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Showing posts with label hardware. Show all posts
Showing posts with label hardware. Show all posts

Saturday, December 10, 2011

Ubuntu auf andere Festplatte kopieren

Quelle
Zum Verständnis dieses Artikels sind folgende Seiten hilfreich:

Eine Installation von einer alten Festplatte auf eine neue Festplatte kopieren
(mit der gleichen MoBo).
Eine andere Art von Umzug ist es, wenn Festplatten einfach in einen anderen Computer eingebaut werden. Dies ist meist ohne weiteres möglich, sofern die neue Hardware unterstützt wird, und man ggf. benutzte proprietäre Grafiktreiber deinstalliert, oder ggf. benutzte spezielle Bootoptionen anpasst, falls diese nicht auch für das neue System passen.
Es gibt viele Gründe, warum man eine Installation auf eine andere Festplatte umziehen möchte: kein freier Speicherplatz mehr, eine neue leistungsfähigere Festplatte oder ein neuer PC wurde angeschafft usw.
Da es eine Vielzahl an Installationsmöglichkeiten und Spezialfälle gibt, die dieser Artikel nicht alle abdecken kann, wird nur die "Standardinstallation" berücksichtigt:
  • eine Partition für das System
  • eine Partition für swap
Informationen zum umziehen einer Software-RAID Installation gibt es z.B. auf ubuntuforums.org {en}
Im folgenden Beispiel wird angenommen: Das umzuziehende Standardsystem ist auf der Festplatte sda installiert und soll auf die neue Festplatte sdb kopiert werden. Das Homeverzeichnis befindet sich mit im Root-Dateisystem (selbe Partition).
Achtung!
Durch Tippfehler z.B. beim Kopieren des Betriebssystems kann das alte System unbrauchbar werden. Daher wird dringend empfohlen, zuvor ein Backup zu erstellen (siehe Datensicherung).
Überblick verschaffen Zunächst sollte man sich einen Überblick über das System verschaffen und die Partitionen identifizieren, auf denen sich das Root-System befindet.
Über den Befehl [1]:
mount | egrep ^/dev/ 
erhält man eine Liste der eingebundenen Geräte. Besonders interessant ist das Root-Dateisystem (im Beispiel sda1), das als Wurzelverzeichnis (/) eingebunden ist:
/dev/sda1 on / type ext3 (rw)
Hat man ein anderes Dateisystem, wie ReiserFS oder ext4, ist das Wort hinter type natürlich reiserfs oder ext4. Ebenso kann die Zahl hinter sda variieren, wenn man Ubuntu nicht auf der 1. Partition liegen hat.
Man erkennt, dass das Root-Filesystem auf der ersten Partition der Festplatte /dev/sda eingebunden ist. Man sollte sicherheitshalber in der Liste überprüfen, dass sich das gesamte Ubuntu-System auf dieser Partition befindet. Tauchen in der Liste noch andere Einträge auf, wie z.B. /dev/sda2 on /home ext3 (...), so befindet sich das System verteilt auf verschiedene Partitionen. Das bedeutet, dass man dies beim späteren Anlegen der Partitionen auf der neuen Platte und beim Kopieren der Daten berücksichtigen muss.
Ubuntu LiveCD herunterladen Zu allererst wird die Desktop-CD von Ubuntu benötigt, diese kann hier heruntergeladen werden. Wichtig ist bein 64 Bit Systemen entsprechend ein 64 Bit ISO herunterzuladen, da chroot andernfalls nicht korrekt funktioniert. Nach dem Download wird das ISO-Image der Live-CD auf eine CD gebrannt.
Nun wird die neue Festplatte zusätzlich zur alten in den Computer eingebaut. Danach bootet man von der Ubuntu-LiveCD.
Partition erstellen Nach dem Booten werden zuerst die aktuellen Festplattenbezeichnungen ermittelt:
sudo fdisk -l 
Die Ausgabe könnte folgendermaßen aussehen:
vergrößern
Platte /dev/sda: 500.1 GByte, 500107862016 Byte
255 Köpfe, 63 Sektoren/Spuren, 60801 Zylinder
Einheiten = Zylinder von 16065 × 512 = 8225280 Bytes
Disk identifier: 0x000da950

   Gerät  boot.     Anfang        Ende     Blöcke   Id  System
/dev/sda1   *           1       60737   487869921   83  Linux
/dev/sda2           60738       60801      514080   82  Linux Swap / Solaris

Platte /dev/sdb: 250.0 GByte, 250059350016 Byte
255 Köpfe, 63 Sektoren/Spuren, 30401 Zylinder
Einheiten = Zylinder von 16065 × 512 = 8225280 Bytes
Disk identifier: 0x0007f522

