In simple terms, RAID is basically a way of combining a group of hard drives together to form a single “virtual” drive. The main benefit is not only to obtain a bigger combined space but also to have data protection by having redundancy. This redundancy is achieved by duplicating the data in the additional drives, therefore, if one drive fails your data will still be safe and available. In a nutshell, RAID provides two main advantages: performance and/or data redundancy.  In the following article I will be talking about the different RAID levels, their advantages and disadvantages. I will only focus on the RAID levels that are being used today, not in rare or obsolete ones like RAID 2, 3, and 4.  The purpose of this article is to help you get a quick understanding of what RAID is and what level to choose for your project.

RAID Types

There are two ways RAID can be implemented:

Software RAID: In “Software RAID”, all the configuration is handled by the operating system. The advantage of software RAID is that it is very cheap, since you do not have to buy extra hardware and the software to manage the RAID is included with most operating systems. One disadvantage is that since it is not managed by it own hardware, it takes resources away from the computer.

Hardware RAID: In “Hardware RAID”, all information regarding your specific RAID configuration is handled by a hardware interface card. The main advantage if this implementation is improved performance. Since everything is handled by the interface card, the computer does no have to use memory or CPU power to run the RAID.

Note: In the past, hardware RAID was always the preferred choice, however in todays world of multi-core CPUs and affordable memory, opinion is increasingly shifting. With faster CPUs, software RAID can perform as good as hardware RAID and even faster in some instances.

RAID Levels

 Once you choose what RAID type you will be implementing, you have to choose the RAID level. The RAID level is basically the way you configure your drives. All levels have their advantages and disadvantages. Some are good for space but not for protection; others are good for protection but not for performance, etc. There is no “better” for all situations. Each of the choices listed below can be the “Best” for your specific situation. It is up to you to determine which, so read the article and choose wisely.

Raid 0

With RAID 0, you have two or more drives acting as if they were one single drive. Raid 0, however, offers “0” protection. In fact since you have two hard drives involved, you have twice the risk of losing your data, since it only takes one of them going bad to lose it all.

Advantages:
– Since it has no redundancy, RAID 0 uses hard drive space to it maximum.
– Speed.

Disadvantages:
– No protection; if you lose one single hard drive, your data is gone.
– Since you are using two hard drives with no redundancy, you are doubling your risk. It will actually be safer to store your data in a single hard drive of equal size.

When to use:
Raid 0 is for people that need space but do not care about losing their data. So in what case would it be beneficial to use RAID 0?. A good example could be a cheap backup server. Let’s say you have a bunch of old drives sitting around gathering dust. You need to back up your data, but none of them is big enough for the job. Put them all together to form a RAID 0 array and use their combined space. Just make sure the data that goes into this server is strictly for backup purposes.

Raid 1

In RAID 1 hard drives are mirrors of each other. This provides redundancy in case one of them happens to fail. Unlike RAID 0 where the total combined space of the drives is used, RAID 1 only uses half of the space, since the second drive is used for redundancy.  Both hard drives have to be of equal sizes.

Advantages:
– Redundancy.
– Speed.

Disadvantages:
– Space is not used efficiently. Since both drives are copies of each other, only half of the total combined size is used.

When to use:
Since RAID 1 is not good for space but rather good for speed and redundancy, it is good option for running the operating system. Servers usually have two RAID levels: a RAID 1 array which contains the operating system only and, and a second  level of RAID (usually RAID 5) for storage.

RAID 5

RAID 5 is probably the most popular level used in servers today. With RAID 5 you have a trade off between performance and efficient use of space. In RAID 5 redundancy is distributed among all drives and only one can break at a time. The minimum number of drives that can be used in RAID 5 is three.

Advantages:
– Efficient use ot total combined space.
– Fault tolerance: If you lose one drive your data is still safe.

Disadvantages:
– Speed: RAID 5 is not as fast as RAID 0 or 1
– If you lose more that one drive at the same time, your data is gone.

When to use:
This RAID level is usually the best for storing data, since it makes an efficient use of the total combined space and provides data redundancy.

RAID 6

Basically the same as RAID 5 with the differece that two drives can be down at the same time instead of just one. The minimum number of drives that can be used with RAID 6 is four.

