Where Has All My Drive Space Gone?

Many moons ago I wrote about a really powerful tool called Glary Utilities that can do a boat load of stuff, one of them being analyze hard disks to see what is hogging all of your available drive space. The only problem with that tool is that it is only free for personal use. If you want to use it legally in the office to find out where your drive space is going on your company servers, you have to purchase their pro version.

My boss told me about another little tool that can do the same thing. By same thing, I mean the drive space analysis part. This tool is called TreeSize Free. Here is a description from their website:

Every hard disk is too small if you just wait long enough. TreeSize Free tells you where precious space has gone to. TreeSize Free can be started from the context menu of a folder or drive and shows you the size of this folder, including its subfolders. You can expand this folder in Explorer-like style and you will see the size of every subfolder. Scanning is done in a thread, so you can already see results while TreeSize Free is working. The space, which is wasted by the file system, can be displayed and the results can be printed in a report.

Here is a screen shot from their website as well:

What tools do you use for disk space analysis/cleanup? Is it free? Is it payware? Let us know in the comments.

Technorati Tags: free,disk,drive,space,analysis,cleanup,treesize,freeware

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Dwight Schrute ASCII Art

Do you love The Office on NBC? I certainly do. I remember the first season kind of sucked because they tried too hard to copy the British version. NBC tried to do the same thing with Coupling, and it failed miserably. When they decided to break from their British counter parts, and make it their own then it really started to shine!

Arguably the best character on the American version is Dwight Schrute. Dwight is such an over-the-top, arrogant, ass kisser, and we love him for it! If you are not familiar with Dwight, here is a brief description from Wikipedia:

[Dwight] is a physically imposing man at 6 feet 2 inches (1.88 m) with little sense of humor, a hunger for authority (however meager it may be), and a gullible nature that often makes him the target of pranks, primarily at the hands of Jim Halpert. Despite his severe naivety, he is very knowledgeable on a wide range of topics including bears, beets, and Battlestar Galactica.

If you remember correctly in the opener for the fall 2008 season, Pam showed us what she had been working on in Art school. It was an ASCII version of Dwight!

NBC has the PDF version available for download here: (Dwight Schrute ASCII Art Download)

Dwight has some great lines. If you are a Dwight fan, I want to hear your favorite Dwight quotes. Lets hear them in the comments! If you love The Office, you may also be interested in some great DirecTV Specials!

Technorati Tags: dwight,schrute,ascii,art,download,nbc,the office

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RemoteWipe – Autoit Tool To Wipe a Drive Remotely!

My buddy Karl over at AskTheAdmin.com once wrote an article about running a script from Outlook when a particular email comes in. It got me to thinking if there was a way to remotely wipe a hard drive when an email comes in. I couldn’t find a program that could be scripted to remotely wipe a drive, but I once wrote about a program called HDD Wipe that can at least wipe a drive while Windows was running.

So all that was left was a way to automate HDD Wipe. Well, HDD Wipe is GUI only, so that got me thinking about another program I wrote about called Autoit that lets you automate GUI programs. I decided to write my own program that automates HDD Wipe to wipe out a hard drive remotely. Here is a teaser video of me wiping a drive using an email. I used this in one of my old Youtube episodes on how to wipe a hard drive remotely. Check it out!



Download RemoteWipe here: (RemoteWipe.exe)

To use it drop it in the HDDGURU FreeWipe Tool programs file directory, and run it via script, double click, PSExec or however you feel you need to run it!

Do you know of a better way to remotely wipe a drive in windows? If so, let me know. Preferably a scriptable program please. If you have something better, I will use it in Episode 18 of Bauer-Power and I will give you full credit for the tip!

Technorati Tags: remotewipe,download,hard drive,hard disk,wipe,remotely

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A Suite of Free Tools To Boost Your PC's Performance

I loves me some freeware! I guess that is the biggest reason I started this blog. Well I just found another freebie that is really cool, and I would say is a must have for anyone in the business that gets stuck on the phone with those users complaining that their computer is slow.

You know the type. The dreaded call saying simply in a whiny voice, "My computer is sooooooo slooooowwww. Can you help?"

Luckily I don't do phone support anymore, but I did do it for quite a while so I feel your pain!

There are lots of spyware cleaners, registry cleaners, defrag utilities etc out there. Many of which have already been reviewed here on Bauer-Power. This particular utility though is an all-in-one suite that does almost everything in a one stop shop.

I am talking about Glary Utilities. Here is a brief rundown of what it does from their website:

• Optimize, clean and boost the speed of your Windows.
• Protect your privacy and security.
• Block spyware, trojans, adware, etc.
• Fix certain application errors.
• Simple, fast and User friendly interface

Here is a screenshot of Glary Utilities running a 1-click maintenance scan on my PC:

Oh and looky here.... It found some problems:


I am seriously loving the tracks eraser which erases many things from your internet browsing history and last ran programs history. It will even clear out your Start > Run history.

Along with the one click maintenance, you also have different modules built in. One of my favorites is the Uninstall Manager which is like Add/Remove Programs on steroids! It allows you to select multiple program at once and perform one big batch uninstall!

Now Glary Utilities is free for private use. If you want to incorporate it into your company's IT arsenal, then you will have to purchase the Pro version for a nominal fee of $39.95.

