This article covers all aspects about the needed protection to your computer in order to avoid malicious softwares and virus as well.

Malicious Softwares are spreading the net every second infecting each unprotected PC. The principal symptom is that your computer seems to be a turtle for those tasks requiring more memory like graphics, browsing the net, playing games (this particularly is a nightmare), or trying to print a single document.

What is a Malware or Spyware?
Malware is the short expresion of Malicious Software. There are many different types like: Virus, Trojan Horses, Bugs, Dialers, Spyware, Hijackers, Keyloggers, FakeAVS, among others.

There are many anty-malware softwares out there but several come with an adware embedded on them. You have to take special care with shareware stuff. Some websites like free games, mp3s, free downloads among others have trojan like malwares.

There is a very effective software that is being used by bankers and data processing companies. This powerful tool protects your computer from every intruder known and gives extra security to your sensitive data.

This software has been awarded as the “Number One Protecting Tool” on the market and is affordable for every one. You will have at hand a group of programs, including Registry Easy, Spyware Cease, Driver Checker, Perfect Uninstaller, Duplicate File Cleaner, Advanced Defrag, and Easy Launcher as well as new programs in the future. Even people just purchase one utility, they are FREE to use other utilities.

The benefits you can get immediately with this software are:

1.- Your computer will run faster as a new one.
2.- The powerful firewall will protect your computer from intruders.
3.- Your registry will be updated Only with the actual packages in your system.
4.- Your system will never crash or freeze up.

The installation is easy and it has a very friendly setup program, which lead you through the entire installation and configuration process.

In conclusion, if you really care about your information specially those related to credit cards and bank accounts, you better should consider on installing this powerful tool. It will protect your computer years to come. And best of all you will receive software updates with no more charges.

By: Jose Vasquez

Although, dividing hard drive in several partitions is a pretty good thing, but sometimes users do not understand the “Too much of a good thing” concept. They run across the line and chop up their hard drives into nonsensical numbers of small partitions, observing that they are increasing the disk space utilization. The ironical thing is they can not save as much disk space as they believed they can and make it confusing to find any particular file in several partitions.

The reason is that the litter a hard drive partition is, the greater a possibility of this has to be led empty for avoiding the probability of going out of space. Running out of disk space may lead to critical data loss. If you let the hard drive get close to a point where it’s running out of the disk space may increased disk fragmentation and decrease disk performance.

Running out of the disk space and extensive fragmentation may also cause corruption to the hard drive data structures such as MFT and File system.

MFT is a component of NTFS file system that stores information about all the files and directories on NTFS (New Technology File System) volume.

File system is way of storing and managing computer files and their contents. File system makes it simple to locate and access stored files.

After corruption to any of these data structures, operating system can not locate stored files and you need windows data recovery software to extract lost data.

The Windows Recovery applications are particularly designed to carry out in-depth scan of the storage media and retrieve lost, missing, and inaccessible data. They have simple graphical user interface and read-only conduct to offer easy and safe windows data recovery.

Stellar Phoenix windows data recovery is the most advanced and effective tool to recover lost, missing, and inaccessible Windows data. The software is designed for Microsoft Windows 7, Vista, 2003, XP, and 2000. It recovers data from FAT16, FAT32, VFAT, NTFS, and NTFS5 file system partitions.

By: Robin Watson

1.Make a habit of backing up your digital photos regularly
Accidents can happen any time on any device and are unforeseen. So always back up all your critical files and folders. To be on safer side, you can burn your photos onto a DVD, upload them to a hard drive, or upload them to an online storage service. In some cases, you can even upload your key pictures and files to other digital devices. This is supposed to be the best method for photo recovery.

2.After Data Loss, Immediately Stop Using Your Drive
Once corruption occurs in any storage media or there is a data loss, you must stop working on it as doing so may result in overwriting of data and hence chances of photo recovery are reduced to a large extent.

3.Don’t format or initialize your storage media
In case of an accident or data loss event, media devices ask you to reformat your device. You must definitely avoid it. Because you try to reformat there and then, you may actually write over some of the data that may be recoverable. Furthermore, reformatting may not solve the problem rather it will make the situation more complicated.

