ESX PSOD – Can’t Access TTY

It’s not a good day when an ESX host goes down…thankfully HA brought the VMs back up on another host, but still. Then when the host doesn’t boot back up after…it gets worse. Turns out there was an issue with the storage controller for the local drives – had to load the foreign config and bring the array healthy again. That worked successfully – and ESX started to boot…then I was greeted with this screen: …stuck in busybox. … Read more…

Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 1 – Enabling Dynamic Memory

In a mad dash to “reclaim some of my memory”, I built a DC with some spare hardware, and begun the installation of SP1 on my 2008 R2 host – if you’re wondering why I did that, my [only] other domain controller is a VM. The install was uneventful – I ate dinner while it was going on. When I came back, the two VMs that I had left running were now saved, and SP1 … Read more…

Data ONTAP Simulator on Hyper-V R2

Prior to updating to Server 2008 R2, I had a 1.0 VM running the Data ONTAP Simulator. I had never rebuilt or restored it after the host upgrade, so I figured I would give it a shot. I still had the old VHD – but there was a problem – there was also a snapshot, and I had no idea if it was current, or what. After I created the new VM and added the … Read more…

My [very un-]clean PC

Now it’s time to see if MyCleanPC can really clean an infected PC. So here’s my test Windows XP SP3 VM – the only change I have made is the malware that I ‘accidentally’ downloaded – in reality, it was the typical ‘click-where-I-should-not-have’ and then have an IE window come up looking like the ‘My Computer’ window and being scanned….a very common scare tactic: Your computer is infected, download this program to clean it up! … Read more…

My [not so] Clean PC

Lately, the local stations have been playing the stupid ‘MyCleanPC’ ad A TON. I have never used any of these products and I have always throught that they look cheezy and “gimic-ey”. Here’s the ad: I think the best part is the horrible pink hue on the speaker – hilarious. So I had to try this out and see just what it was all about. So first up, I needed a PC that I could … Read more…

BlogEngine2.0 Installed!!

Hooray! This site is now running on BlogEngine 2.0! The update went fairly well – the worst part was that I forgot that this needs an AppPool that’s running either .NET 3.5 or 4.0…and uhhh…neither were installed. So once that was resolved, everything went very well! I have not played with it at all, but I’m sure I will at some point. For now, the basic install looks better already!

Fine Tuning Media Center 7 – Media Storage

There are several ways to create a media ‘store’ with an HTPC- Store everything on a single local drive (this drive will also hold the OS) Store everything on a network share Store everything on a second local drive Store everything on an external USB\eSATA drive I think the last 2 options provide the easiest and best solutions – especially for large amounts of media. The problem with storing everything on a single local drive, and … Read more…

Changing from IDE Emulation to AHCI

Recently, the second [Media only] hard drive in my HTPC started to fail – my Wife heard lots of good old clicking coming from it. So I checked the SMART status – which reported OK, but there was clearly something wrong with the drive. I also happened to be looking in the BIOS just to make sure everything was OK, and I noticed that all of the SATA ports were set for IDE emulation mode! … Read more…

Fine Tuning Media Center 7 – ATI Display Hardware

When I upgraded to an ATI HD 5770 card, one of the biggest issues with the HDMI output was the odd ‘choppiness’ when scenes went from full color and light to very dark. After I had figured out how to correct it, all was well…then there was a newer version of the ATI Catalyst driver suite. Dynamic Contrast strikes again!!! What I did not realize is that the update reset the settings for Dynamic Contrast … Read more…

Outlook Error When Opening Links

I recently updated both of my Parents’ systems to Windows 7 – and last night I was asked to “Get rid of the security on my Mom’s Outlook”…?…My first thought was UAC. But then- what the heck was she doing that was popping up UAC?? So upon further investigation, the issue was quite different. In Outlook, anytime a web link was clicked the following error showed: This operation has been canceled due to restrictions in … Read more…