HOW TO: Create a bootable USB flash drive in Windows from an ISO (Manually)

Summary:
A bootable USB flash drive can be used as an alternative to booting from CD or PXE on a enterprise network.

Prerequisites:

• ISO file that you want to boot from (Linux, Windows, etc.).  In the example below I will make a bootable Windows 8 Installation CD USB drive.
• USB Flash Drive: Verify that it is large enough to hold the entire contents of the ISO file
• 7-Zip: Used to extract the .ISO file to the USB Flash Drive. [DOWNLOAD]

Preparing the bootable USB Flash Drive:
1. Insert a USB Flash Drive into a Windows 7 or Windows 8 client.
2. As an Administrator launch the Command Prompt. (Windows Logo + R, type: cmd.exe, Enter)
3. In the Command Prompt type:

ATTENTION: Replace '#' with the DISK number of the USB Flash Drive.

diskpart
list disk
select disk #
clean
create par primary
select par 1
active
format fs=fat32 label="Win8ProInstall" quick
assign
exit

4. It may be necessary to remove the USB Flash Drive and re-insert it.
5. Locate the file windows8pro.iso on you local computer (or whatever the ISO you have is called)
6. Right-click on the file windows8pro.iso and locate the 7-Zip context menu option.
7. From the 7-Zip context menu select the option "Extract files...".
8. In the "Extract" dialog enter the drive letter of the USB Flash Drive and click "OK" to begin extracting the files.
9. Once the extract process completes, eject the USB Flash Drive. Test the drive to ensure that it is ready for production use.

Alternate Instructions - Especially for Linux based ISO's:
Although I've had less success with creating Windows bootable USB drives with another tool called UnetbootIn - it can create bootable USB drives without the need for entering data in a command prompt.  Personally I've found this tool to work much more reliably with Linux bootable drives.

UnetbootIn Project Homepage

SETTINGS: Gmail IMAP and SMTP Settings - Google Mail

When using IMAP and SMTP for Gmail Mailboxes in Outlook 2010, you will need to manually set the "Incoming server (IMAP)" port and the Outgoing server (SMTP) server settings for sending mail through Gmail from any email program are:

Incoming Server (IMAP)
--Gmail IMAP Address: imap.gmail.com
--Gmail IMAP Port: 993
--GMail Encrypted Connection: SSL

Outgoing server (SMTP)
--Gmail SMTP address:  smtp.gmail.com
--Gmail SMTP port:  587
--Gmail Encrypted Connection: TLS

Gmail User name and password Information
--Gmail IMAP and SMTP user name:  The full Gmail address (e.g. myemailaddress@gmail.com)
--Gmail IMAP and SMTP password:  Your Gmail password

[SOLUTION] Android Error - Trusted Credential Store Password

   While installing an encryption certificate from my email provider on Android, my phone suddenly asked me to "Type the password for credential storage".  I have never set a "credential storage" password or installed a certificate before, so this seemed very strange.  I tried my lockscreen password, 0000, 1111, 1234, etc...but nothing worked.

    With a little persistence, I decided to clear my lockscreen password to nothing and then try to install the certificate again.  My device prompted me to set a 'new' lockscreen password, which I did and then the email certificate installed successfully.

Bingo!

P.S. - My email provider uses Exchange ActiveSync as their backend...if that matters.

[SOLUTION] "Out of Memory' (Error 1416) When Saving Visio 2010 Drawings with Embedded PDF's

PROBLEM: After creating a Visio 2010 drawing and embedded PDF's, you receive an error: "Out of Memory' when saving the drawing.  The exact message reads:

An error (1416) occurred during the action Save.

There is not enough memory to complete the requested action.

SOLUTION: There is a bug in the way Visio 2010 handles PDF's and automatically "groups" them.

1. Select the PDF(s) in your Visio drawing
2. Click the Group menu item
3. Select Ungroup

You should now be able to successfully save the file.

UPDATE: If this does not fix your particular problem, as it does for me, you can also try the following work-around that involves creating a picture file from your PDF and inserting that instead:

Visio - Save a PDF as an Image before embedding

Trusted CA Cert for WhatsApp Attachments

I'm selectively enabling CA trusts on my Android phone by disabling all Trusted CA's and then enabling only ones that I need to run on a daily basis. To re-enable WhatsApp attachments (I couldn't download photos anymore) I had to enable ValiCert, Inc. (http://www.valicert.com/). There's three of them listed, but I only needed to enable the first one.

This was a little troublesome because when I went to https://whatsapp.com in by browser, they're using a certificate published by DigiCert...which did not help when I re-enabled it.

Photos are downloading again!