Have you used Glary Utilities? What are some of your favorite features?

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Episode 16 – How To Schedule Spyware Cleanup in Spybot S&D

Two weeks in a row? Well, it isn’t going to happen again. I am planning on releasing these once per month now. Next Month, Sundance and I are getting together to knock out four episodes, which will be released once per month for January, March, April and May. I had to head into work on a Saturday,so I had some time to do this one.

Anyhoo, in this episode I wanted to show how easy it is to configure Spybot to do scheduled updating and scheduled scanning. One thing I didn’t mention in the video is for the update task, you can add a /autoimmunize line after /autoupdate to have Spybot keep your machine immunized.

Here it is, Episode 16!

What do you like to use to keep your computer free of spyware? I know everyone has their favorites. Hit me up in the comments!

Technorati Tags: how to,automated,schedule,spybot,spyware,cleanup,updates,immunize

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Gmail tip – send email directly to a label from anywhere.

I recently made the switch from my private email server to Google for Applications. This made Gmail my primary mail client and I have dedicated some time to mastering all of it’s features – and there sure are a bunch. Today’s tip will show you how to simply and easily auto-label your incoming messages to your account. Before I get into how let me tell you why I want to do this…

I send emails from my HTC Tilt2 to my Gmail account from NewsBreak. This is a RSS reader and these stories are story ideas. So I created a label in Gmail called StoryIdeas.

Next all I have to do is send an email to Karl+StoryIdeas@MyDomain.com and the email will automatically be labeled for you without any other intervention! Awesome!

Do you have a Gmail tip – send it in to tips at AskTheAdmin dot com! Or hit us up in the comments

By Karl Gechlik of AskTheAdmin

Technorati Tags: gmail,tags,email to,automatically

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Stay Up To Date With Google Alerts

Lately there has been a lot of public news in my home town that I am extremely interested in. Mainly because it could affect my life  at work. Now, I am not going to get into details, but this news could create an epic boat load of work for me if the worst happens.

Every once in a while, I catch wind of an update in this issue from someone else and have to go search for it in Google to find out what is going on. Well, I am tired of that frankly, so I signed up for Google Alerts on the subject.

If you didn’t know about it, when you do a search in Google News, at the very bottom there is a link saying, “Create an email alert for…” where the dots are the search term:

Alternatively, you can just go to the Google Alerts page, and fill in your search term there. It’s the same thing really. Either way, you can be alerted to Google search results for

• News
• Blogs
• Web
• Video
• Groups
• Or comprehensive results on everything!

You can have alerts emailed to you once a day, once a week or as things happen. You can also limit the number of email alerts you receive per day. All in all, very handy when you want to stay current on a subject.

Do you use Google Alerts? What kind of stuff do you want to be alerted on? Hit me up in the comments!

Technorati Tags: google,alerts,news,updates

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Bauer-Power Episode 15 – How To Schedule Defrag on Servers

As promised with Episode 14, Sundance and I switched to a new format. This format will keep the show under 10 minutes, so we can post to sites like Youtube that only have a 10 Minute time limit. Also, we are well aware that 30 minutes on the Internet is like a friggin’ eternity!

Speaking of Youtube, please feel free to subscribe to our new Youtube channel here: http://youtube.com/tvbauerpower

In this episode, I go solo in the new shorter format so we can be on Youtube. Also, I show you how easy it is to schedule disk defrag on Windows Server 2008 using the built-in defrag program, and in Windows Server 2003 using Defraggler.

So how do you like the new format? Short, sweet and to the point right? One of our biggest complaints was that it is way too long to sit through. I frankly don’t blame you guys who felt that way. Hopefully these quick how-to’s and funny bits will be more appealing in this shorter format.

Let me know what you think in the comments!

Technorati Tags: 2003,2008,alternative to,defrag,defraggler,diskkeeper,how to,schedule,server,windows

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Getting Backup Exec To Work with Windows Server 2008 R2

If you read yesterday’s article you know I am working to get the kinks out of our Backup Exec deployment. My goal is to have a smooth, self sufficient backup server running, that I only need to look at when an alert tells me something is wrong rather than daily. I know daily checks are a good thing, but I would rather stare at a bunch of successes than failures.

One of the errors I was seeing was on our Windows Server 2008 R2 servers. In fact, when you install the agent you get a warning about compatibility problems. Does that mean Backup Exec won’t back up Windows Server 2008 R2? Not in this case.

The error I was seeing was this:

V-79-57344-65225 - A failure occurred accessing the Writer metadata.

V-79-57344-65225 - AOFO: Initialization failure on: "System?State". Advanced Open File Option used: Microsoft Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS).

Snapshot provider error (0xE000FEC9): A failure occurred accessing the Writer metadata.

Check the Windows Event Viewer for details.

At first I thought that maybe it was related to the VSS issues I blogged about a few months ago. It wasn’t related at all as the writer status was fine. No the problem is with the 100MB System Reserved partition windows creates when you install it.

To get the error to go away all you have to do is assign that partition a drive letter:

I know! So simple it almost makes you want to puke right? What? Am I the only one? Okay, sorry then. Still, it is pretty awesome how easy it is to fix that.

