WSUS 3.0 SP2 Suddenly Stop Synchronizing?

The problem: Your WSUS 3.0 SP2 server will no longer synchronize.

The Solution: See This Article.

It looks like the WSUS back end location has changed. It may be that you cannot perform a new WSUS install without this patch present.

Disk Not Recognized by Windows 7 Installer?

I spent the better part of two hours trying to get a new Samsung Pro 840 SSD installed on my ASUS ROG G73jh but Windows 7 could not see any hard disks available for install. The following resolved the issue.

To repartition the disk using Windows Setup:

1. Insert the Windows 7 installation DVD into your DVD drive.
2. Reboot your computer and boot from the DVD drive when asked ("Press any key to boot from CD or DVD...")
3. Windows Setup will load, give it a few moments.
4. When you see the Windows 7 installation screen with "Install Windows" press Shift-F10.
5. In the Command Prompt window that appears, type diskpart and then press Enter.
6. At the diskpart prompt, type select disk 0, and then press Enter.
7. At the diskpart prompt, type clean, and then press Enter.
8. The DiskPart utility will remove any partitions on the hard disk as well as the master boot record (MBR).
9. At the diskpart prompt, type exit and then press Enter.
10. In the command prompt window, type exit.
11. Click on Install Windows and follow the on-screen instructions.

I also had to set the SSD as the preferred boot disk in the ASUS Bios. 

Very Nice Tech Blog.

Reid A Blog - All things microsoft.

Dealing with Adobe CS3 Applications Hanging on First Run.

Issue: You work for a company that still uses Windows XP Professional or Windows Vista along with the horrific mess that is Adobe CS3. You install CS3 from DVD to a fresh desktop and upon running any of the applications they hang.

Solution: Adobe CS3 was plagued with several installer and licensing issues both on the Windows and Mac versions. The issue here is file permissions and a corrupt licensing service. Lets fix the permissions and install the licensing service update.

• Lets fix the permissions for the Adobe Installation.

From a Command Prompt:

1. c:
2. cacls "C:\Program Files\Adobe\Acrobat 8.0" /T /E /C /G administrators:F
3. exit

• Now lets follow the instructions for downloading and running the licensing service fix.
• Hopefully you can run Photoshop and install your license key.

Restoring Windows XP Pro from HP Restore Plus!

True to the name of this blog, I bring perhaps the stupidest tech trick of all. Today I was forced to rebuild an HP Pro 3005 MT due to a malware infection. After booting off of the restore DVD I was presented with only Windows 7 as a restore option. Frustrated, I rebooted with the HP provided Windows XP Pro media and inserted the restore plus media when requested. This eventually worked until I was prompted to enter the serial number for XP. Needless to say the Windows 7 COA code did not work so I called HP support.

Turns out that the option to restore Windows XP was there all along but since there was no scroll slider in the window I assumed it was only allowing Windows 7 to be installed. Clicking the down arrows provided the necessary selection to install XP Professional from the restore routine which does not require serial numbers.

The Ultimate Guide to SBS 2008 Setup Failures.

Thanks to our friends over at The Official SBS Blog, we now have the ultimate guide to SBS 2008 setup failures.

During my first and only SBS 2003 to SBS2008 migration I was lucky enough to encounter one of the errors mentioned and was fortunate to find this post over at brute force technology to save the day. Just look at the comments! It is amazing just how much can go wrong during a migration...

With that all said, it makes me all warm and fuzzy inside knowing that I will most likely never have to work with the steaming pile of crap that is small business server, ever again. For the rest of you, I hope the links provided come in handy.

Great article on allowing relay in Exchange 2007

I found this article very helpful in allowing Exchange 2007 (SP2) to relay job notifications from a backup server to the internet.

It is recommended to allow only the IP Address of the specific device or server on your LAN that you wish to allow relay access. By default the connector allows all IP addresses.