from image backups. And I'd be sure that any remote access software was protected with a very long password, that...
  22. RebateMonger

    Getting around printer drivers install, not enough memory?

    I'm surprised a driver installer wouldn't allow that small memory discrepancy. It's a common issue with built-in video displays. Cheapest and best solution is to add another 512 MB of memory. XP and above will all work better with 1 GB-plus of memory. I guess you could try to steal or borrow...
  23. RebateMonger

    Windows 7 Home Premium Upgrade Family Pack

    The 2009 promotion ended after a month. After that, supplies quickly dried up and it was selling for $250 or more on eBay. The current promotion has been in place about two months, I think (assuming it's still being offered). If you want it, buy it now. Or, at least, don't complain if you...
  24. RebateMonger

    XP Pro RDP vulnerable over the internet?

    The original link was written in 2005. When using the latest Remote Desktop client with the latest versions of Windows, you can require server authentication. I'm hardly an expert in this, but I believe this should prevent man-in-the-middle attacks. Also, remote access to your PCs through...
  25. RebateMonger

    HELP!!! All of my Windows 7 keys from Technet Are BLOCKED by Microsoft

    Remember that MS has been faced with some flagrant subscription license violations in the past couple years. There are a lot of folks selling MSDN subscription Keys on eBay and locally, hurting many people and hurting Microsoft's reputation.
  26. RebateMonger

    HELP!! "System Restore" vs. "Restore Files"

    Before you do ANYTHING to the disk, clone the hard disk to another disk. Then work on the clone. Or do any file restores to another hard drive. Windows "System Restore" only restores the Registry and Windows system files. At least that was true with XP and I don't believe that changed (but I...
  27. RebateMonger

    ASR - Can't find Backup Utility

    Some OEM installations of XP Home didn't include NTBackup, but it't normally on the Install CD. On XP and 2003: \Start\Programs\Accessories\System\Backup (Or maybe it's "All Programs" instead of "Programs". I can never remember.)
  28. RebateMonger

    How long before you "trust" that a HD won't fail?

    Hard drives can and will fail at any time, often without warning. I back up my servers on multiple hard drives and my "super-critical" information is also on Carbonite. My desktop PCs are backed up nightly using Windows Home Server. Probably 80% of my hard drives are used for backups...
  29. RebateMonger

    what size HDD for dedicated NAS WHS install?

    Since the Sys partition only takes 20 GB of the space, I'd recommend a "normal" install on a disk larger than 65 GB. Most of my installs are on 1 TB Hitachi SATA disks with additional disks as needed. I don't recommend using RAID on WHS (although you can if you want). I MUCH prefer making...
  30. RebateMonger

    How to trace a hacker?

    I remember a classic TV interview of some guy who was posing as a woman on the Internet. HE was the one pretending he was a woman, but HE was laughing at the people he'd fooled, saying they were sick f**ks. Also, note to the O.P.: It's almost impossible for someone to take over your computer...
  31. RebateMonger

    what size HDD for dedicated NAS WHS install?

    You might want to read MS' whitepaper on WHS' drive extender to better understand how it works. If WHS is installed on a 65 GB disk, for instance, it creates two partitions: A 20 GB "Sys" partition and a 45 GB "Data" partitioin. When you add more disks to the WHS Storage Pool, those other...
  32. RebateMonger

    Win7 supports mounting VHD files, yes? What about multi-partition ones?

    I don't know all the differences between Virtual PC 2007 and "Windows Virtual PC" (XP Mode) in Win7 Business/Ultimate. But I can say that USB flash drives are supported fine in Win7/Virtual PC. I run both the built-in XP virtual machine and a Win7 Home Premium virtual machine on my Win7...
  33. RebateMonger

    what size HDD for dedicated NAS WHS install?

    WHS partitions the primary disk into two sections: SYS and DATA. The SYS partition has about 6 GB of stuff on it. The DATA portion used to hold a "landing zone" for files being imported, but I believe that's gone now. I believe that the DATA partition has to hold the file catalog for the Drive...
  34. RebateMonger

    XP Hanging on "Windows XP is starting up"

    If the problem wasn't caused by malware, you may be able to fix it by doing an XP Repair Install. MS and other sites have details on how to perform this.
  35. RebateMonger

    what size HDD for dedicated NAS WHS install?

    As noted, WHS requires a 65 GB disk for the primary disk. Old Hippie already gave the size of the install DVD.
  36. RebateMonger

    Patin Couffin engine

    http://www.techsupportforum.com/microsoft-support/windows-xp-support/127630-patin-couffin-engine.html "It is a component of that burning software, try letting it auto install, if it asks for a location direct it to the program(s) folder in turn if more than 1 and see if it will pick up what...
  37. RebateMonger

    WinXP hanged during Windows with loading bar

    I had a similar situation when a Trial install of Office 2007 went bad on one of my PCs. It'd start in Safe Mode, but not otherwise. I tried the tricks I know, but no luck. I did an XP "Repair Install" on that box and it fixed the problem. MS and others have detailed instructions on how to do...
  38. RebateMonger

    Finally, someone said it... Chrome has no need to exist...

    I'm wondering how many folks here remember the days of mainframe-based applications and how much of a pain they were. You couldn't choose what software you wanted to use to do your job and it took forever to get upgrades. Software innovation would likely be discouraged, just like in the...
  39. RebateMonger

    Win7 supports mounting VHD files, yes? What about multi-partition ones?

    Yeah, while homeowners may be able to ignore this and transfer old OEM licenses, it's a pretty big advantage in businesses, that could be audited for licensing compliance. It's becoming a bigger deal now that it's getting near-impossible to BUY a "legal" XP Professional license.
  40. RebateMonger

    How to trace a hacker?

    ^^^ this. And back up your data, wipe the disk, and securely re-install your operating system and applications. Next time, be more careful about having a router,a patched OS and applications, passwords, antivirus, and general PC hygiene. In general, if there IS a hacker, it's nothing...