   Gerät  boot.     Anfang        Ende     Blöcke   Id  System
Die Festplatte sda enthält das zu kopierende System in zwei Partitionen: Auf der ersten befindet sich das Ubuntu-System, die zweite Partition ist eine Swap-Partition. Die Festplatte sdb ist komplett leer, es befinden sich keine Partitionen darauf.
Nun muss man die Festplatte sdb mit GParted analog der alten Festplatteneinteilung sda einrichten. Mit analog ist hier die Anzahl der Partitionen gemeint, nicht die Größe. Letztere kann an die tatsächlichen Gegebenheiten angepasst werden:
  • Systempartition ("/"): muss mit einem Linux-tauglichen Dateisystem formatiert werden
  • Swap-Partition ("/swap"): siehe Swap-Partition erstellen

Hinweis:
Eine ausführliche Anleitung zum Partitionieren erhält man hier: Partitionierung und Manuelle Partitionierung

Partitionen unter der LiveCD einbinden
Nach dem nun die neue Festplatte erfolgreich eingerichtet wurde, hängt man die neue Root-Partition wie auch die alte ein. In diesem Beispiel wird davon ausgegangen, dass das bestehende System auf sda1 liegt und die Partition auf der neuen Festplatte sdb1 ist. Dazu werden neue Ordner erstellt und die Partitionen dort eingebunden. Im Terminal werden folgende Befehle für die alte Festplatte benötigt:
sudo mkdir /mnt/alt
sudo mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/alt 
Dann hängt man die neue Festplatte bzw. Partition, auf die das "neue" Betriebssystem kopiert werden soll, ein.
sudo mkdir /mnt/neu
sudo mount /dev/sdb1 /mnt/neu 
Daten mit dem Programm rsync kopieren Nun kopiert man alle Dateien mit dem Befehl rsync von der alten Partition zur neuen:
sudo rsync --stats --progress --numeric-ids -aAhHSP  /mnt/alt/ /mnt/neu/ 
Hinweis:
rsync ist dem Shell-Befehl cp vorzuziehen.
Bei einer defekten Festplatte kann es vorkommen, dass der Kopiervorgang einfach "hängen bleibt", ggf. friert sogar das gesamte System beim Zugriff auf defekte Sektoren ein. Tritt dieses Problem auf, ist ein schrittweises Kopieren der Daten nötig. Man nimmt sich also analog zu obiger Syntax jedes Verzeichnis einzeln vor. Wird der Kopiervorgang für ein Verzeichnis erfolgreich abgeschlossen, wendet man sich dem nächsten zu - nachdem man mit dem Befehl sync sichergestellt hat, dass die kopierten Daten aus dem Cache auch auf die Platte geschrieben wurden. Kommt es zu besagtem "Hänger", ist die verursachende Datei die letzte in der Ausgabe des Kopierbefehls - diese darf also beim Kopieren nicht (mehr) angefasst, und muss stattdessen später aus einem (hoffentlich vorhandenen) Backup wieder hergestellt werden.
Alternative - Daten mit dem Programm cp kopieren Kopierbefehl mit cp:
sudo cp -a /mnt/alt /mnt/neu  # Kopieren mit Übernahme alter Dateiinformationen und detaillierter Ausgabe 
Hinweis:
Der Kopiervorgang kann je nach Datenvolumen (und Leistungsfähigkeit des Rechners) etwas mehr Zeit in Anspruch nehmen. Man sollte daher mind. 1-2 Stunden einberechnen!
fstab Als nächstes muss man die Datei /etc/fstab auf der neuen Partition ändern. Falls man das vergisst, kann Ubuntu von der neuen Festplatte nicht gestartet werden, ob wohl es erfolgreich kopiert wurde. Für die Einträge in fstab wird die UUID benötigt, siehe UUID.
Hinweis:
Da Ubuntu seit Edgy Eft statt der Schreibweise /dev/xxx UUIDs benutzt, verweisen die Daten in der fstab sowie auch in menu.lst nach wie vor auf die "alte" Festplatte. Wer sich mit der "alten" Device-Schreibweise leichter tut, kann bei den Anpassungen natürlich auch diese wieder verwenden - es sollten jedoch Vor- und Nachteile gut abgewogen werden. Näheres dazu findet sich an dieser Stelle.
