A8V Deluxe - To Raid or not to Raid, that is the question

[Wayne Fulton]

The batch file below assumes that dos is already in "My Documents"
directory - hence the last line to put it back there after traveling
through all the other subdirectories...

I forgot before, and I may misunderstand, but why ever assume?
Why not just fully specify the source path too
(like "C:\Documents and Settings\username\My Documents\*.*" )
so that it will work correctly no matter where you are when you run it?

It is a batch file, so we only have to type this once, for the batch.

Probably you meant that the batch contains a prior CD so that it will always
be correct, but your example seems backwards, should be CD and then xcopy
from there? We dont have to restore the /s, that's not an actual CD change.

 

[Donald Gray]

I use the /s /d /y switches. I think if you use /e, then /s is redundant,
but wont hurt of course.

According to my DOS 5 manual states that if your use the /e (copy
empty directory), then you MUST use the /s switch too. the /s on its
own will only copy directories and subdirectories that have files in
'em.

Without /s xcopy will only work within a single directory.


What is a /y switch (a typo that should read /d ??)

Echo echoes the command line. The file names
that are copied will be echoed anyway, without echo.

OK - didn't know that...

I backup to multiple places, the backup disk, or to the 2nd computer with
UNC name, etc. So I name my batches with names like copytog.bat to keep
them straight.

Yes, no problem, just put quotes around that path. Like:
xcopy *.* "g:\My Documents\" /d /s /e

Geeeee - I should have thought about that - standard VB syntax! except
dos came first!

[]

I'm sorry, I dont know about the I/O error.. I dont think I have ever seen
that. That seems something that should be addressed. Maybe run
Chkdsk/scandisk, or rewrite those files?

No sweat - managed to cut the wait down to about 30 seconds using
Ctrl-Break...

Chkdsk et al: I have had 4 viruses and one nasty Trojan (even with
Norton, Giant Anti-spy, Registry Mechanic and Zone Alarm4 and a
massive condom over the machine) that has corrupted may of my files
causing the machine to freeze but the drives 'hunting' in a rhythmic
fashion. the only way to get control back is to hit the off
button/reset. this, in turn, may have caused interlacing issued with
raid 0. Because this, I want to start afresh & whilst I'm about it
reconfigure the drives to what I call "Conventional" config!!!!

The copy/paste or the DOS Batch xcopy grind to a halt when given a
corrupt file to copy. and with so many corrupt files, it has been a
nightmare to find them and delete them but with thanks to your
guidance all is now sorted via the xcopy process. I shall run that on
a twice daily basis (or even more if needs be)

Another question if I may:

JBOD: there is an ambiguous definition that gives the size as the sum
of all drives in the JBOD "array".

Would this mean that if I were to set up 2 x 200 Gb drives as JBOD,
they would be seen as, say, C drive at 400 Gb
OR
C drive at 200 Gb and D drive at 200 Gb?

Maybe it will be obvious when I do the change over!!!!
--
Donald Gray
Putting ODCOMBE on the Global Village Map!
www.odcombe.demon.co.uk
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Thanks

 

[Wayne Fulton]

According to my DOS 5 manual states that if your use the /e (copy
empty directory), then you MUST use the /s switch too. the /s on its
own will only copy directories and subdirectories that have files in
'em.

Without /s xcopy will only work within a single directory.

OK, I'm not sure, and both cant ever hurt. I cant remember from Dos 5, but
its possible that XP is different? I was going by the XP Help (just type
XCOPY /? on command line) which says:

/E Copies directories and subdirectories, including empty ones.
Same as /S /E. May be used to modify /T.

What is a /y switch (a typo that should read /d ??)

/Y Suppresses prompting to confirm you want to overwrite an
existing destination file.
/-Y Causes prompting to confirm you want to overwrite an
existing destination file.

Chkdsk et al: I have had 4 viruses and one nasty Trojan (even with
Norton, Giant Anti-spy, Registry Mechanic and Zone Alarm4 and a
massive condom over the machine) that has corrupted may of my files
causing the machine to freeze but the drives 'hunting' in a rhythmic
fashion.

Sounds like quite a story, I'm sorry to hear it. However it still seems a
good idea to address and correct it. Perhaps its time to reformat, and
restore from Ghost.

JBOD: there is an ambiguous definition that gives the size as the sum
of all drives in the JBOD "array".

Would this mean that if I were to set up 2 x 200 Gb drives as JBOD,
they would be seen as, say, C drive at 400 Gb
OR
C drive at 200 Gb and D drive at 200 Gb?

