Was going crazy because I made several random changes in my router and suddenly two of the computers in my LAN could not resolve IP addresses… it took me a while to realize that the change that affected that is that I added a reservation in the static IP leases, and in the name I included an apostrophe…
So don’t do it.
SQL 2005 database created and used by default by Outlook 2007 with BCM. Recently ran into the infamous error message “Could not allocate space for object … in database … because the ‘PRIMARY’ filegroup is full. Create disk space by deleting unneeded files, dropping objects in the filegroup, adding additional files to the filegroup, or setting autogrowth on for existing files in the filegroup.”
Yet the database was less than 3 GB, plenty of space and autogrowth was set to true. But for some reason the autogrowth setting was set to 50% (by default, I never changed that setting) and when I changed that to increase by 10 MB instead, magically the error disappeared.
My best guess is that growing a 3 GB database by 50% would put it over the 4 GB limit for a SQL 2005 database. But it’s just a guess.
This is so I don’t forget what I did to set this up correctly, since I spent hours tweaking.
1. Install FREENAS on designated computer. In my case I used a 4 GB flash drive as the target for the install.
2. Create a ZFS volume. This is important. Don’t create a UFS one, it will get in the way of changing permissions from the Windows side later on, due to some unknown bug, took me hours to realize.
3. Create a group for all the users in the LAN that will have equal access rights.
4. Create as many users as needed to match the users and their credentials in the LAN computers (workgroup style).
5. Configure CIFS service settings for workgroup so it matches your LAN workgroup. Set authentication model to local users.
6. Create a new volume, with the main LAN user as the owner, and the group created in step 3 above as the owner (group).
7. Change permissions to rwxrwxr-x. This is so you can allow certain shares to be accessed but not modified.
8. Set ACL to Windows.
9. Create a Windows CIFS share. Allow guest access. If prompted to start service, click yes.
10. From a Windows computer, create the main folders that will be public and private. Edit the security in the private one by removing the everyone from the permissions. That effectively makes the permissions for that folder rwxrwx- – – , i.e. if you’re not the owner or belong to the group, you don’t have access at all.
11. If you wish to remove write permissions from subfolders of the publicly shared folder, edit advanced permissions for Everyone to allow only:
Traverse folder / execute file
List folder / read data
Read attributes
Read extended attributes
Read permissions
Apply to This folder, subfolders and files.
12. I ran into a problem deleting files and folders when logged in as owner/group member. To handle, I granted full control to the first private folder of the share, and set it to propagate to subfolders and files.
I supposed individual shares could be set up, as an alternate method, using ZFS datasets. As of this writing I have not tested that route so can’t say if it’s more convenient/configurable/flexible. I know the above works.
Not for beginners – you’ve been warned.
So you’re playing on XBOX Live and wonder, what would it take to consistently land host when playing games, such as HALO, etc.? I often hear, when playing with friends, their boasting of how much bandwidth they have and how it makes the connection that much faster. 20, 30 50 Mbps download figures are thrown around. Impressive, but that has nothing to do with good hosting capabilities or having a game that is not laggy.
I’ll illustrate. Look at this graph (from my WRT-54GL router with DD-WRT firmware):
Click on the pic for a larger version as needed. That’s my router’s bandwidth graphs for the WAN interface. Notice the red line (outgoing data) is above the green line (incoming data) for a good part of the graph. This was captured during an XBOX live game with 8 players in HALO Reach matchmaking, while I was the host for that game. How do I know? the WAN monitoring graph behaves that way when I’m the host, i.e. mainly the outgoing graph is higher than the incoming. What you see at the end of the graph, on the right, is when the game ended.
But also notice the numbers. I’m hosting a game with 8 players, and there is no lag for anybody particularly, and all it takes for the host is not even 300 Kbps upload speed! I’ve never seen it go over 400 Kbps while hosting a game. So, first of all, the download speed doesn’t matter as much as the upload speed, when it comes to being a host. Second, you don’t need gargantuan download/upload figures to pull host. I have a 10 Mbps down / 1 Mbps up connection, with a relatively low ping, and I pull host every now and then, without any host stealing tricks or any other cheats.
Now, this is what the graph looks like when I’m in a game but not hosting it:
As you can see, even less bandwidth is required to play as a non-host, about 50 Kbps. And you can see the green line is now above the red one.