4.Do Not Try to Open Your Device
Never go into “fix-it” mode, as this will scan the components for damage and will erase the data stored on the device. The inner circuits are sensitive so they are susceptible to permanent damage.

5.Never Expose Your Storage Media to Extreme Temperatures
Always try to protect your device from extreme temperatures, direct sunlight. This could result in ill effects to device and hence the data, photos stored within.

6.Beware of Strong Magnetic Fields
Strong magnetic fields lead to skewing, jostling, and removal of formatting of data residing in storage media. So, never expose your digital media device to a strong magnetic or radioactive field.

7.Use third party Photo Recovery tool to get back your lost photos
Search for top rated photo recovery software and all your lost, deleted photos will be back with you. Photo recovery software performs recursive scanning of damaged storage media and recovers data from it.

8.After photo recovery, clean the drive
Don’t allow old, fragmented data to gum up your media card. Get a fresh start, and keep your media clean.

Best professional photo recovery software recovers thousands of photos in a short span of time. Software also maintains the original formatting properties of the photos recovered. You can try the free demo version of the tool for your satisfaction and then decide on purchasing the tool.

By: data recovery

Schema Master

Now you are asking, what is a schema? The schema is just a database. If you have used Excel or Access in the past then you have been exposed to a database. The schema is a database. Now the schema is composed of Classes which are the Tables and Attributes which are the fields. So, the Schema Master controls the updates to the schema. So, you can say that this is relatively important server. It only controls every entry that we make into the Active Directory Domain Service utility called ADUC which is short for Active Directory Users and Computers. This role is located on the first domain controller that is added to the Forest by default. There is only one Schema Master per Forest. When you update the schema which is known as extending the schema, you need to be in the same Forest as this domain controller.

Domain Naming Master

So, what is the definition of a domain? A domain is a logical grouping of computers where the domain controller is the central repository for accounts, security and policies. The Domain Naming Master is in charge of keeping track of the adding and deletion of more domains within the environment. This role is located on the first domain controller that is added to the Forest default. There is only one Domain Naming Master in the Forest.

PDC Emulator

Remember the old Operating System know as Windows NT 4.0. It was the predecessor to Windows Server 2008. Well in the old days which is really little over 10 years, the main domain controller was known as the Primary Domain Controller. So, that is where this role comes into play. It takes the place of the Primary Domain Controller. The main service that it controls is time. If this puppy is not functioning right then you whole environment will suffer. This role is located on the first domain controller that is added to the Forest by default. Now unlike the other roles, the PDC Emulator is located in every domain in the Forest. But, there is only one per domain. This is one of the most important servers in the Domain.

RID Master

The unique identifier for a database is known as the primary key. Well the primary key that provides uniqueness within Active Directory Domain Services is the SID which is known as the Security ID. The RID Master controls the RID Pool for the domain. The RID is the Relative Identifier. When we run out of RIDs then we will not be able to add additional security principals such as accounts. Here is a tip do not recover this server. If you bring this server on at the same time as another RID server then you will have a majorly messed up domain. This role is located in every domain in the forest but only one per domain.

Infrastructure Master

This is an odd animal. The main purpose of the Infrastructure Master is tracking movement within the domain. This needs some clarification. We are not talking about Big Brother. Well, maybe. The Infrastructure Master tracks the moving of an object (account) from one OU (Organizational Unit) to another or domain. Now the reason I call this an odd animal is because it should not be on the same server as the Global Catalog. Ok, I know we are about to go over the threshold limit of the human mind. But, the Global Catalog has a copy of every attribute in the Forest. This will be covered in another article. Back the Infrastructure Master, this role is also located in every domain and there is only one per domain.

Whew, I know that is a lot to remember. But this is important. See, remember our problem…. The domain is down. If you only have one domain controller is contains all of these roles. HELLO, can you see where we are going with this. Make sure you have more than one domain controller per domain. Ok, here is another topic. Replication. No this is not cloning but similar. The domain controllers in the Forest replicate there information to each other. This introduces another term multi-master replication. This just means that they have the same settings as the other guys. Anyway, we come into work and find that the #1 domain controller has bit the dust. Don’t panic we can fix this. Take a coffee break and realign your thought process.

