Windows knowhow

Windows: Windows did not start. Howto write a new MBR and recover Windows OS Bootsector

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Hi,

if you migrate a Windows Installation to another Computer or virtual environment such as VMWare ESXi or VMWare Workstation it could happen that the system won’t start.

A typical error when the master boot record or the boot sector of the boot partition needs to be updated or must be rewritten is when

  • After Postscreen of the BIOS the console shows “Operating system not found” this means there is no boot code in MBR
  • or it shows only a blinking cursor in the upper left edge. 2 possible reasons are thinkable
  1. MBR boot code is loaded but could not load the operation system => The boot sector of the Windows Boot partition needs to be updated
  2. The boot(active) flag of Windows boot partition  is missing

For all cases you can use the command line program “testdisk” which is part of the most linux live CDs/DVDs to correct this.
Continue reading Windows: Windows did not start. Howto write a new MBR and recover Windows OS Bootsector →

Windows knowhow

Windows. Stop 0x0000007B. How to add a mass storage driver manually

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Hi,

this posts describes which steps are necassary to add or repair a masstorage driver in an exiting Windows installation.

If a Windows boot ends with a bluescreen STOP 0x0000007B INACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE, the system is unable to load a driver for your disk controller properly.

It is possible to correct this and respective, if the hardware changed, to add a driver manually.

The masstorage device driver is registered in Windows at five positions:

  • The Driver file (.sys) itself must be stored in %Systemroot%\system32\drivers
  • The Signature file (.cat) is stored in
    %Systemroot%\System32\catroot\{F750E6C3-38EE-11D1-85E5-00C04FC295EE}
  • The Install file (.inf) is located at %Systemroot%\inf
  • The Registry Key to start the driver => the service entry
  • The Registry Key to load the driver at the begin of the boot process => the CriticalDeviceDatabase

An example. Installing the Intel Rapid Storage (RST) Driver. Download the driver from the Homepage of the manufacturer, extract it and copy the files to an USB Stick or burn a cd.
Continue reading Windows. Stop 0x0000007B. How to add a mass storage driver manually →

VMware

VMware: A (incomplete) list with some PowerCLI Scripts for vSphere

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Hi,

for VMware vSphere a very powerfull Scripting engine is available which is called PowerCLI. PowerCLI based on, the also very powerfull, Microsoft powershell.

The Basics

Get the PowerCLI package from the VMware website and install it on your Windows Computer or on the VMware vCenter Server. Ok, lets start.

Open  PowerCLI Command prompt by clicking “VMware vSphere PowerCLI (32-Bit)” Icon. Note: The 64Bit Version(both the 32Bit and 64Bit versions were installed) did support all commands. For example when you clone a computer by the New-VM Command-Let and specifiy the OSCustomizationSpec parameter the follwing error was thrown.

New-VM -VM "ComputerTemplate" -Location "Windows Clients" -ResourcePool Resources -OSCustomizationSpec "Windows XP Client"  -Datastore esxdatastore0 -Name "COMPUTER1"
New-VM : 26.06.2013 23:37:42    New-VM         is not a valid Win32 application. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x800700C1)

However start the 32Bit Version :-). First you have to connect to your vCenter. If your Windows Account, with which you logged on, have the appropriate rights to connect to vCenter simply call

Connect-VIServer NameOfYourvCenter.domain.com

If logon successeds 2 global object variables are set to which all following commands refers to.

global:DefaultVIServer         NameOfYourvCenter.domain.com
global:DefaultVIServers        {NameOfYourvCenter.domain.com}

Alternatively you can assign the vCenter Object to a variable and append the -Server <VIServer[]> parameter to each command. This is usefull if you have multiple instances of vCenter.

$oSecondVCenter=Connect-VIServer NameOfYourvCenter.domain.com
Set-Vm -VM "OldName" -name "New-Name" -Server $oSecondVCenter

By default, all command are executed synchronous. This means the command prompt returned not until the tasks is finished. To start jobs asynchronus append the -RunAsync parameter to each command line.

Lets start with some example scripts
Continue reading VMware: A (incomplete) list with some PowerCLI Scripts for vSphere →

Windows knowhow

Windows: Network interface order

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Hi,

some Licensemanager uses the first MAC Address found in system as the HostID. You can use the getmac.exe command to show the list with all NICs.


[H:\]getmac

Physical addresse   Transport Name
=================== ===================================================
5C-9A-D8-AE-DC-0D   \device\TCPIP_{c6a12685-4aed-49a8-b26b-dce59b81b911}
00-DE-94-17-CA-0F   \device\TCPIP_{9f963344-edae-4a42-a992-bb9bc05672bb}
00-CA-BE-17-CA-0F   \device\TCPIP_{ad634d51-ccee-43d5-bef6-ce5749b4cdfd}

In this example 5C-9A-D8-AE-DC-0D was used as the host id. Sometimes, after installing a additional LAN adapter or by removing one, these alignment is disordered and the licensemanager won’t start.

These order is indent by the subkeys of

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4D36E972-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}

Each Network Interface has its own subkey started by 0000. The lowest Keynumber is the first in the output of getmac. So order your NICs as you want by renaming the keys(4-digit numbers)

Michael

VMware

VMware ESXi: A (incomplete) list of host commands Part 3

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Hi,

part 3 of my (incomplete) list of the esx cli.

ESXi Advanced Kernel Settings/Parameters

Get all

esxcli system settings advanced list

Set one, i.e. disable the shell respectively ssh warnings

esxcli system settings advanced set -o /UserVars/SuppressShellWarning -i 1

ESXi Kernel modules

List loaded kernel modules

vmkload_mod  -l

Get a list of all enabled kernel modules

esxcfg-module -q
Continue reading VMware ESXi: A (incomplete) list of host commands Part 3 →

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