Running low on drive letters on the Windows server? Tired of splitting tons of semi-related data between separate drives or of having to deal with folder-by-folder permissions? Of reinstalling the OS when the primary partition gets full?

…think like a UNIX admin and use Windows mounted drives to create a heirachical tree of drives. It’s simple, no more drive letters to remember or map in a startup script. Just create one lettered drive and then map each type of data, NAS device, or however else you want to segment it, to a folder in that one drive. No need for expensive LUN-aggregation software, just use the Disk Management tools in Windows. It’s even possible to migrate all the data in C:\Program Files\ to a NAS device and then use a mounted drive to make the Windows-OS see the NAS as that “Program Files” folder. Having some performance issues with Exchange or SQL Server? You can use move or add a mounted drive to a separate NAS device to separate the log and database files for both server systems.

1. Open the Computer Management control panel, then the Disk Management sub-panel.
2. Right-click the volume you want to mount and choose “Change Drive Letter and Paths”
3. Click Add, select Mount in the following empty NTFS folder and then choose one of the following options:
   • Already have a folder created: type the path to an empty folder in an NTFS-formatted volume or Browse to it
   • No empty folder created yet: click Browse and find where you’d like to place the new folder, then click New Folder and create away

Drive Number Limits: Technically you can have an unlimited number of drives when they’re mapped to folder names instead of drive letters. In reality, approaching 100 separate mounted drives can start to bog down most stock 1U or 2U servers. More RAM and a faster OS-drive (C: drive) are needed to optimize support many more mounted drives.

Article tagged: Windows, Server, NAS, SAN, drive+letters, mapped, mounted, drives, extend, add, migrate, data, compress+drive, SQL+Server, Exchange, separate, database, log, files, performance

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From Windows 95 to Windows XP & Vista the “Unhandled Exception 0×80040707″ error message, pictured below, typically occurs during the installation or update of PC software. The error code is typically associated with the installation program InstallShield, which software vendors wrap around their own software packages so they can install to Windows without interferring with existing software. The error was typically associated with the paths to Shell folders in Windows (ie: the Desktop, Programs, and Startup Menu folders in a user’s or the “All Users” profiles) - there is a detailed description of changing or recreating these paths at InstallShield’s site.

The 0×80040707 error code has become more common recently, as the Data Execution Prevention (DEP) controls (screenshot link) installed by Windows XP SP2 also interfere with InstallShield’s operations and can block its access to the Windows shell folders mentioned earlier. If your shell folder paths are all correct, the likely culprit of the error is Windows’ DEP and these steps should resolve the issue:

1. Find the primary installation file for the program you were installing. If it’s not a single-file installer it’s usually “setup.exe” on a CD, but you can either check the AUTORUN.INF file to see what program it’s calling or dig through the folders on the CD (/bin/, /eng/, and /driver/ are common folders where the true installer program is nested when the setup.exe is just a fancy GUI program).
2. Right-click the installation program and select “Run As…”. If it doesn’t show up the then file may not be an executable > start over at step #1 and look for other files.
3. Uncheck the “Protect My Computer And Data From Unauthorized Activity” box, this deactivates DEP for this executable and its child processes, and click the “OK” button.

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Always looking for a better way to manage my business’ help desk queue, about two weeks ago I bought a copy of the AxoSoft OnTime 2006 software after a $495 to $5 price cut was posted via Robert Scoble. OnTime is designed as a bug tracking system, but Steve Richard’s OnTime 2006 review discussed how it is completely customizable. Both the interface and data store are so customizable that Steve reworked OnTime to manage his personal tasks according to the “Getting Things Done” organizational system.

For just $5 (current and regular price is $495) the 5-user version of OnTime was worth a test as a replacement to our current mixed system of customized (and fragile) Exchange Forms in a Public folder and the non-customizable and no-longer being updated Intuit Track-It software. Only an hour after purchasing OnTime it was running from our existing SQL Server instance with both several Windows clients and a working web interface installed. The installation process was as simple as it can get without not prompting you for any information. The basic installations of Track-It and FrontRange’s Heat helpdesk software were more far complicated and fragile, and neither of those products’ base versions even included the installtion of a web-based client or reporting system.

Customization of OnTime was equally as impressive as installation. Field names, like “bugs” - in the interface here, can be changed within the program’s interface and persist everywhere (data labels, in reports, even menu names and items). With multiple related data categories I quickly configured the system to track Help Desk calls, ongoing tasks, and a basic KnowledgeBase. All three are displayed separately, but with the Projects tree view setup to match our current Exchange forms heirarcy of the network (ie: desktop-, networking-, server-issues, and their sub-items) we can tie them together and better track resources and the cost/benefit of hardware, patches, etc.

Despite all the benefits I forsee, we haven’t fully implemented OnTime yet. A lot of SQL DTS work is required to migrate data from our current systems and the normal management bureaucracy has raised issues related to documenting, training for the help desk staff (aka: documenting the reporting interface for supervisors), and support (I think many are due to the low cost). …but that’s OK, because despite the “incomplete rollout” the Help Desk technicians are already using OnTime to log and answer new calls - they took to it pretty quickly once I installed OnTime’s email-to-OnTime module. The free add-on automatically imports user support requests from Exchange into the OnTime queue. I also expect AxoSoft’s support to be better and less necessary than the $5 price might indicate to my supervisors. I’m also happy to see that AxoSoft’s Hamid Shojaee has his own blog. It’s a good sign that AxoSoft is bound to be far more responsive to requests and error reports than larger software companies, such as my own experiences with Intuit and FrontRange. The software is already serving our small help desk well and I firmly recommend it, even at the regular 5-user price of $495.

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Mr. Dell Support Tech.,

It’s not possible to manually force full-duplex or half-duplex settings on ANY gigabit ports from ANY manufacturer.

Yes, those same ports can still be forced to 10Mbit or 100Mbit full-/half-duplex, only 1000Mbit speed doesn’t support it. No, Dell switches have not been “revised” since your training - they never supported this. Please tell whomever is writing your troubleshooting documentation to revise it; it’s just not correct.

-Mr. Tweak

Article tagged: Dell, phone, tech, support, gigabit, gigE, 1000mbps, 1000Mbit, network, networking, switch, port, force, full-duplex, half-duplex

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