SteveOH

I recently installed a new hard drive into my server running Server 2008.  Everything worked fine, until I rebooted.  I tried to copy a file to the disk and recieved an error that the drive, in my case E:, was write protected.  I don’t know how or why that happened, but the solution is fairly simple.  The steps are as follows:

1. Open a command prompt (ie. Start > Run > cmd) with administrative privledges
2. Type in the command: diskpart
3. Run the command: list disk
4. Look for the disk number that’s having the problem.  In my case I have a system drive, a RAID 5 configuration (1 logical drive) and then the new drive, so it was DISK 2.  I will continue to use it in the example but note that yours may differ.
5. Select the disk using the following command: sel disk 2
6. Enter the following command: ATTRIBUTES DISK CLEAR READONLY
7. Exit diskpart with the command: exit

Then test by copying a file or folder to the drive.  It should be fairly instantaneous, but worst case you may have to reboot (I did not, however).

That’s about it.  It would be interesting to know WHY this happened, but then again, does it really matter?

Good luck.

I recently came across an application provided by Intel for the purpose of benchmarking NAS devices (Define: Network Attached Storage).  I’ve been looking for a solution to benchmark the new RAID-5 array I created on my Windows Server 2008 server (I love the RAID’s redundancy, but the write speeds are quite low).  I wanted to get a better idea of its performance, as Windows will report 250 – 150 MB READS and 20 – 50 MB WRITES, which is considerably poor considering the 4 drives are individually benchmarked at ~100 MB READS and 60 MB WRITES (They are Western Digital Caviar Blues / RE3 / RE16).

The software can be found here or from Intel here.

System Specifications:

Operating System: Microsoft Windows 2008 Enterprise Edition, SP1
CPU Type: Pentium 4 630, 3000 MHz w/ Hyperthreading
Motherboard Name: Dell Dimension 8400
Motherboard Chipset: Intel Alderwood i925XE
Motherboard Frontside Bus Speed: 800 MHz
System Memory (RAM): 4 GB, Dual Channel
System Memory Speed / Timings: DDR2-533 (266 MHz) / 4-4-4-12
Hard Drive Controller Interface: SATA I (1.5 Gbits / s) = 150 MB/s (maximum)
Hard Drives: Western Digital

• Drive #1 – WDC WD5002ABYS-01B1B (465 GB)
• Drive #2 – WDC WD5002ABYS-01B1B (465 GB)
• Drive #3 – WDC WD5000AAKS-00A7B (465 GB)
• Drive #4 – WDC WD5000AAKS-00A7B (465 GB)
• Drive #5 – WDC WD800BB-00JHC0 (74 GB) – SYSTEM

Raid Configuration: Software 4 disk RAID-5 (4 x 500GB, 1.36 TB Effective Storage Space)

System Memory Benchmark: Copy – 4790 MB/s, Read – 6266 MB/s, Write – 3341 MB/s, Latency – 92.7 ns
System Processor Benchmark: CPU ZLib – 10592 KB/s, CPU AES  – 3055

Benchmarks completed using Everest Ultimate Edition v4.20.1257

All drives are SATA II (3.0 GB/s) but are running in backwards-capability mode.

The primary roles of the server is to serve files and store backups (File Server) and web and application development and website hosting (Web Server).  I do not stream media, play music from the server or write extremely large amounts of data that are time sensitive.  Therefore, my decision for RAID-5 was based on the space savings (n – 1) storage availability and the redundancy by means of the parity.  I am willing to give up performance (write and read) for storage space and redundancy, but I want to know how much I’m actually giving up.

Tests

• HD Video Playback, 2x HD Video Playback, 3x HD Video Playback, 4x HD Video Playback

These benchmarks examine the behavior of the NAS unit while (simultaneously) playing one or more HD video files at 720p using Windows Media Player. Intel gives a percentage rate for the sequential reading of data in these tests, which lies at 99.5% for the HD Video Playback Test. With 2x HD Video Playback, it lies at 18.1%. The result is 6.6% with 3x HD Video Playback and 9.6 % with 4x HD Video Playback.

• HD Video Record

This test writes an HD Video file in 720p format to the NAS unit. This test is made of up of mostly sequentially transferred data.

• HD Video Playback & Recording

HD Video Play & Record examines the behavior of the NAS unit when simultaneously reading and writing an HD Video file in the 720p format. The sequentially-transferred data in this test is approximately 18% of the test.