Die UUIDs aller angeschlossenen Laufwerke lassen sich mit folgendem Befehl anzeigen:
sudo blkid 
Beispiel:
/dev/sda1: UUID="eb95423b-612f-416b-ad31-02bfedfd74d3" TYPE="ext3" #Alte root-Partition
/dev/sda2: TYPE="swap" UUID="ee472e83-66a8-4397-8648-69abe711a467" #Alte swap-Partition
/dev/sdb1: UUID="6346681b-b88a-4c75-8882-81fa4e731d18" TYPE="ext3" #Neue root-Partition
/dev/sdb2: TYPE="swap" UUID="44887afe-b82b-4fa5-bab6-68afebc4599d" #Neue swap-Partition
Die UUID der neuen Partition (sdb1) lautet hier: 6346681b-b88a-4c75-8882-81fa4e731d18. Nun öffnet man die Datei /etc/fstab auf sdb1 in einem Editor[2] mit Root-Rechten[4] und sucht nach den Einträgen der einzuhängenden Partitionen. Hier ein Beispiel:
# /dev/sda1
UUID=4dbbaf05-b0bb-4e3b-bba6-61c8d5d62a77 /  ext3  relatime,error s=remount-ro 0  1
# /dev/sda2 
UUID=3d5ede6f-1c19-4bc2-84da-68fdb1f70c85  none   swap sw   0  0
Diese ändert man wie folgt ab:
# /dev/sdb1
UUID=6346681b-b88a-4c75-8882-81fa4e731d18 /  ext3  relatime,error s=remount-ro 0  1
# /dev/sdb2
UUID=44887afe-b82b-4fa5-bab6-68afebc4599d  none   swap sw   0  0
Dabei werden jeweils die UUIDs ausgetauscht und dazu noch der Kommentar (alles hinter dem #) zur späteren Übersichtlichkeit geändert.
GRUB
Hinweis:
Hier wird die Einrichtung von GRUB 2 beschrieben. Falls das System mit dem „alten“ GRUB gelaufen ist, muss nach dieser Anleitung vorgegangen werden.
Als nächstes muss der GRUB 2 auf der Festplatte sdb installiert werden. Um Verwechslungen zu vermeiden und um sicherzustellen, dass das System mit der neuen Platte läuft, empfiehlt es sich, das Livesystem herunterzufahren, die alte Platte abzuklemmen und das Livesystem wieder zu starten. Jetzt heisst die neue (und einzige) Platte sda.
Zur Installation des Bootloaders muss mit chroot in das Wurzelverzeichnis der Installation gewechselt werden.
Dazu muss zuerst die Partition eingebunden werden:
sudo mount /dev/sda1 /mnt 
Damit im installierten System alle wichtigen Systeminformationen zur Verfügung stehen:
sudo mount -o bind /dev /mnt/dev
sudo mount -o bind /sys /mnt/sys
sudo mount -t proc /proc /mnt/proc 
Danach kann man mit
sudo chroot /mnt 
in das installierte System wechseln. Mit dem Befehl:
grub-setup /dev/sda 
wird GRUB 2 in den MBR der neuen Platte geschrieben. Mit
update-grub 
wird die Konfigurationsdatei aktualisiert. Jetzt kann mit
exit 
die chroot-Umgebung verlassen werden.
Abschließend sollten noch die beiden Dateien 70-persistent-cd.rules und 70-persistent-net.rules im Verzeichnis /mnt/etc/udev/rules.d der neuen Festplatte gelöscht werden. Dort hat das Udev-System die Einstellungen für Netzwerkkarte bzw. optisches Laufwerk des Originalsystems hinterlegt. Fehlen diese Dateien, werden sie beim Booten des neuen Systems entsprechend angelegt.
Nach einem Neustart sollte der Rechner jetzt mit dem umgezogenen System normal starten. Bei Problemen startet man den Rechner erneut mit der Live-CD und kontrolliert nochmal sorgfältig die UUIDs und die GRUB 2-Konfiguration.
Falls der Ruhezustand (suspend-to-disk) genutzt werden soll, muss die Datei /etc/initramfs-tools/conf.d/resume mit Root-Rechten editiert werden und folgende Zeile eingefügt bzw. mit der eigenen Swap- angepasst werden:
RESUME=UUID=
Danach muss das initrd-Image neu geschrieben werden, das geht über folgenden Terminalbefehl:
sudo update-initramfs -u 

Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Torquemada digital

Source
Inquisitor is an open-source hardware testing and certification system, suitable for both enterprise and home use, customizable, modular and available in both serverless Live CD/DVD format and server-controlled network boot production system.
It can analyse and test your hardware from top to the bottom and assure that it won’t fail easily under the production stress.
Inquisitor is:
  • Flexible: you can adjust just about any parameter in analysis or testing process and customize the system to the widest extent.
  • Modular: it’s made up from a series of interchangeable modules; one can easily add new modules to add new tests, detections, production steps, etc.
  • Intelligent: server-based version includes a database that stores all the data on all computers that were tested by Inquisitor. If only some parts of hardware will change, clever scheduler won’t redo all the long testing, but only tests relevant to hardware changes.
  • Distributed: due to modular architecture, Inquisitor can be easily distributed across a cluster to distribute load or make a geographically distributed system.
  • Scalable: it could be helpful to analyse/test just one home computer or all the computers in your organization, up to multiple thousands computers in manufacturing enterprise.
  • Free as in speech: the base platform is distributed under the GPL license.
  • Mature: Inquisitor is based on a rock-solid Linux technology and is under active development since 2004. There are multiple production enterprise installations relying on it.

Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Hardware specifications SW

Speccy
HWMonitor 
CPU-Z
The CPU-Z's detection engine is now available for customized use through the CPUID System Information Development Kit, a professional SDK built for the Microsoft Windows operating systems. 
1 CPU-Z reports my CPU running below its clock specification or the clock speed is varying.
This is the effect of the CPU power reduction mechanism : C1E (Enhanced Halt State) and/or EIST (Enhanced Intel SpeedStep Technology) for Intel CPUs, Cool'n'Quiet and or PowerNow! for AMD CPUs. Load your system and you will see the frequency increase to its nominal value.
2 CPU-Z reports a wrong CPU vcore.
Please download HWMonitor then save monitoring data (menu file -> save monitoring data) and send back the file to that e-mail address.
3 CPU-Z causes a general protection fault, or freezes my system, or causes a blue screen.
edit cpuz.ini, and replace:
DMI=1
Sensor=1
SMBus=1
Display=1
UseDisplayAPI=1

with:
DMI=0
Sensor=0
SMBus=0
Display=0
UseDisplayAPI=0

Then run cpu-z again. If it works, restore the "1" one by one, until the problem occurs again. Then send an email and mentioning which "1" is responsible.
4 Why does CPU-Z misreport my memory module specification ? For example, my DDR2-800 is reported as DDR2-667.
The memory theorical bandwidth is computed using the module access time information for the maximal CAS# latency value, included in the SPD area. If the computed bandwidth is lower than the one specified on the memory module, that means that the SPD information on the module is not correctly programmed, or most likely that the bandwidth is not given at the default memory voltage, but at a voltage defined in an extended profile (EPP or XMP).

Saturday, August 28, 2010

Comparación de tarjetas gráficas

Fuente  Mejor gráfica por X dinero
Cuales gráficas son las mejores acorde a un cierto rango de precios
Idea tomada de los articulos de "Best Card for money" de la página "Tom´s Hardware"
40-70€
ATI 4650

70-90€
ATI 4670

90-110€
ATI 5670

110-140€
Nvidia 250gts o ATI 5750

140-200€
ATI 5770

200-250€
Nvidia 460GTX

250-300€
ATI 5850

350-400€
ATI 5870

400-500€
Nvidia 480 gtx

+500€
ATI 5970
Enlances de interés:
-Lista de grafícas ordenadas por rendimiento, con porcentaje de rendimiento relativo de techpowerup
Leer más en la fuente indicada al comienzo de la entrada
Nomenclatura:
SLI: Son 2 nvidia iguales puestas a la vez, aunque se supone que la potencia gráfica el rendimiento en juego no se duplica sino que es de un 80% más de media(depende de los juegos y configuraciones de los mismos)
CF: Significa "Crossfire" es lo mismo que el sli de nvidia, pero de ati la mejora de rendimiento es similar al SLI
Lista basada en los conocimientos del autor y sacando gran parte de la lista de modelos de "www.tomshardware.com", pero la colocacion de los mismos es del autor tomada de páginas como techpowerup,benchmarkreviews y pcgameshardware además de experiencias y comentarios de foreros
Nota:La siglas de ati "pro", "xt", "xtx" , etc.. se perdieron a partir de la llegada de la serie 3xxx, susituyondese por el pentultimo número, quedando de la siguiente forma:
3 equivale a "gto/xl"
5 equivale a "pro"
7 equivale a "xt"
9 equivale a "xtx"
Lista hecha teniendo en cuenta:
-Que la gama media de una generacion es por lo general ligeramnete inferior a la superior de la anterior generacion(a excepcion de la diferencia entre las nvidia 8600/ati 2600 y las nvidia 7900/7950/ati 1900/1950 en cuyo caso las primeras son de rendimiento entorno a 30/40% inferior de las segundas, cuando normalmente seria de un 10/20%)
-Que las tarjetas en crossfire o sli casi doblan el rendimiento de una solo, dependiendo de los juegos
-Que hay tarjetas que no tienen equivalente en la otra marca
-Que si he dicho que una gama media de una generacion es generalmente ligeramente inferior a superior de la anterior generacion esto se guarda tambien para los modos Sli y Crossfire de las mismas
-Que las versiones "gx2" de nvidia son equivalente a un sli de su version "gtx" aunque yo las haya puesto debajo
-Que los sli y crossfire de una gama media de una determinada generacion son ligeramente inferiores a la gama alta de su misma generacion y son aproximadamente equivalente a la gama media de la siguiente generaciòn
-Que las equivalencias de las denominaciones "pro","gt", "gts" etc.. de ati y nvidia son algo asi:
Nvidia Ati
Gs-------------gto
gt-------------pro
gts------------xt
gtx------------xtx 
Nota: Esto se cumple en todas las series a excepcion de la relaccion entre algunas graficas de la serie 7xxx de nvidia y la serie 1xxx de ati, tampoco se cumple entre las series 9xxx de nvidia y las 4xxx de ati
Generaciones, gamas,etc...
Explicacion de lo que significan los numeros de las tarjetas graficas
Se puede decir que hasta hace poco las nvidia y ati tenian una nomenclatura practicamente identica, que cambio con las series 3xxx de ati y que esta equivalencia numerica tan basica se esta perdiendo un poco.
-El primer numero en ambas significa la generacion, es decir si la tecnologia es mas o menos nuevas. Como podeis ver en la tabla la generacion 1xxx de ati equivale a la 7xxx de nvidia, la 2xxx de ati a la 8xxx de nvidia y asi con todas(a excepcion de la serie 3xxx de ati que no tiene una equivalencia exacta con una serie de nvidia, ya que esta a medio camino entre las series 8xxx y 9xxx de nvidia)
-El segundo número significa gama, asi cuanto mas alto sea el numero mas alta sera la gama, se supone que los numeros 3 y 4 son gama "baja", los numeros 5 y 6 son gama "media", aunque el 5 esta a medio camino entre la baja y la media, y el numero 8 y 9 significa gama "alta", aunque ha habido pocas generaciones que cuenten con el numero 9.
-El tercer numero solo tiene sentido en las tarjetas graficas ati a partir de las series 3xxx, por lo que ya he explicado antes.
-El cuarto número carece de importancia, es mas para rellenar que para otra cosa.

