Computer Forensics Certification Programs: What You Need To Know - Education - Online Education

Reports of major institutions, such as government bodies and large corporations, being attacked by online criminals are prevalent nowadays. Hackers and online thieves are armed with the sophisticated equipment as well as superb knowledge on penetrating the defenses of computer systems. A computer certification program levels the playing field as it imparts knowledge to aspirants on how to defend against hackers and follow digital trails leading to the identities of the perpetrators.

What is Computer Forensics?

Computer forensics, like with the forensic department of the police, covers the thorough examination of data in relation to online crimes and recovering data from corrupted computer systems. This IT field is diverse, touching on various disciplines, which include following a chain of custody ("digital paper trails"), different ways to back up files and examining various types of data.

Computer forensics experts are employed not just by the police, but also organizations that maintain computer systems. This means a specialist can get work from almost any industry, and the best part is, knowledge in computer forensics is an integral component of industry leaders. Stiff competition on the market leads to online espionage, and the forensics expert stands as the figureheads of computer-based defense.

Learning Computer Forensics

Extensive computer forensic training programs are offered by respectable institutions, with the courses facilitated by highly trained professionals. The different areas of learning are systematically distributed, so the learning curves of students are positively influenced. Since hackers are often well versed with computer systems and online security, the programs teach different strategies to counteract a possible attack, combining theory with hands-on practice.

Data analysis and data recovery are two of the most important aspects of computer certifications, and they take center stage when you enroll in a reputable program. At the end of the course, you can dissect vast amounts of data, extract snippets of code or data signatures and eventually identify the source/s of an online attack. Moreover, a course on Computer Hacking Forensic Investigator (CHFI) will teach you all the ways to recover lost data. A sudden surge of electricity, for instance, causes a lot of damage to a computer system. A computer certifications expert can successfully extract information from the damaged system. He or she will also create several backups to the system even before disaster occurs as a means of safety and security.

Picking a Computer Forensics Program

Given the high demand for computer forensics, lots of educational institutions offer programs on the subject. Apart from state colleges and universities, independent organizations - run by computer experts - provide computer forensics certifications programs. These trainings are focused, holding topics like data integration, data analysis and data recovery in high regard. The short courses do away with unrelated academic subjects, so students can place prior focus on the necessities.

In a 40-hour course, you can pick up more than just the fundamentals of computer security and how to trace online crimes, provided that you combine your studies with a lot of practice. You'll be awarded with a certificate - which signifies your skills and knowledge on the field - and the assurance of a high paying job after the program. Just browse through the Internet, read a few forums, check out the offerings of various websites and you'll end up with an excellent CHFI program. Enrolling in a multi-awarded program often leads to profitable results in the near future.

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How to Resolve 'Unable to resolve 'LABEL=boot' Linux Error? - Computers - Data Recovery

Ext3 (or extended file system) is used as the default file system for many of the Linux distributions. Since it is a journaled file system, it removes the need of running file system check after you encounter unexpected system shutdown. It also supports online file system growth and HTree indexing for large-sized directories. But irrespective of different security features it involves, the file system is prone to corruption. Its metadata structures might get corrupted due to several external and internal reasons. To solve such inconsistencies, Linux runs a boot-time fsck to detect and repair file system errors, if any. However, if it cannot resolve specific file system issues, you will need to run fsck manually or else use Linux Data Recovery applications to extract the lost data. As an instance, when you try to boot-up a Linux-based system with hard disk formatted to Ext3 file system, you might receive the similar error message:"fsck.ext3 Unable to resolve 'LABEL=boot"You encounter such errors after all hardware have been initialized and boot-time fsck is launched. CauseThe above error is likely to occur in any of the following conditions:Wrong entry of boot partition in /etc/fstab fileBoot partition is corruptedHard disk contains bad sectorsSolution You should apply these methods to troubleshoot such problems:Make sure that you have marked the correct entry of boot partition. To do so, you can boot into the system through installation disk and access the Rescue Mode.If boot partition corruption is the issue, boot the system using Linux installation disk and run fsck on /boot partition in Rescue Mode. Make sure that it is not mounted. Replace the hard disk if bad sectors are physical or first reformat it as bad sector might be logical too. After reformatting, restore data from backup.If fsck is unable to fix file system corruption and data is still inaccessible or you don't have valid data backup after reformatting the disk, it is recommende d to use Linux Recovery tools for data recovery purposes. Such Linux Data Recovery applications are competent to scan a logically crashed drive and restore original data safely.Stellar Phoenix Linux Data Recovery is a comprehensive data recovery tool for Linux-based system that provides safe Linux Recovery for Ext2, Ext3, and ReiserFS file systems. The application empowers you with advanced features such as, Ext3 Recovery, File Filter, Append File Header etc. It is compatible with almost all Linux distributions including Gentoo, SlackWare, Mandrake, Ubuntu, SUSE etc.

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Improper Use of Fdisk and dd command May Cause Data Loss in Linux - Computers - Data Recovery

The hard drives can be divided in one or more parts, known as partitions. The division of hard drive is described in partition table, stored in sector 0 of hard drive. Linux operating system requires at least one hard drive partition, namely for the root file system. It may use the swap files and swap partitions, however the latter are quite efficient. Thus, generally you may want second Linux hard drive partition devoted as the swap partitions. In some cases, improper use of hard drive management tools can cause data loss and need Linux Data Recovery to be sorted out.

On the Intel hardware, the BIOS (Basic Input/Output System) that boots up your system and can generally only access first 1024 cylinders of hard drive. Due to the same, you may need to create third hard drive partitions if your hard drive is large in size. This partitions is generally mounted on the /boot, for storing kernel image and some auxiliary files required at boot time, so that BIOS can access them.

You can create the manipulate the partition table in Linux using a menu drive program, known as fdisk. However, this tool can not understand the GPT (GUID Partition Table) and is not work with large partitions. Fdisk understands DOS partition table and BSD/SUN disklabels.

The Fdisk automatically obtains the hard drive geometry, if possible. It is not inevitably physical disk geometry (as modern hard drive don't actually have physical geometry), but is disk geometry that is used for DOS type partition tables.

Generally everything works fine if only the Linux operating system is installed on your drive. But, in dual-boot configuration, you should let the Fdisk from other operating system create at least one partitions. While booting the Linux operating system, it considers partition table and attempts to derive what geometry is needed for effective cooperation with another operating system.

Before you proceed for any operation on your hard drive, it is recommended to create complete backup of your significant data. When you backup data using dd command, you need to be careful. A minor mistake may cause severe data loss and need Data Recovery Linux to be handled.

Linux Data Recovery is possible with the help of powerful third-party tools, known as Linux Recovery Software. The applications are particularly designed to carry out thorough scan of the drive and extract lost, missing, and inaccessible data from it.

Stellar Phoenix Linux Data Recovery is the most advanced tool for absolute recovery. The software recovers data from Ext4, Ext3, Ext2, FAT32, FAT16, and FAT12 file system volumes. It is compatible with all major distributions of Linux operating system including Red Hat, Debian, SUSE, and Fedora.