I have never used JBOD, but my understanding is that you get ONE huge disk
that is the size of the sum of the several (otherwise, what would be the
difference?) Maybe needed for some special application, like a government
data base, but for most of us, I dont see the need of it.

 

[Donald Gray]

[]
OK, I'm not sure, and both cant ever hurt. I cant remember from Dos 5, but
its possible that XP is different?

Must be 'coz no reference to a /y switch in xcopy in the dos5 manual.

I was going by the XP Help (just type
XCOPY /? on command line) which says:

Again, I never thought of xp help when referring back to DOS commands.
I just reached back for the dusty old

/Y Suppresses prompting to confirm you want to overwrite an
existing destination file.
/-Y Causes prompting to confirm you want to overwrite an
existing destination file.

I shall have a look at the XP files....[]
--
Donald Gray
Putting ODCOMBE on the Global Village Map!
www.odcombe.demon.co.uk
You do not have to email me, but if you wish to...
Please remove the SafetyPin from my email address first
Thanks

 

[Donald Gray]

[]

I forgot before, and I may misunderstand, but why ever assume?
Why not just fully specify the source path too
(like "C:\Documents and Settings\username\My Documents\*.*" )
so that it will work correctly no matter where you are when you run it?

Ouch!

If you want the truth, it was just laziness... I happened to be in
that directory when I did the prog... no other reason!

You are absolutely correct - we should never assume - especially when
debugging a bugger of a machine!

I hang my head in shame, tail between legs and exit stage left,
groveling all the way :=}

Wayne, its been a delight to chat...

It is a batch file, so we only have to type this once, for the batch.

Probably you meant that the batch contains a prior CD so that it will always
be correct, but your example seems backwards, should be CD and then xcopy
from there? We dont have to restore the /s, that's not an actual CD change.

--
Donald Gray
Putting ODCOMBE on the Global Village Map!
www.odcombe.demon.co.uk
You do not have to email me, but if you wish to...
Please remove the SafetyPin from my email address first
Thanks

 

[Wayne Fulton]

I hang my head in shame, tail between legs and exit stage left,
groveling all the way :=}

Wayne, its been a delight to chat...

Yeah, it sounds like it Sorry, I didnt mean it that way, was just hoping
to be helpful. Looking back now, it probably stemmed from missing quotes
being a problem on the source too.

Instead of being optimistic, programmers develop this flaw in character of
always looking for anything might possibly might go wrong. Makes them gloomy
in society, but the code usually works better that way

 

[Donald Gray]

Yeah, it sounds like it Sorry, I didnt mean it that way, was just hoping
to be helpful. Looking back now, it probably stemmed from missing quotes
being a problem on the source too.

Instead of being optimistic, programmers develop this flaw in character of
always looking for anything might possibly might go wrong. Makes them gloomy
in society, but the code usually works better that way

Nahhhh - I didn't take it in the way you thought - trouble with
typing, you can't get the intonation...

Machine now crashing 3 times out of 4 boots now, so I may have to do
the biz sooner than later. Just taken me an hour to 'export' outlook
files (1000+ emails and 521 addresses in the book + appointments et
al!)

I still want to retrieve other valuable data (such as DOOM 3 Levels)
before I do the Format C jobby!!!!

I really do appreciate the time and trouble you have gone to, to help
me. And indeed the others who gave valuable guidance...

I'll catch you later - how much later depends on Uncle SATA!

Cheers...


--
Donald Gray
Putting ODCOMBE on the Global Village Map!
www.odcombe.demon.co.uk
You do not have to email me, but if you wish to...
Please remove the SafetyPin from my email address first
Thanks

 

[Donald Gray]

(e-mail address removed) says...

All the VIA drivers are online at http://www.viaarena.com
so it shouldnt be any problem. There are also user forums there.
( This is a link from http://www.via.com.tw/en/ )

Hi Wayne (and Paul, Ben & the KC man)
A big THANK YOU for all your help, I am now up and running with RAID
consigned to the history file.

2 x 200Gb sitting on sata ch0 & ch1, looking as C & F - I would like
to have had them as C & D but...

All I have to do now is rebuild the machine. I followed the mobo
manual and stripped it down as a bare bones machine - Audigy 2zs, WiFi
board, additional usb2 board etc needs putting back, the appropriate
drivers & Software for them.

Next job - install firewall (AV already in!) Giant Antispy and Ghost.
The latter will be in conjunction with your idea of using a batch file
to do the initial backup and then incremental backups....

