Senator Stephen Conroy - You are still an idiot!

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Windows 7 Roaming Profile on Server 2003

I'm replacing all of the workstations and the server in one of our branch offices.
The server is running Windows Server 2003 R2 Standard Edition. It's also the only Domain Controller, DNS Server, DHCP Server and Exchange server in that site.

The workstations are 6 new HP Desktop machines running Windows 7 Professional.

We've set up a very nice instance of "FOG" (http://www.fogproject.org/) for workstation imaging, running in a Virtual Machine on the server.

The idea is, we set up a single working image of one of these workstations and FOG can deploy that image (via Boot on LAN) to each of the workstations whenever we have a problem with the machines (viruses, etc). It even supports Multicasting so I can replace the images on all 6 machines simultaneously. Fog also runs a service on each machine, so that after it boots up with the generic image we can make changes (change computer name, join domain, etc). So it makes life much easier than our current solution (send the workstation back to Sydney to be rebuilt).

The problem I had was that we want to use roaming profiles on each machine, so that once the computer is imaged, it gets renamed by Fog, joins the domain automatically, and then the user can simply log on as themselves, and have their profile come down off the server, just as it was before the imaging took place.

Obviously at this point there will be a bunch of Windows Updates and AntiVirus updates that need to be done, but that's not a problem.

The problem I found was that Windows 7 (and Vista) profiles are apparently not compatible with Windows Server 2003.

The normal profile path (as defined in Active Directory) is \\servername\Profiles\%USERNAME% but when the machine logs on, it creates a new profile called \\servername\Profiles\%USERNAME%.V2 and then logs the user on with a Temporary Profile.

It never uploads the profile to the server, and therefore never syncs. Every time it logs on, you get the "You have been logged on with a temporary profile" error message, and no changes are ever saved.

Workaround:
- In Active Directory: Remove the value for "Roaming Profile". Leave it blank.
- Log on to the Workstation as the user you want to create the profile for.
- Log off the Workstation as the user
- On the Server, navigate to the Profiles folder and create the folder %USERNAME%.V2 with appropriate user permissions (Domain Admins (FULL), SYSTEM (FULL), %USERNAME% (FULL))
- Using Robocopy (http://www.microsoft.com/Downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=9d467a69-57ff-4ae7-96ee-b18c4790cffd) copy the Profile from the Workstation to the new Roaming Profile folder:
robocopy \\workstation\C$\Users\%USERNAME% \\servername\Profiles\%USERNAME%.V2 /MIR /XD "Application Data"
- The important thing to note here is the '/XD "Application Data"' switch. This excludes the "Application Data" folder from being copied. This is VERY important, as if you don't do this you will get an infinite loop of Application Data folders which will cause a LOT of problems.
- Once you have copied the profile from the workstation to the server, you must then go back in to Active Directory and set the Roaming Profile path to be "\\servername\Profiles\%USERNAME%". <- Do NOT specify the .V2 folder, it'll automatically look for the .V2 extension.
- Log back on to the workstation as that user. You'll get a bunch of errors about how the profile has only been partially synchronised. This is OK to ignore, and won't come up again.

Make changes to your profile, log off, and back on again, and they should be there again and it shouldn't come up with any errors!

NSW Mobile Speed Camera Locations Google Maps / Google Earth Mashup

Having seen the list of Mobile Speed Camera van locations in NSW I flicked through and noticed that there were a lot that applied to me. Specifically, to my upcoming trip to the Snowy Mountains. At first glance, Coming from Sydney, I found 4 possible camera sites along the trip in each direction!

Using Google Earth, I've taken all of these sites and put them on to the map of Earth. Then using the Directions tab, I was able to overlay our route to the snowy mountains on the same map with all of the camera locations, and I discovered another 3 sites!

That's 7 potential camera locations in a single direction of travel from Sydney, and the annoying thing is: we pass through Canberra for a while and they've got these bloody cameras too!

Grab yourself a copy of Google Earth and install it.
Then download the .kml file that I created by clicking here, then click on "Free Download" and wait 60 seconds for the file to download.

You should then be able to see all the camera locations (as of today) and overlay your path on to the map using the Directions Tab. Then skoot along the path and see where the cameras are.