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Damaged Disk Labels May Cause Data Loss in Linux - Computers - Data Recovery

In Linux operating system, the hard drive volumes are mounted by the disk labels, in place of the device paths. It is a quite effective approach because the disk path and name can get changed when you boot your system and so can create a number of complications for your system. Therefore, the labels are assigned to Linux volumes so that they can mount at correct place. But in some situations, the disks can not be mounted and accessed due to disk label corruption and you come across critical data loss situations. In order to extract lost data in such situations, Linux Data Recovery is required.

The disk label is a quite significant data structure for accessing a Linux hard drive volume. All the entires for volumes to be mounted during boot time are stored in /etc/fstab file. When disk labels get damaged, Linux volumes can not be mounted and thus all your critical data becomes inaccessible.

This issue may occur during boot time. In case of unexpected system shutdown, when you reboot the system, fsck runs automatically at startup. This command-line utility checks integrity of hard drive and file system to detect and repair errors. However, incomplete or improper processing of this tool may increase the chances of file system corruption and data loss. This behavior of Linux operating system needs Data Recovery Linux to be handled.

When you run the fdisk command to manipulate hard drive partition table, following error message may occur and the process gets terminated:

"Warning: invalid flag 0x0000 of partition table 4 will be corrected by w(rite)"

The above error indicates that the label of particular volume is corrupted and due to the same, volume can not be either seen or accessed. In such cases, backup proves as real help to restore your data from affected storage media. But in case if the backup is not available, Linux Recovery Software are needed for extracting lost data.

These applications are particularly designed to thoroughly scan the whole hard drive and extract all lost, missing, and inaccessible data from it. The Linux Data Recovery applications are completely easy to use as they have simple and rich graphical user interface. With read-only and non-destructive conduct, such tools perform safe recovery without altering original data on the drive.

Stellar Phoenix Linux Data Recovery is the most efficient and powerful application for assured recovery. It recovers lost data from Ext4, Ext3, Ext2, FAT32, FAT16, and FAT12 file system volumes. The software is compatible with all major distributions of Linux such as SUSE, Debian, Fedora, and Red Hat.

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Recovering Linux System After Using Fsck on a Mounted System - Computers - Data Recovery

Are you finding difficulties in mounting your Linux system disk? The problem could be due to corruption in the file system. To address such issues, Linux OS provides fsck utility. It is a command-line utility, which checks integrity and consistency of the Linux file system. In addition, it finds errors and fixes them, if possible. However, if you run this utility on a mounted file system, then you may not be able to access the data at all. In such cases, you should use a third-party Linux data recovery software to perform data recovery Linux system.

Consider a scenario wherein you have accidentally run fsck on a mounted Linux OS. The inode root gets damaged and all inodes start calling similar blocks. When you try to mount the volume after fsck, the following error message is discovered:

"Mount: wrong fs type, bad option, bad superblock on /dev/hda1, missing codepage or helper program, or other error. In some cases useful info is found in syslog - try dmesg | tail or so"

When you run dmesg, as suggested in the error message, another error message may be displayed, that is:

"ext3-fs: corrupt root inode, run e2fsck"

And when you run e2fsck, yet another error message is displayed, that is:

"Root inode is not a directory. Clear?"

Once you press 'Y' and proceed with the process, the parent entry of each inode from the root directory will be deleted. The root inode will attempt to recover but if it fails, another error message will be displayed, that is:

"Cannot Allocate Root Inode"

After this error message, you will not be able to access your system.

Cause:

This behavior is caused due to corruption of the file system, superblock, root inode, or any other Linux data structure. Because of this, the OS cannot locate the hard disk volumes.

Resolution:

To sort out this problem and perform Linux data recovery, you should reformat the hard disk and reinstall the Linux operating system. However, that would invariably mean that your valuable data will be lost. In such cases, you should use a third-party Linux recovery to Recover Linux lost data. Such tools are able to recover lost data safely by using fast yet sophisticated scanning algorithms.

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LeKuSoft Data Recovery Coupon Code(27% OFF) - Computers - Software

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How Do You Restore Mac Data after Formatting Macintosh HD - Computers - Data Recovery

In Macintosh OS X an inbuilt tool- Disk Utility allows you to perform the formatting process by clicking 'Erase' tab after specifing the disk/ volume, its format and name. Formatting can fix some of the hard drive related logical problems, but also erase all the saved files and folders in the Macintosh HD, so usually you may not format Macintosh HD. Formatting is only performed for your certain purpose, such as

1. To get rid of a deadly virus, which cannot be removed using an anti-virus software.2. Replace damaged file system or Macintosh HD structures.3. Reinstall operating system to fix boot errors or restore missing system data.4. Remove all the files and folders unwanted from Macintosh HD.

Is it possible to recover Mac data? Yes, it is possible to recover Mac files after formatting. In fact, disk formatting doesn't remove the files (until they are overwritten by other files). When you format a Macintosh HD, the file system of disk is replaced with a new empty file system, thus, the entries of all the files and directories stored on the disk are erased and they become inaccessible. But hard drive maintains an index file, which tells the operating system where a particular file is stored. When you format the hard drive, links between index and file are deleted. The file remains physically intact. You can restore Mac files as long as the original files are not overwritten by other files.

How to recover Mac files? Since it is possible to recover formatted files from Mac, how to recover Mac data confuses some Mac users. If a valid backup is available, to recover your Mac files is much easier. What you should do is to find out the backup. If there is no valid backup, you can restore Mac data on your own with Mac file recovery software.

Wondershare Data Recovery for Mac is such comprehensive Mac file recovery software to recover Mac data lost due to accidental deleting, formatting, virus infection, improper operation, unexpected power failure, and other unknown reasons. It can recover Mac data from lost, deleted, logical corrupted and formatted Macintosh hard drive, iPod, USB drive, SD card, digital camera, mobile phone, MP3, and MP4 player. Compatible with HFS+, FAT16/32, and NTFS file system volumes, this non-destructive Mac data recovery software ensures safe Mac file recovery without modifying the original data saved on your Mac machine or any other storage media. Versatile preview lets you enjoy Mac data recovery in advance.

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Data is always on Risk without Hard Disk Data Recovery Sofware - Computers

No matter who you are, where one function, or exactly what type of computer one utilize - the computer informations is always as risk. By having illnesses, power surges, thunderstorms, natural disasters, mortal mistakes, as well as cyberpunks about, the threats are constantly real. To be actually on the reliable side, you will must back up your files and stay doing it on a regular basis. In the program of your hard drive failing, you 'll desire data recovery - which is the only possibility accessible.

Before one travel down that extensive road of data recovery, there are actually some things to remember. If you are utilizing the computer and a show begins to appear strange, you ought to shut things down right away. One could also hear some very strange sounds also, which is the initial signal that the challenging driving is functioning overtime. If one shut the computer down instantly at this point, you may stop data loss from happening. If you do not shut the computer down and enable the failing hard drive to continue managing, it'ses just a matter of time prior to it demolishes itself - which will inevitably generate the loss of informations.