I certainly learned much over the last 48 hours or so.... Thanks
again.
--
Donald Gray
Putting ODCOMBE on the Global Village Map!
www.odcombe.demon.co.uk
You do not have to email me, but if you wish to...
Please remove the SafetyPin from my email address first
Thanks

 

[KC Computers]

Hi Wayne (and Paul, Ben & the KC man)

A big THANK YOU for all your help, I am now up and running with RAID
consigned to the history file.

2 x 200Gb sitting on sata ch0 & ch1, looking as C & F - I would like
to have had them as C & D but...

You can change the drive letters of your drives by going into Control Panel/
Administrative Tools/Computer Management/Storage/Disk Management.
Right click on each drive and you will see that option. You
should move your optical drive letters down the list first
so you can open up the D: letter for your 2nd hard drive.

 

[Donald Gray]

You can change the drive letters of your drives by going into Control Panel/
Administrative Tools/Computer Management/Storage/Disk Management.
Right click on each drive and you will see that option. You
should move your optical drive letters down the list first
so you can open up the D: letter for your 2nd hard drive.

Hi Kevin
Thank you for the comment. I had thought of that but read somewhere
that re-assigning optical drive letters can lead to problems with some
software looking for the drive from which it was installed. I then
decided that I can put up with second hard drive being F. I intend it
being the internal 'Backup' drive. I was only being an 'old dog' but I
guess I have to learn the new trick!
--
Donald Gray
Putting ODCOMBE on the Global Village Map!
www.odcombe.demon.co.uk
You do not have to email me, but if you wish to...
Please remove the SafetyPin from my email address first
Thanks

 

[Donald Gray]

Current setup:
A8V Deluxe with Athlon 63FX-35
1Gb DDR 400mhz
2 x 200 Gb SATA Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 9 in Raid 0 (Performance)
XP Home

The machine is almost rebuilt...

I have a problem/query reference "run.exe". Is this a legitimate file
or is it a 'nasty'? Can anyone shed light on this please. see below

history:
Machine was stripped down of all non essential peripherals.
reconfigured from Raid0 to 2 conventional 2 x sata drives.
ex raid drives partitioned & formatted.
used ASUS and Via branded drivers etc and all is well.
installed XP Home & activated
upgraded to XP Home sp2
installed my ISP's adsl kit to get on Internet
installed Forte Agent News reader

At this moment in time those are the only programmes *I* have put on
the machine. Certainly no key logger or the like that I know of.

I then went on line and XP Firewall reported that run.exe was trying
to access Internet.

I then installed Zone Alarm Pro 5 - That reports same thing but with
more detail. It wants to log on to 163.17.30.18 port 6444 (Somewhere
in Australia)

A google search shows run.exe could be part of Bedrill Trojan.
Associated Trojan files: sisinfo.exe, mkernel.dll,mcom.dll and
inst.exe were not present on my system (Searched hidden files as well)
so I feel it is not a Trojan.

run.exe is sitting comfortably in C:\windows\system32 - the instant I
am logged on to Internet it wants access - so far denied.

Advice please...
Is it benign or nasty?
which programme put it on the machine?
what does it do?

Am I getting paranoid now? YES! [:=]]]]] (tin hat time!)


--
Donald Gray
Putting ODCOMBE on the Global Village Map!
www.odcombe.demon.co.uk
You do not have to email me, but if you wish to...
Please remove the SafetyPin from my email address first
Thanks

 

[Donald Gray]

A google search shows run.exe could be part of Bedrill Trojan.
Associated Trojan files: sisinfo.exe, mkernel.dll,mcom.dll and

Correction:
sisinfo.exe should read sysinfo.exe
--
Donald Gray
Putting ODCOMBE on the Global Village Map!
www.odcombe.demon.co.uk
You do not have to email me, but if you wish to...
Please remove the SafetyPin from my email address first
Thanks

 

[Wayne Fulton]

I have a problem/query reference "run.exe". Is this a legitimate file
or is it a 'nasty'? Can anyone shed light on this please. see below

Dont know, but I dont have any file named run.exe on my XP Home SP2
system.

 

[Wayne Fulton]

Thank you for the comment. I had thought of that but read somewhere
that re-assigning optical drive letters can lead to problems with some
software looking for the drive from which it was installed.

Some software does, but it will also have a Browse button so that their file
dialog can always be updated to the new drive letter, when and if it comes up.

 

[Donald Gray]

Dont know, but I dont have any file named run.exe on my XP Home SP2
system.

Thanks for the info. I have it blocked in Zone Alarm from access to
the net. Its name worries me!

I think I shall rename it run.exeOLD and leave it there for a while
and see if anything pops up to gripe about it missing, then later
trash it.