Know of any other 2008 R2 tricks for backup exec? Hit me up in the comments!

 

Technorati Tags: backup exec,12.5,writer metadata,error,how to,fix

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Backup Exec - V-79-57344-33928 - Access is denied

If you have been reading the blog regularly for the last three of four months, you know that I recently had the pleasure of setting up a Symantec Backup Exec 12.5 server. I did the best I could, but I frankly was not that familiar with the product.

Well, I just got a new boss who is a wizard with Backup Exec and showed me a really good way of setting it up. Now I am in the process of tweaking some of the selection lists, and troubleshooting some errors here and there.

One error I came across was the following:

Backup- \\<servername>\C:
V-79-57344-33928 - Access is denied

Access denied? WTF? The account I was using was a local administrator. I looked at the permissions of C: and administrators had full control. What could it be? I tried to edit the security of C: but I got an access denied for that too. I tried taking ownership, but got an access denied for that as well. WTF?

Did any of you guess UAC? If so, you just won a pat on the back! UAC was on, and was denying access for Backup Exec. I went to control panel, and opened up User Accounts to turn off UAC, but when I clicked the Turn User Account Control On or Off link nothing happened.

I had to use an alternative method of turning off UAC. What I did was:

• Run msconfig from the run line
• Clicked on the Tools tab
• Scrolled down and clicked on Disable UAC then clicked Launch

• Copied the Selected command and pasted it in the command prompt that opened when I clicked Launch
• Rebooted

After UAC was off, I re-ran the failed Backup Exec job with no errors!

Technorati Tags: backup exec,access denied,error,UAC,user account control

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Mail Not Flowing From Exchange 2003 to Exchange 2007

So here is the latest scenario. I am setting up a new Exchange 2007 server in an effort to migrate Exchange 2003 users over to it. During the setup of Exchange 2007 we ran into some schema permissions issues, and in an attempt to correct them we tried uninstalling Exchange 2007 and deleted the SMTP connectors that Exchange 2003 needs in order to deliver mail to Exchange 2007.

While working with Microsoft to correct our AD Schema permission errors, the Microsoft Technician gave me a commandlet to run to rebuild the connectors. The problem was the commandlet did not build them correctly. When I migrated my test user over to 2007, it could send outbound mail fine, and could send email to users on 2003, however since all inbound mail flowed through the 2003 server, no mail could go to the new user.

On the Exchange 2007 server I used the mail flow troubleshooter tool, and received the following error:

Mail submission failed: Error message: The SMTP host was not specified

I was able to correct the issue though by doing the following:

• Migrated my test user back to Exchange 2003
• On Exchange 2003, I opened Exchange System Manager
• I navigated to Administrative Groups> Exchange 2003 Server>Routing Groups>Connectors
• I deleted the connector for the Exchange 2003-2007 Server
• I navigated to Administrative Groups> Exchange 2007 Server>Routing Groups>Connectors
• I deleted the connector for the Exchange 2007-2003 Server
• On The Exchange 2007 server, I went to Start > Control Panel> Programs and Features
• I selected Exchange 2007 and clicked Uninstall
• I uninstalled the Hub Transport Role
• I rebooted Exchange 2007
• When it booted back up, I went to Start > Control Panel> Programs and Features
• I selected Exchange 2007 and clicked Change
• I re-installed the Hub Transport Role
• When I did, it provided me with an option to create an SMTP connector with Exchange 2003
• Moved my test user back to Exchange 2007
• Done

After that, mail flow was working perfectly! Ever have this problem? How did you fix it? Hit me up in the comments!

Technorati Tags: exchange,2003,2007,co-exist,mail flow,smtp,connector,rebuild,re-install,hub transport

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How To Install Windows 7 From USB

I was having some performance issues on my Dell Mini 9 recently and decided to start doing some optimization. One of the things I was going to do was change the Page file settings from system managed, like they are by default, to a static size.

Well, I had filled up my drive, and didn’t have enough room to do that, so I decided to re-build my Dell Mini. Why not? It’s the weekend, and I didn’t have anything important save on it anyway. So like normal, I pull out my external DVD drive that I purchased with my netbook, and began trying to re-install. That is when I started having problems.

This actually happens every time I try to install anything via CD or DVD on the Dell Mini. The external drive that came with it is hit or miss. I looked online, and it appears to be a common issue with the Dell Mini. Let me tell you it is frustrating as hell!

The good news is that I can boot off of a USB stick no problem. In fact, that is how I install my Bauer-Puntu partition on the Dell Mini. What about the Windows half though? Well it turns out it is fairly easy to make a bootable USB Windows 7 install stick!

All you need is a Windows 7 install DVD, and a 4GB USB Flash drive. Don’t have one? You can get a Bauer-Power one here: Bauer-Power 4GB USB

Better yet, you get one for only $10.99 from Amazon here: 4GB USB

Once you have your materials, just do the following:

• On another computer, open a command prompt as administrator
• Plug in your 4GB USB thumb drive
• Run DiskPart
• Type List Disk and hit enter (Note the number of your drive, e.g. Disk 1)
• Type Select Disk 1and hit enter (Where 1 is the number of your disk)
• Type Clean and hit enter
• Type Create Partition Primary and hit enter
• Type Select Partition 1 and hit enter
• Type Active and hit enter
• Type Format FS=NTFS and hit enter (This will take a while)
• Type Assign and hit enter
• Type Exit to quit DiskPart

Once that part is complete, keep your command prompt open and pop in your Windows 7 DVD, then do the following from command line:

• Type in F: and hit enter (Where F: is the drive letter of your DVD Drive)
• Type CD Boot and hit enter
• Type Bootsect /NT60 M: (Where M: is the drive letter of your USB Flash drive)

• Now copy the contents of your Windows 7 DVD to your thumb drive and you are ready to install from USB!