Aparte de número estan las denominaciones "gs","pro","gts" etc de ambas marcas(en ati a partir de las series 3xxx ya he explicado las equivalencias del tercer numero con estas denominaciones en una nota), estas denominaciones solo significan si es un modelo "capado","normal", o "trucado" por decirlo de alguna forma, pero basticamente son la misma grafica, solo que como ya he dicho, las "gs" esta algo asi como capada, la "gt" esta normal, y las "gts" y las "gtx" estan algo asi como trucadas(mas la gtx que la gts).
Graficas que faltan 
Posible rendimiento, discusion, por cierto, si digo por encima o por debajo ME REFIERO A LA POSICION EN LA LISTA no al rendimiento OJO
Nvidia6800 XT: similar a 6600 gt/6800 le x800 gt
8600 gt ddr2: 2600 pro/xt(encima de la 7900 gs)/3650 ddr2
9500 gt ddr2: 3650 ddr3
9500 gt ddr3: 1950 gt/1800 xt/8600 gts
Nota: La 9500 que esta puesta hay que decidir cual de las versiones es y poner la otra. La 8600 gt que esta puesta se supone que es la ddr3

ATIx800 gto 128 mb: 7600 gs por encima de la gt
x800 gto 256 mb: x800 pro
1650 gt: x800 gto 256mb
3650 ddr3: 1800 gto/850 xt
3670: justo por debajo de la 3650 ddr3
1900 gt:encima de la 1950 gt
3850 256 mb
3850 512 mb
Nota: La 3850 256 y 512 mb, deberian ir una debajo de la otra
__________________

Sunday, July 12, 2009

Aircrack-ng & the best wireles card

Source
Introduction
Aircrack-ng is an 802.11 WEP and WPA-PSK keys cracking program that can recover keys once enough data packets have been captured. It implements the standard FMS attack along with some optimizations like KoreK attacks, as well as the all-new PTW attack, thus making the attack much faster compared to other WEP cracking tools. In fact, Aircrack-ng is a set of tools for auditing wireless networks.

Determine the chipset

There are two manufacturers involved with wireless cards. The first is the brand of the card itself. Examples of card manufacturers are Netgear, Ubiquiti , Linksys and D-Link. There are many, many manufacturers beyond the examples give here.
The second manufacturer is who makes the wireless chipset within the card. This is the most important company to know. Unfortunately, it is sometimes the hardest to determine. This is because card manufacturers generally don't want to reveal what they use inside their card. However, for our purposes, it is critical to know the wireless chipset manufacturer. Knowing the wireless chipset manufacturer allows you to determine which operating systems are supported, software drivers you need and what limitations are associated with them. The compability
section describes the operating systems supported and limitations by chipset.
You first need to determine what wireless chipset your card uses. This can be done by one or more of these techniques:
  • Search the internet for ” chipset” or ” linux”. Quite often you can find references to what chipset your card uses and/or other people's experiences.
  • Search the Forum
  • You may also have a look at windows driver file names, it's often the name of the chipset or the driver to use.
  • Check later in this page for cards known to work with aircrack-ng
  • Check the card manufacturers page. Sometimes they say what chipset they use.
  • Have a look at lspci -vv output for descriptions, PCI id and kernel modules used.

Here are some other resources to assist you in determine what chipset you have:

Read more at source...

Thursday, February 12, 2009

SATA Troubleshooter - Windows 2000/XP Installation Basics

Source

Windows XP/2000 Installation Basics
Below you will find an outline of the steps for installing a new Serial ATA hard drive with Windows XP/2000. If there is already a booting hard drive and this drive will be installed as a non-booting storage drive, please see the lower section of this page.
Install Windows XP/2000 on a Blank SATA Hard Drive
Insert the Windows XP/2000 CD/DVD into the CD/DVD drive.

