@Hubtech said:

I get that this is frustrating, and i'm sure that there is much more going on, but dont let it get to you like this. The best you can do is document to whomever you report to that you think changes should be made, explain why you think these changes should be made, and also explain what a failure cold "cost" the company. I agree this is not the way network shares SHOULD be handled. What size is this business? how many employees? how much profit lost if one of these drive should fail? How long would you guys be "out" if a drive failed?

Yes it is very frustrating. I don't know of any IT person that would just toss stuff together like this was done. It is the worst example of what a 'IT' person could do. I mean really?

Change have been stated needed to be made. Consolidation, replication, and off site backups. And they are good with them. They know things need to be changed - My case was made exactly one year ago today ... Happy 1 year anniversary....

We are a Non Profit, about 300 people across 9 counties. Everyone is pretty much stand alone - some shares are on server class boxes, but the majority is desktop based with an external drive in some capacity. Of course, I have a server that was built with JUST.ONE.DRIVE! REALLY?? I mean WT* I'm not the sharpest tool in the shed,.. but ... I just don't have words to express (well I do,.. but I'm also trying to be professional about this...)

I'm looking at recovery options outside of the office... nothing I can do with it.

@Hubtech said:

i'd love to come in and fix what ails ya

I want to fix it too.. It can be done,... and I know that once it's put right that it WILL be more manageable.

@scottalanmiller said:

Start looking but don't quit yet. See what is out there.

I'd like to not leave,.. but at this point I'm overwhelmed. I know it's a 'How do you eat a elephant?' type thing,.. but in this case it's almost as if the elephant is sitting on me. We all have had (at least I would wager) tough spots... And we manage through.

@thecreativeone91 said:

Contact @Minion-Queen and get NTG to come to the rescue!

Another Question begs to be asked? Is there some kind of brand or model of HDD you are using that are failing so much? are you not replacing them with 3 years? is the not enough cooling, or moisture that could be causing it? I'm curious cause you sound like you have a lot of harddrive failures and while of course it will fail at some point, I honestly haven't had too many drives die during use - especially in servers.

It's not so much as there are so many drives that are failing... it's how this are arranged. You JUST don't used a external USB hard drive as a network share. You just don't - double that in a business environment. When you do, you are saying that you WANT to cause your organization misery but creating multiple failure points that YOU have to then fix - and risk failure of not just the HDD,.. but the organization as a whole.

This drive is a simple WD My Book Essential. Single Drive,.. connected to a Desktop,..doing what a Server and disk array in RAID configuration should be doing. And this was one of four that I have counted.

@Dashrender You can't order from Mirco?
Damn - had the impression I could order from them and ship.. even still,.. the added $35 isn't a deal killer.

@g.jacobse
Guess it was bound to happen.. got hit with the post bug.. Yay me.

Another hard drive failure.... External drive. being used as a network share.

But at what point do you just say enough and walk away? I'm not much on the term 'quitting'... but as a one person IT department in position of having essentially build a full BUSINESS network while putting band-aides on what you have...

I like where I am working,.. there are some awesome people here. But I am completely overwhelmed. I have spoken to my super about some help, and I know it's being addressed. But this is seriously more that I can handle or deal with. I literally don't get a break, and with what I hope to do, there won't be one for a long time....

Is it is time to walk away.. or should I keep trying- knowing that I really have to do just that,.. keep trying. I know I can fix it,.. I just can't fix it all right now....I can't be in 5 different counties at the same time. And they would prefer my not making more then 40 hours a week...

Smooth or not,.. I may be going across the street to find some....

@garak0410 said:

@scottalanmiller said:

Very cool. Microsoft is working hard to get Windows devices out in the lower Android price ranges. For devices like this, the OS is free these days.

Microsoft is still going to have to push "Developers. Developers. Developers" to make good MODERN/METRO apps. Sure, this will run desktop apps but it really does need more quality and useful "tablet" apps.

But will it run Linux?

At the price, I may have to look into picking one up... Could be fun

Being here in central Kentucky, I feel that I should be able to drink it,.. but I haven't found a one yet that I can tolerate. I'm not much of a drinker,.. though here of late it would be nice sometimes....

@Dashrender said:

Does that same key exist in HKLM?