SOLUTION: DPM Service Failed to Start in a Timely Fashion

     After setting up a Microsoft System Center DPM 2012 SP1 server in my main network, I moved it to a remote location. However the DPM service world not start and gave me the errror and related Event Log entries:

DPM failed to communicate with DPMBACK1.mydomain.local.com because of a communication error with the protection agent (ID 53 Details: The service did not respond to the start or control request in a timely fashion (0x8007041D))

Log Name:      Application
Source:        MSDPM
Date:          3/21/2014 4:32:33 PM
Event ID:      976
Task Category: None
Level:         Error
Keywords:      Classic
User:          N/A
Computer:    BACK1.mydomain.local.com
Description:  The description for Event ID 976 from source MSDPM cannot be found. Either the component that raises this event is not installed on your local computer or the installation is corrupted. You can install or repair the component on the local computer.
If the event originated on another computer, the display information had to be saved with the event.
The following information was included with the event:  The DPM job failed because it could not contact the DPM engine.

     After chasing my tail for a couple of days by trying to install the latest rollup packages (I was unable to because this requires the DPM service to be able to start...), troubleshooting SQL Integration Services, triple checking DNS and routing, NIC drivers, NIC teaming settings, replacing VSS dll's as I've seen in man other blogs, trousbleshooting Internet Access (as seen on technet), then out of frustration moving the server back to the main office (DPM started immediately...so the server is okay), etc...I found a simple registry key that fixed all of my problems.  Here's the instructions:

Apply the ServicesPipeTimeout registry setting: This registry setting helps avoid failures when installing DPM and DPM updates or after moving to a new network with more latency.

• Launch Registry Editor (regedit) and navigate to the following key:
• HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control
• Click the Edit menu and select New and DWORD (32-bit) Value
• Type ServicesPipeTimeout (case-sensitive) for the name and press Enter
• Right-click the ServicesPipeTimeout DWORD entry that you created and click Modify
• Select Decimal
• Type 300000 in the Value data field and click OK
• Restart the computer

After restarting the server, then I ran the following command to cleanup the DMP database.

dpmsync -sync

SUMMARY: The new network must have had some extra latency...?

HP 2520 24 Port Switch MTU Error and Subsequent Firmware Upgrade Instructions

   In troubleshooting a packet size problem with some of my HP ProCurve 2520-24G (J9299A) switches, I uncovered a bug in the HP firmware. It's on an HP forum for another switch model...but I can assure you the bug is in this model as well. (1810 Bug report)

   The symptoms of the problem are that when pinging from one device to another with a large ICMP frame, the packet drops without any logs or notifications of any kind...the other device looks like it's down.  The command from a windows client looks like this:

WORKS:  ping 192.168.10.10 -l 504
FAILS:      ping 192.168.10.10 -l 505

The solution posted on the forum for the 1810 essential says to reset the device and start from scratch:

"I encountered the exact same problem on two brand new 1810G's. The fact that I had configured them identically provided the clue - I had done a firmware upgrade to P2.2 (via the intermediate firmware, whatever what was) before doing anything else to both of the switches. There must have been some sort of anomaly that got propagated with the original internal configuration. Once I did a factory reset and reconfigured the switches again, the problem went away. BTW, running them Jumbo and tagged VLANs, no problems."

I'm in the process of doing that now, but first I thought I would take advantage of this opportunity to upgrade the firmware as well.Current firmware version is J.14.01 (07/27/09) and I want to go to J.15.09_0021 (10/16/2013).

The steps are essentially:

1. Install a TFTP server on your network (I use Whatup's)
2. Log in to the console of your switch (I use putty)
3. Run the following command to download and install the firmware to the secondary flash chip
      copy tftp flash 192.168.10.3 J_15_09_0021.swi sec      note: syntax is: copy tftp flash <IP address of TFTP server> <case-sensitive firmware filename> <pri | sec>

   After the firmware installed, I set the Secondary flash to be the boot flash with the follow command:

boot system flash sec

NOTE FROM HP: "If neither flash is specified in the command, then the primary flash will be updated by default. Should the administrator choose to update secondary flash, first, then he or she may reboot the switch to secondary flash to ensure the stability of the new image. That command is: boot system flash sec . The system must be manually rebooted for the new firmware to take effect."

   The command reboots the switch...so I don't know what it means to "manually reboot" the switch.  RESULT: And...now I'm locked out of the switch since the password changed!!!

   To get around the password issue, I simply had to "clear" the password with a paperclip. The button is on the lower left-hand side of the switch. After pressing this button for a few seconds, I attempted to log in again and all passwords were blank (Note: Nothing else in the switch configuration changed though. The VLANs, configuration, etc. were all intact)

   After setting my password again...I did some initial testing and the MTU problem appears to not have been resolved. Time will tell if it's any more stable now. In the meantime, I'm planning to decommission these from production.

To finalize the installation, copy the firmware from one flash to the other, use this command within the console:

copy flash flash pri

Source(s): HP