Intel, Microsoft, and their dicktard antics

Recently, I needed to replace my old file server in my house. I bought pieces here and there, from newegg, ebay, and other computer shops, until I finally had all the stuff required to replace my old machine.

The old machine was an old Dell desktop machine that had more than served a full life sentence in my basement. It had an old PATA 3ware RAID card and 4 250GB drives attached. Regardless, the drives were starting to go bad and it was long since time to replace that old P II 350 with something that had a little more horsepower.

This post is dedicated to Intel, Microsoft, and their dicktard antics in trying to force the consumer to use a specific set of software on a specific set of hardware.

The motherboard for the new machine is an Intel DF33TL, (yeah, I know... not bleeding edge stuff here). However, it has a built in RAID controller, 6 SATA ports, and was cheap.

If you look at the RAID driver's readme, section 2.2, you will notice that Windows Server 2003 is in the list.

Here's where I think Microsoft and Intel have been in bed doing nasty things with each other's anal sphincters and tongues. The drivers for this motherboard (not just the RAID drivers) WILL NOT install on Windows Server 2003. This is because in the inf (the file that tells windows what driver to load for hardware instance IDs) Intel has "purposefully left no support for NT >= 5.2" which means no 2003 on it... Since this is a workstation motherboard, I can only assume that there is anal-dickery going on here between the makers of the board and the seller of the operating systems.

And this is how to fix your problems, so the drivers will install and run on Windows Server 2003:

1 - For each driver, download, extract, and find the corresponding inf file
2 - Find the sections (an inf section is defined by [label.in.braces]) NTx86.5.2 and NTx86.5.1
3 - Copy the section NTx86.5.1 and paste it into the NTx86.5.2 section
4 - manually install driver by searching for the location where you just updated the driver to support 5.2

Now, on top of that fun, I had to do this before making my OEM install disk (see my OEM cd blog... since there's no floppy controller and I don't have a USB floppy...

WHAT.A.FUCKING.JOKE

Recovering (not resetting) Lost Windows Passwords

I suppose I did it to myself, by choosing software engineering as my career path: I am my family's and my wife's family's personal and free tech support. All they have to do is put up with my bad attitude and condescending remarks as they pertain to computer (and life) literacy...

The problems I 'get' to help them resolve are rarely technical issues... This weekend's example, a surprise visit from the in-laws resulted in my being volunteered to recover their lost passwords on their laptop. This is NOT a technical issue or even a computer / software problem. This is a process / policy execution problem, manifested in all areas of their lives.

Well, after a quick visit to Ophcrack on sourceforge, a download of the ISO, finally a burned CD, I was set in motion for recovering (not resetting) the lost / forgotten passwords.

You might ask why I went this route as apposed to resetting the password. This is a multifaceted answer. 1 - I've never used Ophcrack, so this was kind of fun for me (please, for the love of God, do NOT tell my in-laws that I enjoyed ANY part of this)... and 2 - I prefer to pick locks, instead of breaking them.

I knew my dear in-laws would not have complex or long passwords, so Ophcrack shouldn't run into any problems. Ophcrack recovered the admin, guest, and mother-in-law's passwords in about 5 minutes... Not too shabby, considering the dinosaur laptop it was running on.