Advantages:
– Two drives can break at the same time and your data is still safe.

Disadvantages:
– Since two drives are used for parity, the total combined hard drive space is greatly reduced.
– Speed. RAID 6 is not as fast as RAID 0 or 1 
– Slower rebuilds: When a drive goes down and the array needs to be rebuilt, performance will decrease considerably when compared to other RAID methods. 

When to use:
Good to use for high-availability storage space. RAID 6 is basically the same as RAID 5 with increased data security. Not good if you want the most space you can get out of your drives since you will probably lose 40% of the total combined space. 

RAID Z

Raid Z and RAID Z2 are the invention of Sun Micro Systems. RAID Z has all the benefits of RAID 5 and many other features which makes it far superior. As with RAID 5, RAID Z can support a number of hard drives working together and one for parity. The minimum number of hard drives you can have is three and only one of them can be down at a time. If more than one hard drive breaks at the same time, your data is gone.

Advantages:
– Has all the benefits of RAID 5 and many other features.

Disadvantages:
– Can only be used with Solaris based OSs like Open Solaris or Nexenta and BSD based systems like FreeBSD. 

When to use:
RAID Z is without a doubt the best RAID level for storage. It basically overcomes almost all of the shortcomings of earlier RAID levels and adds many new features; however, since it can only be used with Solaris and BSD based systems, it is best for use in NAS and other large data storage devices.

RAID Z2

Raid Z2 is almost identical to Raid Z and similar to RAID 6. In RAID Z2, two hard drives can go down at the same time and your data will still be safe and accessible. Just like with RAID Z, RAID Z2 is vastly superior to RAID 6 as it includes many other features. The minimum amount of drives you can have with RAID Z2 is four. 

Advantages:
– Your data is safer since two drives can be down at the same time instead of just one.
– It has all the benefits of RAID Z. 

Disadvantages:
– Since two drives are used for parity, the total combined size of the space is greatly reduced.
– Can only be used with Solaris based OSs like Open Solaris or Nexenta and BSD based systems like FreeBSD.  

When to use:
Same as RAID Z but with an added level of security. Not good if you want the most space you can get out of your drives. 

<p>The post What is RAID? Levels and Types first appeared on geekyprojects.com.</p>

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Dia is a powerful free open source flowchart diagramming software; and it would be a true alternative to Visio if it wasn’t for a rather unfortunate flaw: the lack of nice, easy to understand network shapes. Let face it, network diagramming not only serves as a tool to help IT staff visualize a network but also, to impress other people (e.g. the boss), who may or may not be as proficient visualizing these diagrams. Dia, unfortunately, totally fails in the “impress” category. Its crude network icons seem made more for super nerds than for regular human beings. That being said, there is an alternative: Dia allows for installation of additional 3rd party shapes. There is, however, no easy way of porting Visio stylesheets to Dia but you can install similar shapes which would serve the same purpose and would make your network diagrams look just as nice.

The following instructions will show you how to install the gnomeDIAicons, a set of network and database shapes that will make your network diagrams look as nice as Visio’s. We are assuming that you have Dia properly installed in the default directory.

Note: Icon edges look jagged only in Dia. Final outcome is smooth.

Windows Installation

– Download gnomeDIAicons.

– Create a new directory.

– Double click on the gnomeDIAicons tar file and uncompress it to the directory you just created using your favorite compression program. The shapes come compressed in a tar.gz format which any of the popular compression programs like Winzip, Winrar or 7zip should be able to handle.

– Enter the new directory containing the uncompressed shapes and copy the “RIB-Network” directory to the “shapes” directory in your Dia installation folder. The path should be C:\Program files\dia\shapes.

– Copy the “rib_network.sheet” file to the “sheets” directory. The path should be C:\Program files\dia\sheets.

Linux Installation

– Download gnomeDIAicons.

– Open the shell prompt and issue the following command to enter the dia installation folder:

cd /usr/share/dia

– Once inside, issue the following command to copy the compressed file to the Dia directory:

cp PATH/rib-network.tar.gz .

Note: Do not forget to include the dot at the end of the command.