After performing the above steps, I recommend creating an image of your install thumb drive so you don’t have to remember all of the above later. To do that just download Roadkil’s Disk Image tool, and save an exact copy of your USB stick to your hard drive some place. If you ever need to use it again, you can re-image your USB stick with the same tool.

Are you a Dell Mini user? Are you having problems with your external DVD drive? Know of an easier tool to create a Windows 7 install USB thumb drive? Hit me up in the comments!

[Via Into Windows]

Technorati Tags: how to,create,windows 7,usb,install,thumb,flash,drive,netbook

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Add HTML Signatures to Gmail, Google Apps, Yahoo, Hotmail or AOL

I love Google apps! I have blogged about it in the past, and personally use it for my Bauer-Power emails. The only problem with it is that Google only has options for plain text email signatures. Some of you might be cool with that, but I’m not. I like to add a little color with my signatures.

If you use Firefox, then you are in luck! There is a Firefox add-on that will let you create a custom HTML signature for Gmail, Google Apps, Yahoo mail, Hotmail and AOL. It is called WiseStamp.

Here is a video I grabbed from their site:

Here is a screen shot of from my editor:

After you make your customizations, WiseStamp automatically inserts you signature into new emails. Don’t forget to turn off your signature options within Gmail of Google Apps though, or you will get double signatures. Here is a screenshot of mine:

Know of any other ways to get HTML in Gmail or Google Apps? Perhaps a better Firefox extension? What about IE? Hit me up in the comments!

Technorati Tags: how to,add,html,signature,gmail,google apps,yahoo mail,hotmail,aol,wisestamp,firefox,add-on

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And the winners are…

Sorry I’m late with this, I am setting up a new Microsoft Exchange 2007 environment for some clients, and my mind has been completely wrapped around that. Enough jibba jabba though. I am sure you want to know who won their Google Voice Invites.

In order to pick the winners, I plugged everyone’s name into an Excel spreadsheet and then using a random number generator, I picked the names corresponding to their number in the spreadsheet. The more entries, the better chance of winning.

The three winners are:

• @cscheidecker
• @mdwittenberg
• @DonnaLex

Thank you all for participating! Please DM me by 12/4/09 at midnight with your email address so I can send you the Google Voice invites!

Technorati Tags: google,voice,contest,winners

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My Top 10 Geeky Christmas Wish List

Shopping for the geek in your life can sometimes be difficult. I mean, how many video games can you get a guy right? I for one already have the entire James bond collection, so what else can I possibly want? What kind of geeky goodness could someone get me? Where can they get it? I am sure my family isn't the only ones dealing with that.

I figured other geeks have family members looking to get something for the geek in their lives too, but not be in tuned enough with their inner geek enough to know where to get the geeky deals. I figured I would compile a list of awesome geeky products from some of Bauer-Power's sponsors to help my family, and others out their get something truly epic for their geeks!

1. Green Laser Pointer II - This pointer is significantly brighter (about 50 times) than a red laser pointer and because of its unusual color it is much more noticeable. I mean come on, a 532 nm green laser wavelength is obviously superior to a laughable 650 nm red laser wavelength. And unlike a red laser, the green beam itself can be seen in mid-air in dark conditions, not just the laser beam dot.


2. Star Wars Cook Books - Why just sit at home eating boring food, when you can follow the instructions in this recipe book and make that same food but with super-outer-galactic names? Anyone who tells you not to play with your food is a dummy - playing is what makes food fun. Especially when you can make a Jedi Juice Bar and then fly it into your mouth-hangar.


3. Tauntaun Sleeping Bag - In the sub-zero wasteland of the planet Hoth, only the strong survive... and of course those lucky Jedi protected by the thick skin of a Tauntaun.


4. 26" Widescreen HD TV - With a 26-inch widescreen LCD display, 1366 x 768 resolution and an 800:1 contrast ratio, you can enjoy watching high definition movies or TV shows, play video games, view digital photos and much more with crystal-clear images!


5. 1TB SATA Hard Drive - Equipped with an enormous 1 Terabyte storage capacity, this hard drive will give you the space to store thousands of hours of digital video, music, photos, and more! Constructed for quick data access, the 7K1000.B features a 7200 RPM spindle speed and a 16 MB buffer. With a blazing 1406 Mbits/s Media transfer rate along with a 300 MB/s Data Transfer rate, this hard drive has it all! The SATA/300 interface makes connecting it to your system easy!


6. Palm Accessories - Ever since I got my Palm Pre, I need more accessories! If your geek has a Palm device, chances are they need some accessories too!


