Command Center

Saturday, January 12, 2013

WINDOWS 7 USB/DVD DOWNLOAD TOOL (WUDT) IS UNABLE TO COPY FILES

Category: Windows 7 — SkyHi @ Saturday, January 12, 2013

You might have heard of the stir that Microsoft’s Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool (WUDT)caused last year when some Open Source watchmen recognized that the tool contained code that violated the GPL. Microsoft was then “forced” to release WUDT under GPLv2. Considering the upset in the media about this incident, I expected a luxurious tool that comes with lots of customization features. I was somewhat disappointed to discover it does nothing else but copy the contents of a Windows 7 install DVD to a USB stick and make it bootable.

The funny thing is that WUDT even failed to perform this simple task with my no-name USB stick. This message was the only thing that the Open Source tool could do for me:

We were unable to copy your files. Please check your USB device and the selected ISO file and try again.

At least, my cheap stick wasn’t the cause because everything worked perfectly when I manually did the job (hopefully without violating any Open Source laws). So, I thought, I would write this post for those who might run into the same problems and think they need to buy another USB stick. After all, this is Microsoft software and there are not many options to integrate bugs in such a simple tool.

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Anyway, here is what you have to do. Launch a command prompt with admin rights and run the diskpart tool. Note: Before you run these commands read the warning below!


diskpart
list disk
select disk #
clean
create partition primary
select partition 1
active
format quick fs=fat32
assign
exit

The “list disk” command will show you the connected drives and with “select disk”, you can choose your USB stick.

WARNING: Be careful to select the right drive or else your day won’t have a happy end because if you select the wrong drive you will lose all your data on this drive!

The crucial step here is the “clean” command. It overwrites the MBR and the partition table (thereby, deleting everything on the stick). My guess is that WUDT misses this step and only formats the flash drive. It appears my memory stick had some odd partitions (which is not uncommon). When I tried WUDT again with this prepared stick, the Open Source tool mastered its task without further murmur.

By the way, this is also the reason why you shouldn’t use the Windows Disk Management applet to prepare the USB stick. This GUI doesn’t offer a clean command.

After you prepare the stick, you have to copy the contents of your Windows 7 DVD to the thumb drive, and you are done. If you only have an ISO file, you can use Virtual CloneDrive to mount the Windows 7 install DVD first.

REFERENCES
http://4sysops.com/archives/windows-7-usbdvd-download-tool-wudt-is-unable-to-copy-files/

Tuesday, January 8, 2013

Force slave BIND9 server reload immediately

Category: Bind DNS — SkyHi @ Tuesday, January 08, 2013

Normally your secondary NS should synchronize by itself after acertain amount of time. The problem for the slave NS is to know aboutchanges. In your primary NS, you can add the "notify yes" command inthe zone declaration, so that salve NS (declared in the zone file!)are notified about changes.If your slave NS is not declared in the SOA of your zone, you can usethe "also-notify x.x.x.x" parameter.
After doing this, the secondary should synchronise as soon as the master has reload the updated zone. If it's not the case, you should have a careful look to the serial number...

Have you enabled
also-notify { ip-to-slave };
for the zone in named.conf?

REFERENCES
https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups=#!topic/comp.protocols.dns.bind/PeNtDguXNBY
http://serverfault.com/questions/379818/bind-dns-master-with-zerigo-slaves-bind-wont-update-the-slave-servers
http://www.mail-archive.com/debian-user@lists.debian.org/msg490738.html

Monday, January 7, 2013

What is Disk Scrubbing

Category: Netapp — SkyHi @ Monday, January 07, 2013

Disk scrubbing is an operation that reads all of the user data and check data blocks in a RAID array, and then relocates them if defects are found in the media. Check data is data stored on member disks that can be used for regenerating any user data that becomes inaccessible. Disk scrubbing can also refer to a software utility that completely wipes out the data on a hard-disk drive by overwriting single files, unused space on a disk, or the entire disk drive.

Excel add multiple blank rows or columns

Category: Windows excel — SkyHi @ Monday, January 07, 2013

When you need to quickly insert 10 blank rows between Row 2 and Row 3 or insert 10 blank rows above specific row in Excel, how would you do? Usually you may insert each blank row one by one. This article focuses on tricky ways to insert multiple blank rows or columns quickly in Excel.

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Insert multiple blank rows or columns quickly with Insert command

You can insert 10 blank rows between Row 2 and Row 3 at once with the following steps:

Step 1: Select 10 entire rows below from Row 3 (includes the row 3).

Step 2: then process the following two ways to insert rows:

Right click the selected rows, and click the Insert item in the context menu, see the following screen shot.
Or you can also click the Home >> Insert >> Insert Sheet Rows.