 – Finally, run the following command to uncompress and install the gnomeDIAicons.

tar zxvf rib-network.tar.gz

How to Find the gnomeDIAicons in DIA

– Open Dia, and on the toolbar, click on the sheet selection drop down list.

.- Click on “Other Sheets“.

– Click on “RIB-Network” to select the gnomeDIAicons.

Final Toughts

GnomeDIAicons are certainly not complete; some important icons are noticeably missing like the firewall and laptop icons, but it is a good start in the quest for a real alternative to Visio. It is such a shame that these icons have not been updated since 2009.

<p>The post Installing Visio Network Shapes in Dia first appeared on geekyprojects.com.</p>

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Let me start by saying that the only purpose of this article is to help you choose between OpenFiler and FreeNAS. I won’t waste time going into superficial issues like “GUI ease of use” or “installation tips” since, in the end, once you pass the learning curve, what’s really important is the performance and features of each. Openfiler and freeNAS are both excellent solutions to store your data safely, however, both have unique qualities that make them suitable for distinct environments.  If you are trying to decide between these two wonderful storage solutions,  here are some things you should consider.

OpenFiler

Pros

1) Better hardware compatibility.

2) Better SMB transfer speed. Openfiler is built on Linux which has a better SMB implementation than FreeBSD.

3) Better Active Directory support. AD support is definitely more advanced in Linux than in FreeBSD.

4) DRBD Support.

Cons

1) Free version but commercially oriented. Some of the same features FreeNAS offers for free, Openfiler provides at a cost.

2) Does not support 4k Advanced Format Drives such as the Western Digital Green drives.

3) No ZFS filesystem support.

4) No RAID-Z support.

FreeNAS

Pros

1) Better performance with ZFS.

2) Better data security with ZFS, if you happen to use RAID-Z.

3) Completely free, not commercially oriented.

4) Can run on CF cards. CF cards are usually more reliable since they have no moving parts and are more energy efficient. It is basically one less hard drive that can heat up the rest.

5) Supports 4k advanced format drives such as the Western Digital Green drives.

Cons

1) If you decide to use ZFS as your file system you can’t use old hardware. The minimum recommended is a 64bit processor, with 4GB of ram and 4 hard drives.

2) Hardware compatibility. FreeNAS runs on FreeBSD, which does not offer the best compatibility with lesser popular chipset brands. 

3) No DRBD support.

Final Thoughts

Which one is better? As with any other IT question, this one does not have a simple answer. It all depends on what you want to use the storage for. If you need a storage solution for a big business production environment, Openfiler is probably mode adequate due to its support for DRBD. For those of you that don’t know, DRBD is similar to RAID 1 but instead of the mirroring occurring in the same physical controller, it occurs over the network, providing an exact copy of your data on a remote machine. This provides data integrity and security in case one of the two nodes goes down. FreeNAS on the other hand has RSYNC which is a great tool to backup your data but that is as far as it goes. RSYNC won’t provide availability or data integrity if the system goes down in the middle of a transfer. For home use and smaller networks I would definitely recommend freeNAS. FreeNAS has the best filesystem available today: ZFS.  ZFS has many advantages which I won’t discuss in detail now, however I can tell you that ZFS supports compression at the filesystem level which can dramatically improve performance and save space. With ZFS you also have the ability to use RAID-Z which provides more redundancy than RAID-5, since it can withstand 2 drives going down in a 4 drive pool instead of just 1. Finally, with FreeNAS all features are free out of the box, this is just not the case with the Linux-based Openfiler.

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Moving WSUS files to another drive is sometimes necessary, specially when you do not anticipate the amount of space it can occupy from the start. WSUS update files can take an incredible amount of space and if you are performing a new installation and are not familiar with it, you might underestimate this space. Unfortunately, WSUS does not tell you in advance how much space you need depending on the files you select; you will only know when your hard drive fills up.  Now, you can always remove WSUS and reinstall it again, however, you would have to download all your files again which, depending on your bandwidth, can take many hours, even days. This article will teach you how to move all of the WSUS update files to another drive.

Instructions

Note: This article does not include moving the WSUS database. Moving the WSUS database involves additional steps and it is not really necessary since the space it takes is negligible compared to the space taken by the WSUS update files.