  1. Power down the computer.

  2. Mount and connect the Serial ATA hard drive. See here for an interactive flash tutorial illustrating this.

  3. Power up the computer.

  4. For some add-in SATA controller cards, you will need to press the F6 key to install drivers as the Windows setup screen launches.
    You may never have noticed the "F6" option before, since it happens at the bottom of the screen and is visible for only a few seconds during a standard install. What you most likely encountered during the setup process was a screen which came up informing you Setup could not find any drives installed on your computer, and it could not continue, much like the screen sample below:
    (Click to expand)
    1


  5. To be able to hit the F6 button, you must restart the Setup process, and watch the bottom of the screen after pressing Enter on the "Welcome to Setup" screen. There will be some moments of files being loaded, and then you should see a message appear which says "Press F6 if you need to install a 3rd party SCSI or RAID driver". This message will only stay on the screen for a couple of seconds, so press F6 as soon as you see it appear.
    (Click to expand)
    1


  6. After this is done, you will see other messages appear, and it will act as though nothing is happening, but eventually a screen will appear which will allow you to install the drivers for the add-in SATA controller.
    The screen will look like the sample below:
    (Click to expand)
    1


  7. After you press S, the driver install process will continue and the floppy diskettes will be needed. Further instructions will be furnished after the driver install process has ended.
    (Click to expand)
    1


  8. Insert the floppy diskette containing the drivers for the add-in Serial ATA controller.

  9. Once the drivers are loaded, proceed with the normal Windows XP/2000 installation.
A few further notes on this:
Driver Installation Diskette
For the hard drive to be detected in a new installation, the drivers for the add-in SATA controller/motherboard must be loaded at the beginning of installation.
The drivers for the controller/motherboard can probably be found either on the CD that came with it or on the manufacturer’s website. Simply load the required drivers on the diskette and have it ready.
Further Information
Motherboards which incorporate Serial ATA connectors do not provide options for adjustment in the BIOS, and some do provide on/off activation, so you should not have to make changes in the BIOS if you are adding a drive.
If you are replacing your boot drive, you may have to change the "boot order" in the BIOS to boot from the Serial ATA controller (sometimes represented in the boot order as the drive model number and sometimes as SCSI). If your motherboard has onboard serial ATA connectors, you may be prompted to install the drivers for them when you installed the motherboard. If you didn't install them at the time of the motherboard installation, then you should be prompted during a "Plug and Play" process by your OS to provide drivers. We recommend going to the serial ATA controller manufacturer's website for the latest drivers. See a short list below


  1. Mount and connect the Serial ATA hard drive. See here for an interactive flash tutorial illustrating this.

  2. Power up the computer and boot into Windows XP/2000.

  3. Open Computer Management and select Disk Management.

  4. Initialize the drive.

  5. Partition the drive.

  6. Format the drive (Windows includes this in the partitioning process).

  7. Assign the drive letter (included in the formatting and partitioning process).

  8. Initiate changes and finish.
Opening Disk Management in XP


  1. Right-click on My Computer.

  2. Choose Manage (this will open the Computer Management window).

  3. Choose Disk Management under the Storage category (Refer to Figure 1).
Figure 1 (Click to expand image.)
1
When the blank drive is first seen by Disk Management it will not be seen in Windows Explorer as a drive letter. To get it seen in Windows Explorer as a drive letter, the drive will need to be configured through Disk Management. Windows XP/2000 will normally see the unpartitioned drive when you open Disk Management and start the wizard for you.
Note the Unallocated Drive in Figure 2 below.
At this point Windows will normally launch a wizard to walk you through setting up the drive, but it may be necessary to set it up manually.
Figure 2 (Click to expand image.)
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Manually Initialize/Write a Drive Signature
Right-click the new drive to initialize it (refer to Figure 3). This prepares the drive to be used with Windows.

  1. Note: Windows XP usually uses the term "Initialize", while Windows 2000 usually uses the term "Write a Drive Signature". The procedure is the same for both.

  2. Once you choose Initialize, another window will come up asking you to confirm which drive to initialize.
    Warning: Once a drive is initialized the data on the drive will be erased.
    Figure 3 (Click to expand image.)
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  3. Choose the correct drive. Windows will usually only display uninitialized drives, but if you have a dual boot system, drives from other operating systems will show up in this list.

  4. Once you choose OK the drive will be initialized for use with Windows XP/2000 (though it still will not be seen by Windows Explorer).
Figure 4 (Click to expand image.)
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The Partition/Conversion Wizard Method
Select the drive to partition. The new drive will probably be Disk 1 or Disk 2 or something similar.
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Partition
Once a drive is initialized for use with XP, a partition option becomes available (Refer to Figure 6). This option is not available for drives that do not have free space or for drives that have not been initialized.
Windows XP supports FAT 16 partitions limited to 4 GB (Limited to 2 GB in DOS based operating systems like Windows 9X/Me), FAT 32 partitions which can be created up to 32 GB (They can be larger if they were made with Windows 98/Me), and NTFS partitions.
Figure 6 (Click to expand image.)
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Partition Wizard

  1. Summary Screen

  2. Partition type:
    Primary – This is the normal selection for drives with less than 4 partitions.
    Extended – This is used if the drive is split in to 4 or more partitions.