I'm sure someone will come up with a better way of doing this, if you do - let me know and I'll link it here.

I make no claims that this is perfectly accurate, and you are of course responsible for your own actions if you are caught speeding! This is just a guide, don't rely on it as it's likely to change at any time!

Good luck!

Telstra T-Hub what a Joke!

Telstra has given our company 5 T-Hub devices in order to evaluate whether we'd like to sell these to our customers. I was given the task to get the thing online, as nobody who had tried before me had any luck.

Upon firing up the device, and following the setup wizard, step 3 (of 5) involved a software update. This software update promptly failed, and crashed out of the setup wizard. Luckily, the device simply started working as though the setup wizard HAD been completed, and away we went.

While the user interface is very clunky, and is far inferior to competitors devices (iPad?) it did, for lack of a better word, work. I was able to surf the web on my wi-fi, listen to on-line radio, look at footy scores, check out you-tube, and if it wasn't blocked by the proxy in my office, play around on facebook.

The music, videos, and photo systems seem to work well, though the screen resolution isn't great, and the frame rate for full screen video sometimes lags. I particularly dislike how the video freezes momentarily while you change the volume up and down.

I was even able to make phone calls to our receptionist with relative ease.

However, my success was short lived, the device started doing a software update (the update that had moments before, failed) and this time it seemed to be working. The device promptly rebooted in to a newer version of the OS and once again I am presented with the setup wizard, seemingly resuming from where it crashed out earlier.

This time, I was thwarted by step 5, the final step of the setup process:
Please enter your Bigpond login details.

I was somewhat puzzled, as the device is a Telstra T-Hub, not a Bigpond T-Hub.
Since I intended for the device to remain on-site so as to allow staff to play with it, I didn't want to enter any Bigpond internet connection login details in to the device. I didn't understand why this should be necessary.

I called the 1300 Number in the back of the manual, followed the prompts to technical support, and ended up at Telstra Line Activations. A gentleman there kindly explained that I had the wrong number, gave me the correct 1800 number, then transferred me to the "T-Hub technical support department", it rang, and I ended up at Bigpond Technical Support.

After explaining my situation to Bigpond Technical Support, they said they didn't know anything about the device, and that I should contact the T-Hub technical support department.

You can imagine my frustration at this point, but I persevered (explaining the process I'd been through on the phone system already). The monkey connected me back to the 1300 number that I had already called in the first place.

I followed the prompts, and ended up with having my call answered by a voice-less Telstra employee (who I suspect was the same bloke I spoke to already). He refused to acknowledge me, even though I could hear him breathing and typing on his keyboard.

After being magically placed on hold a couple times, he eventually hung up on me!

Getting pretty angry by this point, but I called the 1300 number again.

This time, I chose the "T-Hub Sales" department, and my call was answered almost immediately. Amazing.

I bit the ear off the guy who answered, who finally sent me through to the T-Hub technical support department.

The lady I got through to was somewhat frazzled by my call, I was a little upset by this point already, and she clearly had very little knowledge of the device.

I explained to her that I was stuck at Step 5 of the T-Hub setup process, It's asking me for Bigpond login details. How do I get past this without entering bigpond login details? I'm a telstra customer, why do I need to be a Bigpond customer too?

She seemed puzzled by this question. I think she's under some illusion that every person in Australia is a Bigpond customer. Apparently, Bigpond is the only ISP out there, and to use another provider would be silly.

As though she was reading from the fine print, repeated: "The T-Hub requires a Bigpond username and password in order to function." over and over again.

I explained to her that I was quite capable of using the device without bigpond login details moments ago (when the setup crashed). It worked fine, right up until the involuntary software update took over.
"The T-Hub requires a Bigpond username and password in order to function."

I explained to her that these were demonstration units sent to us by Telstra themselves, and that if I am unable to evaluate the product, there's no way I can recommend to our Managing Director that we should sell these devices to our customers.
"The T-Hub requires a Bigpond username and password in order to function."
Whatever, if you can't help me, please put me through to somebody who can!
"The T-Hub requires a Bigpond username and password in order to function, my manager will tell you this too.!"

After a bit of aggression, she took my number to have someone "more qualified" contact me, we ended our conversation.

