You have backup a database on SQL Server 2005. Then, you try to restore the backup file on an existing database and receive the error message below:

Restore failed for Server ‘SQL Server name‘. (Microsoft.SqlServer.Smo)
Additional information:
System.Data.SqlClient.SqlError: The backup set holds a backup of a database other than the existing ‘dbName‘ database. (Microsoft.SqlServer.Smo)

This error message indicates that you are going to restore a database on another database which are not the same database. For example, you have backup Northwind database and try to restore the backup to AdventureWorks database, the error will occur.

Solution

To solve the problem, you can use the overwrite the existing database option while you’re restoring.

1. On Restore Database, select Options tab on the left menu. Then, check Overwrite the existing database on Restore options.
   Note: This option will overwrite any existing data on the targeted database.
   
2. Try to restore the database, the problem should be gone now.
   

Note: you can also delete the targeted database before perform restore a database. This way also gives the result as same as the solution above.

You have backup a database on SQL Server 2005. Then, you try to restore the backup file on the existing database and receive the error message below:

Restore failed for Server ‘SQL Server name‘. (Microsoft.SqlServer.Smo)
Additional information:
System.Data.SqlClient.SqlError: The tail of the log for the database “dbName” has not been backed up. Use BACKUP LOG WITH NORECOVERY to backup the log if it contains work you do not want to lose. Use the WITH REPLACE or WITH STOPAT clause of the RESTORE statement to just overwrite the contents of the log. (Microsoft.SqlServer.Smo)

This error message is likely to be a warning message rather than an error message. It indicates that you are going to restore a database to replace the existing database and some data may be lose. For example, you perform backup on this following schedule:

• database at 10:00 AM
• transaction log at 11:00 AM
• transaction log at 01:00 PM

Now if you are going to restore the backup at 04:00 PM. You will lose any work after 01:00 till 04:00 which is same as the error message above try to warn you.

Solution

To solve the problem, you can either:

• Replace the existing database with a backup file. This option is fast and easy but you will lose any work after the last backup has been performed.
• Do backup transaction log again with NORECOVERY option before restoring a database. With NORECOVERY option, the database will be in restoring state and waiting for restoration.

In this post, I will show only the first solution only. For the second solution, see How to: Back Up the Tail of the Transaction Log (SQL Server Management Studio)

Restore by overwrite an existing database

1. On Restore Database, select Options tab on the left menu. Then, check Overwrite the existing database on Restore options.
   Note: This option will overwrite any existing data on the targeted database.
   
2. Try to restore the database, the problem should be gone now.
   

ISO Image

ISO image or disk image is an archive file of a CD/DVD, or any other disc format. An ISO image contains files and folders which are on the disc. The concept is similar to a zip file except that the data that stored on an ISO image is stored in an uncompressed format. ISO images do not support multi-session, so they cannot be used for audio CDs, VCD, and hybrid audio CDs.

MDF/MDS

MDF/MDS (Media Descriptor Image file) both also are a disc image format. MDS is an optional media descriptor file. It contains meta-data about the original media while the MDF file is an archive file. MDF/MDS supports multi-session, hence it can be used for audio CDs, VCD, and hybrid audio CDs.

Why use Disk Image file?

The benefits of disk image are

• A disk image can be burned to a CD or DVD by using any image burner software.
• Easy to backup and maintain data because it is a file.
• Better access rates than a optical drive when using a virtual disc.
• No more noise from CD or DVD anymore when using a virtual disc.

With these benefits, it is a good to start to use a disk image file instead CD/DVD. In this series, I will show you how to create a disk image files both ISO image and MDF/MDS. Then, how to mount an image file as a virtual drive to access data without using the original CD/DVD anymore. The software that I use in this series is Daemon Tools Lite version. It is free license if you use at your home and not for commercial purpose. Otherwise, you have to buy it.
Note: There are many other disk image software such as Alcohol 120%, CloneDVD, ImgBurn, IsoBuster, MagicISO, Nero Burning ROM, PowerISO, UltraISO, etc. They are different in features and supported format. Some can only create an image file, some can only burn an image file, etc.