Then it inserts 10 blank rows between the Row 2 and Row 3 quickly. You can insert multiple blank columns with same way. For example, you can quickly insert 10 blank columns before column 3.

Insert multiple blank rows or columns quickly with keyboard shortcut

Actually, we can apply the keyboard shortcut of F4 to insert multiple blank rows or columns. Firstly of all, insert a blank row above Row 3, then press the F4 key for 9 times, and it inserts 10 blank rows between the Row 2 and Row3.

If you need to insert dozens of blank rows, you have to press the F4 key for many times. Sometimes it may be tedious and time-consuming.

Insert multiple blank rows or columns quickly with Kutools for Excel

Is there a way to insert multiple blank rows or columns, without neither accounting and selecting proper amount of rows nor pressing F4 repeatedly? Yes, the Kutools for Excel's Insert Blank Rows/Columns tool can help you deal with it conveniently.

Step 1: Select the Row 2 and Row 3 in this case; and click the Kutools >> Modify >> Insert Blank Rows/Columns.

Step 2: In the Insert Blank Rows/Columns dialog box, enter 1 in the blank box besides Interval of: and enter 10 in the blank box besides Rows: in the Options section.

Step 3: Click OK.

Then 10 blank rows are added between the Row 2 and Row 3 at a blink of eyes.

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REFERENCES
http://www.extendoffice.com/documents/excel/883-excel-insert-multiple-rows-columns.html

Friday, January 4, 2013

cannot access share by computer name

Category: Windows 7 — SkyHi @ Friday, January 04, 2013

1. Check the status and start-up type of these services.

i. Click start and type services.msc in the search box

ii. Search for these services. Check if the following services are started, if not start the service and set it to automatic. List of services:

i. SSDP Discovery

ii. TCP/IP NetBIOS Helper

iii. Computer Browser

iv. Server

Steps to set the services to automatic

i. Search for the service

ii. Right click on the service

iii. If the service is stopped then Start the service

iv. Select Properties

v. And in the Start-up type select Automatic

2. Run Network troubleshooter, steps to follow:

i. Click on Start

ii. Type in Windows network Diagnostics, press Enter

iii. Check if the issue resolves

Link: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows7/Open-the-HomeGroup-troubleshooter

You may refer the below link for the settings: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows7/Networking-home-computers-running-different-versions-of-Windows

dont know if you figured it out yet. i just installed windows 7 ultimate 64-bit 2 days ago and have been pulling my hair out over the same issue. everything seems to be configured correctly, right? i ended up staring at my network adapter setting for some time and realized the rest of my computers are not using TCP/IPv6, everything else is using v4.

SOLUTION:
So go to your network card settings, scroll down the items and UNCHECK "Internet Protocol Version 6 (TCP/IPv6). Then click on Version 4 -> properties -> advanced -> WINS -> Make sure that the following is enabled, "Enable NetBIOS over TCP/IP.
your computers show up now??

REFERENCES
http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_7-networking/windows-cannot-access-insert-computer-nameplease/1620cbd6-87d8-47b4-8f5d-f04040f4e917

bash extract ip

Category: bash — SkyHi @ Friday, January 04, 2013

# grep -o '[0-9]\{1,3\}\.[0-9]\{1,3\}\.[0-9]\{1,3\}\.[0-9]\{1,3\}' file.txt
# grep -E -o '(25[0-5]|2[0-4][0-9]|[01]?[0-9][0-9]?)\.(25[0-5]|2[0-4][0-9]|[01]?[0-9][0-9]?)\.(25[0-5]|2[0-4][0-9]|[01]?[0-9][0-9]?)\.(25[0-5]|2[0-4][0-9]|[01]?[0-9][0-9]?)' file.txt
#perl -n '/(\d+\.\d+\.\d+\.\d+)/ && print "$1\n"' < file


for i in `cat host2.txt`
do
        host $i
done

REFERENCES
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/427979/how-do-you-extract-ip-addresses-from-files-using-a-regex-in-a-linux-shell

Tuesday, January 1, 2013

Cygwin: How to paste with a right click

Category: Cygwin — SkyHi @ Tuesday, January 01, 2013

For the last few weeks, I've been scratching my head because I could paste content into cygwin with a right click on my work computer, but I couldn't do it at home. And more annoyingly, I couldn't figure it out until a few minutes ago.

To enable paste with a right mouse click, follow these steps (written for dummies like me)

1) Open the cygwin options (aka preferences or settings)

2) Select mouse in the left menu, and select Paste under Right click action

And since the last few versions of cygwin supports windows resize, it has the same good features as putty :).

REFERENCES
http://codeforthesoul.blogspot.ca/2012/09/cygwin-how-to-paste-with-right-click.html