Today on the last day of the course, at last the training got interesting mainly because it became more applicable to day to day use. The lessons were about disk management and data storage. These are some general important principles:-

• Always use NTFS file system for OS's that support it. NTFS has got security, compression and several other desirable features (ex. remembering previously flagged bad sector locations after a format) that are not present on FAT and FAT32.
• You can ALWAYS use quick format when formatting disk. Full format is only 'required' when you want to delete sensitive data from disk and even then most probably data can still be retrievable. For super sensitive data deletion you have to do a low level disk format.

In line with what I was thinking a month ago, there are millions of features in software packages that nobody knows they exist, which in some cases might be excellent time and effort savers. Windows itself is full of these unadvertised components. If for nothing else, this course highlighted the importance of MMC console; a tool which encompasses all administration requirements of a windows system, both server and desktop machine.

The MMC console can be used for almost all management tasks both within a local machine and also on remote computers. This tool makes remote administration really easy just by simply selecting the machine name you require to administer once you select the appropriate snap-in.

Using MMC console

1. To use the MMC console you just click select run from the start menu [windows key + R] and type MMC (on computers with multiple privileges you might have to use the runas command).
2. You can now add several components to the MMC console depending on the task you want to do. Go to file -> add remove snap/in -> add.
3. Try adding the computer management snap in which is a collection of other snap ins to allows you to do pretty much everything to manage your computer. The disk management facility allows formatting new disks (there is no need for partition magic), changing drive letters and work with dynamic disks to span and strip disks. Other options include monitor event logs, services, disk defragmentation, user and group management etc.
4. Also add the group policy snap in. This allows you to implement a computer policy based on how you want groups of users to use the computer. You can restrict access to most resources by creating policies. For example you can remove items like my computer and recycle bin from desktop, standardise desktop images, hide the control panel, etc.

The last part of the lesson was about disaster recovery management which is a fancy word for backup and restoring. Like all backup classes the golden rule in backup is: Your backup is only as good as your restore procedure.

Now, have you ever wondered what the following items mean in windows?

achieve file attribute

This file attribute is used by windows backup software to indicate that a file requires backup (if the attribute is set).

load last known good configuration

You're likely to see this option after a crash. This option loads the registry settings as of the last log on, so if you logged on installed a new driver and the computer crashed then the last known good configuration loads the registry before the driver got installed. If on the other hand you manage to log in the system after you install the driver than the computer malfunctions this option becomes pretty useless because the cocked up registry is saved.

Creating a startup disk in windows XP / 2000 / 2003

1. Select the show hidden files and folders and uncheck the hide protected operating system files, from the folder options under tools in my computer.
2. Copy
   • boot.ini
   • ntdetect.com
   • ntldr
   • if they exist copy bootsect.dos or ntbootdd.sys
3. From command line type attrib -h -s -r a:*.*

For more details check out the microsoft support site