Daemon Tools

DAEMON Tools is an advanced application for Microsoft Windows which provides one of the best optical media emulation. With DAEMON Tools you can back up your physical CD/DVD/HD DVD/Blu-ray discs into “virtual discs” or so called “disc image” files, which run directly on your hard drive.

Here is the features of Daemon Tools Lite version:

1. Emulate virtual CD/DVD-ROM/HD DVD and Blu-ray drives. DAEMON Tools Lite enables you to emulate up to 4 CD/DVD virtual drives on your computer.
2. Create a disc image. With DAEMON Tools Lite, you can create ISO and MDS image files from original discs inserted in physical CD/DVD drive.

Note: Daemon Tools Lite is also supported on Windows 7 Beta version.

Index

I’m going to divide this series into 4 parts:

1. Part 1: Introduction
   This post gives you an introduction to disk Image and daemon tools, the software that is used throughout the series.
2. Part 2: Install Daemon Tool Lite
   This post shows how to download and install Daemon Tools Lite on Windows XP.
3. Part 3: Create an ISO Image
   You will see how to create an ISO image from a DVD movie using Daemon Tools Lite on this post.
4. Part 4: Create MDF/MDS files
   This post shows you how to create MDF/MDS files from an audio CD using Daemon Tools Lite.
5. Part 5: Mount Disk Image
   After you have image files, I will show how to mount an ISO image to a virtual drive.

The .htaccess is a file that use to rewrite URL on a web server. It is the file that doesn’t has a name, only an extension. The problem comes when you want to create the file on Windows operating system. You can’t create a file without a name. If you try to create the .htaccess file, you will receive a error message: “You must type a file name”. The example below shows the error message when I tried to rename a file htaccess.txt to .htaccess.

Solution

There are some solutions to solve the problem above. The easiest one is to use notepad to create the .htaccess file.

1. Open notepad and save the document with file name is .htaccess and save as type to All Files.
   
2. The .htaccess file has been created.
   

While you’re configuring Microsoft BizTalk Server 2006 which has a database server on a remote machine, you may encounter the problem below. The Group feature failed and hence the others which depend on it are also failed.

If you click on a red X icon in front of the failed Group feature, you’ll see the error message:
Exception of type ‘System.EnterpriseServices.TransactionProxyException’ was thrown.

This error indicates that MSDTC isn’t properly configured on the servers so you have to check if MSDTC has enabled on both BizTalk Server and SQL Server. You should first enable DTC, followed by MSDTC.

Step-by-step

1. First, enable network DTC access on BizTalk Server. Open Add/Remove Windows Components by click Start -> Settings -> Control Panel -> Add or Remove Programs -> Add/Remove Windows Components.
   
2. On Add/Remove Windows Components window, select Application Server -> click Details -> Check Enable network DTC access -> Click OK. Now DTC has been enabled.
   Note: This step may requires Windows Installtion CD.
   
3. Next, enable MSDTC. Open Component Services by Start -> Setttings -> Control Panel -> Administrative Tools -> Component Services.
   
4. On Component Services window, expand Component Services -> Computers. You’ll see My Computer.
   
5. Right-click on My Computers and select Properties.
   
6. On My Computer Properties window, select MSDTC tab and click on Security Configuration button in Transaction Configuration section.
   
7. On Security Configuration window, verify that check boxes are checked as the figure below. Then, click OK.
   • In Security Settings section, check network DTC Access.
   • In Client and Administration section, check Allow Remote Clients and Allow Remote Administration.
   • In Transaction Manager Communication section, check Allow Inbound, Allow Outbound and select No Authentication Required.
8. Check XA Transactions.



9. Click OK to restart the MSDTC service.
   
10. When the service is restarted, click OK again. Now you’ve finished on the BizTalk Server.
    
11. Next, enable MSDTC on the SQL Server by repeat step 3-10 on the SQL Server.
12. Then, try to re-configure on the BizTalk Server again. Now, it’s should be success.
    

Reference

• How to Enable MSDTC on the BizTalk Server on Microsoft.com

You’re configuring BizTalk Server 2006 which BizTalk databases are located on a remotely server. You may encounter the problem below.

On BizTalk Configuration Wizard, Group feature is failed so others that depend on Group will failed, too.