• HD 2x Playback 2x Record

This benchmark is similar to the one above, but the proportion of sequential file operations is 3%.

• HD Playback With Office

This metric measures the data transfer rates when an HD Video file is read from the NAS unit while working with the Office applications. This test is made up of 608 files. The proportion of sequential file operations is 53.2%.

• HD Playback With Backup

Like the previous test, but this time an HD Video file is played while simultaneously carrying out a backup on the NAS unit.

• Content Creation

This benchmark is made up of 95% write operations to the NAS unit. This simulates the creation of files on the NAS unit such as is the case when, for example, using video editing programs.

• File Copy To NAS / File Copy From NAS

These tests determine the data transfer rate when copying files to or from the NAS unit. In both of these test processes, a 4 GB file is copied. Unlike with Backup / Restore, 64 KB is read and written.

• Directory Copy From NAS / Directory Copy To NAS

Similar to the previous test, files are copied to and from the NAS unit. A total of 126 files with a total size of approximately 188 MB are written and read across the network.

• Photo Album

This test determines how the NAS unit handles the supply of a multitude of small files—for example, viewing digital photographs stored on the NAS unit. It simulates the viewing of a total of 169 photographs with an overall size of approximately 1.2 GB.

Considerations and Assumptions

These tests were conducted on the Server, not over the network, which will probably result in very high throughput.  I did this to get a feel for the actual performance, not that felt over the wire, and because I’m currently running 100 Mbps (Cat 5e) on my LAN, not gigabit.  Thus, I did not want the network to be the bottleneck in these tests, as it would be saturated and skew the results.

I ran the tests 6 times, in each, manipulating the environment to establish a real world benchmark.  Since this benchmark is done via an application, it will compete with other processes for resources.  Additionally, it will compete with the actual Operating System who is responsible for transfering the data to the disk and calculating the parity for the raid (which is quite memory and CPU intensive).  For test 6 I ran the system in Safe Mode, utilizing only necessary processes and services to run the operating system (Safe Mode without Networking).  Thus, the numbers are quite high.  In the others, I ran Outlook, SQL, browsed the internet and downloading files via torrents (to the actual RAID, so this will mess with the numbers as well) – not all at the same time, of course, except for test 4.

Results

Test	1	2	3	4	5	6	Avg MB/s
HDVideo_1Play	267.789	267.789	80.364	54.54	59.134	274.603	167.37
HDVideo_2Play	223.736	223.736	68.638	44.619	75.123	223.204	143.18
HDVideo_4Play	177.201	177.201	70.222	54.731	73.009	180.005	122.06
HDVideo_1Record	626.098	626.098	651.41	618.888	678.788	732.636	655.65
HDVideo_1Play_1Record	82.744	82.744	85.224	71.802	79.058	155.986	92.93
ContentCreation	6.199	6.199	5.983	5.628	6.141	6.022	6.03
OfficeProductivity	25.383	25.383	25.474	20.958	26.249	27.955	25.23
FileCopyToNAS	633.475	633.475	748.91	690.827	768.598	806.578	713.64
FileCopyFromNAS	147.096	147.096	79.675	57.42	80.561	151.573	110.57
DirectoryCopyToNAS	65.156	65.156	25.13	18.384	23.418	81.739	46.50
DirectoryCopyFromNAS	44.048	44.048	20.412	15.53	20.929	47.274	32.04
PhotoAlbum	27.748	27.748	26.411	19.508	28.171	29.204	26.47

Discussion

I attribute the absurd file copy speeds to caching and buffering at both the OS, RAID and the Drive level, as well as the writes for the video recording.  All in all, I’m pleased with the benchmarks and am satisfied with the set up.  One thing to note is that the tests were done from the SYSTEM drive to the RAID, and thus, the SYSTEM drive introduced an additional bottleneck as the transfers from it to the RAID were going to be quite slow (the drive is benchmarked at ~56MB READ and ~30 WRITE).