To the Rescue

So, we have a pretty bad situation. Users cannot logon; email server is down, yada yada yada. So, here is the good stuff. How do we get our domain back up and functioning? Call me of course. Just kidding. This article is here to instruct you on how to recover from this disaster. Before can do this we need to use one of two tools ADUC (Active Directory Users and Computers) or ntdsutil. Of the tool tools, ntdsutil will allow us to everything that we need to do. Ok, are you ready…..

Recovering From Disaster

Step 1. Go to the second domain controller (will Call this Jupiter)
Logon with administrative credentials

Step 2. Bring up the command prompt
Type cmd at the run command prompt or access it from the Accessories menu under Programs on the menu

Step 3. Type ntdsutil at the command prompt and press Enter

Step 4. Type roles at the ntdsutil prompt and press Enter

Step 5. Type connections at the roles prompt and press Enter

Step 6. Type connect to server Jupiter at the connections prompt and press Enter
You will be presented with a message saying you are connected and using current credentials

Step 7. Type quit at the connections prompt and press Enter
This will return you to the roles section

Step 8. Type seize Schema Master at the roles prompt and press Enter
This will take over the Schema Master role and give it to Jupiter.

Step 9. Type seize Naming Master at the roles prompt and press Enter
This will take over the Domain Naming Master role and give it to Jupiter

Step 10. Type seize PDC at the roles prompt and press Enter
This will take over the PDC Emulator and give it to Jupiter

Step 11. Type seize RID master at the roles prompt and press Enter
This will take over the RID Master and give it to Jupiter

Step 12. Type seize infrastructure master at the roles prompt and press Enter

Right now you are probably saying that is a lot of steps. We are complete with the first part. WHAT, there is more? Hold on don’t get ansy this will have take only about 5 hours. Just kidding. This whole process will take about 10-20 minutes. You will be the savior of the network. All righty then, on to the next part. By the way, the steps that are shown can be re-ordered when it comes to seizing. The commands are not case sensitive either.
Cleanup Time

Now in the beginning of the article, I pointed out each of the different roles and their purpose. Well we forcibly took over the roles. The other domain controller is still offline but still theoretically has those roles. If we were to bring that domain controller up again there would be major confusion. Also, Active Directory Domain Services does not know who to replicate changes. The KCC (Knowledge Consistency Check) is looking for the partner. The partner is no longer available. We need to clean up this mess and quickly.

Step 13. Type quit at the roles prompt and press Enter
This will take us back to the beginning.

Step 14. Type metadata cleanup at the ntdsutl prompt and press Enter
This routine will get rid of the SRV records lingering in DNS and also records of the other domain
controller in Active Directory Domain Services database the Schema.

Step 15. Type select operation target at the metadata cleanup prompt and press Enter
We need to identify the downed domain controller.

Step 16. Type list sites at the select operation target prompt and press Enter
This will list the sites within the Forest

Step 17. Type the # associated with the Site which the downed domain controller is part and press Enter
This will select the site which has the records for the downed domain controller

Step 18. Type list servers in the site at the select operation target prompt and press Enter
This will list the domain controllers that are in the Site

Step 19. Type the # associated with domain the down domain controller and press Enter
This will select the domain with the downed domain controller

Step 20. Type quit at the select operation target and press Enter
This will take you back to the Metadata Cleanup section

Step 21. Type remove selected server at the metadata cleanup prompt and press Enter
This will remove the records within Active Directory Domain Services

Step 22. Type quit at the metadata cleanup prompt and press Enter
Takes you back to the beginning of ntdsutils

Step 23. Type quit at the ntdsutil prompt and press Enter
Quits the ntdsutil utility

Step 24. Check ADUC , DNS etc
Ensure that you can open ADUC. You may have to change focus of the domain controller.

Step 25. Take old domain controller off line and reinstall Windows Server 2008 and dcpromo it

Wow, what an ordeal. Just think if you did not have another domain controller within your Forest. Do yourself a favor and make sure you have more than one domain controller in your environment. There is a lot more that we can teach you. But, we will leave that for another article. Right now, go get that cup of coffee, high five your staff and relax. Your domain is back up and running. Now go change some passwords and play Halo at your desk. Oops, did I say that. See you later.

By: Ideadudes