7. i-Pod Accessories - The number one geek toy on the market needs accessories. If your geek has an i-Pod, chances are good they need accessories as well.


8. Bluetooth Headsets - Geeks love anything Bluetooth. Just make sure they only wear their headsets while driving!


9. Spy Watch - I have always been a big James Bond fan! One of the reasons is because of all the cool gadgets. Some of the best gadgets have been watches... Now they are affordable!
   


10. Canon Vixia HF200 - Maybe your geek doesn't want to record his own video podcast monthly, but I do! I also want the ability to plug a microphone directly into the HD video camera, and I don't want to spend $1000.00 either!
    

What kind of geek stuff do you have on your list? Spy watch perhaps? Maybe the latest Halo game? I want to know what you want in your stocking at Christmas! Hit me up in the comments!

NOTE: All links are sponsored links via Commission Junction.

Technorati Tags: top, 10, ten, geek, gifts, christmas, holiday

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Deleted A Public Folder in Exchange 2007… Now What?

You ever have a moment when you feel like your world is crashing down all around you, and there may be no possible way of coming back or surviving? Well I felt like that the other night. You see I was decommissioning an Exchange 2007 server, and I messed up on a step where you are supposed to transfer all Public Folder replicas to another Exchange 2007 server. I thought I did it correctly, but I obviously didn’t because when I uninstalled Exchange from that server ALL PUBLIC FOLDERS WERE GONE! WTF!!

I frantically tried to recover using Backup Exec 12.5, but I kept having different problems with that. The restore would say successful, yet still no public folders. I was obviously not doing that right either, but that is for another article.

I did however have a backup copy of the Public Folders EDB file, so I started scouring the net looking for a good EDB to PST program. All I could find were really expensive ones like Ontrack PowerControls and Kernel for Exchange Server. Frankly those were last resort options because of the cost.

I did find a tool from Microsoft called PFDAVADMIN. This tool saved my bacon. It works for Exchange 2000, 2003, and 2007. IT DOES NOT RUN ON WINDOWS 7 WORTH A DAMN! It also requires .NET Framework 1.1 so DO NOT RUN IT FROM EXCHANGE!

What I did was create a VM in Virtual box running Windows XP Pro. I installed .NET Framework 1.1, then ran PFDAVADMIN using my domain admin credentials.

Once connected I right clicked on Public Folders and selected “Show Deleted Subfolders”

When I did that, all of the subfolders that I accidentally deleted showed up in red. I right clicked on each one and selected RECOVER. After I did that, all public folders were restored!

Have you gone through the same thing? What tool(s) did you use to recover? Are you going through this now? Hit me up in the comments.

Technorati Tags: how to,recover,exchange 2007,public folders,deleted,free

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A Public Service Announcement For Blue Tooth Wearers

You have all seen them. Perhaps you are one of them. People who go around wearing your bluetooth headset all the time. Walking down the street, inside buildings, at the gym etc. You know, every place other than the place you are suppose to wear one… IN YOUR CAR!

The fact of the matter is you are not friggin’ Maverick from Top Gun! You don’t need to have your headset on all the time. The idea is to free your hands when driving, that is it. If you didn’t realize it already, you look like a damned fool! To better illustrate this, my buddy Sundance and I filmed this PSA for Episode 14 of Bauer-Power. We hope we can help you not look like a douche bag.

Happy Thanksgiving! Now take off your stupid Bluetooth headset!

Technorati Tags: the more you know,bluetooth,blue tooth,psa,public service announcement

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How to Change The Recovery Model On All Databases at Once in SQL 2005 Management Studio

In Microsoft SQL there are three ways to set your recovery model. Each method has their own pluses and minus. Each of them have their own reason for using them.

The three recovery models are Full, Bulk-Logged and Simple. The first one, Full, is set by default in SQL 2005. According to SQL-Recovery.com, Full recovery model is:

This is your best guarantee for full data recovery. The SQL Server fully logs all operations, so every row inserted through a bulk copy program (bcp) or BULK INSERT operation is written in its entirety to the transaction log. When data files are lost because of media failure the transaction log can be backed up.

Bulk Logged:

This model allows for recovery in case of media failure and gives you the best performance using the least log space for certain bulk operations, including BULK INSERT, bcp, CREATE INDEX, WRITETEXT, and UPDATETEXT.

Simple:

It allows for the fastest bulk operations and the simplest backup-and-restore strategy. Under this model, SQL Server truncates the transaction log at regular intervals, removing committed transactions. Only full database backups and differential backups are allowed.

Changing the recovery model is as simple as right clicking on the database in SQL 2005 management Studio, Clicking on Properties, Clicking on Options, and selecting your recovery model from the drop down menu. This can be tedious though if you have multiple databases. Some web servers have 50 plus databases. Do you want to manually change each one? I didn’t think so!

Below is a simple T-SQL script you can run to change all of your databases to the the recovery model of choice!

USE master

GO

-- Declare a variable to store the value [database name] returned by FETCH.

DECLARE @dbname sysname, @cmd varchar(1000)

-- Declare a cursor to iterate through the list of databases

DECLARE db_recovery_cursor CURSOR FOR

SELECT name from sysdatabases

-- Open the cursor

OPEN db_recovery_cursor

-- Perform the first fetch and store the value in a variable.

