Thursday, May 19, 2011

Using Startup Repair to fix boot problems in Windows 7



When trying to start your Windows 7 based computer, if you get an error like : 'BOOTMGR is missing' then you can use the Startup Repair to fix the problems. Startup Repair is one of the options in the Windows 7 Recovery Environment. There are two ways you can boot into the Windows 7 Recovery Environment. Here is how :

  1. Change the BIOS settings in your computer so that your DVD drive is the first boot device and your hard disk is the second boot device. Place your Windows 7 DVD in the DVD drive and turn on your computer. When you see a message Press any key to boot from CD or DVD...., hit any key on your keyboard.
    press any key to boot from cd or dvd
  2. After few seconds of 'loading Windows' message, you would see a window titled Install Windows, just click Next to continue.
    windos 7 dvd - install windows
  3. Click on Repair your computer link shown on the bottom-left of the window.
    windows 7 dvd - repair your computer
  4. Choose your Windows 7 partition you want to repair and click Next. If you see more than one partitions listed, choose the one which says Windows 7 under the Operating System category.
    windows 7 dvd - choose partition
  5. You would see a window titled System Recovery Options. Click on the top-most link labeled Startup Repair to start the repair of startup related problems.
    windows 7 dvd - startup repair
  6. The Startup Repair would start fixing your computer for startup related problems. After the process is over and fixes are applied, the computer would be re-started.
    windows 7 dvd - startup repair is fixing problems


--


Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Vsphere features

Here are 10 features we feel are worth highlighting:

vCenter server linked mode

This mode allows you to connect multiple vCenter servers in a “linked” fashion.

Doing this allows them to share licenses and roles and provides them with an

“overview” of the entire virtual environment.

Host profiles

Host profiles are provided in Enterprise Plus to make it easy to push a template of

an already existing ESX host to a new server. This feature is a huge benefit, as it

means you no longer need to manually configure networks, storage, and so on in

your new ESX Servers.

Performance, graphs, and events

CPU, memory, storage, and networking graphs are now displayed on one central

page. In additional to improved graphs, customers will benefit from improved

event messages, alarm settings, and error reporting.

Storage VMotion within vCenter

You can initiate a storage VMotion within the vCenter client. This takes away the

need for the command-line management or third-party plug-ins that were popular

with the ESX 3.x versions.

Enhanced VMotion

Enhanced VMotion Compatibility (EVC) allows customers to initiate VMotion

between Intel FlexMigration and AMD-V Extended Migration technologies. In essence,

this means you can now move a running server between hosts using different

CPU technologies.

Virtual machine hot add support

You can add CPU and memory resources to an existing virtual machine without

having to reboot.

Virtual machine hardware improvements

Virtual machines can now scale up to eight virtual SMP processors and up to 255GB

of RAM. vSphere supports IDE devices, Serial Attached SCSI (SAS), and VMXNET

Generation 3 network support.

Physical node improvements

Physical hosts can now have up to 1TB of memory, 64 logical CPUs, and 320 virtual

machines. The 64-bit architecture of ESX4 allows greater memory capacity, better

performance, and seamless hardware support compared to previous releases.

Storage improvements

ESX 4.0 brings a huge set of improvements to the realm of storage within ESX.

Thin provisioning for virtual disks enables virtual machines to utilize storage on

an as-needed basis, eliminating a major source of wasted space on a storage area

network (SAN). The VMFS Volume Grow feature allows you to dynamically grow

a Virtual Machine File System without interrupting the running virtual machines.

There is also enhanced support for NFS and iSCSI software initiators, which now

supply support for jumbo frames on 1GB or 10GB local networks.

Distributed switch

A distributed switch is provided on Enterprise Plus to let customers create a virtual

switch for all their ESX hosts to connect to and utilize. This helps reduce network

maintenance and allows virtual machines to be moved to any host using VMotion

without having to worry about network connections