<djahandarie> we ain’t here to do e-c-e
<djahandarie> we’re here to do c-s-e on the w-e-b
<djahandarie> listen to me spit these rhymes
<djahandarie> while i program lines
<djahandarie> and commit web accessibility crimes
<djahandarie> word, son
<http402> You talk like your big on these I-Net kicks,
<http402> But your shit flows slower than a two-eighty-six.
<http402> I’m tracking down hosts and nmap scans,
<http402> While Code Igniter’s got you wringing your hands.
<http402> Cut the crap rap,
<http402> Or I’ll run ettercap,
<http402> Grab your AIM chat,
<http402> N’ send a PC bitch-slap!
<http402> peace
<djahandarie> you’re talkin bout down hosts and nmap scans
<djahandarie> while i got other plans
<djahandarie> you’re at your new job, but you can’t even do it right
<djahandarie> you just create a plight with your http rewrites
<djahandarie> i’ve been on the web since the age of three
<djahandarie> you just got on directly off the bus from mississippi
<djahandarie> respect yo’ elders, bitch
<http402> You’ve been webbin’ since three, but still ain’t grown up,
<http402> Gotta update your config and send the brain a SIGHUP.
<http402> You say you’re that old? No wonder you’re slow!
<http402> You’re knocking at the door while I run this show!
<http402> Elders my ass, you’re shit’s still in school,
<http402> Hunt and pecking at the keyboard like a spaghetti-damned fool,
<http402> Rim-riffing your hard drive like a tool,
<http402> Face it. I rule.
<djahandarie> i erase my harddrives with magnets (bitch)
<djahandarie> all you can do is troll on the fagnets
<djahandarie> and son, my brain’s wrapped in a nohup
<djahandarie> it wont be hurt by the words you throwup
<djahandarie> dont mind me while i emerge my ownage
<djahandarie> while you’re still over there apt-getting your porridge
<djahandarie> you say i’m still in school
<djahandarie> but the fact is that i know the rule
<djahandarie> cuz you need to go back to grade three
<djahandarie> and you better plea, that they take sucky graduates from c-s-e
<http402> Time to bend over and apply a patch,
<http402> Your brain’s throwing static like a CD with a scratch.
<http402> Your connection got nuked and you’ve met your match.
<http402> You run a single process like a VAX with a batch.
<http402> I’d pass the torch to a real winner
<http402> But it’d just scorch a while-loop spinner
<http402> Caught in a loop that you cant escape,
<http402> I run clock cycles around your words and flows,
<http402> Cuz your rhyme is like a PS fan: it’ blows,
<http402> Your water-cooled lyrics leak and it shows,
<http402> Take your ass back to alt.paid.for.windows.
<djahandarie> Good god, I can’t even respond to that.
<djahandarie> You win haha
* http402 takes a bow

So I recently got bombarded with 2 infections of this pesky beast. Some variants are easy to remove (SpyBot can simply pull them out) but the variant I came across was resilient. It loaded a DLL into the Winlogon.exe (injection) executable file (the Windows process responsible for authentication to the Operating System – Windows cannot run without it) and ran from there. So you can’t kill the process, because the OS will reboot. You can’t delete the DLL file, because the OS has it locked. Basically, it’s like a tumor in the center of your brain… there’s really no winning.

There are a few solutions out there (very few) such as Bayles’ solution and this one from a poster on TechRepublic , but unfortunately, neither was any good for me. Bayles’ solution works for variants that inject into Explorer.exe, which is loaded once the OS is loaded and you log in. However, winlogon is loaded as one of the first steps in loading the registry, so it’s loaded even before you press control-alt-delete (it’s actually the process that shows you the login screen). The other solution could have worked had I had administrative privileges on my machine, but I did not (this is my work machine). Therefore, I had to find another solution to bypass the OS from reinfecting itself, but still have access to the underlying file system.

I could have removed the hard drive, but I did not have another laptop to install the HDD into. I couldn’t boot to the Recovery Console using an XP CD, because I did not know the Administrative password. So my solution? I booted the laptop using an Ubuntu Linux CD I had in my laptop bag. Here’s what I did.

1. Boot normally in Windows XP and get the names of the infected DLLs using Bayles’ method (again, pendmove won’t work because winlogon is placed in memory (with the infected DLL) before pendmove is loaded).
2. Reboot using Ubuntu CD – hit enter at the first screen (Run or Install Ubuntu)
3. Unmount the NTFS file system (on a typical installation, it will be the entire drive) – We do this because the standard driver file is a read-only NTFS driver.
4. Open a terminal and install the ntfs-3g packages
   1. sudo apt-get install ntfs-3g
5. Create mount point
   1. sudo mkdir /mnt/test
6. Mount the hard drive
   1. sudo mount -t ntfs-3g /dev/sda1 /mnt/test
      1. /dev/sda1 – is the partition we want to mount, yours may be different
      1. /mnt/test – is the directory in which to mount the partition
7. You can then browse to the windows/system32 directory and delete the infected DLLs (in my case the path was /mnt/test/windows/system32/sbbqikklll.dll)
8. Reboot and then you must run some scanners. I suggest running SpyBot to clean up the rest of the garbage, and then maybe an anti-virus scanner (I used Symantec Corporate). Finally, run the Windows Malware Removal Tool.
   1. This step is extremely important. This trojan downloads other infections to your systems (ads, other programs, etc). Who knows if these other files contain other viruses, trojans, keyloggers, etc.