This is what it looked like when I didn’t have host, then the host quit in the middle of the game, then I was selected as the new host, and then a few seconds later I lost it:
Oh, and if you watch carefully, you can tell before the game begins if you have pulled host just by looking at how the bandwidth graph behaves. You can see in this graph, in the circled area, the moment where the XBOX live connection tests and awards host to the best connection, in this case mine. This is while still in the pre-game lobby, before the game begins:
In this game, which I was again hosting, 2 non-host players quit (they were getting pwned) and as you can see the bandwidth graph changes, since it now needs to accommodate only 6 players and not 8, so it goes from 320 to about 240 Kbps on the red line. That’s about right, since (320-240)/2= 40 Kbps per player:
The last slump at the end where it goes to the 100 Kbps range is when the game ended.
After a recent random change in my cable TV service, I temporarily lost all my HD channels. Re-scanning for channels in my TV handled it, but it didn’t for my TV tuner (Hauppage Win-TV-HVR-2250). When re-scanning for channels in Windows 7’s Windows Media Center, the HD channels count would go up to 38 channels, but somewhere along the line it would lose them all, ending with none at the end of the scan! Fortunately, if I stopped the scanning process exactly when it reached 38 channels, it would keep them. But now I’m facing other problems.
For one, some of the HD channels’ numbers, names and guide listings were wrong. So I had to edit all those manually, no big deal. But for some reason, within a period of a few minutes to a few hours I would lose all the HD channels again! I figured every time the listings updates were downloaded, that affected the channels. So I added an exception to the firewall so it would block the updater. The problem persisted.
While researching a solution, I developed a batch file to restore a copy of the folder that contained all the settings, programming etc. so I could at least get my HD channels back every time I lost them, with the click of a button:
net stop "windows media center receiver service"
taskkill /IM ehrec.exe /F taskkill /IM ehrecvr.exe /F taskkill /IM ehsched.exe /F taskkill /IM ehshell.exe /F taskkill /IM ehtray.exe /F taskkill /IM ehvid.exe /F
del C:\programdata\microsoft\ehome\*.* /s /q /f
xcopy /y /e r:\ehome\*.* c:\programdata\microsoft\ehome
pause
For some reason, however, when deleting the ehome folder, it gave an error on 3 files that were locked and still in use. So to better analyze the problem, I introduced a “sleep 5” line in the batch file. So now it looked like this:
net stop "windows media center receiver service"
taskkill /IM ehrec.exe /F taskkill /IM ehrecvr.exe /F taskkill /IM ehsched.exe /F taskkill /IM ehshell.exe /F taskkill /IM ehtray.exe /F taskkill /IM ehvid.exe /F
ping 1.1.1.1 -n 1 -w 5000 > nul
del C:\programdata\microsoft\ehome\*.* /s /q /f
xcopy /y /e r:\ehome\*.* c:\programdata\microsoft\ehome
pause
With that, the batch file worked. But that also gave me a clue. With the help of Process Explorer, I carefully observed what happened in those few seconds, and was able to see which process appeared in the scene: mcGlidHost.exe. “Windows Media Center In-band Guide Loader”. Hmm. I wonder if THAT is the responsible for loosing my settings… let’s see. Renaming it to mcGlidHost.exe.old… of course I can’t. First I had to take ownership of the file and changed the settings to full control. Then renamed it.
It’s been a solid 10 hours and my HD channels are still there… Eureka!
Update 4/16/14: Still going strong, but I just realized a potential alternative to
ping 1.1.1.1 -n 1 -w 5000 > nul
which would be
CHOICE /n /c y /d y /t 5 > nul
This article is above the usual level I write for in this blog, but I feel it needs to be written and at the moment can’t find a particular forum to write it in, so here it is.
Windows 7 has, under Backup and Restore in the control panel, the built-in ability to create an image of your hard disk. That means it takes a snapshot of your operating system, all the files you have, etc. in a compressed file that can be used at a later point to restore the computer to the state it was in when the image was created. This is not dissimilar to the contents of the “recovery partition” many computers come with these days. It goes one step further than System Restore in that it is a complete image of the computer’s hard disk, or one of its partitions.
