Ghosts in the Machine

Despite being an avowed Linux user, I do have occasional need to boot back to Windows for certain things, including iTunes and BlackBerry Desktop Manager.

Every two or three months, I rebuild my Windows XP environment and, for many years, have used Norton/Symantec Ghost 2003. I created a DVD containing a "clean" image of Windows XP SP3, with the most recent set of Windows fixes, AV updates, Firefox/Thunderbird versions etc.

Problem No. 1

For some reason, neither one of my 2008 Ghost DVDs would boot ( they were fairly well scratched ) so, after a bit of faffing around, I bit the bullet and performed a brand new installation of XP. This took a while, especially as I needed to download drivers for the Thinkpad T60p etc.

However, after a day or so, I had a nice clean machine, ready to re-image using Ghost.

Now I've been using Ghost 2003 since .... 2003, and am very happy with it - it just works; I can Ghost to a DVD or an external USB drive, and it takes a matter of minutes to backup and restore.

Given that I had some spare USB drive capacity, I decided to use that (a) for a quick backup and (b) for a slightly less error-prone restore.

Problem No. 2

No matter what I did, I was unable to get Ghost to write to any one of my three USB drives. In one case, I got a General Protection Fault in Ghost ( wow, back to the '80s ), in two other cases, Ghost just failed to find the drives, despite me selecting USB 2.0.

As with most situations, I decided to go Google, and found this document: -

Updates to Norton Ghost 2003

http://service1.symantec.com/SUPPORT/ghost.nsf/docid/2002102509582825?Open&docid=2000101617144125&nsf=on-technology.nsf&view=docid

which includes a bunch of updates, including some USB fixes.

It's my assumption that Microsoft and/or Lenovo have updated their USB 2.0 drivers and support since 2003, meaning that Ghost could no longer cope.

The aforementioned Symantec document was very helpful, and pointed me to a set of archived updates for their products: -

How to obtain the programs updates that are archived on Symantec LiveUpdate server

http://service1.symantec.com/Support/sharedtech.nsf/docid/2007010219171513

In conclusion, I have a clean machine, a nice backup ( and I did backup the backup before you ask ) and have learnt yet another lesson in the wonderful world of IT.

Time for a coffee ...

Error "Database specified does not exist or cannot be accessed" received when attempting to synchronise Notes and BlackBerry

Using the most recent BlackBerry Desktop Manager v4.7.0.32, I was receiving: -

Database specified does not exist or cannot be accessed

when I tried to synchronise my BlackBerry 7130v with Lotus Notes 8.5.

This error was occuring regardless of whether I tried to synchronise address book, contacts or to-do lists.

As always, Google had the answer ( and Google is my friend ) - my Notes location document had my mailfile name/location incorrectly specified: -



Once I changed the document, synchronisation just simply worked ... and it seems much smoother than earlier versions. In theory, I can use Bluetooth ... w00t

Lotus Partners - Eventing Away

Just wanted to mention that Infosys are holding one of their regular Open Day sessions in Swindon on Friday 6 March. I'll be there, as will many of the Lotus community.

In addition, our friends at LAN 2 LAN are planning a pair of technical forum events shortly afterwards: -

Tuesday 24 March @ IBM Warwick
Thursday 2 April @ IBM South Bank

Again, hope to see you there ...

WCM Jumpstart - Updated for 6.1

Following an earlier blog post here discussing how the WCM Jumpstart sites can be deployed, Erik reminded me that I never found a 6.1 equivalent.

Well, I checked again - and my colleague, TheresaS, kindly directed me to the command: -

ConfigEngine.bat configure-express

command, which allows one to deploy the sample WCM content and templates on a non-Express environment.

This is documented here in the Information Center here -> Installing WebSphere Portal on Windows

Caveat - I haven't tried this ! Remember, your mileage may vary ....

And three hours later, even more snow ...

See, the English CAN do snow, once in a while ...

Suzanne Minassian, Lotus Connections Product Manager, shows off ... Lotus Connections

So who thought YouTube was merely for watching dancing squirrels, singing geeks and ninja kids ?

Well, think again - here's a most excellent mere 9 minutes of Lotus Connections fun, courtesy of the product manager, Suzanne Minassian, who I was lucky enough to meet at Lotusphere 2009 - she's very smart, very keen and very very helpful.

If you want to see more, come and "meet" her and her team at the Synch.rono.us blog.