I give up. I logged in to the system we use to store passwords, and I entered the login details of one of our Bigpond Cable internet connections. Made it past step 5, and the device started working again.

I demonstrated the device to my managing director, who seemed somewhat unimpressed...

Since the device was now working, I decided to take it home and see if I could find some practical use for it.

I've set it up next to my home computer, connected to my home wi-fi, and my Telstra phone line. I can make calls with it, and everything seemed to work fine for a couple of days.

My wife and I got home on Monday night, and we wanted to have a quick look at a mapping service. Since it was late and the computer was off, I picked up the T-Hub.
Finally, I've found a situation where the device can be somewhat useful. Finally, I've found a purpose for the device.

I turned on the screen, and the device booted up (I should have mentioned, the device shuts itself off completely every time you turn the screen off. And you have to boot it up every time you want to use it. Annoying, but only takes about 30-40 seconds to boot up). I was prompted with a message: "This device has detected that you are not using a Bigpond Internet connection. Broadband services will be disabled until such time as you are using a Bigpond Internet connection."

My internet connection is with TPG. But my phone line is with Telstra. Once again, I fail to understand why I can't surf the web on this device without being locked in to a Bigpond internet connection!

Shocked and pretty damn angry, I pressed OK, and sure enough every useful application on the device was grayed out, and all I could do was make phone calls.

I turned the device off, and have not touched it since.

I returned to work on Tuesday after a long weekend, and received a phone call in the middle of the day. It was a bloke from Telstra, he sounded like he was calling from Sydney, and spoke with an Aussie acsent. Finally I thought, I'll get this issue worked out and get back to my testing.

"The T-Hub requires a Bigpond Internet connection in order to function."

What a F**king Joke!

A motivator

A motivator I created some time ago...

Pirate vs Paying Customer

This is very true! When will the industry figure out they're alienating their own customers!?!?

Facebook embedded in to Engadget website! What the?

Where the hell did that come from? Why is my facebook page embedded in to the Engadget website? It's a static image, like a screenshot. I can't interact with it except by double clicking it and ending up at my facebook page.

If Engadget's website can access my facebook account to do this, what's stopping other malicious websites doing the same!?!?

Am I overreacting here?

Stephen Conroy is an idiot

Stephen Conroy, Minister for broadband communications and the digital economy, is an idiot.

Don't take my word for it, he proves my point pretty well in this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OUohfIhFET8

Conroy claims that the national filter will be used to block content like Child Pornography and the likes. When one opposes the national filter, it seems like the issue is twisted around to the Child Pornography issue in every video and article I have ever read.

The problem is, I've been using the internet since 1997 (at the age of 11 or 12). Over the last 13 years, I'd estimate I have spent somewhere around 20,000+ hours on the internet. This may even be a conservative estimate.
I have NEVER stumbled across child pornography, not once in my entire life.

I remember when I was very young, I went LOOKING for pornography, and I couldn't even find a set of boobs!!! I was using search engines like altavista and yahoo, etc. I wasn't able to find anything!

Today, search engines like Google enable SafeSearch by default, and restricts (fairly well I might add) results to those which I would consider safe for children. While this is not a means of blocking all pornography on the internet, it's certainly not bad!

In today's world, if Child Pornography is found on the internet, it is removed VERY quickly by the appropriate law enforcement agency/ISP. No first world country permits the distribution or viewing of child pornography! One might even go so far as to say that there is NO easily accessible child pornography on what every day citizens call "the web".

I am not saying that Child Pornography doesn't exist, I am certain that it does otherwise we wouldn't be debating it. I am also NOT condoning child pornography in ANY way at all!
However, the people who are filming, distributing, and viewing child pornography are NOT using usual channels to do so. They're using gateways, anonymous proxies, and vpns to encrypt and hide their activities. They're using technologies like TOR and private P2P networks.

In the same way that 25 years ago, dirty old men met in dark alley ways and private areas to exchange illegal goods, so too today are people using the darkest corners of the internet to exchange dirty and despicable content! But they don't go to Google and search for "Child Porn"!

Senator Conroy, I challenge you to use Google or any MAJOR search engine, to find Child Pornography on the web. I challenge you to PROVE that such content is stumbled upon by children, or indeed ANYBODY in this country, during the course of normal web usage. I challenge you to answer the questions being asked of you in the YouTube video I linked above.