Not that I am able to find. It appears that the keys are only within HKLU

I have a workstation that is throwing an error when trying to open a .docx file. If you open Word then click open, document name - it opens fine.

But if you just open the document you get an error:

"There was a problem sending the command to the program"

There are two user profiles on the computer, was getting it in both. edited the registry HK_user/Software/Microsoft/Office/14.0/Word deleting options; File MRU; Data

Also searched for and deleted the normal.dotx files.

On the one profile it worked, no additional errors. But on the person's profile the error remains. I have searched and also found a Microsoft FIXIT tool, but that does not correct the problem either.

Has anyone else ran into this little gem?

@MattKing said:

@scottalanmiller said:

LMAO. The Dildo Virus.

HAHAHAHA cannot up that enough.

Keep it up funny man... Keep it up....

@Dashrender said:

Hmm.. I guess I'm not reading the right things I've never heard DevOps before.

Nice article with good explanations, as usual.

@technobabble said:

Very interesting article. I had never heard of DevOps before either.

I'm not a coder (even thought I could do some .bat work and HTML) - But as a 25 year veteran of working with hardware and software, does that make me a DevOps person? I'm working on reading the article between everyone hunting me down for something else to fix.....

@thecreativeone91 said:

I've noticed that the more expensive hotels (namely Hilton) that I've stayed at have crappier internet but they also would charge me $10/day for internet because they use a per room ADSL connection. the Cheaper hotels seems to have better internet but everyone is on the same network and it's free. It's weird you'd think the more expensive hotels would have better internet.

Living in an apartment complex a few years ago, I thought it would be next to nothing to offer internet to all the units using managed switches where you are able to control each port. You want it, turn it on, don't pay, turn it off. Even then there was a way to deal with it and one a single T1 into the complex.

With today's hardware it's even easier...and in so many cases cheaper.

@scottalanmiller said:

@Dashrender said:

You have other linksys WAPs in the office? Sounds like a good time to replace them with Ubiquiti devices...

Any excuse is a good excuse to deploy Ubiquiti

@thecreativeone91 said:

Yeah I would put the linksys in the trash bin. Get something with a interface to manage them all.

That is the plan... however - one major under taking at a time....

Which version of Outlook / Office? 2010 or 2013?
I don't have that view up either as it seems to be a pain and takes up space...

@Hubtech said:

how'd you find it?

It was a cross of things really.

About 2 or so months ago the intern (I heard that groan) had some issues with wireless and was compelled to reset the unit. Only instead of just unplugging it, he hit the reset button. No big deal even in the default mode... Until last week (OP date) when for what ever reason I started having DHCP issues. It was offering DHCP in the 192.168 schema when our network is in the 10.0 schema.

While it took some time to find just that, I started with a PC that was in the 192.168 and went to the IP, and found that it was the Linksys system.

I didn't have any means of tracing the AP signal until I brought in my Kindle, Isolated it, and got more into the back info and found that the Device was the unit. I had walked around that day, but even with the AP model, it didn't completely register that it was this.

With the WiFi analyzer on the Kindle I confirmed it after powering it off.

If I had taken the time to slow down that day and noted the model number I might have caught it sooner. Having so many different device types for wireless and such makes it a challenge.

Boils down to I found it using Sneaker Net....

@Hubtech said:

OK, Essentially I can't get a restore to work, here's the info:

• Server 2008 x64 SP2

• Backup Software - BackupAssist

• Backup Hardware - Imation RDX External USB 2.0

So I have a question about the RDX box,

What are you thoughts on it and it's throughput? are they decent enough? I've used the 'clone' from Dell RDX 1000 on the SATA bus.

Found it, it was a AP that was in the conference room.. Oddly enough it had been reset and was working for about 2 or three months before it started being a problem.

It's been locked down, and updated. and a Do Not Reset placed over the button.

@Minion-Queen said:

Wow no stories yet. I am guessing you are all too tired to function yet. Everyone I have seen looks half dead.

Sadly, I was denied (by being ignored) attendance...
Maybe next year.

I have:

• AStest
• Speedtest
• LanScan
• Portscan
• Ping Lite
• Subnet Calc
• Cloud (Dropbox, Box.net)
• TeamViewer
• Office