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If you (or your organization) is lucky enough to get ahold of the Windows 7 RTM, you may encounter an issue that has been popping up for a small number of people.

After booting from the DVD (or USB Drive) that contains the Windows 7 installation files, and clicking Install, you will be greeted by an error message that says:

A Required CD/DVD Driver is Missing

I pounded my head against the wall for a while on this one. In my case it turned out to be a corrupt ISO file that was causing the issue, but here are some ideas for you to try before you throw your computer out a window.

(1) Download the Windows 7 ISO Verifier tool (http://www.istartedsomething.com/20090706/windows-7-iso-verifier/). It will check your ISO file, compare it to known good hashes and tell you if the image is good. Do this first!

(2) Unplug all unnecessary devices from your PC and attempt to install again.

(3) If you have a mixture of SATA and PATA devices, try to remove and / or replace the PATA devices and try to install again.

(4) Transfer the Windows 7 setup to a thumb drive (http://www.intowindows.com/how-to-install-windows-7vista-from-usb-drive-detailed-100-working-guide/), disconnect the CD / DVD-ROM and try to boot setup from that.

If that doesn’t work then post in the comments section and I will try to help you out.

Richard Computer Hardware and Software, Consumer Hardware and Software, Enterprise Hardware and Software, Windows CD, drivers, dvd, Installation, Windows, Windows 7

A lot of people seem to wonder what the best, FREE,  way to do a Physical to Virtual (P2V) conversion of their Windows servers is. If your VM host is going to be a Hyper-V server, then there are two good methods (that I know of) to perform the operation.

Method 1:

Use the System Center Virtual Machine Manager’s (SCVMM) integrated P2V conversion utility to perform the operation. This supports doing a live migration, meaning that the target system can remain online and available for user’s requests during the migration period.

SCVMM 180 Day Evaluation: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/evalcenter/cc793138.aspx

Method 2:

If you don’t want to use the SCVMM method or it isn’t working properly for you, you can use the free VMWare converter tool. The VMWare converter tool also supports live migrations. After you perform the live P2V conversion with the VMWare converter tool you will end up with a VMDK file (VMWare’s virtual hard disk format), so that will have to be converted to a Hyper-V usable file with the VMDK to VHD converter.

VMWare Converter: http://www.vmware.com/products/converter/

VMDK to VHD Converter: http://vmtoolkit.com/files/folders/converters/entry8.aspx

Good luck!

Richard Hyper-V, System Administration, Windows Hyper-V, SCVMM, VMWare, Windows

Here is an article that details how to rebuild IIS in an SBS 2003 installation. Use this article at your own risk, and don’t try to do it remotely… you will lose your connection to the server.

Reinstalling IIS in SBS 2003 (DOC File, 45KB)

Richard IIS, Windows IIS, SBS 2003, Windows

IIS 6 Properties

I was having an issue today and thought I would share the solution I found.

I had an IIS 6 server that was hosting some web pages. In a directory beneath the root I had some .exe files that I wanted to like to on the main page to allow downloading. Whenever I would click on the files I would get a 404 error. I knew the files were in the right spot and the naming was correct.

I discovered that in order to allow .exe files to be downloaded from your IIS 6 server you need to remove the “Execute” permissions from the folder that the .exe files are sitting in… not the entire virtual directory, just the particular folder that the .exe files are sitting in.

To do this you have to open the IIS Manager, right click on the directory containing the .exe files, and change the Execute Permissions to “Scripts Only”.

Richard IIS, Windows IIS, Windows

Fallout 3 Headshot

I have been hearing that a lot of people out there have had issues with Bethesda Studio’s Fallout 3. It is always disheartening to hear of an otherwise great game marred with technical flaws.

I was having a problem similar to many, CONSTANT crashing… especially when on indoor levels.

The solution in my situation came to me when I noticed that every time Fallout 3 crashed I had the little FFa icon down in my system tray. I knew that icon was related to a codec pack I had installed on my machine, but I couldn’t remember exactly which one.

