jwcolby
jwcolby at colbyconsulting.com
Mon Jun 1 16:52:56 CDT 2009
If it is so easy to set up, what would you charge me to remote in to my system and help me set it up? Would I be able to maintain a domain by myself? I am definitely not a notwork guy. I have a workgroup with NINE machines on it. I have Windows Home Server (Windows 2003), a Vista (Ultimate) based Windows Media Center machine, another Vista (Ultimate) machine on my development laptop, TWO Server 2003 X64 based SQL Servers (I am rebuilding both of them last / this week), and about 4 Windows XP Pro machines including my wife's laptop, my son's laptop, a game machine, and a Piano / BandInABox workstation. I currently use my hardware router / firewall as the dhcp server. The Windows Home Server is the only machine that is on and connected 24/7/365, though I could leave one of the SQL Server machines on all the time as well I suppose. And while WHS runs Windows 2003, I am not sure they particularly want it running as the domain controller. Not that I care what they want. ;) To be honest I have not heard good things about trying to run a domain in a home office but I am willing to listen. As for "recovering the data" I use Areca RAID Controllers running RAID 6 arrays, and the servers WERE running on a partition on the RAID array. I doubt that bios calls will make it through hardware raid controllers? John W. Colby www.ColbyConsulting.com Drew Wutka wrote: > NTFS bases it's security on username/domain name, in a sort of hash. If > you rebuild a machine, but only one partition, other partitions aren't > automatically set to be used by the new machine's credentials. This is > because an account on a local machine is not going to be quite the same > as an account on the same machine with the OS reloaded. So all the > files/partitions will be 'foreign'. > > I know this is kind of annoying, but it is a failed attempt to provide > security for your files. NTFS can't really do that since it doesn't > encrypt anything by default. I have a program called Restore Pro 2000, > which lets me recover anything from NTFS partitions (so you can format a > drive, and I can recover the data....unless you do a low level 'zeroing' > of that drive). It completely ignores NTFS security, because it doesn't > use Windows to read the drive, it is using lower level BIOS calls. Very > handy. NTFS is only applicable if you are accessing folders/files > through windows itself. Even more bizarre is that Microsoft released an > NTFS driver for Windows 9x, which allows a windows 9x machine to > read/write to an NTFS partition...and it completely ignores the NTFS > security flags. > > So, to answer your question about how to prevent this from happening, if > you have a license (or 2) for Windows 2003 Server (or copies you are > using), then I would recommend setting up a domain. By setting up a > domain, with Active Directory, you are centralizing your users and > groups, so your login account will have the same permissions no matter > what machine you are using. (And if you wipe the C drive of a machine, > and reinstall the OS, as soon as you join it to the domain, all your > permissions are back!). Setting up a domain controller can also make > home networking WAY easier (and more efficient). The DHCP, WINS and DNS > servers available in a Windows Server are pretty easy to use, and > provide some pretty slick options as to setting up pointers to what is > what! > > Just my two cents though.... > > Drew