Rebuilding a NAS appliance RAID array

Disks fail, and RAID arrays need rebuilding. Be prepared for the worst – and keep your clients’ data safe.

Managing virtualisation for the desktop

Microsoft’s Desktop Optimization Pack includes two virtualisation tools, one for Windows itself and one for individual applications. what is involved with setting these up, and what are the benefits and downsides?

Social networking for your business

Once considered a fad for teenagers, social media tools have become accepted components of any business’s marketing strategy. Dell is on Facebook; SAP is on LinkedIn; IBM has a large presence on the animated virtual world Second Life. Should you be there, too?

The Case of the Headless Corpses, Part 1

Three dead bodies, a locked room and a piece of mouse fluff – all in a day’s work for Dirtection Inc.

Deploying and supporting XP SP3: use our expert tips to resolve incompatibility and installation issues

The third service pack (SP3) for Windows XP was released in May this year and while it’s a relatively stable and straightforward cumulative upgrade, there are some minor installation issues that you’ll want to be aware of before you roll it out — and if SP3 is already there, they might already be generating support calls.

Dealing with a Data Breach

Partner Focus: D-Link

IT Expert spoke to Andrew Mulholland, marketing manager at D-LINK, the networking equipment vendor, and asked this channel-focused company how it is winning business from the big names, and how it is boosting its channel programmes.

Spacemonger - pinpoint what’s taking up the space on your hard drives

The best thing about Spacemonger (www.sixty-five.cc/sm, $24.95) isn’t that its intuitive display of how space is used on a hard drive allows you to pinpoint what’s taking up the space on your hard drives in a matter of seconds. The screen area shows a colour-coded and hierarchical treemap where the size of the box for each directory or file is in proportion to the space it takes on the drive. Hover the mouse over any element to see a popup with more detail, and scroll the mouse wheel to zoom down to level of individual files.

GFI tools for management

Keep track of customer servers and workstations with this remote monitoring and management software.

Failover, not fall over - how to keep running when the hardware fails

Failure is not an option in business and redundancy is the solution. You can offer customers systems that keep running when the hardware fails.

Server failure used to mean widespread panic and a scramble to find backup tapes and a spare server to restore onto. Inevitably this meant business interruption, user frustration and even data loss. Recovering from a backup can take hours; even planned maintenance can take the server down during business hours leaving users unable to work. Today there is no excuse for this situation.