FETCH NEXT FROM db_recovery_cursor INTO @dbname

-- loop through cursor until no more records fetched

WHILE @@FETCH_STATUS = 0

BEGIN

IF (SELECT DATABASEPROPERTYEX(@dbname,'RECOVERY')) <> '<RECOVERYMODEL>' and @dbName <> 'tempdb' BEGIN

-- create the alter database command for each database

SET @cmd = 'ALTER DATABASE "' + @dbname + '" SET RECOVERY <RECOVERYMODEL>'

-- alter each dataabase setting the recovery model to <RECOVERYMODEL>

EXEC(@cmd)

PRINT @dbname

end

FETCH NEXT FROM db_recovery_cursor INTO @dbname

END

-- close the cursor and deallocate memory used by cursor

CLOSE db_recovery_cursor

DEALLOCATE db_recovery_cursor

NOTE: Replace <RECOVERYMODEL> with your model of choice (I.E. SIMPLE, BULK-LOGGED, FULL)

What recovery model do you use on your servers in your environment? Why? Hit us up in the comments!

Technorati Tags: sql 2005,how to,change,recovery model,multiple databases,script

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Bauer-Power Episode 14

Hello out there to everyone on the big WWW! It is that time again after three months or so for another episode of the highly acclaimed, IPTV show Bauer-Power!

In this episode, Paul talks about Ubuntu 9.10, as well as some controversies with Karmic Koala, plus the release of Bauer-Puntu 9.10. Sundance talks about beta software that sucks including Twitter and Facebook plug-ins for Xbox, Google's Chrome OS, and Office 2010. Along with our ramblings, we have also created a public service announcement for those who wear blue tooth headsets all the time, and have put together a random montage of bikini's, time travel, fast cars, egg nog, and Thanksgiving. Enjoy!

This will probably be the last episode in this format. I spoke to my co-host Sundance about it, and he agrees that our shows are way too long for internet attention spans. We will go with a one how-to topic/one funny bit segment format per month now. Our goal is to get every new show down to 10 minutes or less so we can broaden our reach as far as video hosting sites go. Right now our videos are way too long for Youtube, and that is probably the best site to be.

You can add our show to your iPod/iPhone by subscribing to the show’s RSS feed here: http://bauer-power.blip.tv/rss

Please visit the links to our sponsors!

• Blockbuster
• GoDaddy
• Amazon

As always, we welcome your feedback, so please hit us up in the comments!

Technorati Tags: linux,ubuntu,psa,bluetooth,bauer-power,xbox,twitter,facebook,chrome

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Free Antivirus From Microsoft

I am always down for free antivirus. Want to know why? Because when I used to do home computer repair back in the day, one of the number one problems I was dealing with was viruses at home. Users would get a new computer with a trial antivirus, then when the trial lapsed they were left vulnerable.

Being average users, they just didn’t know any better. They didn’t realize that if the Antivirus wasn’t updating, they weren’t being protected. Free antivirus keeps them protected without the need to worry about renewing licensing every few years.

I have written in the past about Avast, AVG, Comodo, and most recently Panda Cloud. Well Microsoft has gotten into the game recently too with Microsoft Security Essentials. Here are some key features from their site:

• Comprehensive malware protection
• Simple, free download
• Automatic updates
• Easy to use

All the above are probably the best arguments ever to switch my mom over. If she doesn’t have to think about “the wizard behind the curtain” the easier my life is.

This is free for home use only like most free antivirus products. If you are a business user, Microsoft offers Microsoft Frontline. Of course, you probably already have antivirus for your company, and since you have to pay for this you probably will want to keep what you have.

Have you tried Microsoft Security Essentials? Like it? Dislike it? Does it have a good detection rate? I want to hear about your experience in the comments.

Technorati Tags: microsoft,security essentials,free antivirus,download

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Want To Test Out Google’s Chrome OS?

The second biggest news in the Linux world right now is the release of Google’s Chrome OS yesterday. I say second biggest, because Bauer-Puntu 9.10 released yesterday as well!

I know a lot of you are looking to test out Chrome OS, so I decided to host the files on Bauer-Power’s FTP server as well. If you are having problems downloading the VMWare VMDK image of it, or the VirtualBOX VDI image of it from GDGT.com, I created alternate mirrors here:

Google Chrome VMDK Download

Google Chrome VDI Download

I haven’t played with it yet myself, so I will not be doing a review just yet, however my buddy Sundance is playing with it, and he said he may talk about it in Episode 14 of Bauer-Power, so stay tuned!

Technorati Tags: google,chrome,os,download,alternate,mirror,ftp

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Who's ready for some Bauer-Puntu 9.10?

I know, I’m a big fat hypocrite. I said there would be no more Bauer-Puntu, and yet here we are… Awkward….

Anyway, a few weeks ago I said I would be making an Open-Suse distro using Suse Studio. Well after playing with it a little, I decided I wouldn’t do that. Suse Studio really limits the amount of customization you can do. That and no matter what you do, you just can't get rid of all the damned Suse logos! I mean, what's the point of making your own distro if you can't remove all of the logos right?

Anyhoo, so I started playing around with the new version of Ubuntu and immediately started changing the look and feel of it, and then I started thinking to myself, "Why not just make a new distro?" and the rest as they say is history.