1) Click on “Start“, “Run“,type “cmd” to open a command prompt window and press enter.

2) Enter the “c:\program files\update services\tools” directory.

3) Use the following command to move all the WSUS files.

wsusutil.exe movecontent %content path% %logfile% –skipcopy

%content path% means the destination path where you are going to move your files to. WSUS already knows where your source files are, so you do not need to specify this on the command line, only the destination path. Example: If the destination of your files is going to be a directory called WSUS in drive d:\, then replace %content path% by d:\wsus. You must create this directory before executing the command, the command will not create it for you.

%logfile% means the location and name of the log file WSUS will create to record everything that happens during the transfer. You can place this log file wherever you like, since this is just to help you record errors in case something goes wrong during the transfer. it can be for example d:\file-transfer.log or d:\wsus\file-trasfer.log.

-skipcopy is optional and enables you to change the storage location without copying the actual files.

Final Thoughts

WSUS 3.0 introduces some improvements over its predecessors. This is one of those improvements. Before the “wsusutil.exe movecontent” command, everything had to be done manually, and even after transferring the files it was difficult to make WSUS work again due to the complexity of the IIS permissions. This command is definitely a great improvement that will make your life a lot easier when you are surprised by a full hard drive.

<p>The post Move WSUS Files to Another Drive first appeared on geekyprojects.com.</p>

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Continuing with our “converting to PDF” series, we are now going to take a look at Office 2010. With Office 2010 it is as easy as ever to convert your Word,  Excel, or Powerpoint files to PDF format. Microsoft has finally decided to include this option by default in the Office 2010 suite. In this short tutorial we will be covering how to save Word, Excel, Powerpoint and other Office program files to PDF in a few, very simple steps. In addition to PDF format, now you can save the in XPS format as well.  If you wish to save in formats other than PDF and XPF, read the last section of this article.

Converting from Word, Excel and Powerpoint to PDF

1) To save your file to PDF, click on the “File” tab.

2) Then click on “Share” or “Save and Send” (you can also click “Save As” and then select “PDF” format as the “File Type“, however, the aforementioned options will give you more control).

3) In the middle section, click on “Create PDF/XPS Document“.

4) In the last section to the right, click on “Create a PDF/XPS Document“.

Next, the “Publish as PDF or XPS” window will appear. At the bottom of the window you will have two options: Standard (Publishing Online and Printing) and Minimum Size (Publishing Online). These options relate to the file size; choose the one that works best for you. Bear in mind that if you choose “Minimum Size” the quality of the document will suffer.

Once you are done choosing the file size, click on “Save as type:“; select PDF and click on the “Publish” button.

Note: If you wish to save in XPS format all you have to do is change the “File Type” at the end, and then publish (or save) your file.

Converting From Any Program to PDF (Optional)

It is rather convenient to have the possibility to convert your documents to PDF straight from Word or any of the programs included in the Office suite. This option, however, is limited to the Office package and only converts files to PDF or XPS format. If you want to be able to convert to PDF from any program and in additional image formats, like BMP, PNG, JPEG, SVG, etc. read my article:

Convert Any Document to PDF for Free

<p>The post Convert Office 2010 Documents to PDF first appeared on geekyprojects.com.</p>

The post Convert Office 2010 Documents to PDF appeared first on geekyprojects.com.

Unlike the new Office 2010 Suite, Office 2007 does not have the capability to convert and save its documents into PDF files natively. There is, however, the possibility of installing a plug-in provided by Microsoft for this purpose. For some reason, Microsoft did not include it with the 2007 Office package by default, however, it is available on the web as a free download. Sadly, Microsoft waited until the 2007 version to provide a plug-in and till the 2010 version to make it a permanent addition the their Office suite, even though third party software had been offering this capability many years before. Nonetheless, this is a much welcomed option, specially for those of us for whom saving in PDF format is imperative.

Converting from Word, Excel and Powerpoint to PDF

Download and install the PDF plug-in for Office 2007 made by Microsoft.

There is nothing in particular worth mentioning about the installation, just keep clicking next until you finish.

Once installed, open the Office document you wish to save and click on the Orb.

Click on “Save As“.