  3. Specify partition size in Megabytes -
    Set the size of the partition (the full drive capacity is the default).
    If the full partition size is not used, right click on the remaining free space once the wizard has completed to partition that space. Repeat the partition wizard until the drive is how you want it.

  4. Assign the drive letter
    - This allows you to select the drive letter for this partition. If the partition is NTFS, you can mount the drive as a subfolder of an existing NTFS partition. If you want the drive to be D: and it is taken by a CD/DVD drive, you must first change the CD/DVD drive letter and then restart the partition wizard.

  5. Format Partition
    - If you choose not to format then you can format later by right clicking on the drive and choosing format. You can choose to format with a file type and allocation unit size. NTFS is the default format type in Windows XP, but FAT32 is popular for users that dual boot between XP/2000 and 9X. XP/2000 is limited in that it cannot create a FAT32 partition larger than 32 GB. However you can use DiscWizard or Windows 98/Me to create a larger partition and use it under Windows XP/2000.
    Some related notes:
    Allocation units are usually left at the default unless you know specifically what you want to do with the system. If you are doing video and audio, they tend to use large allocation units, because it improves performance with large files, but if you have a lot of small files then those files take up more space on the hard drive. For example, if you set the allocation unit size to 64k, any file, even a 1k file, will use 64k of drive space. Quick format will quickly format the drive, but it skips several verification processes.

  6. Summary – Allows you one more chance before committing to the changes (Refer to figures 7 and 8).
Figure 7 (Click to expand image.)
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Figure 8 (Click to expand image.)
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Finished
Once the drive has been initialized, partitioned, and formatted it will display as a healthy drive with the size and type of partition below the volume name and drive letter.
It will also appear in My Computer/Windows Explorer as a drive letter (E:, F:, etc), ready to use.
Please see more information on this final process on
this Microsoft Support article.
A Note on Jumpers and Cabling
Serial ATA interface disk drives are designed for easy installation. It is not necessary to set any jumpers, terminators, or other settings on this drive for proper operation. The jumper block adjacent to the SATA interface connector on SATA 150MB/s drives is for factory use only. The jumper block adjacent to the SATA interface connector on SATA 300MB/s drives can be used to force the drive into SATA 150MB/s mode for use with older SATA controllers that only work with SATA 150MB/s drives.
With a Serial ATA interface, each disk drive has its own cable that connects directly to a Serial ATA host adapter or a Serial ATA port on your motherboard. Unlike Parallel ATA, there is no master-slave relationship between drives that use a Serial ATA interface.
You can use a Serial ATA drive in the same system with Parallel ATA drives as long as both interfaces are supported on the motherboard or with an add-in host adapter. This makes it easy to add Serial ATA compatibility to your existing system without removing existing Parallel ATA disk drives.
Driver Installation Diskette
For the hard drive to be detected in a new installation, the drivers for the add-in SATA controller/motherboard must be loaded at the beginning of installation. The drivers for the controller/motherboard can probably be found either on the CD that came with it or on the manufacturer’s website. Simply load the required drivers on the diskette and have it ready.

Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Video Card stability test

Source
Video Card Stability Test Video Card Stability Test 1.0.0.3Download Now!
Released: Apr 20, 2008 OS: MS-DOS/Windows NT/2000/XP License: Freeware Price: - User Rating: 100.00%
Free Video Card Stress Testing!
+
Free Benchmark the speed of your 3D graphics video card!
+
Free 3D Screensaver!
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You must have a video card which is DirectX 9.0 compatible.
Recommended: "GeForce2"/"Radeon 8500" or better.
DirectX 9.0 or later must be installed on your computer.

FTDI utilities

Source
The utilities page contains useful programs that are intended for use by manufacturers. Use of some of these utilities by an end user may result in a device being rendered useless.

Some of the supplied utilities (e.g. MProg) allow manufacturers to program EEPROM contents "on-site" - i.e. a blank EEPROM is soldered onto the PCB and the utility allows the manufacturer to configure and test the product as part of the production and test process.

Microsoft USBView - USB Connection Viewer
USBView is a free utility from Microsoft  that displays the USB connection tree and shows the USB devices that are connected to it together with their configuration data.  This is very useful for debugging USB enumeration errors.  USBView runs under Windows 98, ME, 2000 and XP.

USBView is available for download as a .zip file by clicking here.


USBView for Linux - USB Connection Viewer

A version of USBView is available for Linux from http://www.kroah.com/linux-usb/.  As with the Windows version, this displays a connection tree of all the USB devices connected to the PC.