Just as a test I downloaded the latest K-Lite codec pack and installed the full version except the media player. As part of the install process it detected and removed all previous codec packs (3 in my case). After the install and a reboot I am now able to play Fallout 3 without the in game crashing! It does however still crash on exit… not a big deal though.

K-Lite Code Pack Download: http://www.free-codecs.com/download/K_lite_codec_pack.htm

Richard Computer Gaming, Windows Fallout 3, Windows

Richard DNS, Windows DNS, Windows

Exchange 2007

The other day I was installing an instance of Exchange Server 2007 on a Windows Server 2008 machine. During the install process the Hub Transport role install kept failing. The error I received was that the “MSExchangeTransport Service failed to reach the state of Running”.

After banging my head against the wall for a little while I ran across a posting (I can’t remember where) that noted the service in question will not start unless the IPv6 protocol is enabled on the primary NIC. I had indeed disabled it earlier because I did not intend on using IPv6. Enabling the IPv6 protocol and restarting the install process resolved the issue!

Richard Exchange Server, Windows Exchange 2007, Windows

SQL Server 2005 Box

I ran into this issue the other day and I thought I would share the simple answer that I found with you.

After installing SQL Reporting Services on a Windows Server 2008 Machine I attempted to verify successful installation by browsing to http://localhost/ReportServer. I was greeted by this message: “Access to the path ‘C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL.3\Reporting Services\ReportServer\RSReportServer.config’ is denied”.

 After verifying that the SQL instance in question was running under the Network Service account I navigated to the C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL.3\Reporting Services\ReportServer directory, and opened up the security properties of the rsReportServer.config file. I noticed Network Service was not listed. I explicitly granted Network Service access to the rsReportServer.config file, restarted IIS, and it started working!

 As a side note, I when reporting services are installed several groups are created locally (or in AD if you are doing it on a DC). If your computer name is longer than 6 characters it cannot create the proper group name (it is too long) and it just shows the SID in AD Users and Computers. Odd huh?

Richard Enterprise Hardware and Software, Windows sql server, Windows

I discovered this issue a few days ago while attempting to install Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition on my home computer as part of the training for my MCSE course (also for fun). After finishing up the Windows setup I started loading up the device drivers one by one. Chipset, LAN, and sound drivers work fine. However when I try to install the most current video drivers for my GeForce 6800 I hit a wall. The driver install program seems to go through fine, however when I reboot the image quality is terrible and the right 1/8th of my screen is clipped off ( @ 1440 x 900 resolution).

Re-installing the driver didn’t correct the problem, neither did trying an older version of the driver. After a couple hours of trolling both official and non-official tech forums I figured out that the problem I was having was related to Physical Address Extensions or PAE.

What is PAE?

Without getting too technical ( click here for detailed info) PAE is a way for 32 bit operating systems, which can only support 4GB of RAM natively, use up to 128 GB of RAM (in Windows Server 2003 Datacenter Edition) .

Why the problem?

Long story short: I have no idea. But what I do know is, based upon Microsoft Knowledge Base article #283296, that Nvidia drivers are not supported under operating systems that use PAE.

It is fairly easy to see if your system is using PAE (the first hint would be the terrible performance of your Nvidia graphics drivers). All you have to do is click on Start –> Run –> Type “msconfig” –> Click on the “BOOT.INI” tab near the top.

MSConfig Boot Tab

 

 

You can see the /NOEXECUTE flag at the end of the operating systems listed above, either that or a /PAE flag will activate PAE on the target operating system.

The solution?

It would be nice if Nvidia would update their drivers to include support for PAE, but as far as I can tell from their forums they are just ignoring this problem all together. Luckily there is another option! There is an online community called NGO (NGOHQ.com) which provides third party compatibility focused drivers for both ATI and Nvidia chipsets. To download the appropriate drivers just visit the site above or click one of the following links:

ATI Compatibility Drivers || Nvidia Compatibility Drivers

Richard Computer Hardware and Software drivers, graphics, Nvidia, PAE, Windows