Now you have a new option for saving in PDF format. Click on “PDF“.

Navigate to the desired location where you wish to save your new PDF file and click on “Save“.

And that is all; you have converted your Office document to PDF without spending a dime.

Converting From Any Program to PDF (Optional)

It is rather convenient to have the possibility to convert your documents to PDF straight from Word, Excel, Powerpoint, etc. This option, however, is limited to the Office package and only converts files to PDF format. If you wish to be able to convert to PDF from any program and in many other formats, like BMP, PNG, JPED, SVG, etc. read my article:

Convert Any Document to PDF for Free

This option is specially useful for Office 2003 and older versions of Office.

<p>The post Convert Office 2007 Documents to PDF first appeared on geekyprojects.com.</p>

The post Convert Office 2007 Documents to PDF appeared first on geekyprojects.com.

Remember the days where the only way to convert a Word or Excel document to PDF was to purchase a $600 license of Adobe Acrobat? Things have changed a lot since then. Now, there is a variety of free programs you can choose from to convert your files. Prices of these programs vary greatly; they can be anywhere from free to quite costly. As some of us might already know, commercial products are not always the best; in fact free, open source utilities match and many times surpass commercial software capabilities. In this article we will take a look at a free, open source utility called PDFCreator.

This option actually works for all versions of Office as well as any program on your computer with print capabilities. Is is specially useful for those of us who are still using older versions of Microsoft Office (like 2003 and below), which do not have the option to save in PDF format by default. In order for you to create a PDF in these older versions of Office you are going to have to install third party software that will allow you to “print to PDF”. Don’t worry, you won’t actually have to print anything, but rather use the print option to save your file as a PDF document.

After quite a bit of research, we picked PDFCreator; a free and open source utility that does much more than just save your file in PDF format. PDFCreator lets you alter the metadata inside the resulting pdf file, allowing you to include things such as keywords, author’s name, etc. It also lets you save your files to many additional formats like PNG, JPEG, BMP, TIFF, PSD, SVG, among others.

Instructions

Download PDFCreator and install it on your computer; there is nothing worth mentioning about the installation, just keep clicking next until you finish.

Once installed, open the document you wish to convert; click on “File” and “Print“.

Make sure the printer is set to “PDFCreator“.

Next, depending on your program, click on the “Print” or “Ok” buttons. After a few seconds, a second window will pop up. In this window, you can enter all the metadata you wish to be included on your PDF document; this is totally optional. When finished editing the metadata, click “Save” to convert and save your document in PDF format.

Saving to Other Formats (Optional)

On the same previous window there is an “Options” button; click on it if you wish to save your document in a format other than PDF.

Then, once PDFCreator’s option window open up, on the left-hand side column, click on “Save“.

On the right-hand section under “Standard Save Format“, click on the drop down menu and select the file format you wish PDFCreator to save files by default.

Click “Save” to finish.

From now on, PDFCreator will save your files in the format you selected. If you wish to go back to PDF format, just repeat the same steps.

Final Thoughts

Converting a document using PDF creator, involves one extra step over native PDF conversion options. Office 2007 offers a free plug-in for this purpose, and Office 2010 has the option by default.  PDFCreator, however, works with every program on your computer that has print capabilities and can save in a variety of file formats; formats not available with these other simpler options.

<p>The post Convert Any Document to PDF for Free first appeared on geekyprojects.com.</p>

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Having the capability of booting from a USB drive in VMware is certainly useful, specially when you are creating and testing that bootable USB drive. However, neither VMware nor VirtualBox support booting from USB natively. Fortunately, there is a tool that will allow us to do just this, a free tool is called Plop. Plop comes in an ISO image that you boot. When plop is up and running, it will ask you whether you want to boot from USB or continue booting from your hard drive. It is basically a program that will give you the capability that the BIOS lacks. In this article I will demonstrate how the process works using VMware. Plop is supposed to be compatible with VirtualBox as well, however, it did not in my case.

Instructions

Note: In this tutorial we are assuming that you have a virtual machine already created. It is not necessary, however, that you load an actual operating system on that virtual machine. Just having the “empty’ virtual machine will do.

Download Plop Boot Manager and uncompress the ISO image to your hard drive.