During the Howard Government, there were internet filtering products like SafeEyes and the likes that worked very well for families with children. When these products were easily available to families, I deployed to a few families and was very happy with the results. As an experienced internet user, I was unable to reasonably bypass or disable the product, or easily find content that I would consider inappropriate for children.

When the Rudd government came to power, they swiftly disabled access to services like SafeEyes, and now all we have is a bunch of propaganda from Conroy about implementing a national broadband filter.

Please explain to me how removing FREE access to filtering products for the average australian family, and replacing it with a bunch of speech, has done ANYTHING positive for the country! Anything at all!?!?

Rudd, bring back the voluntary filtering products introduced by the Howard Government.

Rudd, get rid of Conroy. The louder he screams, the lower your approval rating goes. Surely you've noticed this?

Rudd, Get your act together and bring back the voluntary, pc-based products that Howard implemented! They worked well, and I would even go so far as to suggest they work BETTER than filtering a static list of websites that Conroy seems to hell bent on filtering.

Conroy, stop being an idiot! If you can.

Picture This

It's raining, and very windy, and I'm sitting in a 100 year old Wharf in Walsh Bay
all the windows and panels rattle every time the wind blows
in the distance, I hear *bang* *bang* *bang*
I think "hrmm, windy..."
*bang* *bang* *bang* Hellooooooo
*bang* *bang* *bang* Can somebody help me?
it's distant, I can hardly make out the words
I think, hrmm, whatever, someone trying to get through a door
*bang* *bang* *bang*
I figure, I'll go investigate.
It's a woman's voice, but when I walk to where I thought I heard it, there's nobody there
So I go back to my seat
*bang* *bang* *bang* Helllllpppp
I go over, stand at a set of stairs, and make a throaght clearing noise
Woman yells out, hello? Is somebody there?
I say "Yeah?"
Oh thank god, please help me, I'm locked in the bathroom....
So I go up to the handle, and i say, I'm locked out...
She says, I have the key...
But she's on the inside :P
haha
So I convince her to remove the key from the key ring, and try to give it to me under the door, but if we screw it up it will get stuck half way between her and me, and she's got a long night ahead of her
luckilly, I managed to get the key and let her out
couldn't help but giggle a little to myself

Scott's new Media Centre!

My Mate Scott and I have been working all day on his new media centre!

Specs:
- Silverstone GD05B mATX black HTPC Case- Alu skin ABS Front Panel, 0.8mm SECC body, USB2.0 x 2/ Audio/Mic no PSU
- MSI 890GXM-G65 AM3, Dual DDR3-2133, AMD 890GX+SB850, HT 3.0, Onboard Radeon HD 4290, VGA, DVI, HDMI, 5x SATA (5x SATA3), 1x eSATA, 1x IDE, CrossFireX, 2x PCIe x16 (x16+x8), 1xPCIe x1, 1x PCI, 14x USB, Gigabit LAN, 7.1ch ALC889, Micro ATX
- 4x Western Digital WD20EARS 2TB 3.5" IntelliPower SATA2 Caviar Green Advanced Format 64M
- 4GB of RAM
- Respectable GeForce video card, 550 watt power supply, and TV Tuner card

We spent a couple hours this morning modifying a case which by design takes 2x HDDs, to take 4x HDDs. We did pretty well, and are very happy with the results!

Everything was going to plan, until we tried to build the RAID5 array. The idea was to have 4x 2TB drives in RAID 5, giving 6TB of usable space.

Out of the box, the motherboard didn't have a raid5 option, even though it should have. A quick bios update fixed that pretty quickly.

However, when we installed Windows 7 64-Bit Ultimate Edition, it gets all the way through installation, right up to just before "Completing Installation", and it comes up with some BS error about "Windows could not prepare the computer to boot into the next phase of installation".

I honestly think we've installed Windows 7 about 20+ times today! At least it feels like it.

The only way we can get a working copy of Windows 7 on this machine, is by putting the drive controller in to ATA mode, and installing to a single drive.