If this occurs, and you drop all of the data, one need to never ever try to mend the hard drive yourself unless one understand just what to carry out. At this phase, professional data recovery services are not simply a high end - they're a little something you should offer. The method for data recovery is actually time consuming, and calls for both devices as well as a clean work atmosphere. Striving to repair a hard drive on your own is remarkably difficult, as well as might start making matters far worse yet if one really don't understand what one are actually carrying out.

Even though there are actually software out there for data recovery, one shouldn't use them unless one understand exactly what one are actually accomplishing. That has many hard drive complications being incredibly elaborate, software can carry out additional harm than very good. Even though providers could profess that their software will definitely correct the trouble as well as, retrieve the data, you should constantly make use of prudence and simply prevent the usage of carry out it yourself software.

To be on the safe side that has your hard drive and bring back the informations that you dropped, one need to continually rely on a regional data recovery service. This means, you 'll realize that the hard disk is actually in very good hands as well as it will certainly be actually mended the right way. Specialist services can fix approximately any hard drive issue, as well as recoup every type of informations. In some circumstanceses, your hard drive might be actually past mend, also for expert data recovery specialists. If this transpires, one need to be prepared to buy a brand-new hard drive - as well as add up the blessings that one assumed to back up your informations in advancement.

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One Simple Trick to Get Back Your Lost and Erased Files - Computers - Computer Forensics

USB data recovery program is used to repair deleted files and folders like text records, images, pictures and music files. Reliable recovery program provides very economical solution to repair your virus infected or corrupted data.Snaps, audios, videos, data, files, retrieve, corrupted, techniques, method, program, service, recovery folders, images, text, documents, pictures, information, mechanism, restoration, records, repair, salvages, damaged, deleted, saved, virus, infectedProvides great service to restore your virus infected files and folders. USB drive recovery services provides very simplest way to salvage your deleted, inaccessible, corrupted, damaged and virus infected data from USB removable media. Software has ability to repair every type of damaged, lost and corrupted data like important official documents, snaps, pictures, images, photos and music files and folders from pen drive storages drives. File salvage tool supports entire types of USB including Kingst on, Sony, Moser bear, SanDisk and other various brands. Program easily works different Windows operating systems such as Windows server 2008 and Windows NT.Relocate damaged files without any data loss. USB recovery service is designed to recover your deleted crucial files and folders without disturbing other saved data. Award winning recovery services has advance way to recover deleted and corrupted data in just few simple steps. Program provides various key attributes such as very secure, reliable and easily gets back lost data without any data loss. Powerful memory card recovery software to restore accidentally deleted files. Recovery software enables you to easily repair deleted data from memory card storages media without any other data loss. Advance Recovery tool is comfortable to perform data restoration with entire types of images, pictures, snaps and photos, audios, videos files and many other files. Memory card recovery service supports retrieval of all file format data within few mouse clicks including jpg, mpg, gif, bmp and doc.Very attractive way to recover your entire deleted files and folders. Effective Memory card recovery program has advanced disk scanning method to scan and get back your deleted, corrupted and damaged images files and folders in just few mouse clicks. Memory card recovery service is highly compatible with all windows operating system to perform retrieval of missing data in all major complex situations. User can easily relocate missing and mishandled data and save them to safe location for further use. Recovery tool offers reliable, cost effective and secure way to get back your accidentally lost data with maintaining data integrity.Extra Features:USB data recovery software is affordable tool which allows you to retrieve your lost data even from your home in very simple and easy way.USB data recovery application supports various types of USB devices and works entire Windows operating systems.Excellent Pen drive data recovery software is perfect way to retrieve lost data without having any technical skills.USB data recovery service has ability to get back your deleted official documents and other data from pen drive storages media in effective and affordable way.Powerful Memory card recovery software is capable to support all memory card brands like Kingston, Sony, Samsung, HP, Pen tax, Nikon etc.Software empowered with providing preview of all retrieved files and folders before actual recovery occurs.Excellent recovery utility easily runs on different windows operating systems such as Windows XP and Windows Vista etc to repair lost data. Advance recovery tool is designed with user friendly interface to be operated by any novice user easily.

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Virus Protection- The Key of Intelligent Computing - Computers

In modern era, computers have become the need of everyone. From small home assignments to big enterprise projects, computer is used everywhere. You may use computer to store your personal as well as professional information, thinking that its safe to save data on computer hard drive. But the fact is, computer may fail at any point of time and you may come across critical data loss situations. In addition to other data loss reasons, viruses are proving to be a big threat for your data. At this point, you need to opt for data recovery software to get your valuable data back.

The viruses are malicious programs, which infect your computer operating system, file system, and data files. They may enter your computer through network, Internet, or removable storage media and damage your computer. Although, the viruses are turning out to be extremely complex, but preventing them from infecting your system is quite simple. Use an updated and powerful anti-virus application, regularly install security updates, and turn on the Firewall. In addition to that, there are a few simple and common procedures that you should use, whether at home or in organizational computing environment. Do not open the file whose sender or the origins are unknown. Download files only from reliable and trusted resources. The executable files may contain viruses and affect your system.

Today, an entire new wave of the viruses have been invented on the unsuspecting users as software vendors developed rich-featured new applications without thinking how vulnerable they might be to viruses. Now, even the email messages may contain viruses that spread at the lightning speed. Viruses could delete data, alter file names, and even damage system data structures.

If you have not take proper precautions and system failure occurs, situations may become worse. In such circumstances, backup may help you to restore data. If the backup is not updated or its damaged, data recovery is required to retrieve lost data.

Recovery, in case of virus infection and other logical failure situations, is possible through data recovery software. The applications use high-end scanning algorithms to methodically scan the damaged hard drive and extract all lost, missing, and inaccessible data from it. They have rich graphical user interface and thus let you perform Do It Yourself Data Recovery.

Stellar Information Systems Limited is the leading provider of superior recovery applications for absolute recovery in all data loss situations. The applications are read-only in nature and thus do not alter or overwrite original data. They are available for Windows, Mac OS X, UNIX, Linux, and Novell operating systems.

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MCSE 70 290 Certification Primer

Microsoft Certifications are one of the most widely acclaimed, pursued, and achieved technical certifications in the IT industry. The demand for Microsoft Certified Professionals in the job market is increasing every year.

Microsoft offers a number of certification levels depending on specific areas of proficiency and nature of job. Some of the certifications pertaining to networking are

Microsoft Certified Professional (MCP)

Microsoft Certified System Administrator (MCSA)

Microsoft Certified System Engineer (MCSE)

Each certification level has certain exams associated with it. You can decide the appropriate certification exam based on your experience, skills, and interests.

Benefits of Microsoft Certifications

Microsoft Certifications provide a standard method for testing employee skills. The certifications provide employers a valid benchmark for evaluating the employee's abilities. This will provide you the recognition and reward as per your expertise.

Microsoft Certifications offer prospective employers a baseline to judge your knowledge, skill, and expertise in the field. Certifications can provide added advantage if you are at the same level of experience as another person without certifications.