Select your Virtual Machine and click on “Edit Virtual Machine Settings“.

On the left-hand side of the “Virtual Machine Settings” window, select “CD/DVD“.

Then, on the right-hand side under “Connection“, select “Use ISO Image File“.

Click on the “Browse” button, search for and select the Plop ISO image you downloaded and uncompressed to your hard drive; the file should be named “plpbt.iso“.

Click “OK” to finish.

Now, you are ready to boot from your USB drive. Make sure you have your bootable USB drive inserted on the computer and start your virtual machine.

Note: VMware behaves almost exactly like a computer, it even has its own Phoenix BIOS. In order for you to be able to boot from your USB flash drive, you are going to have to change the order of the boot devices in the BIOS or enter the boot menu. The problem is that VMware boots so fast that it does not give you time to press the correct key to change the boot order. In order for you to solve this, you are going to have to increase the virtual machine’s boot delay.

Once you start your virtual machine, click the “Esc” key to enter the boot menu.

On the boot menu select “CD-ROM Drive” and click the “Enter” key.

VMware will not boot from the Plop’s ISO image.

On Plop’s boot menu, select “USB” and click “Enter“.

Final Thoughts

Plop is definitely a great tool for those of us who need USB booting capabilities in virtual machines. Plop is not only designed to work with virtualization programs; it can also be used in machines who’s BIOS lack USB booting support. Plop, however, does not work with all hardware or with all virtualization programs. In fact, I found myself transitioning from VirtualBox to VMware since, even though Plop is supposed to work with Virtualbox, it did not work in my computer. However, the fact I was not able to use it in Virtualbox does not mean it will not work for you. So, if you use Virtualbox, try it before making any assumptions.

<p>The post How to Boot from USB in VMware first appeared on geekyprojects.com.</p>

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Since its beginnings, Windows Remote Desktop became an essential tool for IT professionals. There is not a day that goes by, that I don’t use it at work. It has saved me major aggravation, specially when I am at home and I need to access the office to solve any problem. A few days back I wrote a tutorial on how to enable Remote Desktop in Windows XP; now is the turn of Windows 7 and Vista. The concept is basically the same, however, since things changed substantially starting with Vista, the steps are a little different. Before we start, it is important to mention that Remote Desktop is not available in the home versions of Windows Vista or 7.

Note: If both computers are on the same network or on a VPN connection, this first section of the instructions will be enough to get you connected.

In order for Remote Desktop to be operational, it needs to be enabled in the computer you will be connecting to (the destination computer). To enable it in Windows 7 or Vista, do the following:

1) Click on the Start orb.

2) Right-click on “Computer“.

3) Click on “Properties“.

This will open the computer’s system window. On the lower right-hand side of the screen, you will see a link named “Change Settings“; click on it.

This will open the “System Properties” window.

Click on the “Remote” tab.

Then, you have two options you can choose to enable remote desktop:

1) Allow connections from computers running any version of Remote Desktop (less secure).

2) Allow connections only from computers running Remote Desktop with Network Level Authentication (more secure).

Which option to choose?

While the last option seems to be the obvious choice due to its higher security level, it might not be appropriate for everybody; bear in mind that if you choose it, you won’t be able to connect using Windows XP or Linux, since they do not support “Network Level Authentication”. I always use the previous option since in my home and work networks, I have different operating systems. However, this is entirely up to you.

You should now be able to connect remotely to this machine using the main “Administrator” account. If you would like to give permission to additional users, read the next section.

Allowing Additional Users (Optional)

If you want to add other users besides “Administrator”, do the following:

1) Click on the Start Orb.

2) Right-click on “Computer“.

3) Click on “Manage“.

4) On the “Computer Management Window“, under “Local Users and Groups“, click on “Users“.

Note: Skip step 5 if your user is already on the list.

5) On the right-hand side of the window, right-click anywhere on the white background and select “New User“. Fill out the information and add it to the list. 

6) Right click on the new user (or modify an existing one) and click on “Properties“.

7) On the new window that will pop-up, click on the “Member of” tab.

8) Click on the “Add” button.

9) On the next screen, on the blank field, type “Remote Desktop Users” and click “OK“ to add your user to this group.