And if you double-click on the red X icon in front of the failed Group feature, you’ll see the error message similar as:
Failed to create SQL login for BizTalk Administrators Group on database server “Database Server Name“.
The DEFAULT_SCHEMA clause cannot be used with a Windows group or with principals mapped to certificates or asymmetric keys.

Solution

The solution is to create local groups on the database server manually, see the step-by-step below.

1. Open Local Users and Groups on the database server. Right-click on My Computer -> Manage -> expand System Tools -> Local Users and Groups -> select Groups. You’ll see a list of groups on the server as the figure below.
   
2. Create the following groups as figure below. Right-click on Groups -> select New Group -> type the group name.
   • BizTalk Application Users
   • BizTalk Isolated Host Users
   • BizTalk Server Administrators
   • BizTalk Server Operators
   • SSO Administrators
   • SSO Affiliate Administrators

   

3. Re-configure Microsoft BizTalk again and the error is gone.
   

You have a computer which share with others (friends, children, etc.). You’re using Windows XP and you need to customize permission of files or folders on certain users. For example, you want to restrict access your child not to access some folders which have your sensitive information. Or you may want to restrict access on disk drive D: to a certain user.

On Windows XP, you can customize either to allow or deny permissions on certain users or groups for a specific files or folders easily. But you need an administrative privilege to perform this task. So in the following section, I’ll show how to customize permissions of files or folders for certain users.

Customize permissions requires administrative privilege so if someone besides you has an account which has administrative privilege, he/she can also customize permissions of files or folders, too.

Note: You shouldn’t customize permissions on the system files or folders for example, Windows Folder (C:\WINDOWS), Program Files (C:\Program Files), Disk Drive C: (Windows System Drive), etc. If you remove permissions that are used by Windows system, the process or service that depends on it may error.

I wrote articles about reset administrator’s password years ago. So you should be aware that someone can gain administrative privilege and override your configuration. To prevent the situation, you have to restrict CD-Rom drive and USB drive to only trusted users because one of these devices is required to reset password.

Step-by-step

In the example below, I’m going to customize permissions to allow only “linglom” (a regular user) to access the folder C:\Restricted. And I have created another account which also a regular user “ling” who hasn’t the privilege to the certain folder to test access the restricted folder.

1. Login to Windows XP with an account that has an administrative privilege.
2. If your PC isn’t on a domain, you have to disable simple file sharing first. See
   [Solved] Missing Security Tab on Windows XP for detail steps.
3. Select folder that you want to customize the permission. In this example, it’s C:\Restricted.
4. Right-click on the folder and select Properties.
   
5. On Properties window, select Security tab.
   
6. On Security tab, you can customize permissions on a certain user or group.
   
7. To determine if a name is a user or group, observe at icon in front of the name. If it’s a person, it will be a user. Otherwise, it will be a group.
   
8. By default, these permissions are inherit from root (C:\) which I don’t want it so I’ll remove the inheritance. Click Advanced.
   
9. Uncheck “Inherit from parent the permission entries that apply to child objects. Include these with entries explicitly defined here“.
   
10. The pop-up message appears, you have 2 options: Copy and Remove. In this example, I select Copy for ease of customization. If you select Remove, all permissions wil be removed so you have to configure it from scratch.
    
11. Now all permissions are customizable. You notice values on Inherited From columns are <not inherited>. Click OK.
    
12. Back to Security tab, remove Users (BKKTEST01\Users) by select the name and click Remove. This is the Users group which permissions are configured to allow access on this folder.
    
13. Next, add a local user “linglom”. Click Add.
    
14. On Enter the object names to select section, type “linglom” and click Check Names. It finds the account that match the name. Click OK.
    
15. Now I have an an user account “linglom” with default permissions (Read & Execute, List Folder Contents and Read) to this folder. Click OK to close the Properties window.
    
16. Test the configuration by login as “ling”, the account which hasn’t permission to access the permission customized folder.
    
17. Open My Computer -> C:\ -> Restricted. You’ll see the error message:
    C:\Restricted is not accessible.
    Access is denied.
    