We cannot, under any circumstances, boot a copy of Windows 7, or install Windows 7 to a drive that is on the RAID controller, while it's in RAID mode. It simply refuses to let us do anything!

We think we might have narrowed it down to the Western Digital Advanced Format drives, not being compatible with the on-board RAID controller because of the "Advanced Format" bs. We currently are attempting to ghost a working copy of Windows 7 on to the RAID5 array, but I am skeptical at best that this will work.

We've tried putting jumpers on to pins 7 and 8, which supposedly puts the drives back in to the old mode, but this severely impacted on performance, which meant it took twice as long to install Windows 7, only to present us with the same error message.

The most annoying thing is that it gets nearly all the way through the install before we find out it didn't work! So, it's taken all day and we're still no closer to a working configuration!

My suggestion was to ditch the 2TB Western Digital drives, for the 1.5TB Seagate ones! We MAY end up doing this anyway, but for now we're still trying very hard to get a working copy of Windows 7 on this machine!

Photos of my new server with new motherboard

LCD Shortcomings

I'm thoroughly impressed with all aspects of my new computer! I've already put about 4TB worth of data on to it, and have roughly 6TB of free space now (much better than the < 10gb I had two days ago.

I got all my data off one of my 1.5TB Seagates, and then installed Windows 7 64-bit on to that. The drive was originally a Dynamic Disk, which made things difficult from all aspects of getting data off it, to installing Windows. I think I'll steer clear of Dynamic Disks from now on. They just make life more difficult, not less!

I've been having some trouble for a while with my nVidia GTX 275, in that it's been defaulting to the VGA port, even if the screen connected was DVI. It's strange and has had me puzzled for a while now. But, during my recent OS installs, I have discovered that the fault does NOT lie in the GTX275 or the nVidia drivers, but in the Creative X-Fi Platinum drivers.
Whenever I install the X-Fi Platinum drivers, the video card switches off it's DVI port, and starts outputting to VGA! I've never seen anything like it before. Maybe the X-Fi has outlived it's purpose? Time will tell.

Most impressive of all though, my GTX275 has really been allowed to stretch it's legs! It's clear now that simply upgrading the video card in an old system is NOT going to be the quick fix I thought it was. Amazingly, I can now run Crysis at 1280x1024, and run EVERYTHING on "EXTRA" which is the highest that Crysis will go. I still get around 40-60 FPS!
Modern Warfare 2 is much the same. Before, while playing online I had to drop the Resolution and graphics quality in order to get a competitive framerate. Now I can run everything at maximum and still get 60FPS online! Must be time to buy a 24" LCD

Just for a laugh, I decided to jump in to Quake 2 and see what that was like! I think modern day browsers put more stress on a system than Q2 does! I was mostly surprised that it actually ran! I'd forgotten how good a game it is for brutal multiplayer! Can't wait to bring it out at our next LAN Party!

Finally, I am most impressed with the throughput of the RAID Array, especially when copying between that and the System 1.5TB drive. I can copy 300+mb files between the two without the file copy window even appearing, and 1GB folders copy in a matter of 1-2 seconds with the file copy window reporting transfer rates of up to 800MB/second (which I think is a calculation issue) and down to 200mb/second. I know that Windows 7 is reading the files to RAM and writing in the background, but still, funky!
I left DC++ running in the background overnight to hash my "linux isos", and the LEDs hardly even blinked even though it was hashing at a sustained throughput of about 100MB/second (limited by the single hashing thread using a full CPU core). Curious to see how it performs when being accessed by 10+ people at the same time.

10.5 TB of Awesomeness

I took a quick drive to my office at 7am this morning, RAID Controller in hand, just to make sure the nVidia 790 chipset would accept the card, and sure enough it does.

Spent the morning at my Mate's place, saw Iron Man 2 (pretty awesome!) and then went to pick up my new Motherboard, CPU and RAM! I'm very happy with the final result!

The array turned out to be 10.5 TB, equaling around 9.7TB of usable space after the 1024/1000 conversion.

I ran a HDTach Long test on the RAID Array, averaged around 260MB/Second sustained throughput, with a peak of 360MB/Second burst, pretty respectable I think!