Certifications are a valuable tool if you have no or very little experience. The certifications that you hold can prove and reassure your employers and consultants about your knowledge in the field. This will help you secure good job as well as negotiate a good salary.

Pre-Requisite Experience (Recommended) for Microsoft Certifications

To pursue this certification you should have at least 1 year of experience in:

Implementing and administering a network operating system in environments with 50 to 26,000 supported users, in approximately 3 to 150 physical locations.

Implementing network services and applications such as file and print services, database services, messaging services, proxy server or firewall services, dial-in server services, and Web hosting.

Implementing and administering a desktop operating system.

Designing a network infrastructure with 3 or more domain controllers.

Significance of Microsoft Certifications for Microsoft Windows Server 2003

Microsoft has developed independent certification requirements for Microsoft Windows Server 2003. An aspirant can certify directly for MCSE/MCSA in Windows 2003 if they are new to certification process. If the aspirant is already a certified MCSE /MCSA in Windows 2000, then they can follow the upgrade path for MCSEs in Windows 2000 to secure Windows 2003 Certifications. If the aspirant certifies in MCSE for Windows NT4.0, they can earn MCSE in Windows 2003 by following the upgrade path for MCSEs in Windows NT4.0.

The exams are slightly more challenging than their Windows 2000 counterparts, but they will actually test your hands-on knowledge since that is the most important part of ensuring that a certification is credible.

Exam 70-290: Managing and Maintaining a Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Environment

Exam 70-290 is the first in the series of the core exams for MCSE certifications.

When you pass the Managing and Maintaining a Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Environment (MCSE 70-290) exam, you achieve Microsoft Certified Professional (MCP) status. You also earn credit toward the following certifications:

Core credit towards Microsoft Certified Systems Administrator (MCSA) on Microsoft Windows Server 2003 certification

Core credit towards Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer (MCSE) on Microsoft Windows Server 2003 certification

MCSE 70-290 exam objectives are

Objective 1: Managing and Maintaining Physical and Logical Devices

In this objective you will need to demonstrate expertise in managing and maintaining physical and logical devices. As an administrator, you should understand Basic and Dynamic disks, RAID configuration and troubleshooting, driver signing, and the use of tools, such as Device Manager and Hardware Troubleshooting Wizard. Familiarize yourself with Device Manager and the warning and disabled icons found when problems are present on installed devices.

Objective 2: Managing Users, Computers, and Groups

This objective includes many topics, so you should be prepared to face many questions that fall into this category. Have a healthy introduction to profile management, user and group accounts, permissions, and troubleshooting. Practice a lot on GPOs and perform a variety of administrative tasks, including configuration of desktop settings, control of security settings, assignment of scripts, redirection of folders, and software distribution. Also, get a clear understanding on inheritance and filtering.

Objective 3: Managing and Maintaining Access to Resources

Knowing how to configure, monitor, audit and troubleshoot NTFS permissions based issues are one of those most important areas that you need to know this concept thoroughly and also be sure to brush up on your share permissions and share/NTFS permissions interaction. Do not forget to brush up on how folder and file permissions can change or stay the same when copying or moving within a drive or between drives.

Objective 4: Managing and Maintaining a Server Environment

In this objective you'll find questions from topics, such as Event Viewer, System Monitor, software updates (including the functionality of Microsoft's Software Update Service or SUS), Remote Assistance, disk quotas, print queues, performance objects and IIS 6.0. Spend time understanding IIS topics around Web sites, Virtual and physical directories, files and host and cname records in DNS. New to Windows Server 2003 is SUS. Understand clearly how SUS is used for deploying and managing client and server critical updates.

Objective 5: Managing and Implementing Disaster Recovery

In this objective you'll find questions on ASR, VSS, backing up files and system state data, configuring security for backup operators, verifying backup jobs, managing media, restoring and scheduling backups and recovering from server hardware failures. You should take some extra time to get familiar with the various types of backups that Windows Server 2003 supports, as well as the various configuration options that are available to you. Practice making backups of different types and then practice restoring them.

MCSE 70-290 Exam Model

Most of the questions in the MCSE 70-290 exam are multiple choice type. The questions require the "best" answer from several close responses. Other questions may present an implementation scenario, requirements, and a proposed solution and then ask if the solution meets all of the requirements or combinations of the primary and secondary requirements. Microsoft has introduced some testing innovations for the certification exams. These question types present a more realistic visual representation of the tasks a MCSE would do in future. These are

Hot Area Questions

This type of question requires indicating the correct answer by selecting one or more elements within a graphic.

Active Screen Questions - This type of question asks you to configure a dialog box by changing one or more elements.

Drag and Drop Questions - This type of question asks you to drag source objects to appropriate targets within a work area.

Build List and Reorder Questions - This type of question asks you to indicate the correct answer by building an answer list. In a Build List and Reorder question, you need to build a list by dragging the appropriate source objects to the answer list and then placing them in the correct order based on criteria defined in the question.

Create a Tree Questions - This type of question asks you to create a tree structure. You indicate the correct answer by dragging source nodes to the correct locations in the answer tree. Nodes consist of text and a small icon.

Windows Simulation Questions - This type of question asks you to indicate the correct answer by performing specific tasks such as configuring and installing network adapters or drivers, configuring and controlling access to files, and managing hardware devices. Many of the tasks that systems administrators and systems engineers perform can be presented more accurately in simulations than in most traditional exam question types.

You can get hands-on experience on new set of questions that are available in Whizlabs MCSE 70-290 Exam Simulator. This will help you plan your study regime to ensure success.

Passing Score

Microsoft has normalized scoring for all MCP exams, so the same passing score applies to all exams. 700 is now the minimum passing score for all MCP exams. However, the maximum score (which used to top out at 1000) varies per exam, depending on the complexity of the skills measured.

Time Limit

The exam duration is 175 minutes with 45 questions. You will have plenty of time to answer the exam questions, so there is no need to rush. If you have spare time available, you can double check the questions and ensure that you have read them correctly and actually answered the question as intended.

Exam Result

Instead of reporting results based on major categories for exam objectives as it used to, Microsoft is now providing numerical scores and bar graphs for "skills clusters". Visually, the bars in the exam report show you how well you fare in each skills cluster. If bars that represent cluster scores are close to one end of the graph, they indicate stronger skills; bars near the other end indicate weaker skills. Please store your exam results in both paper and electronic format for later reference.

Sample Questions

Question 1

You are a systems administrator for TicTacToe Toy Manufacturers. All servers in the company run on Microsoft Windows Server 2003. The company's Active Directory infrastructure consists of a single domain hosted on two domain controllers named Tic1 and Tic2.

Tic2 experienced a hard disk failure, and hence has been taken offline. Tic2 remained offline for some days while all Active Directory updates were made to Tic1. You proceed to restore the data from backup while ensuring that the latest Active Directory changes are replicated to Tic2.

How should you restore the lost data from backup?

Choices:

Perform authoritative restore on Tic1.

Perform normal restore on Tic2.

Perform primary restore on Tic2.

Perform authoritative restore onTic2.

Correct Choice: B

Explanation:

Choice B is the correct answer.