18. Then, try again with the user account “linglom”.
    
19. You’ll see that you can open the folder and read files but you can’t create a new file or modify existing files on the permission customized folder. This is because that you didn’t give Write permission to the user account on step 15.
    

Summary

You should now get concept about permissions configuration. You can apply to customize permissions (Read, Write and Execute) to certain users on files/folders/disk drives. But keep in mind that if someone besides you has an account which has administrative privilege, he/she can also customize permissions of files or folders, too.

Introduction

Actually, I don’t prepare to write this post while I was writing the series. But there are some people want to know how to display a query data on Windows form rather than in console window which I wrote in the previous post. So this post, I’ll show how to display a query data on DataGridView on Windows form using MySqlDataAdapter.

You can see index of this series at Accessing MySQL on VB.NET using MySQL Connector/Net, Part I: Introduction

Section

1. Step-by-step
2. Download Code
3. Summary

Step-by-step

1. I’ll continue from the previous post. You can download a project file from the previous post at here – SampleMySQL (zip format). The project was created on Microsoft Visual Studio 2005.
2. Open the Design view of Form1.
   
3. Drag DataGridView tool from the Toolbox window to empty area on the form.
   Note: If you can’t find Toolbox window, select View -> Toolbox.
   
4. The DataGridView is placed on the form. The dark background indicates the area of DataGridView’s object. On Properties window, you see the default name is DataGridView1.
   
5. Back to the Form’s code view. Comment all the lines in Form1_Load method. These are the code from the previous post which I don’t want it to be executed.
   
6. Copy the code below to the form as a new method. Notice that this method is similar to retriveData() method except that it use MySqlDataAdapter rather than MySqlDataReader.

   1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17

   Public Sub retriveDataToDataGrid() Try Dim query As String = "SELECT * FROM Country" Dim connection As New MySqlConnection(connStr) Dim da As New MySqlDataAdapter(query, connection) Dim ds As New DataSet()   If da.Fill(ds) Then DataGridView1.DataSource = ds.Tables(0) End If   connection.Close()   Catch ex As Exception Console.WriteLine(ex.Message) End Try End Sub

   Code Explanation:

   • Line 3-5: Create New MySqlDataAdapter object with some parameters.
   • Line 6: Create an empty data set.
   • Line 8-10: Fills a data set and set data source of DataGridView1 to a table in the data set.
   • Line 12: Close the connection.

   

7. Add code to the Form1_Load method to call retriveDataToDataGrid() when the form is loaded.
   
8. Run the project. You’ll see the result on DataGridView on Windows form. You may adjust the size of DataGridView to suit your screen.
   

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Download Code

You can download a complete project file at here – SampleMySQL2. The project was created on Microsoft Visual Studio 2005.
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Summary

Now you have reach the end of the article. After 8 parts, you should be able to develop an simple application to access MySQL Server on your own. I think that the article is quite clear than other accessing database server articles that I wrote last year. If you have any question, feel free to leave a comment below.

Reference

• Using MySqlDataAdapter on dev.mysql.com

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When you develop an application using Microsoft Visual Studio, it always requires Microsoft .NET Framework to be installed on clients in order to run the application but the required version may be vary depends on applications. Even third-party software around the world today are sometimes require Microsoft .NET Framework so you should install .NET Framework on clients at the first time you prepare them. But generally, there are computers which actively using by users and don’t have .NET Framework. Therefore, you should find a solution to install .NET Framework on clients without interrupt them. There are many solutions to solve the problem. In this post, I show how to silently install .NET Framework 2.0 SP1 on a local computer. The minimum recommend version is 2.0 Service Pack 1. Currently, the most updated version is 3.5 Service Pack 1.

Silently installation means that the software is installed in background so it doesn’t require any user interaction while it’s installing. It is a useful method for deploy software to clients without interrupt users.

First of all, you have to download .NET 2.0 SP1 from Microsoft. Then, I’ll show the command use to install in silent mode. After that, I create a batch file to run the command to make the installation easier.

Note: To install .NET Framework 2.0 SP1, it requires Windows Installer 3.1 to be installed first.