I hope this helps. Contact me if you need any special assistance.

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Eraser is an advanced security tool (for Windows), which allows you to completely remove sensitive data from your hard drive by overwriting it several times with carefully selected patterns. Works with Windows 95, 98, ME, NT, 2000, XP and DOS. Eraser is Free software and its source code is released under GNU General Public License.

When a file is deleted off of a Windows system (I’m not sure about Linux) the file isn’t really deleted, but the pointer (File Table entry) is deleted so there’s no way the OS can get to it (in essence, the file no longer exists in the OS’s eyes).  So instead of using a large amount of disk I/O operations to delete a 2.78 GB file, a simple deletion of 8k (just a number, has no significanse other than showing the size difference) at a static point on the disk platters accomplishes the same thing (to the OS).  Eventually those sectors on the disk will be overwritten with new data that we actually want, and the OS (and the user) are none-the-wiser.  That’s not good enough for me.  From the documentation, Eraser overwrites those sectors repeatedly (the ensure all sectors in the clusters are overwritten) so that the data is lost, not just ‘deleted’.

An excellent tool for keeping your data really safe.  If you’ve deleted it, make sure it’s really gone.  These types of things have a tendency of biting you in the rear.

You can download Eraser here.

A little while ago I posted the specs of the new tablet I had purchased off eBay. I got it at a steal of about $300. It was used (a little more used than I would have preferred) but they were just cosmetic imperfections that I could certainly live with. Gotta love eBay.

But I wanted to give some time of use with the tablet before I made a decision of whether it was a good buy, my thoughts on its functionality and usability, and overall feeling of the unit.

Well, for starters I have to say that the RAM is lacking. Mine actually had 512 MB and it’s still a bit sluggish with applications running (Adobe Acrobat Pro 8.0 and OneNote 2007). With both of these apps running, my system has only ~40MB of RAM free, but the processor is at around 10% usage, so the memory is the bottleneck with respect to running applications and responsiveness. However, the CPU will of course spike to 100% when writing in OneNote. This is expected, since the system must compute your movements, pen pressure and fluidity on the fly.

Other than that, I really can’t complain. I upgraded the Hard Drive to a 60GB 7200RPM drive, which runs nice and has plenty of space. Additionally, I plan on (of course) purhcasing a gig of RAM for it, at which point I’m sure she’ll run just lovely.

The usability of the tablet is awesome. I’m a student and a professional, so lugging around my 7 lbs Dell E1505 with 17″ screen is a hassle. Although it blows the specs out of the water, it’s mobility, down and dirty features for convenience (the function buttons on the screen, etc), and light weight (under 2 or 3 lbs I believe) are excellent.

Lastly, I purchased this tablet for the following purposes:

1. Light weight system to read eBooks and other electronic format books
2. System to work on school work as well as troubleshoot network / system issues

I had initially purchased a Sony PRS-500 eBook reader for ~$200. It’s a great little unit (although there’s plenty of room for improvement), but found that it was horrible for reading PDF files. And when I say horrible, I mean it. If you wanted to actually be able to read them, you would have to spend about 2 hours of format conversions, etc etc to get it to a point where it’s actually readable. 2 hours, yea right. I immediately started looking for something else. So I came across a tablet (I have a co-worker who’s always said tablets were awesome) and found this great deal on eBay. I sold my PRS-500 for and purchased the Tablet, putting the difference in cash (about $100). The tablet did everything the PRS-500 can do, and more. It’s not as light, and not as small. However, the Lifebook was made to be outside viewable (a shortcoming of LCD screens) so it’s very bright. Additionally, I can view ANY format I want, since there are free viewers out there for every format you can put a document into. PDF’s look great, and reading them off a 12″ screen (as opposed to a 6″ screen) is ideal. Additionally, I can use it at work and at remote locations, as well as take it to class. Which leads me to my third reason.

Textbooks cost hundreds of dollars a semester. This current semester my books were going to come to $300. That’s for 1 course! I had a great idea though… since I have this reader, why don’t I just download / buy the eBook versions, which are usually at a discount?! So that’s what I did. It’s awesome!