MProg 3.0a - EEPROM Programming Utility

MProg supersedes the FTD2XXST utility and is the current EEPROM programming utility from FTDI.  MProg has the ability to erase, program, read and read and parse the EEPROM contents for FT232R, FT245R, FT2232, FT232B, FT245B, FT8U232AM and FT8U245AM devices.  MProg has a clear user interface for selecting settings and a facility to save EEPROM templates to file which can be loaded later for programming more devices.  Multiple devices may programmed at the same time, thus saving time in manufacturing.  Help files are included and explain all of the features available.  Please note that MProg 3.0a will not work correctly under Windows 98/ME with the latest D2XX drivers (3.1.4).

 

Unlike the FTD2XXST utility, MProg does not contain any test features other than confirming the EEPROM contents have been written correctly.

 

MProg is available for download by clicking here.  MProg requires FTDI's D2XX drivers to run correctly. 

The MProg User Guide is available for download as a .PDF by clicking here.


FTClean - Driver Removal Utility

Uninstalling Windows drivers should always be done by selecting to remove the drivers through the "Add/Remove Programs" utility.  It is possible however, to selectively remove devices with a specific VID and PID combination by running the FTDI uninstaller manually with edited INI files containing the desired VID and PID.  The FTClean utility provides the user with an easy way of running the uninstaller without having to edit INI files.  FTClean generates the required INI files and then runs the uninstaller automatically.

To download FTClean as a .zip file with the uninstaller executable, click here.


FTDI Port Monitor - Vista Gadget

FTDI have provided a simple Windows Vista Sidebar gadget to monitor which FTDI COM ports are available.  The list of ports continuously updates to display a list of the COM port numbers assigned to currently available FTDI devices. 

The gadget can be installed simply by double-clicking the file.

 

VCPTest - Windows CE Test Utility for USB UART Devices

The VCPTest program is intended to show how to communicate with an FTDI device from a Windows CE based system using FTDI's VCP drivers for Windows CE.  It sends and receives data through a loopback connector.

To download the program with C++ source code, click click here.


ST232R - Manufacturing Test Utility and Serialiser for FT232R Devices

The ST232R program is intended for use in a manufacturing test environment.  It has a single button user interface and returns a simple pass or fail for USB - RS232 designs.  The executable version is hard-coded for use with the default VID (0x0403) and PID (0x6001) and must be re-compiled to be used with other VID and PID combinations.  The source code for this program is provided on our C++ Builder examples page.  The test program also requires a special cable to work correctly.

To download the executable, click here.

To download the test cable specification, click here.


FT2232ST - Manufacturing Test Utility and Serialiser for FT2232C Devices

The FT2232ST program is intended for use in a manufacturing test environment.  It has a single button user interface and returns a simple pass or fail for USB - dual RS232 designs.  The executable version is hard-coded for use with the default VID (0x0403) and PID (0x6010) and must be re-compiled to be used with other VID and PID combinations.  The source code for this program is provided on our C++ Builder examples page.  The test program also requires a special cable to work correctly.

To download the executable, click here.

To download the test cable specification, click here.


ST232-245 - Manufacturing Test Utility and Serialiser for FT232BM Devices

The ST232-245 program is intended for use in a manufacturing test environment.  It has a single button user interface and returns a simple pass or fail for USB - RS232 designs.  The executable version is hard-coded for use with the default VID (0x0403) and PID (0x6001) and must be re-compiled to be used with other VID and PID combinations.  The source code for this program is provided on our C++ Builder examples page.  The test program also requires a special cable to work correctly.

To download the executable, click here.

To download the test cable specification, click here.


FTD2XXST - EEPROM Programmer and Test Utility for FT232/FT245 Devices

FTD2XXST is an EEPROM serialiser and testing utility for FT232 and FT245 devices.  FTD2XXST is based on our D2XX drivers and will work on Windows 98, ME, 2000 and XP platforms.  The latest release supports the extra features of the FT232BM and FT245BM devices as well as the AM series devices.

Please note that this utility has been superseded by MProg which will also program FT2232C devices.

FTD2XXST is available for download by clicking here.

The FTD2XXST User Guide is available for download as a .PDF by clicking here.

 

E2PROG - EEPROM Programmer and Test Utility for FT8U100AX

E2PROG is our EEPROM serialiser and testing utility for the FT8U100AX only.  It runs on a Windows 98 platform and requires the VCP drivers to be installed prior to use. 

To download the E2PROG utility, click here.


EEPROM Programmer Utility for FreeBSD

Our thanks to Bernd Walter (ticso@cicely8.cicely.de) who has provided a version of our EEPROM serialiser utility for FreeBSD.  It should also run on OpenBSD and NetBSD but has only been tested by the author using FreeBSD.  It is distributed free of charge under a FreeBSD style license and can be downloaded from the author's website at  location http://www.bwct.de/ftdi-eeprom-1.0.tar.gz