Archive for the ‘Hardware Support’ Category

Moving a Windows Server 2008 BMR System Image from a NAS to Direct Storage (USB or Internal Disk Device)

Saturday, December 31st, 2011

Scenario:

You have a Windows 2008 R2 server running Exchange 2010 that you administer and it crashes. Of course you have that last nights backup?
Of course. Being a good network admin you had a nightly full backup going to your trusty NAS device on the network. And not only a standard backup but a full BMR (Bare Metal Restore) Your so smart!

So you boot with your Windows 2008 DVD, go into the WinRE (Windows Recovery Environment) and connect to your NAS device. So you let the restore run…….and run…….and run……Damn! How long is this gonna take? Well if your server environment is anything like that of one of our clients (Over 900G of data + Exchange) it could take up to 22 hours.

To speed things up you decide to copy your backup to a SATA drive and connect it directly to your system. Here is the problem with that though. Microsoft (in their infinite wisdom) decided not to allow you to simply point the restore utility to the location of your backup/image file. The system recovery utility has to scan for it. And if it doesn’t find it? – You cant specify where it is (Only if it is located on a network device such as a NAS or windows share) But if you move it lets say to another drive on your system? Your stuck. The Utility will not find it at all.

The only way to get the Recovery utility to view a backup image that has been moved from its original location is to copy the WindowsImageBackup folder that was created by the backup software to the root of the new drive. Although Windows Server Backup lets you store your Full Server Backups within subfolders (i.e “D:\Windows Backup\Server2\Nightly Full Backup\”) If you need to copy or migrate that backup to different media you will have to locate the WindowsImageBackup folder created within the sub-folder and move it to the root of the drive in order to get the Windows System Image Recovery utility to see it.

And that’s not all:

If you need to do a Full Server Backup, simply copying the WindowsImageBackup folder to the root of the drive is not enough. Apparently Windows Server Backup writes System Volume information to the root of drive (or share) that you used to store the original backup archive. So even when you copy the WindowsImageBackup folder to the root of your drive you still would will only be able to restore your data and System state. You will not be able to to a BMR recovery.

I am looking into how to move that System Volume information the WinRE needs along with the data archive.

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ITCSNYC begins internship program with ASA College

Monday, September 14th, 2009

ITCSNYC will begin an internship program with ASA College this fall!

After being contacted by Sabrina Lewis, ASA College’s externship coordinator last summer, we began making plans to welcome the students into our business culture. Participating in the program gives us the opportunity to learn how to best teach and transfer our core principles to new employees. It also gives students the chance to work in a real world business environment.

Interns will be posting weekly blog entries detailing their experiences, what they have learned during the week and giving us their own ideas on improving the company!

We are looking forward to what will be a very rewarding teaching and learning experience.

Computer Networking Support New York

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Frustrated With Geek Squad? You’re Not Alone.

Tuesday, July 7th, 2009

ITCSNYC technicians have provided home computer and residential computer support in New York City for over 9 years. In that time we have come to learn that a large portion of our support calls (70-80%) are second hand calls i.e. dissatisfied customers that are calling you because they are unhappy with their previous support company.

No one computer support company in New york has provided us with more clients this way than Geek Squad.

The sad truth is that customer turnover is pretty high within the computer support industry in general, and that’s because most customers view computer support as a commodity service; a reliable set of wrote  procedures that can be easily repeated by anyone (within a certain range of skill). This of course is not the case, but the customer is not to blame for this misconceived notion of the computer support industry.  They get this idea due to the fact that most computer support companies treat their services offerings this way.

Tech support is not a commodity. The truth of the matter is that every problem and situation is different.  This video here speaks well to that fact. (This video does contain adult language)

This is one of the points that the management at Geek Squad seem to miss.  Companies may be able to manufacture computers on an assembly line but they can’t fix them that way. To paraphrase the ex Best-Buy tech in the video:  “You have to be willing to invest the time to figure out a problem in order to gain the experience to be able to fix it that much more quickly the next time.” You need real techs interested in and committed to their work. Not employees flowing scripts.

Another point is understanding what it means to be a Value Added Reseller (VAR). A recent support client told us that a GS tech refused to troubleshoot a wireless keyboard problem with him over the phone. They insisted that he bring the machine in which would have resulted in a charge. The client had purchased his Dell desktop from Best Buy less than two years ago. A five minute phone call, especially one that may still result in a paying support call, is not too much to invest for a prior customer.

Adding additional value to a product means making an additional investment in the customer – an additional investment that a VAR may not see back immediately.  However providing an all-in-one solution for to your clients means they will likely call when they need help or are ready to buy again but only if they trust your service so far and believe they can rely on it in the future.

These are just two of the major issues we’ve seen with Best Buy’s/Geek Squad’s service over the years.  This article wasn’t written  to sling mud  (that’s easy to do in the support industry) it was written just to let you know that in the words of that great entertainer that recently passed You are not alone (Click here to see how not alone you really are).  Besides we wouldn’t want to come down too hard on them after all… they provide us with some of our best clients.

Desktop Support

Taraje Solomon
support@itcomputersupportnyc.com
www.itcomputeruspportnyc.com

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