So what's up with this version? Well I went a completely different direction with this one. In the last few version I attempted to make a security/hacking CD with lots of cool auditing and cracking tools. Lets face it though, the number one hacking CD is BackTrack and I just can't compete. You know what they say, if you can't beat them, tuck tail and cry to your momma... Okay, maybe not, but you get the idea.

No, in this version I decided to tailor it more toward social media and social networking. If you like Twitter, Facebook, Myspace, Youtube, Digg, Stumble, RSS, blogging and everything else the big WWW has to offer, then this is the distro for you!

Some of the new features of the new version are the same as Ubuntu 9.10 which are:

• New chat client – Empathy
• Upstart for faster boot
• New Software Center
• Gnome 2.28
• Ubuntu One
• Ext4 by default
• Grub 2 by default
• And a few others. See the release notes for more info

Along with that what I added was:

• Flock as the default web browser
• Adobe Air and Twhirl
• Penguin TV
• Install GParted
  
• Removed the Shit Brown!

Why Flock? Well Flock is the premiere social media/networking web browser. My buddy Sundance blogged about Flock in the past, so if you want to know some really cool features of Flock and how it can help you get your Digg/Twitter/Youtube Etc on, then just read that article.

I also installed the Stumbleupon toolbar into Flock, so you can waste your days away surfing every far corner of the Internet, discovering things you never thought you would ever see, and perhaps some things you wish you could un-see.

Once again I have created a Live DVD and a Live USB image for portable social time wasting (Hey students and teens! I am talking to you!). You can download them here:

Bauer-Puntu 9.10 USB

Bauer-Puntu 9.10 ISO

For the writing the USB image on Windows, I recommend using the Roadkil's Disk Image utility available here: (Roadkil's Disk Image Portable)

For writing the USB image in Ubuntu I recommend using the USB-ImageWriter program. See here for instructions: (IMG to USB)

Netbook user? Me too! To change Bauer-Puntu into Netbook Remix mode (BPNR) run the following in the terminal:

>sudo apt-get install ubuntu-netbook-remix

Once that is finished, reboot and you will now have BPNR!

Like previous versions, you can install Bauer-Puntu to your hard drive using either the Live DVD or the USB image, or you can just carry them around for mobile social goodness!

For you picture peeps, here are some screen shots:

Xsplash

Login Screen

Desktop

Flock w/ RSS Reader

Installer

I decided to try to keep this version simple. Since social media/networking is primarily web based, that made things easy with Flock, and a few clients like Twhirl and Penguin TV.

Also, I had a LOT of complaints about file hosting and download times last time, so this time I set up a dedicated FTP server. Hopefully downloads won’t be as painful this time around.

Let me know how you like it! Download it, use it, abuse it then hit me up in the comments!

Technorati Tags: bauer-puntu,9.10

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Customizing Ubuntu 9.10

If you have just downloaded Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic Koala, you probably just figured out that once again the folks at Ubuntu have made this version a little bit harder to customize. When I say customize I mean change the boot splash and login screen.

Why is that? It is because they have replaced uSplash with Xsplash and GDM with X11. So what does one have to do to pimp out this version of Ubuntu? I’ll tell you.

To customize the login screen, you can’t simply download a GDM theme from Gnome-Look.org anymore. Now you have to change the look and feel the same way you do with your desktop, by changing the wallpaper and the metacity theme. To do that open a terminal and run the following:

# gksudo -u gdm dbus-launch gnome-appearance-properties

That will bring up the options to change the wallpaper, colors and settings for the login screen.

To change Xsplash, this is actually a little easier. Go to Gnome-Look.org and do a search for ‘Xsplash’ and you will find a few boot splash screens. Go ahead and download the one of your choice. (I like the new Bauer-Puntu Xsplash screen personally ;-P) Once you download your theme, extract the contents, and copy the pictures inside to /usr/share/images/xsplash.

Reboot, and you are good to go.

Speaking of pimping out your Linux. I know I mentioned doing away with Bauer-Puntu, and going with a Suse based distro. Well, I changed my mind on that. Suse studio kind of sucks. No, I will make a Bauer-Puntu 9.10, but I am going a different direction with it this time. Stay tuned for the next few days for the official announcement.

Technorati Tags: ubuntu,9.10,karmic koala,koala,how-to,change,gdm,login,xsplash

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Getting Wireless To Work on Dell Mini 9 Using Ubuntu 9.10

I am kind of getting grumpy with the latest Ubuntu release. In previous versions of Ubuntu I had no driver issues out of the box. Just install and away we go. Last version, Jaunty Jackelope, I had a problem with the Wireless driver on my Dell Latitude D610 which I blogged about. This weekend I decided to upgrade my Dell Inspiron Mini 9 to Karmic Koala (Ubuntu 9.10) netbook remix and I had a similar issue.

So here is the low-down. I installed Ubuntu 9.10, and bam, wireless did not work. At first I plugged my Mini into an ethernet jack and install all updates, then I went to System >  Hardware Drivers and checked for new drivers. I first tried to install the Broadcom BCM driver, but that did nothing. Then I tried to install the Broadcom STA driver, and I couldn’t test it. Want to know why? Because after installing updates, then installing the Broadcom drivers I got a Kernel panic error and Ubuntu would not boot!