Couple of things I forgot about, firstly, I had to acquire a copy of Windows 7 64-bit edition to handle the 8gb of RAM, I also needed a spare HDD to donate itself for a day or two so I can get the data off my existing 1.5TB Seagates.

I had to take a quick drive back to IJK this afternoon to pick up an eSATA dock, so that I could transfer all my existing "linux isos" from my existing drives.

Once the data is off those and on to the RAID array, I'll be able to reinstall Windows 7, hopefully for the last time in a very long while.

I'm extremely happy with my video performance, my GTX275 runs MUCH better with the "Full High Definition Linux ISOs" which I couldn't play before. All other media runs even better than I expected. I can't wait to jump in to Modern Warfare 2 and the likes to check it all out!

Currently, I have a lot of file copying ahead of me which should be fun, and I also need to look for a home for my old Case, Motherboard, CPU, and RAM:

Antec Case (big good one)

Gigabyte GA-K8N Ultra-SLI

AMD Athlon X2 3800+

4GB of Corsair DDR400

Needs, PSU, HDD, VGA and DVD-RW to be usable... Might give it to "The Boss" as a workstation if I can cobble together the parts I need to make it whole again.

RAID Woes

My RAID controller arrived yesterday to much excitement on my part. I unboxed it immediately and was very happy with what I saw. I had already placed the order for my new case and hard drives, and they were ready to be picked up, so I paid for them and giggled a little inside!!

My mate (who has a server similar to mine, except with 500GB Hitachi drives) is going to help me build my server. He's the kind of guy who tidies everything up very well, so I figured his expertise would come in very handy, and I was pretty impressed with the end result. The cables look great!

However, my motherboard (Gigabyte GA-K8N Ultra-SLI) will NOT detect my RAID card at all. The BIOS doesn't see it, and my OS doesn't see it. I've used this motherboard for SLI with 2x nVidia 7800GT's and they worked OK, so I am pretty sure the second PCI-Express (x16) port works...

We took the RAID card to my mate's place and plugged it in to his server, and the BIOS immediately picked it up fine, so I don't think the card is DOA... (Which is lucky, as I imported it from the US to Australia, and I'd hate to have all these HDDs just sitting here while I sent the card back to be replaced!).

I've ordered a new Motherboard, CPU and RAM from IJK:

1 x AMD HDZ965FBGMBOX 965 Phenom II X4, 3.4GHz, Quad Core , 8MB cache, 125W AM3 black edition $223.00

2 x Corsair CMX4GX3M2A1600C9 4GB (2x XMS3 2GB) PC-12800 (1600MHz) XMS KIT, DDR3 For MB i7 / i5 Core dual channel DDR3 processors $350.00

1 x Gigabyte GA-790XTA-UD4 AM3, AMD790X, 4DDR3, 2PCIE2.0, RAID, GbLAN, 3FW, SATA3, USB3, ATX $187.00

Coming to $760 all up, it should bring my computer back in to this century.

I am about to hop in the car, drive to the office, and test this RAID card in my work computer. I want to know that the newer model gigabyte motherboard will detect my RAID card before I commit another ~$800 to this computer... $800 I technically don't have! :(

Photos of the build soon.

Monster Server

I am in a position where I am running very low on storage space in my computer. Having recently acquired a totally unlimited ADSL2+ connection, the sky is the limit. Except, it's not! My HDD space is!

My current machine has 2x Seagate ST31500341AS 1.5TB (1500GB) drives, both of which have been hovering between 2gb and 50gb free space for some time. I also have a server with 4x Seagate 500gb drives in RAID5, giving 1.5TB of usable capacity. So, as I've been running low on space in my normal machine I've been moving "less-frequently-accessed" data (read: "old linux isos") to the server. Now, the server is running low on space, and I'm running out of "less-frequently-accessed" data to move.

Since I've been shuffling data around for about 9 months now, and I'm also beginning to worry about the safety of my files on the 1.5TB Seagate drives. I'm concerned that if one were to fail, I'll lose all my "linux isos", some of which aren't available via the usual channels anymore.

I recently purchased a Promise FastTrak TX8660 RAID controller, which will allow me to build a RAID array (using 8x Seagate ST31500341AS 1.5TB drives), and give me around 10TB of usable space.