I have, in my test machine, a 1.5 Tb hard disk. Because it’s a test machine, I wanted to use the image creation ability of Windows 7 so I didn’t have to re-install the operating system from scratch every time I wanted to take the computer back to its original configuration, or an earlier configuration in general, after testing some new software (especially malware protection software). So I created the main partition where the operating system is, and then 5 additional partitions, one physical and 4 logical, to accommodate up to 5 images of the main partition. So 7 partitions total: the main partition, 5 additional ones, and the small, system-reserved, 100 Mb partition Windows 7 creates when installing.
Everything was going according to plan. I created the first image right after installing the OS and the MoBo drivers, second one after installing all Windows updates and Windows XP mode, etc. A total of 5 different images at different stages of the system. But after restoring several times, when I tried to re-create the most recent image after making a small modification, I got an error stating that the image could not be created because there wasn’t enough space, as you can see here:
Careful readers will notice the syntax mistake (“Make sure that, for all volumes to be backup up…”). But anyways, the important datum is, I did have more than enough space in the destination partition, so what’s up? I googled and found the answer: somehow the system reserved partition, the 100 Mb one, had decreased in available space, and now it only had about 30 Mb free. Per the message above, partitions with less than 500 Mb need to have at least 50 Mb of free space. So now I know what the error’s cause is. But how do I resolve it without deleting that partition?
I could try assigning the partition a letter and then accessing it, try to change permissions so I could delete files, etc. But which files to delete? Generally speaking deleting files from a system reserved partition is not a good idea.
The answer is simple, in my case anyways. I had the earlier images and I had the original Windows 7 DVD, and that’s all I needed. I booted from the DVD, deleted the reserved small partition, reinstalled Windows 7 from scratch (at which point it created a new system reserved partition) and then once install was complete, I restored the latest image available for the main partition. Then made the small tweaks I wanted to save and created a new image. Worked like a charm. The newly created small reserved partition was now more than 50 Mb free so no more error message when creating the system image.
HTH.
Update:
Found this when searching again for the error code:
“A Workaround Without Repartitioning:
When trying to make a system image of Windows 7, I got error 0x80780119. After searching this thread (plus others), I found my 100 MB System Reserved partition had grown a large USN journal. I assigned it drive letter F:\.
Fsutil usn queryjournal F:
Then I ran this command to clear and disable the USN journal on my System Reserved partition:
fsutil usn deletejournal /N /D F:
This freed 48 MB. The USN journal on my System Reserved partition remained disabled after a reboot, which I verified by re-running the query. Subsequently, I was able to make a system image without error.”
Link for above workaround: http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/w7itprogeneral/thread/fce6950d-c06d-4dd0-a850-67022db4fe04/
While the above might have worked for some, if the space used by the USN journal is not enough to give the partition at least 50 Mb of free space, the workaround won’t work.
It’s probably better to create a new primary partition and make it the system volume, as covered in the above thread, that is:
1. Choose where you want to have your system volume. Few things you need to keep in mind:
a. System volume can only be created on a primary partition of MBR disk.
b. If system volume & boot volume are together, then BitLocker feature cannot be used to encrypt volumes on your machine.
2. Suggest creating a new volume (say F:) on the same disk that contains the boot partition of size of about 490 MB (be careful to keep it less than 500 MB).
3. Assuming Windows 7 is installed on C: on your machine. From an elevated command-prompt run: bcdboot.exe C:\Windows /s F:
4. From elevated command-prompt run: DISKPART
5. From the disk part command-prompt:
DISKPART> select volume F
DISKPART> active
6. Restart
Notice that the original posting in the forum thread has the command in step 3 as “bcdboot.exe /s C:\Windows /s F:”. That’s incorrect, the first “/s” switch should not be there.
Note: If you follow the above steps you will loose the ability to boot into the recovery environment from your hard disk, i.e. the “Repair your computer” option, normally on top when trying to boot into safe mode, will not be there anymore. Since one can either 1) use the original Windows 7 DVD or 2) Use a recovery disk created at the time the system image was created to get into the this recovery environment, this is not a big deal. But you should aware of it, so that you can at least create a recovery disk if you don’t have it and don’t have an original Windows 7 DVD. However, when I followed these steps, I was able to have the bigger system volume AND the Repair Your computer option at F8:
1. Export the BCD store. From an elevated command prompt do bcdedit /export [filename]
2. Do the steps 1-6 above. Notice there is no repair option at F8.
3. Import the BCD store, from an elevated command prompt with bcdedit /import [filename]
4. Restart.
5. Conditional: When restarting if you notice an error that won’t allow you to boot, that looks like this:
If and only if you see an error like that, insert the Windows 7 DVD and get to the Repair my computer section. Choosing that will automatically detect, make repairs and restart (This error message may specifically occur if afterwards you delete the original 100 Mb partition, even though it’s not the active partition anymore. You don’t need to delete it. And you can always revert to using it as the active partition).