Cheers

--
Donald Gray
Putting ODCOMBE on the Global Village Map!
www.odcombe.demon.co.uk
You do not have to email me, but if you wish to...
Please remove the SafetyPin from my email address first
Thanks

 

[Wayne Fulton]

Thanks for the info. I have it blocked in Zone Alarm from access to
the net. Its name worries me!

I think I shall rename it run.exeOLD and leave it there for a while
and see if anything pops up to gripe about it missing, then later
trash it.

I assume you have seen this:

http://securityresponse.symantec.com/avcenter/venc/data/backdoor.stanex.
html

However it says it installs at \windows\run.exe, and other places too.
Maybe a variation, but file size 408730 bytes may indicate if same or
not?

I was puzzled, you said XP Firewall blocked it, but I didnt think XP
firewall blocked outgoing?

 

[Donald Gray]

I assume you have seen this:

http://securityresponse.symantec.com/avcenter/venc/data/backdoor.stanex.
html

However it says it installs at \windows\run.exe, and other places too.
Maybe a variation, but file size 408730 bytes may indicate if same or
not?

I was puzzled, you said XP Firewall blocked it, but I didnt think XP
firewall blocked outgoing?

Hello Wayne
No, I had not seen the symantec page - I shall have a look at it in a
mo...Thanks for that one.

The file size of the one on my machine is 146944. I have renamed it
and nothing seems to be missing it.

WRT XP firewall. In truth, I can not remember exactly what alerted me
to the fact run.exe wanted access to Internet. At that time the only
software on the machine was XP Home (First Edition), Via drivers etc,
Demon Internet (My ISP) broadband access, & Forte Agent.

I remember hitting the broadband access button, XP advisory popped up
to say that I was connected. I then virtually immediately had
'something' popup and advise that run.exe wanted access to Internet.
There was an 'Allow/Deny' option..... I had ASSUMED that the
'something' was the XP firewall. At that time, I had not installed
Zone Alarm, Nor Norton AV. I was running bare bones machine & bare
bones software - just enough to access this newsgroup to read this
thread...

I did a Google for 'run.exe' and all I could find was info about a key
logger and a Trojan - neither of which had its associated files on the
machine.

Out of curiosity, if I find the source of the file, I'll let you know!

Take care & Thanks


--
Donald Gray
Putting ODCOMBE on the Global Village Map!
www.odcombe.demon.co.uk
You do not have to email me, but if you wish to...
Please remove the SafetyPin from my email address first
Thanks

 

[Donald Gray]

http://securityresponse.symantec.com/avcenter/venc/data/backdoor.stanex.
html

No, its not there... BUT checking registry, I have fount:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run, a
key: run = run.exe

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Krypton\"C-WINDOWS-System32-run.exe"
key: K-Key = [8 digit hex number]

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Krypton\C-WINDOWS-System32-run.exe
key: K-Key = [different 8 digit hex]

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Krypton 1728 "C-WINDOWS-System32-run.exe"
key: K-Key = [another 8 digit hex]

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Krypton\run.exe"
key: K-Key = [another 8 digit hex]


Interesting dialog on: http://forum.aumha.org/viewtopic.php?t=12117

Might be traces of a Trojan - dunno - I feel inclined to format C
again and check registry at each stage of reinstall to find out where
the little bugger is coming from!

I'll let you know

In the meanwhile, If anyone can shed any info on KRYPTON or RUN.EXE
please post info - thanks
--
Donald Gray
Putting ODCOMBE on the Global Village Map!
www.odcombe.demon.co.uk
You do not have to email me, but if you wish to...
Please remove the SafetyPin from my email address first
Thanks

 

[Donald Gray]

You can change the drive letters of your drives by going into Control Panel/
Administrative Tools/Computer Management/Storage/Disk Management.
Right click on each drive and you will see that option. You
should move your optical drive letters down the list first
so you can open up the D: letter for your 2nd hard drive.

Have now done so. I shall probably be doing a format C and doing a new
installation in next few days... (XP sp 2 disk just arrived from
Machine manufacturers - I'll use that rather than first edition and
upgrade to sp2.)

Cheers & Thanks
--
Donald Gray
Putting ODCOMBE on the Global Village Map!
www.odcombe.demon.co.uk
You do not have to email me, but if you wish to...
Please remove the SafetyPin from my email address first
Thanks

 

[Ben Pope]

Have now done so. I shall probably be doing a format C and doing a new
installation in next few days... (XP sp 2 disk just arrived from
Machine manufacturers - I'll use that rather than first edition and
upgrade to sp2.)

You can do that yourself if you have a burner, it's called slipstreaming:

http://www.winsupersite.com/showcase/windowsxp_sp2_slipstream.asp

Ben