Here is the article on how to install the update on the EX47X machines.

When HP released the HP MediaSmart Server 2.5 Update for the EX48x machines, they also ^[1] announced the full software would not be available to first generation users due “to hardware differences” anhd “the underlying software architecture”. Based on that statement, Nigel Wilks (Cougar) and Alex Kuretz (Yakuza) started work on a way^[2] to make the update available to EX47x owners, dubbed “SanEncore” after the code names for the EX47x (San Juan) and the EX48x (Encore).

Cougar and Yakuza have also developed a Windows Home Server Add-In to fake the Update package into thinking it is running on a 2.1 machine, and handles some of the missing configuration items so that the 2.5 update is sucesful.

This chat takes place after I have already chatted with a different support group, called the IBM parts divions, and the IBM tech support division:

Mohammed: Thank you for accepting our chat service, how may I assist you?
you: When I customize an x3500, at last screen it says: (5652) Planar Base [$699.00] is required for this configuration and has been added for you.
you: What is Planar Base and what about my configuration makes it a requirement?
Mohammed: Is this for yourself (your company) or a client of yours?
you: mysefl
Mohammed: I see. I’m not too familiar with the planar base. I can have a specialist contact you to further discuss this need of yours
you: ok. How long does that normally take?
Mohammed: our usual turnaround is 48 hours
Mohammed: however we can try to have somebody contact you by end of day tomorrow
Mohammed: but I can’t make any promises
you: ok my number is (630) 708-1234
Mohammed: May I have your full name, telephone number, email address, job title, company name and physical address?
you: Chris May, (630) 708-1234, cmay@RealNameRemoved.com that should be good
Mohammed: unfortunately without all the information requested above, I will not be able to have a specialist contact you
you: ok forget it I’ll just buy a Dell

UPDATE: I did buy a Dell.  Stupid IBM couldn’t have someone take 5 minutes and answer a question for someone who wanted to give them $3000. 

When you login to your computer as WhateverUsername, you can have windows store usernames and passwords for SomethingOthername and HelloWorld using the Stored Usernames and Passwords.

Getting to this dialog can be a real pain.  Just run this command from the Run dialog.

rundll32.exe keymgr.dll,KRShowKeyMgr

Today I was trying to do a backup to my WHS and I was getting the message on my client:

Backup is waiting on (cleanup).

After quite a long time, it was still on this message.

I did some investigating on the server and saw that 45 minutes earlier my server had kicked off a backup cleanup process.  This was indicated in the event viewer under “Homeserver”. 

Task Manager also showed whsbackup.exe doing a lot of work.

So, if you run into this, just wait a bit and when the server is done with the cleanup the client backup will start like normal.

What the heck?  This ad does in fact go to Mozy.com.

You can use XXCOPY (www.xxcopy.com) to write simple backup scripts to copy your files to remote storage locations, but you can also use it to compress those files on the NTFS file system.

I have used /CLONE in the past because it’s easy, but a side effect is that all the files will maintain their attributes when copied to the destination.  What this means is that if a file is not compressed at the source, it won’t be compressed at the destination, even if you set the destination folder/drive to be compressed.

To solve this problem you just need to first set the compression attribute of the container of the location you are copying files too, and then use a switch to tell xxcopy to only set the “normal” attribute, which I belive sets the “A” attribute.  Either way, it works.

xxcopy E: /s /ASDC
xxcopy E: /s /AS:C
xXcopy D:FolderRoot*.* E:FolderRoot /CLONE /YY /Z0 /KN

The code here is backing up everything in D:FolderRoot to the E: with compression.

The first step sets the E: to be a compressed drive (this will work for any folder, not just the root of the drive).

The second step sets all files in all folders to be compressed.  This is just to make sure that when this runs at night, no files are missed.

The last step copies all files from the folder we care about, and the /KN swtich allows the destination files to inherit the “C” (compression) attribute from the parent folder.

NitroPDF.com offers a simplified version of their Pro online pdf product for free.

I needed to remove a few pages from a PDF document, and it worked perfect.

http://www.nitropdf.com/free/hammer/index.htm

Here is a link to an article discussing the ways you can reload google adsense ads when the user is doing something AJAXey, or really, whenever.

I wonder though if google allows this type of thing in their terms.  You couldn’t refresh the ad every 2 seconds, so why would they let you refresh the ad ever?  How could you define when you could and couldn’t refresh an ad?

Ever been logged into a machine via RDP and you need to do a reboot but guess what, “restart” isn’t one of your options.  You only have Disconnect and Log Off.  Ooops.  Now what?

No problem, just run this from the command line:

shutdown -r

And thats it.  The system will reboot in 30 seconds.

Connection can not be established.  Server name, port number, or credentials may be invalid.

I just got that message when trying to enter a perfectly valid set of connection/credential info into an SSIS package.  But testing the connection failed.

Turns out my issue, and maybe your issue too, is that SSIS doesn’t remove white space from the server name textbox.  So if you pasted in the name of the FTP server, as I did, you might have fallen victim to the “trailing space” that is frequently copied with your text, and instead of trying to connect to “ftp.com” it tried to connect to “ftp.com ” notice the extra space.