6. You will notice you have the new bigger system volume as the active one AND F8 at booting includes the Repair my computer option.
This is what the BCD store looked like originally:
Windows Boot Manager
--------------------
identifier {bootmgr}
device partition=\Device\HarddiskVolume1
description Windows Boot Manager
locale en-US
inherit {globalsettings}
default {current}
resumeobject {7378d097-b723-11e0-a59f-c12e7e982394}
displayorder {current}
toolsdisplayorder {memdiag}
timeout 30
Windows Boot Loader
-------------------
identifier {current}
device partition=C:
path \Windows\system32\winload.exe
description Windows 7
locale en-US
inherit {bootloadersettings}
recoverysequence {7378d099-b723-11e0-a59f-c12e7e982394}
recoveryenabled Yes
osdevice partition=C:
systemroot \Windows
resumeobject {7378d097-b723-11e0-a59f-c12e7e982394}
nx OptIn
Windows Boot Loader
-------------------
identifier {7378d099-b723-11e0-a59f-c12e7e982394}
device ramdisk=[C:]\Recovery\7378d099-b723-11e0-a59f-c12e7e982394\Winre.wim,{7378d09a-b723-11e0-a59f-c12e7e982394}
path \windows\system32\winload.exe
description Windows Recovery Environment
inherit {bootloadersettings}
osdevice ramdisk=[C:]\Recovery\7378d099-b723-11e0-a59f-c12e7e982394\Winre.wim,{7378d09a-b723-11e0-a59f-c12e7e982394}
systemroot \windows
nx OptIn
winpe Yes
Resume from Hibernate
---------------------
identifier {7378d097-b723-11e0-a59f-c12e7e982394}
device partition=C:
path \Windows\system32\winresume.exe
description Windows Resume Application
locale en-US
inherit {resumeloadersettings}
filedevice partition=C:
filepath \hiberfil.sys
debugoptionenabled No
Windows Memory Tester
---------------------
identifier {memdiag}
device partition=\Device\HarddiskVolume1
path \boot\memtest.exe
description Windows Memory Diagnostic
locale en-US
inherit {globalsettings}
badmemoryaccess Yes
EMS Settings
------------
identifier {emssettings}
bootems Yes
Debugger Settings
-----------------
identifier {dbgsettings}
debugtype Serial
debugport 1
baudrate 115200
RAM Defects
-----------
identifier {badmemory}
Global Settings
---------------
identifier {globalsettings}
inherit {dbgsettings}
{emssettings}
{badmemory}
Boot Loader Settings
--------------------
identifier {bootloadersettings}
inherit {globalsettings}
{hypervisorsettings}
Hypervisor Settings
-------------------
identifier {hypervisorsettings}
hypervisordebugtype Serial
hypervisordebugport 1
hypervisorbaudrate 115200
Resume Loader Settings
----------------------
identifier {resumeloadersettings}
inherit {globalsettings}
Device options
--------------
identifier {7378d09a-b723-11e0-a59f-c12e7e982394}
description Ramdisk Options
ramdisksdidevice partition=C:
ramdisksdipath \Recovery\7378d099-b723-11e0-a59f-c12e7e982394\boot.sdi
This is what it looked like after changing the active partition to the bigger system volume and restarting:
Windows Boot Manager
--------------------
identifier {bootmgr}
device partition=D:
description Windows Boot Manager
locale en-us
inherit {globalsettings}
default {current}
resumeobject {d8d48f96-b71d-11e0-b6d6-a887e08237b0}
displayorder {current}
toolsdisplayorder {memdiag}
timeout 30
Windows Boot Loader
-------------------
identifier {current}
device partition=C:
path \windows\system32\winload.exe
description Windows 7
locale en-us
inherit {bootloadersettings}
osdevice partition=C:
systemroot \windows
resumeobject {d8d48f96-b71d-11e0-b6d6-a887e08237b0}
nx OptIn
detecthal Yes
Resume from Hibernate
---------------------
identifier {d8d48f96-b71d-11e0-b6d6-a887e08237b0}
device partition=C:
path \windows\system32\winresume.exe