I have invested considerable energy building an LED Array (8x Green LEDs, and 8x Orange LEDs) to indicate activity and failures respectively, and I'm also purchasing a new case:

Antec Twelve-Hundred Full Tower Gaming Case (http://www.antec.com/Believe_it/product.php?id=Njkz).

The case is required as I need to be able to house the 8x 1.5TB drives for the RAID Array, 1x 1.5TB drive for the OS (which I already have), a DVD-RW drive, a Sound Blaster X-Fi Platinum front panel, and perhaps my LED Array.

I'm particularly proud of my LED Array. I extracted the LEDs from 7 old Compaq Tower Server HDDs, they were 10,000RPM 4.3GB SCSI drives, and had 2x Green and 1x Orange LEDs. I have a surplus of Green LEDs, and I am short 1x Orange LEDs which will hopefully be solved shortly by a second trip to Jaycar! It was particularly fun extracting the Magnets! Very powerful! UPDATE: A colleague of mine picked up an Orange LED for $0.55 today! So, now I have to solder it on to a wire, and I'm done!!! GREAT SUCCESS!!!

I am slightly confused by the LED headers on the card. According to the manual (http://www.promise.com/media_bank/Download%20Bank/Manual/FastTrak_TX4660-8660-8668_UM_v1.0.pdf - 2-12 (Page 20)) there are 2x 16pin headers (Activity and Failure LEDs - EASY!), and 1x 8 pin header for "Aggregate LEDs" and "Global LEDs". I was slightly confused about this one, and managed to find a Forum (http://forums.bit-tech.net/showthread.php?t=134520) which discussed the same topic on a similar RAID controller.

As I understand it, Your case (which would normally have 1x ACTIVITY LED) would normally be connected to the motherboard to display the activity lights for your system HDDs. The forum seems to suggest that instead, you connect the Motherboard HDD LED 2pin header to the RAID Card, and then you connect the Case LED to the RAID card as well. It then uses the same system LED for the System HDDs as well as the RAID Array activity.

This 8pin header (while not appearing to be numbered) is arranged as follows:

+ +

R -

G -

+ +

It would appear that the top right pin (+) is pin number 1, which would make sense. But, I can't quite figure out how I'm supposed to configure this. The manual doesn't seem to discuss this much, Perhaps it will become more clear once I actually have the card in my hands (c'mon australia post!), but for now I think I can live without Aggregate LEDs since I have my 8x Green LEDs anyway.

Jaycar has been particularly helpful, as I was a little confused about how I'd connect the Header Pins on the RAID controller to the actual LEDs, which may be up to 1 meter away. I considered using CAT5 for Length, and I stripped a heap of old 2pin case connectors (Power Button, Reset Button, LEDs, and even the Internal SATA port connectors) in an attempt to rig up some dodgy "super-glued" connector for the RAID 16pin header. Instead, I went to Jaycar and asked the guys there. Eventually, I purchased 2 meters of 16-core Rainbow Ribbon Cable (http://www.jaycar.com.au/productView.asp?ID=WM4516),

2x 16 Pin Headers to crimp on to the Ribbon Cable, and

1 length of 1.5mm Heat Shrink Tubing.

I used one of the old Compaq HDD Chassis to mount all the LEDs in, the holes were exactly the right size to fit in the LEDs, and I used some tin snips to cut away all the excess plastic.

I'm still unsure of how to physically mount the LEDs in the case. It's a pretty sexy case, so I don't really want to cut anything out. It hasn't arrive yet, so I'll have to figure that part out when I pick it up.

I'll be moving my Motherboard, PSU, CPU, RAM, DVD-RW, Sound Card, Video Card, and System Drive from my existing case to the new case, which will mean I have an empty shell. "The Boss" probably won't like having another empty shell lying around the house, but she'll have to deal with that for now. Down the track, I plan on filling the empty case with some new gear to create a seperate gaming rig to what will become known as the "Monster Server". Will need to wait on finances for that one though.

All in all, I really only have my LED array in my actual possession, but the card should be in the mail (expected to arrive today or tomorrow), and I've placed an order through IJK (ijk.com.au) for the HDDs and the Antec Case.

"The Boss" is working on Saturday, so I should have the day to myself to tinker and build the biggest coolest home server I've every built.