And that is all. Your user should now have permission to connect remotely to this computer.

Opening Ports in the Firewall (Optional, not for VPN Users)

If you decide to connect directly from the web without having a secure connection such as a VPN, you can open the right ports in the firewall. Please note that it is not recommended to leave these ports open all the time, since even though your computer might be password protected, you are making it easier for hackers to access your computer. This, however, can be done when a quick remote access connection is needed and there is no other alternative.

All routers are pretty much the same, but they can use different terminology. Basically, you have to enter your router’s configuration; look for the “Port Forwarding” section and forward port 3389 for both TCP and UDP protocols.

Just remember to remove the port forward once you are done working with Remote Desktop; you do not want to leave your computer exposed to hackers.

Connecting “To” and “From” Other Operating Systems Via Windows Remote Desktop

Windows XP

How to Enable Remote Desktop in Windows XP

Ubuntu Linux

Did you know you can connect remotely to a Ubuntu Linux machine using Windows Remote Desktop? Did you know you can connect from Ubuntu Linux to a Windows Machine using the real Remote Desktop as well? (not the VNC knock-off that comes with Ubuntu which is slow as molasses).  I have written the following articles just for this:

Connect From Ubuntu Linux to Windows using Windows Remote Desktop

Connect from Windows to Ubuntu Linux using Windows Remote Desktop

<p>The post How Enable Remote Desktop in Windows 7 and Vista first appeared on geekyprojects.com.</p>

The post How Enable Remote Desktop in Windows 7 and Vista appeared first on geekyprojects.com.

Why should we wipe free disk space on our hard drives? As you probably already know, once your recycle bin is emptied the files are not really erased; they just do not show up anymore and Windows uses the space whenever it is needed. The problem with this is that Windows writes randomly to the hard drive and until all the sectors taken up by the erased file get overwritten, your file is not really gone. In this tutorial will show you how to wipe your free disk space. I will also show you how to do it on a schedule in case you forget. This will prevent your erased data from falling into the wrong hands. We are going to be using a small and handy utility called Eraser which can be set up to wipe your hard drive’s free disk space from Windows, using the most advanced techniques.

Creating a Task

Download and install Eraser. There is nothing special worth mentioning about the installation; just keep clicking “Next” until finished.

Once installed, open eraser, right-click anywhere on the empty schedule list and click on “New Task“.

On the Task Properties window, select “Recurring“. This will allow you to schedule the operation.

Then, click the “Add Data” button to select the data to be erased; this is where you can specify whether you want to wipe a specific file, folder or free disk space.

It is entirely up to you to choose the erasure method. You can leave it as “Default” (which is in fact a single pass of pseudorandom data) or you can click on the drop-down menu and choose from the wide variety of methods provided by Eraser. Bear in mind that the higher number of passes the method that you choose has, the longer the process will take, and the highest the strain on your hard drive will be over time, specially if you are going to schedule a task that will run periodically. Other good methods to choose for the paranoid are the ones involving 3 passes, like US DoD, British HMS, US army, US Air force, etc. These methods will be secure enough and will probably finish in time if you leave them running each day over night.

Next, on the same window, select “Unused Disk Space“, making sure that you have the correct hard drive selected and “Erase Cluster Tips” checked; click “OK” and remain on the “Task Properties” window if you want to schedule the task.

Scheduling the Task

Next, we are going to be scheduling our task. For this example we are going to set the application to wipe the hard drive every day at 6pm, all weekdays and excluding weekends. This would be the perfect setup for the workplace where the day usually ends at 5PM and weekends are off.

Assuming you are in the “Task Properties” window, click on the “Schedule” tab.

For this example we are going to set the task to run at 6:00PM.

Next, select “Weekly” and pick the days of the week you wish to run the task. For this example, we are setting the task to run every week, Monday through Friday and excluding weekends.

Click “OK” to finish.

You should now see a new task added in your main Eraser window. Eraser is set by default to run each time you start Windows.

<p>The post Wiping Free Disk Space in Windows on Schedule first appeared on geekyprojects.com.</p>

The post Wiping Free Disk Space in Windows on Schedule appeared first on geekyprojects.com.