During a normal restore operation; Backup operates in non-authoritative restore mode. That is, any data that you restore, including Active Directory objects, will have their original update sequence number. The Active Directory replication system uses this number to detect and propagate Active Directory changes among the servers in your organization. Because of this, any data that is restored non-authoritatively will appear to the Active Directory replication system as though it is old, which means the data will never be replicated to your other servers. Instead, if newer data is available from your other domain controllers, the Active Directory replication will update the restored data. Hence, choices A, C, and D are incorrect.

Question 2

You are a systems administrator for Blueberry Packaging Industries. All servers in the company run on Microsoft Windows Server 2003.

You create a folder named Custom Package on the company's file server to contain the company's files. You share this folder as Custom Package. The folder is configured with default NTFS permissions and default share permissions. The file server is located in a secure room.

Within the shared folder, Managers should be able to add and change files and subfolders. Employees in the Sales and Packers department should be able to change and delete files and subfolders. All other employees should only be able to view the files.

All Sales employees are members of the Sales domain local security group. All Managers are members of the Managers domain local security group. The Packers are members of the Packers global security group.

How should you modify share level permissions on the Custom Package folder so that the appropriate users have the minimum required privileges? (Choose all that apply)

Choices:

Grant Change share permissions to Managers.

Deny Full Control share permissions to Managers.

Grant Change share permissions to Sales.

Grant Full Control share permissions to Sales.

Grant Change share permissions to Packers.

Grant Full Control share permissions to Packers.

Deny Full Control share permissions to Everyone.

Remove Everyone from the share permissions list.

Correct Choices: A, C, and E

Explanation:

Choices A, C, and E are the correct answers.

Change permissions allow the users to create, delete, and change any files and folders in the shared folder, provided the users have appropriate NTFS permissions on the files and folders. The default NTFS permission in Windows Server 2003 is Read for Everyone and the default share level permissions grant Read access to Everyone. You should not remove Everyone from the share permission list. By default, share level permissions grant Read access to Everyone.

How to Prepare for Microsoft Certification?

Following are the steps to prepare for Microsoft certification.

MCSE exams are not easy, as advertised on many websites. The MCSE Certifications are tough, so plan to put in a lot of time and effort getting ready for your certification exams. Get all information you can about the certification exams and then start working towards your goal.

Get hands on experience. The first step in the preparation for any Microsoft Certification is hands on experience with the related product. For MCSE, the aspirant needs to have at least a year of working experience and for MCSA, the minimum recommended time of experience is 6 months. If you are not working anywhere, it will help, if you can volunteer your IT skill services to gain valuable experience.

You can set up a small network at home to practice. Setting up the home network will give a great opportunity to learn. You can practice the lab exercises in the home network as and when you study. This will give you a better understanding of the theories than just studying the exam guides.

Get trained in the related product. If possible, try to get training in the related product in a Microsoft Authorized Training Center. You can use training resources to supplement your skills and experience. You can also use the Microsoft Official Curriculum for the related exam as well as Microsoft Press books that are available for the exam.

For Exam 70-290, the main areas that you need to concentrate are

Automated System Recovery (ASR)

Diskpart utility

Diskraid utility

Emergency Management Services (EMS)

File Replication Service (FRS)

Group Policy Management Console (GPMC)

Open File Backup

Password Backup and Restore Wizard

Remote Assistance

Remote Desktop

Shadow copying of shared folders

Software Update Services (SUS)

Virtual disk service

Permissions -Share and NTFS

Users, Computers, and Groups

Use the preparation guide of the exam that you want to take and read it thoroughly. You should know all the exam objectives of MCSE 70-290 covered in the exam preparation guide.

Use practice test software packages. Whizlabs MCSE 70-290 Exam Simulator is an example.

Do NOT use Braindumps. Braindumps might help you get the certification, but you will lack important practical knowledge about the product. Hence, your prospects of landing a good IT job will be less. Some brain dumps deliberately mislead you. So BEWARE!

You can participate in any online discussion forum, where you can participate in an ongoing dialogue and even ask doubts if you have any. You are sure to get the right guidance.

You've learned the details about the MCSE 70-290 Exam, its pattern, objectives etc. Download the MCSE Exam Preparation Guide to learn how Whizlabs can help you achieve the MCSE credential.

Resources

Exam simulators

Whizlabs MCSE 70-290 Exam Simulator

Besides identifying your weak areas and giving you a feel of the exam environment, Whizlabs Exam Simulator nurtures your potential to acquire domain expertise so that you not only succeed in your certification exam but succeed in your career too.

Articles on Windows 2003

Microsoft's Windows 2003 Server Home Page

What's New in Active Directory

Windows Server 2003 Demos

Windows Server 2003, Standard Edition

Microsoft Online Resources

TechNet : Designed for IT professionals, this resource includes Howto's, best practices, downloads, technical chats, and much more.

MSDN : The Microsoft Developer Network (MSDN) is a reference for developers, featuring code samples, technical articles, newsgroups, chats, and more.

Training & Certification Newsgroups : A newsgroup exists for every Microsoft certification. By participating in the ongoing dialogue, you take advantage of a unique opportunity to exchange ideas with and ask questions of others, including more than 750 Microsoft Most Valuable Professionals (MVPs) worldwide.

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Local Vs Remote Data Backup The Pros And Cons

Backing up your data should be an essential part of your daily routine. Unfortunately for many businesses this simply isn't the case. The only time data backup crosses their mind is when they have a hard disk crash or a serious spyware or virus infection. Unfortunately by this stage it's already too late to do anything about it - the data is gone and you're then looking at several hundred, if not several thousand, dollars to have the data rescued and restored.

The concept is simple - choose a data backup plan and stick to it.

The burning question on most IT managers minds is should the data be stored locally or remotely? To be fair this is the pivot point of all data backup plans. There are pros and cons to each method.

Local Data Backup

Most companies rely on either DVD, external hard disk or tape drive data backup solutions locally. These provide fast, cost effective storage for most small companies and are also very easy for even the IT novice to operate. In the case of any data being lost it's simply a matter of restoring the data from a previous backup point and the user can then continue working.

The data, however, is only as safe as the building it's in. What happens in the case of fire, burglary, flooding or storm damage? That's right you just lost all your data backups in the blink of an eye.

Remote Data Backup

As an emerging industry remote data backup has really taken off. Most commonly remote file backup services allow you to log into a remote drive and via a web based interface upload all your critical files. 5GB of storage space is the entry point for most of the remote data backup services and this is provided at a low cost. Knowing that your data is being stored in a secure facility that's deliberately protected against harm allows you much greater peace of mind.

The weak point here however is the data transfer speed. Unless you're operating a high speed LAN in your company then remote backup can be a complete waste of time as you're tied to the maximum upstream speed of your network - which can be surprisingly slow depending on your IT infrastructure. Add in the issue of firewalls blocking uploads on certain ports and it can quickly become a real IT headache.