Step-by-step

1. Download Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 Service Pack 1 from Microsoft.
   • Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 Service Pack 1 (x86) – 23.6 MB
   • Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 Service Pack 1 (x64) – 46.9 MB
2. On a client, open command prompt by Start -> Run -> type cmd -> press Enter.
   
3. Use /q parameter to install .NET Framework 2.0 SP1 in silent mode. Type “C:\NetFx20SP1_x86.exe /q”.
   Note: The path to file of yours may not be the same as the example.
   
4. You won’t notice any dialog or user input message. But you can check if there is any error on the installation in Application Event Log. This is the example of the successfully installation message.
   Product: Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 Service Pack 1 – Update ‘.NET Framework CRT’ installed successfully.
   Note: There are also other messages in the event log about the installation. This is just one of them.
   
5. You can also observe in Add or Remove Programs if .NET Framework has been installed or not. Click Start -> Settings -> Control Panel -> Add or Remove Programs.
   
6. Next, to make the installation more practical. I’ll move the installation file to a shared folder on \\192.168.125.12\MISC so you don’t need to copy the installation file to a target computer every time. Then, I create a batch file to execute the installation in silent mode so you don’t have to type the command every time.
   The batch file will look as similar as below:
   \\192.168.125.12\MISC\NetFx20SP1_x86.exe /q
   
7. Now I’ve tried to install the software by execute the batch file with a normal user credential. I have observed an error message below.
   Setup discover the following problem:
   You must have administrative privileges to run Microsoft.NET Framework 2.0 SP1 Setup. Please contact your system administrator.
   
8. The error message stated clearly that the current user doesn’t has privilege to install a software. To solve the problem, I use “runas” command to execute the installation as a domain administrator (virtual\administrator). Modify the batch file to be as below.
   runas /user:virtual\administrator “\\192.168.125.12\MISC\NetFx20SP1_x86.exe /q”
   Note: You can view the command reference by follow the link at the bottom.
   
9. Now try to run the batch file with a normal user credential again. It’ll ask for domain administrator’s password (the account which I’ve specified in the batch file). Type the password and press Enter.
   Note: The password won’t show on the screen.
   
10. After a few minutes, observe the Application Event Log. You’ll see the message similar as the figure below.
    Product: Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 Service Pack 1 — Installation completed successfully.
    Note: In user column, the user is virtual\administrator which isn’t the current user logon but it’s the user that I’ve specified in the batch file.
    

Reference

• Command-line reference – Runas

Introduction

This article applies to Windows XP and Vista.

When you have problem with Internet Explorer, you don’t know how to reinstall or repair it because it doesn’t visible in Add or Remove Programs. There are methods which you can reinstall or repair Internet Explorer if it has problem.

This post shows only some methods which you can perform to reinstall/repair Internet Explorer. You can find out more methods on Microsoft’s Knowledge Base, see the bottom of this post for more detail.

Section

1. Reinstall or repair Internet Explorer 6 using ie.inf
2. Reinstall or repair Internet Explorer 7 & 8 by reset IE settings

Step-by-step

Reinstall or repair Internet Explorer 6 using ie.inf

Note: This method requires at lest Windows XP Service Pack 2. If you don’t have one, you can install Service Pack 2 or 3 to resolve problems with Internet Explorer.

1. Open folder Windows\Inf by click Start -> Run -> type %systemroot%\inf.
   Note: You can also browse from Windows Explorer but the Inf folder is hidden so you must change view to show hidden files and folders.
   
2. Locate ie.inf. Right-click on the file and select Install.
   
3. Browse to the location of Windows XP Installation CD and click OK.
   
4. After the installation finishes, restart Internet Explorer by close and open again. Now Internet Explorer is reinstalled/repaired.
   

Note: You can also repair or reinstall Internet Explorer by upgrade to the higher version.

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Reinstall or repair Internet Explorer 7 & 8 by reset IE settings

1. Open Internet Explorer 7 or 8. Select Tools -> Internet Options.
   
2. Click on Advanced tab and click on Reset button.
   
3. It shows a warning message that these information will be reseted. Click Reset to proceed.
   
4. The reset is in progress.
   
5. After all settings are reset, you should restart Internet Explorer.
   

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Reference

• How to reinstall or repair Internet Explorer in Windows Vista and Windows XP