I finally got it working though, so if you are having the same issue here is the right order to install stuff to get Wireless working on your Dell Mini 9 in Ubuntu 9.10:

• Install Ubuntu 9.10
• Plug in an ethernet cable with internet access to your Dell Mini 9
• From the terminal run: sudo apt-get update
• Reboot
• Go to System> Hardware Drivers and search for new drivers
• Install the Broadcom STA Wireless Driver
• Reboot
• From the terminal run: sudo apt-get upgrade
• Install available updates.
• Reboot

I’m not sure why installing the driver first works, but it does. If you install the driver after the updates it is Kernel panic city!

Have you had any driver problems in the new Ubuntu? Let us know in the comments.

Technorati Tags: how to,wireless,dell mini,inspiron,9,ubuntu,9.10,karmic koala,drivers,install

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Best Podcast App for The Palm Pre

I have been dealing with a lot of change in my life recently. I started a new job at the end of August, I got a new phone, I moved into a new house at the end of September, and I traded in my TiVo for an AT&T U-verse DVR. With that last change, I also thought I had to give up something, my subscriptions to my favorite IPTV shows!

On my TiVo I could get all of the coolest Revision3 shows easily, and right on my TV. I would just browse through my list of recorded shows and there they were, all convenient and everything. Of course my U-verse DVR doesn’t have an option to download video podcasts, so I had to look for better alternatives.

I could watch them on my laptop, but that isn’t always convenient. Usually I am doing work on my laptop while my wife watches TV, and my IPTV watching will interrupt her. So I decided I should put it on my phone. At first I tried Dr. Podder from the Home Brew channel, but that didn’t work quite right for me. Not sure what was up with it. I could play audio podcasts fine, but videos would error out.

I finally discovered an app that worked perfectly! It is called MediaFly. With MediaFly I can login to their website, search for all of my favorite shows like:

• Hak5
• Film Riot
• Digg Reel
• Diggnation
• Scam School
• Tekzilla

If you don’t see your favorite IPTV show, you can also import the show’s RSS feed. For example, if you want to watch our Bauer-Power videos on your iPhone or Palm Pre, you can simply add our RSS feed url which is:

http://bauer-power.blip.tv/rss

Once you add your favorite shows online, they will simply sync up with your device! No fiddling with cell phone buttons, and clunky cut and paste!

iPhone? Did I say iPhone? Yes I did! MediaFly is not just for us Palm Pre users. You can add MediaFly to the following devices:

• Palm Pre
• Roku Digital Player
• Blackberry
• Android
• iPhone
• iPods
• Sansa
• Creative Zen
• Logitech Squeezebox
• Chumby
• Popcorn Hour
• Zune

If you prefer to watch your video podcasts on your computer, you can also download their MediaFly SyncClient free of charge! Oh wait, everything on MediaFly is free, so why wouldn’t the software?

Do you have a different Podcast app you prefer? What is it? Is it free? I want to know about it, so hit us up in the comments!

Technorati Tags: iptv,podcast,video,palm,pre,iphone,app,free

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Panda Released a Free Cloud Antivirus

My coworker showed me something interesting today. Before I break it down to you, let me give you a little background of Antivirus. The way it is now, you have Antivirus software, and so do many other people on the internet. If one of them gets infected, a sample of the infection goes back to the Antivirus company’s lab where they reverse engineer it, see what makes it tick, then they release an update for everyone else to remove the infection. Sometimes this process can take a month or two to get out.

Well to remedy the problem, Panda Labs is releasing a free Cloud Antivirus. First of all, why free? Because the more people that have this Antivirus, the better. Why is that? Because Panda has essentially done away with the lab portion of it, and made us the users, the virtual lab. If one of us gets infected, all other users get notified and protected in a matter of minutes rather than waiting for an update from a software company lab. Here is a video from Panda that explains it way better than I can:

So what do you think? The idea sounds like a good one to me. I think I will run it on my laptop for a while to test it out. Will any of you try it? Are you trying it now? How well do you like it? Hit us up in the comments!

Technorati Tags: panda,cloud,antivirus,download,free

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I was wrong! HD-8TZ DOES have image stabilization!

Last night I was messing around with my new Speed HD-8TZ again, when I noticed something really awesome! It actually DOES have image stabilization. When I first did my review last week I remarked that it didn’t have this feature, so I just want to go on record as saying that I realized that was a mistake.

Learning a new toy is always an ongoing process, so I am sure I will learn way more about this pleasantly surprising little HD camera as time goes on. Anyway, if you want to see an example of how the image stability works on this, check out this quick little test video I made last night. I look horrible because it was really late, and I did it spur of the moment minutes before getting ready to turn in.

So what I noticed is the image stabilization works okay, but it isn’t a dramatic decrease in bounciness. If you really want a smooth shot, you certainly will need a tripod, but I find that the image stabilization does do a good enough job at not giving me motion sickness when I watch.

Do you have the Speed HD-8 or the HD-8TZ? Got any tips or tricks you want to share? Hit me up in the comments.

Technorati Tags: speed,hd-8tz,image,motion,stability,stabilization,test,review

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