So how do achieve a Win-Win scenario? Blended backup! Look at utilizing both of these forms of backup. In an ideal world you'd store a local copy of your data and then upload an exact copy of that data to the remote file backup server. If money is an issue then store your bulk data locally but copy your mission critical data to the remote backup service. That way in the worst of disasters you'll still have the data you need to actually function as a business. That's not to say that bulk data such as archived email is not important but that old data could be recovered in time by a data recovery specialist whereas you mission critical data needs to be available at a moments notice.

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Learn How To Safely Backup Your Hard Drive

We all know that we should back up our system as soon as possible.But if you're like most of us,you will get to it tomorrow.The problem is that tomorrow rarely ever comes until you experience a serious computer failure and then its too lake.

Taking the time to backup your data or entire hard drive is not as painstaking as it may seem.And the rewards of doing so will be great should your system experience a crash.

WINDOWS AND OTHER BACKUP SOFTWARE

If you have Windows XP you willl need to install the new Windows backup ultility from the Windows XP cdrom.Just place the WinXP cdrom in your cdrom drive and locate the line D:VALEADDMSFTNTBACKUP.

Here you see the first letter as D but if your optical drive have a different drive letter,exchange the D with your drive's letter.To install the utility,click on the file named NTBackup.msi.

The backup utility will be installed to the system tools group. Click Start,All Programs,Accessories,System Tools,and Backup.There is a neat wizard that will walk you through the backup process.

WinXP's backup utility will backup your entire hard drive and will make a recovery disk to boot.

One neat third party backup software you can try is NewTech InfoSystems at where you can download their trial version and put it to use for 30 days.And if its your cup of tea,the full version will run you about $79.95

INCREMENTAL OR DIFFERENTIAL BACKUPS

You should back up your entire hard drive when you perform your first backup.After that it is best to perform an Incremental backup.This type of backup only allow you to backup files that have changed since your last performed backup.

Differential Backups copy changed files and files that have been added since you last did your entire backup. This type of backup is more detailed than incremental backups and is easier to restore.

BACKUP STORAGE DEVICES

You can backup your files on cdroms and have the files compressed to save both space and backup time.WinXP will compress folders,subfolders,and files during backup.

You can purchase compression software that will do the same saving you cdrom storage space.The compressed files are automatically uncompressed once they are restored unto your hard drive.

You can also use a second hard drive as your backup storage device.We use two backup hard drives to be certain Ultimate PC Repair is up and running 24/7.

You can either purchase an internal hard drive in install it to your ide cable or you may want to purchase an external hard drive that connects to your Universal Serial Bus or USB Port.

The advantage of the external drives is that they have very large amount of storage space,transfer data fast,and can be moved from your computer to any other computer.

We use the Western Digital 170 Gigabyte External Hard Drive and we simply bounce it around to either one of our four computers with the greatest of ease.

USING ONLINE BACKUP SERVICES

You may also consider online services for backing up your data.If you lose all your backup data,say due it a natural dissaster such as a flood,your online data is right there waiting for you.

Another advantage of online backups is that you can access,upload,or download your data from any location. It is best to use high speed internet access if you're considering online data storage.

One such online backup service is Istorage located at /istorage and charges from $2.49 a month for 50MBs to $17.95 a month for a big 1,000MBs of storage.

Or you can check out FilesAnywhere located at the url

Still another online service to try is CapSure located at

Backup your system now in one way or another if you have not done so.If you have critical data that you simply cannot due without,take the time to invest in a backup device or one of the many online backup services.

Stop and perform those backups as soon as possible. You will be thankful you did should something go wrong with your computer.Its always better to be safe than sorry.

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Is Your Data Encryption Really Secure

How Do You Know Your Data Encryption is Really Secure

There are various types and methods of data encryption. Some of the most popular forms of data encryption include single file encryption, folder encryption, volume encryption, whole disk encryption, and of course email encryption.

The Windows XP operating system has the ability to perform file and folder encryption. There are 3rd party tools, like PGP Desktop, which can perform whole disk, logical disk, file, and e-mail encryption.

If you routinely deal with confidential or sensitive information, or if you are concerned about private information falling into someone else's hands, encryption may be the way you want to go. However, there are a few things you should be aware of so you don't have a false sense of security.

First, What Is Data Encryption

Throughout ancient and modern history people have come up with ways to mask, hide, and verify that information is secure or valid. For instance; the ancient Babylonians in 4000 B.C. used something call intaglio, a process in which images and writing were carved or etched into stone that identified certain Babylonian merchants when they were trading. Each trader, or merchant, had a specific intaglio to make his mark, this way his customers would know that what they were purchasing belonged to, or was produced by, a specific merchant. This is a bit different then encryption, more like today's digital signature, another process typically part of data encryption.

Encryption today is much more advanced and complex. It is used for everything from securing military secrets to keeping intellectual property confidential. There are various forms of encryption techniques, some stronger or more secure than others. In it's basic form, encryption can be thought of as the masking, or the scrambling of original human readable information. The person who is masking the information must provide the person he is sending the information to with some sort of key that allows them to unscramble the information so they can make sense of it. For instance; I use encrypted e-mail messages so I can correspond with my customers on a regular basis. I do this because during certain types of projects my customers and I discuss private information such as security holes discovered during security assessments. This type of information is obviously not something we would want to fall into someone else's hands.

Most Data Does Not Start Out Encrypted So Be Careful

The primary reason I am writing this article is to point out a couple specific issues with data encryption. During a recent discussion with a friend of mine he told me that he was using Windows XP folder encryption to secure some of his confidential information. He asked me if I thought this was a secure method of storing important documents. My response was yes and no. The data encryption used by Windows XP is relatively secure, but the issue is that the majority of the data that is now encrypted in the folder did not start out that way.

Let's take for example, a word document that contains your personal financial information. You may have written this document so you have a central location where account numbers, social security numbers, and other private and individual identification information is easily retrievable. After you are finished writing the document, you then transferred it to your secure encrypted folder. Since it is now in a secure folder, only you are able to access it because only you know the pass-phrase that was used to generate the encryption key. For the most part, this assumption is correct.

While you were writing that document, you probably hit the save button several times. Or if you are like me, many times. I've lost lengthy documents several times in the past and have trained myself to hit the save button pretty frequently. Every time you hit the save button, a new temporary version of the file is created. This is typically saved in the c:documents and settings"profile name"local settings emp directory. This is done for recovery and undue purposes. For instance, if you make a mistake while writing the document and need to undue your actions, one of these temp files may be used to undue the action. Also, if your system or application crashed while writing the document, you can recover it from the temp files stored in this directory. You may have had to go through this before and it works very well.

Now that you have finished your document and copied or moved it to the secure folder, your document is secure, right? Wrong. Chances are the temporary files in your temp directory are still there. Even if you were to delete them, there is a significant chance they can be recovered using open source or very inexpensive undelete or data recovery software. If someone where to get hold of your computer, hard drive, or gain remote access to your system somehow, there is a significant chance the unencrypted original version of your document can be located. So what can you do to make sure that your encrypted version of your file and data is the only version. There is not a clear or 100% secure answer to this question but I will share with you how I deal with the issue.