Additionally, I can use it to take notes. I don’t know about you, but I’m a geek. If I could have everything digitally and on a computer, I would. So, I take notes in class using the unit, and it’s superb. Great responsiveness, I can use colors, I can copy and paste images into them, etc etc. I can print them out if I need to (printing quality is also quite nice), and I don’t have to lug around a note book, books, and a laptop. Everything’s in the one unit!

So, I have concluded that I will never purchase another laptop.  Since a tablet (not a slate) can be both a tablet and a laptop, what’s the point of buying one that can only do one function?  Additionally, a system with dual cores should run just lovely, since one processor can concentrate on the text translation while the other runs the OS, or both at the same time to make things a lot quicker.  Dell just came out with a tablet that’s quite thin and has great specs.  The only downside I can see from the tablet is it’s cost.  Since it’s new, cool, small and light, and can be as powerful as some other systems out there, it costs more.

If you’re not a student, write a lot, or a professional who can use a light and mobile system to get work done, take notes at meetings, etc etc, then a tablet wouldn’t be for you.  Tablets are great for me though .

Specifications

Manufacturer:

Fujitsu

Part number:

FPCM10241

General

Platform Technology

Intel Centrino

System Type

Tablet PC

Built-in Devices

Wireless LAN antenna, SmartCard reader/writer

Width

11.5 in

Depth

9.3 in

Height

1.4 in

Weight

4.2 lbs

Processor

Processor

Intel Pentium M 1.4 GHz

Data bus speed

400 MHz

Processor features

Enhanced SpeedStep technology

Chipset type

Intel 855GM

Cache Memory

Type

L2 cache

Cache size

1 MB

RAM

Installed Size

256 MB / 2 GB(max)

Technology

DDR SDRAM – 266 MHz

Memory specification compliance

DDR266/PC2100

Storage Controller

Storage controller type

IDE

Storage

Floppy Drive

None

Hard Drive

40 GB

Storage Removable

None

Optical Storage (2nd)

2nd optical storage type

None

Display

Display Type

12.1 in TFT active matrix

Max Resolution

1024 x 768

Color support

24-bit (16.7 million colors)

Video

Graphics Processor / Vendor

Intel 855GM – AGP

Video Memory

Shared video memory (UMA)

Audio

Audio output type

Sound card

Audio output compliant standards

AC ‘97

Input Device(s)

Input device type

Keyboard, Touchpad, Digitizer, Digital pen, Scroll button

Telecom

Modem

Fax / modem

Max transfer rate

56 Kbps

Protocols & Specifications

ITU V.90

Networking

Networking

Network adapter

Networking / Wireless LAN Supported

Yes

Data link protocol

Ethernet, IEEE 802.11b, Fast Ethernet

Networking standards

IEEE 802.11b

Expansion / Connectivity

Expansion Bays

None

Expansion Slots Total (Free)

2 ( 1 ) x Memory, 1 ( 1 ) x CardBus – Type III (2 x type I / II)

Interfaces

2 x Hi-Speed USB – 4 pin USB Type A, 1 x Modem – Phone line – RJ-11, 1 x Network – Ethernet 10Base-T/100Base-TX – RJ-45, 1 x Display / video – VGA – 15 pin HD D-Sub (HD-15), 1 x Infrared – IrDA, 1 x Headphones – Output – Mini-phone stereo 3.5 mm, 1 x Microphone – Input – Mini-phone 3.5 mm, 1 x Docking / port replicator

Miscellaneous

Features

Security lock slot (cable lock sold separately)

Compliant Standards

CUL, TUV, EN55022, EN55024, EN 60950, ICES-003, UL 60950, CISPR 22 Class B, FCC Class B certified, FCC Class C certified

Power

Power device form factor

External

Voltage Required

AC 120/230 V ( 50/60 Hz)

Battery

Technology

Lithium ion

Installed Qty

1

Mfr estimated battery life

4.5 hour(s)

Operating System / Software

OS Provided

Microsoft Windows XP Tablet PC Edition

Software type

Zinio Reader, Microsoft Reader, NewsStand Reader, Drivers & Utilities, Fujitsu HotKey Utility, Microsoft Internet Explorer, FranklinCovey TabletPlanner (Trial), PowerQuest Drive Image Special Edition

Manufacturer Warranty

Service & support type

1 year warranty

Service & Support Details

Limited warranty – 1 year