description Windows Resume Application
locale en-us
inherit {resumeloadersettings}
filedevice partition=C:
filepath \hiberfil.sys
debugoptionenabled No
Windows Memory Tester
---------------------
identifier {memdiag}
device partition=D:
path \boot\memtest.exe
description Windows Memory Diagnostic
locale en-us
inherit {globalsettings}
badmemoryaccess Yes
EMS Settings
------------
identifier {emssettings}
bootems Yes
Debugger Settings
-----------------
identifier {dbgsettings}
debugtype Serial
debugport 1
baudrate 115200
RAM Defects
-----------
identifier {badmemory}
Global Settings
---------------
identifier {globalsettings}
inherit {dbgsettings}
{emssettings}
{badmemory}
Boot Loader Settings
--------------------
identifier {bootloadersettings}
inherit {globalsettings}
{hypervisorsettings}
Hypervisor Settings
-------------------
identifier {hypervisorsettings}
hypervisordebugtype Serial
hypervisordebugport 1
hypervisorbaudrate 115200
Resume Loader Settings
----------------------
identifier {resumeloadersettings}
inherit {globalsettings}
This is what it looked like after importing the original BCD store and restarting:
Windows Boot Manager
--------------------
identifier {bootmgr}
device partition=F:
description Windows Boot Manager
locale en-US
inherit {globalsettings}
default {current}
resumeobject {7378d097-b723-11e0-a59f-c12e7e982394}
displayorder {current}
toolsdisplayorder {memdiag}
timeout 30
Windows Boot Loader
-------------------
identifier {current}
device partition=C:
path \Windows\system32\winload.exe
description Windows 7
locale en-US
inherit {bootloadersettings}
recoverysequence {7378d099-b723-11e0-a59f-c12e7e982394}
recoveryenabled Yes
osdevice partition=C:
systemroot \Windows
resumeobject {7378d097-b723-11e0-a59f-c12e7e982394}
nx OptIn
Windows Boot Loader
-------------------
identifier {7378d099-b723-11e0-a59f-c12e7e982394}
device ramdisk=[C:]\Recovery\7378d099-b723-11e0-a59f-c12e7e982394\Winre.wim,{7378d09a-b723-11e0-a59f-c12e7e982394}
path \windows\system32\winload.exe
description Windows Recovery Environment
inherit {bootloadersettings}
osdevice ramdisk=[C:]\Recovery\7378d099-b723-11e0-a59f-c12e7e982394\Winre.wim,{7378d09a-b723-11e0-a59f-c12e7e982394}
systemroot \windows
nx OptIn
winpe Yes
Resume from Hibernate
---------------------
identifier {7378d097-b723-11e0-a59f-c12e7e982394}
device partition=C:
path \Windows\system32\winresume.exe
description Windows Resume Application
locale en-US
inherit {resumeloadersettings}
filedevice partition=C:
filepath \hiberfil.sys
debugoptionenabled No
Windows Memory Tester
---------------------
identifier {memdiag}
device partition=F:
path \boot\memtest.exe
description Windows Memory Diagnostic
locale en-US
inherit {globalsettings}
badmemoryaccess Yes
EMS Settings
------------
identifier {emssettings}
bootems Yes
Debugger Settings
-----------------
identifier {dbgsettings}
debugtype Serial
debugport 1
baudrate 115200
RAM Defects
-----------
identifier {badmemory}
Global Settings
---------------
identifier {globalsettings}
inherit {dbgsettings}
{emssettings}
{badmemory}
Boot Loader Settings
--------------------
identifier {bootloadersettings}
inherit {globalsettings}
{hypervisorsettings}
Hypervisor Settings
-------------------
identifier {hypervisorsettings}
hypervisordebugtype Serial
hypervisordebugport 1
hypervisorbaudrate 115200
Resume Loader Settings
----------------------
identifier {resumeloadersettings}
inherit {globalsettings}
Device options
--------------
identifier {7378d09a-b723-11e0-a59f-c12e7e982394}
description Ramdisk Options
