Friday, July 27, 2012

USB Emulation and USB Booting Harmony

Last week I spent the full 5 days trying to install Windows 7 and have my PC be able to dual boot with Ubuntu 11.10 (XBMCbuntu).

To say the least, for such a simple task it was a very long and tiring journey. Obstacle over obstacle, I conquered one after the next, some took a few hours, others a couple of days.  Yet Google was with me throughout my time of difficulty.

Praise be to Google

What I wanted to share was an issue I actually came across a long while back when I first installed XBMCbuntu from my 1GB USB key.

Problem: Computer does not boot up any USB key that is 2GB or lower. Seems to ignore the USB key and boots up Hard drive as normal.

As a quick rundown,  normally when you want to bootup your PC from USB key to run a different O/S or installation you would follow the 3 general rules:
  • Format USB key.
  • Transfer boot able ISO(s)/Files to USB key using special software that would also make USB key boot able.
  • Alter the bootup sequence either by bringing up boot device menu (after POST test) or in BIOS itself.
But the USB key still was not booting.

What gives?

Answer:  Switch the USB Storage Emulation to Hard Disk (applies to usb keys 2GB and lower)
Enter BIOS -> Intergrated Prepherials -> USB Storage Emulation -> Select Hard Disk

This setting forces BIOS to recognize USB Drives under 2GB as bootable hard drives.  If selected  as Auto or Floppy, the machine will treat the USB key has a floppy drive.  While I haven't had a chance to fully understand why this feature is needed in BIOS, I can say that majority of users that come across this issue are owners of Acer Computers (via google search) but it is possible users of other Manufactures  can come across the same issue.

Keep in mind I am only sharing this because this worked for me.  My machine is an Acer Revo 3610 that I use as a Media PC hooked up to my living room widescreen TV.  If you tried this and still cannot boot up from your USB Key you might want to try the same key on a different machine to isolate the issue.


Happy Tech-ing!

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Sunday, July 15, 2012

Disk Mirroring in Server 2008

Hi Everyone,

I just wanted to add yet another quick reminder, this time a feature in Windows Server 2008.  One of my buddies is just starting to implement his server at home and I advised him of a quick contingency feature of Server 2008 that I myself have used in the past.

Configuring Disk Mirroring for Windows Server 2008 R2

Now there are countless amount of guides on the net on how to set this up, so I wont go into detail about the steps but I will provide the reason why was ideal for me.

  1. It's Easy
  2. It's Fast
  3. No 3rd party apps needed 
  4. No special hardware needed
  5. Once setup, I dont have to tinker around with it again. (Unless the Hard drive fails)
And of course, I looked at the cons:
  1. It mirrors everything on your original hard drive, including any possible corrupted files, viruses or bad configurations.
  2. Since the server has to write data to 2 different hard drives, performance will be affected.
  3. The backup drive is used just as much as the Primary drive (due to mirroring data)
I understand and I do agree; for alot of people, this is not the ideal backup plan (The first 2 cons are usually a deal breaker for most).  Personally, it was a time where I was just getting myself up and running Server 2008 and needed to have some sort of redundancy up for the O.S drive asap.  Once I was up and running after a little while long while, I had time to tinker around with other features and do my research into what 3rd party app I could look into for backup.  I'm currently fiddling with Symantec Backup Exec but I feel this far exceeds my average backup needs.  

I hope this quick article gives someone a better idea on what route they do plan to follow in their contingency plan.  Here are some more links for those who are interested in setting up different RAIDs in Server 2008.




I would like to hear from any readers out there.  If you do have a backup method, what program or tools do you use and why does it work for you?




Happy Tech-ing!



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