Changing The Location Of Unencrypted Temp Files

The primary way applications like Microsoft Word determine where to store temporary versions of your files is by looking at two user environment variables. One called "tmp" and one called "temp". They can be accessed by right clicking on "my computer", choose properties, then choose the "advanced" tab and click "environment variables". Here you can edit or change the default location for temporary files. One thing I have to point out is even though a large number of software packages use these locations for temporary storage, it will be hard to determine if they all do or if they save temp files in other locations. You will have to do a little investigating to determine where various applications store their temp files. On my system, I have changed these variables to point to an encrypted disk where I store my encrypted data and files. This way, I can be reasonably sure that temporary or working versions of the files are also encrypted.

Encrypted Files May Not Stay Encrypted When Copied or Moved

Another thing you should be aware of is what happens to encrypted files or folders when they are copied or moved to another location. If a file or folder that has previously been encrypted is copied or moved to another Windows NTFS partition or volume, the encryption is preserved (under most circumstances). However, if you move or copy the encrypted data to volume or partition that is not NTFS, the file is automatically decrypted. Also, just because a file is encrypted on your hard disk it does not mean that this file will be encrypted when you e-mail it to someone. E-mail encryption is a totally different procedure. Also, keep in mind that encrypted files are decrypted when they are transmitted over a network connection.

Make Sure Deleted Unencrypted Files Are Really Gone

Because data that is deleted from disk may be recoverable for quite some time, I use another procedure to limit or reduce the risk of this possibility. As I mentioned earlier, data that has been deleted can in many cases be easily recovered using off the shelf software. In order to be reasonably sure deleted data is not easily recoverable, you need to write over that portion of the disk where the file and it's fragments were located. Actually, you most likely need to do this multiple times just to be sure the data is unrecoverable. The PGP Desktop software I use to create encrypted file systems, send encrypted e-mail, and create encrypted zip files also has a tool called "Wipe Free Space". This tool will write random patterns of data to all space on a drive that is flagged as free. You can tell the software how many times to perform this procedure but the default it usually three passes. My primary system performs this task every night. This way I can be reasonably sure the!

unencrypted versions of my encrypted files are not just sitting around waiting to be recovered.

Conclusion

If you are concerned about keeping important data confidential, file, folder, or disk encryption is a good solution. If configured properly you can be reasonably sure that your private information will remain private. Just remember that most data does not start out encrypted and that remnants of the original information may still exist in an unencrypted state. There are many options with regard to data encryption; Windows XP native file and folder encryption, open source encryption solutions, or commercial encryption solutions such as PGP (Pretty Good Privacy). Do some research up front to determine which may be the best method for you.

You may reprint or publish this article free of charge as long as the bylines are included.

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How to Backup Windows XP Home Edition

Your computer cost you from hundreds to thousands of dollars, but the computer itself is not the most valuable part. The data on the hard disk is the most valuable part. How many hours of work did you put into creating that data? One little event, like a power line spike from a lightning strike, and all that work could be lost. Unfortunately, backing up with Windows XP Home Edition is not as simple as it should be.

The first step is to choose a backup device. You might choose a tape drive or a DVD drive, but those devices might require drivers to be installed before you could restore from them. The simplest option is to install a second hard drive in your computer.

The second hard drive doesn't have to be equal to your main hard drive. You can use an older, smaller hard drive as the backup device, as long as the backup drive has more "Free Space" than the main hard drive has "Used Space".

Install a Second Hard Drive

When installing a second hard drive in your computer, it's important to configure the drives correctly. Your motherboard should have two ATA (sometimes called IDE) connectors. The primary connector should have a cable with two drive connectors. The end connector should go to your main hard drive, the middle connector can be used for a backup hard drive. The second motherboard ATA connector should go to your CD-ROM.

On the back of each hard drive is a jumper. The jumper on your main hard drive should be set to the "Master" position. The jumper on your backup hard drive should be set to "Slave" position. Most modern computers use "Cable Select", so you can set both jumpers to the "Cable Select" position. Don't forget the power connector for the second drive.

When you restart your computer, the second drive should be automatically recognized and be designated with the next drive letter available, usually E: (D: being used for the CD-ROM drive).

Format the Second Hard Drive

Generally, you will want to re-format the second hard drive after installation to remove any previously installed operating system and to remove any previous file access rights. To format the drive, select Start | Settings | Control Panel | Administration Tools | Computer Management. In the "Computer Management" window, under "Storage", click on "Disk Management".

Right click on the backup disk's drive letter. In the popup menu, select All Tasks | Format... In the Warning dialog box that appears, click on the "Yes" button. In the "Format" dialog box, in the "File system" drop-down list, select NTFS. Click on the "OK" button. Again, in the Warning dialog box that appears, click on the "Yes" button.

Install the Backup Utility

Windows XP Home Edition doesn't install the Backup utility by default. You'll need to install it manually from your Windows XP CD-ROM.

1. After inserting the CD-ROM, open Control Panel's "Add or Remove Programs" utility. In the "Add or Remove Programs" utility", click on the "Add New Programs" button, then click on the "CD or Floppy" button.

2. In the "Run Installation Program" dialog box that appears, navigate to the VALUEAD/MSFT/NTBACKUP folder on the CD-ROM and select the file NTBACKUP.MSI. Click on the "Finish" button. The Backup utility will be installed.

Perform a Full Backup

To perform a backup, select Start | Programs | Accessories | System Tools | Backup to open the Backup Utility.

Note: If you don't find Backup listed in System Tools, double click on the file name ntbackup.exe in the Windowssystem32 folder.

In the "Backup or Restore Wizard", click on the "Advanced Mode" link. In the "Backup Utility" dialog box, select the "Backup" tab and set the checkbox next to the drive to backup (c:) and set the checkbox next to "System State".

In the "Backup media or file name" text box, enter the path to the file for the backup (example E:Backup.bkf). Click on the "Start Backup" button.

In the "Backup Job Information" dialog box that appears, set the radio button next to "Replace the data on the media with this backup". Click on the "Start Backup" button. The "backup Progress" dialog box will appear.

Even when you backup to relatively fast media like hard disk, the process can take 30 minutes or longer depending upon how much data is on the main drive.

When the backup is complete, turn off the computer and remove the data and power cables from the backup drive. It doesn't make sense to leave the backup drive connected because if the cause of a failure is a power spike, it will take out both drives. Next time you want to backup you'll need to reinstall the cables.

How to Perform a Restore

In the unfortunate event that your computer crashes and you can't get it back by any other means, you'll need to reinstall Windows XP from the CD-ROM. (Automated System Recovery is not supported in Windows XP Home Edition.) You'll need to re-install the Backup utility. Then you'll need to shut down the computer to install the data and power cables to the backup drive. Restart the computer and use the Backup Utility to restore Windows XP from the backup file.

When using this backup method, it's important to be careful not to break any pins when you are removing and installing the data cable of the hard drive. And if your computer doesn't use "cable Select", don't forget to change the jumper on the main hard drive back to "Single".