ramdisksdidevice partition=C:
ramdisksdipath \Recovery\7378d099-b723-11e0-a59f-c12e7e982394\boot.sdi
Finally this is what it looked like when I deleted the original partition, restarted, repaired it with the Win 7 DVD and restarted again:
Windows Boot Manager
--------------------
identifier {bootmgr}
device partition=D:
path \bootmgr
description Windows Boot Manager
locale en-US
default {current}
displayorder {current}
timeout 30
Windows Boot Loader
-------------------
identifier {7378d098-b723-11e0-a59f-c12e7e982394}
device partition=C:
path \Windows\system32\winload.exe
description Windows 7
locale en-US
inherit {bootloadersettings}
recoverysequence {7378d099-b723-11e0-a59f-c12e7e982394}
recoveryenabled Yes
osdevice partition=C:
systemroot \Windows
resumeobject {7378d097-b723-11e0-a59f-c12e7e982394}
nx OptIn
Windows Boot Loader
-------------------
identifier {7378d099-b723-11e0-a59f-c12e7e982394}
device ramdisk=[C:]\Recovery\7378d099-b723-11e0-a59f-c12e7e982394\Winre.wim,{7378d09a-b723-11e0-a59f-c12e7e982394}
path \windows\system32\winload.exe
description Windows Recovery Environment
inherit {bootloadersettings}
osdevice ramdisk=[C:]\Recovery\7378d099-b723-11e0-a59f-c12e7e982394\Winre.wim,{7378d09a-b723-11e0-a59f-c12e7e982394}
systemroot \windows
nx OptIn
winpe Yes
Windows Boot Loader
-------------------
identifier {current}
device partition=C:
path \Windows\system32\winload.exe
description Windows 7 Professional (recovered)
locale en-US
recoverysequence {7378d099-b723-11e0-a59f-c12e7e982394}
recoveryenabled Yes
osdevice partition=C:
systemroot \Windows
resumeobject {4d416039-b722-11e0-8d65-806e6f6e6963}
Resume from Hibernate
---------------------
identifier {4d416039-b722-11e0-8d65-806e6f6e6963}
device partition=C:
path \Windows\system32\winresume.exe
description Windows 7 Professional (recovered)
locale en-US
inherit {resumeloadersettings}
filedevice partition=C:
filepath \hiberfil.sys
debugoptionenabled No
Resume from Hibernate
---------------------
identifier {7378d097-b723-11e0-a59f-c12e7e982394}
device partition=C:
path \Windows\system32\winresume.exe
description Windows Resume Application
locale en-US
inherit {resumeloadersettings}
filedevice partition=C:
filepath \hiberfil.sys
debugoptionenabled No
Windows Memory Tester
---------------------
identifier {memdiag}
device partition=D:
path \boot\memtest.exe
description Windows Memory Diagnostic
locale en-US
EMS Settings
------------
identifier {emssettings}
bootems Yes
Debugger Settings
-----------------
identifier {dbgsettings}
debugtype Serial
debugport 1
baudrate 115200
RAM Defects
-----------
identifier {badmemory}
Global Settings
---------------
identifier {globalsettings}
inherit {dbgsettings}
{emssettings}
{badmemory}
Boot Loader Settings
--------------------
identifier {bootloadersettings}
inherit {globalsettings}
{hypervisorsettings}
Hypervisor Settings
-------------------
identifier {hypervisorsettings}
hypervisordebugtype Serial
hypervisordebugport 1
hypervisorbaudrate 115200
Resume Loader Settings
----------------------
identifier {resumeloadersettings}
inherit {globalsettings}
Device options
--------------
identifier {7378d09a-b723-11e0-a59f-c12e7e982394}
description Ramdisk Options
ramdisksdidevice partition=C:
ramdisksdipath \Recovery\7378d099-b723-11e0-a59f-c12e7e982394\boot.sdi
Edit: 10/12/2013: OR, you can simply install something like Mini Tool Partition Wizard, and extend the System reserved partition. I did that today, took me 2 minutes. Expanded a 500 MB to 1 GB, I don’t care about space in that computer that much, and it allowed me to save an image.