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Hard Drive Data Recovery

Hard drive data recovery is the method of recovering data from hard drives when it cannot be accessed in the normal manner. This failure to access the hard drive could be caused due to logical damage to the file system or any physical damage that had occurred to the storage device, thereby preventing it from being mounted by the host operating system.

The physical damage to a hard drive could occur due to several mechanical failures such as failed motors or head crashes. The physical damage of a hard drive can always lead to some data loss and in many cases this can also results in damage to the logical structures of the file system. In fact, logical damages to a file system are more common than physical damage. This includes damages caused by power outages, which prevents file system structures from being completely written to the hard drive, system crashes, and problems with hardware (particularly RAID controllers).

Most physical damage to hard drives cannot be repaired by end users. For instance, opening a hard drive in a normal environment can cause dust to settle on the surface, resulting in further damage to the platters. Mind you, normal computer users may not have enough technical experience to make type of repairs. This is where hard drive data recovery companies play a major role in helping the end user to recover their valuable data from a damaged hard drive. Almost all these hard drive data recovery firms use Class 100 clean room facilities to protect your hard drive while repairing, and use the latest tools such as magnetometers to retrieve the lost bits from the magnetic media. The extracted raw bits retrieved from the damaged disk are used to rebuild a disk image, which can then be mounted to have its logical damage repaired.

Nowadays, there are several companies which offer hard drive data recovery software programs which help the end users to recover all their important files or folders lost after an accidental format, partition loss, software malfunction, file or directory deletion, or virus crash. Whether your computer crashes or you accidentally delete the files, hard drive data recovery software helps you to locate, recover and restore lost information from your disk.

Some of the main contexts where hard drive data recovery software could save one from the blues include a formatted drive, deleted file or directory, missing file or directory, drive not booting, inaccessible drive, support copying of system locked files like registry hives, damaged or corrupted partition table, recovery of deleted files and folders on FAT and NTFS hard drive or partitions, retrieve compressed files from NTFS partitions, data recovery on damaged FAT and NTFS partitions, and formatted hard drives.

Most of the hard drive data recovery software programs available in the market are easy to install and use and are virtually self maintaining. It is highly recommended to use any of the popular hard drive data recovery software in your computer along with other programs. The program frequently creates backup copies of all your files so that you need not have to worry of any potential unexpected data loss.

It is better to prevent and prepare than repent and repair later. Check for additional resources on hard drives.

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Hard Disk Data Recovery Expert Choosing Yours

If you need a hard disk data recovery expert, you need one now. You have just lost a good amount of work that you need to send, well, yesterday. No matter how well versed you think you are in the computer world, chances are that at some point, something will go wrong. This is when you will want to find the right person or company to help solve your problems. Data disk hard recovery is a touchy situation, though. So, to help you find the hard disk data recovery expert that you need, here are a few helpful hints.

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Easy Guide to RAID Recovery

What is RAID RECOVERY?

RAID stands for Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks. It is a method of combining several hard drives into one unit. This method offers fault tolerance (the ability of a system to continue to perform functions even when one or more hard disk drives have failed) and higher protection against data loss than a single hard drive.

Why do I need RAID RECOVERY?

RAID provides real-time data recovery when a hard drive fails, increasing system uptime and network availability while protecting against loss of data. Another advantage of the system is that multiple disks working together increase overall system performance. Any individual or company could benefit from having a RAID RECOVERY system in place.

Different Levels

There are several different levels of RAID available. Each level offers various advantages in terms of data availability, cost and performance. Your best bet is to assess your needs in order to determine which level works best for you. The most popular RAID systems are the following:

RAID 0 - Data striping (no data protection). The benefit of this system is that it offers the highest performance.

RAID 1- Disk Mirroring (provides data protection by duplicating all data from a primary drive on a secondary drive). The benefit of this system is it offers the highest data protection.

RAID 0/1- This combines both Raids 0 and 1. The benefit here is highest performance + highest data protection.

RAID 5 - Data striping with distributed parity (a form of data protection that recreates the data of failed drive in a disk array). This system offers the best cost performance for multidrive environments.

Having a RAID system installed can provide peace of mind. With RAID installed you can rest assured that even in the event of a system failure your important data will be safe.

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Coping with a Serious Data Loss from your Computer Hard Drive

Data loss is an expensive reality. It's a hard fact that it happens more often then users like to admit. A recent study by the accounting firm McGladrey and Pullen estimates that one out of every 500 data centers will experience a severe computer disaster this year. As a result, almost half of those companies will go out of business. At the very least, a data loss disaster can mean lost income and missed business opportunities.

The other side of data loss is the psychological and emotional turmoil it can cause to IT managers and business owners. Despair, panic, and the knowledge that the whole organization might be at risk are involved. In a sense, that's only fair, since human error is one of the two largest contributing factors in data loss. Together with mechanical failure, it accounts for almost 75 per cent of all incidents. (Software corruption, computer viruses and physical disasters such as fire and water damage make up the rest.)

Disk drives today are typically reliable. Human beings, it turns out, are not. A Strategic Research Corp. study done in 2000 found that approximately 15 per cent of all unplanned downtime occurred due to human error. A significant proportion of that happened because users failed to implement adequate backup procedures, either having trouble with their backups, or having no backup at all.

How does it happen that skilled, high-level users put their systems - and their businesses - at such risk?

In many cases, the problem starts long before the precipitating system error is made, that is, when users place their faith in out-of-box solutions that may not, in fact, fit their organization's needs. Instead of assessing their business and technology requirements, then going to an appropriate engineered solution, even experienced IT professionals at large corporations will often simply buy what they're sold. In this case, faith in technology can be an vice instead of a virtue.

But human intervention itself can sometimes be the straw that breaks the technology's back. When the office of a Venezuelan civil engineering firm was devastated by floods, its owners sent 17 soaked, mud-coated disks from three RAID arrays to us in plastic bags. A tough enough salvage job was made even more complex by the fact that someone had frozen the drives before shipping them. As the disks thawed, yet more damage was done. (After eight weeks of painstaking directory-by-directory recovery, all the data from the remaining fifteen disks was retrieved.)

Sometimes, the underlying cause of a data loss event is simply shoddy housekeeping. The more arduous the required backup routine, the less likely it will be done on a regular basis. A state ambulance monitoring system suffered a serious disk failure, only to discover that its automated backup hadn't run for fourteen months. A tape had jammed in the drive, but no-one had noticed.

When disaster strikes, the normal human reaction is panic. Because the loss of data signifies critical consequences, even the most competent IT staff can jump to conclusions, and take inappropriate action. A blank screen at a critical time can lead to a series of naive decisions, each one compounding the preceding error. Wrong buttons get pushed, and the disaster only gets worse. Sometimes the pressure to correct the system failure speedily can result in an attempt to reconfigure an entire RAID array. IT specialists are typically not equipped to deal with crisis modes or data recovery techniques. Just as a good physician is trained to prolong life, the skilled IT specialist is trained to keep the system running. When a patient dies, the physician turns to others, such as nurses or counselors to manage the situation. When significant data loss occurs, the IT specialist turns to the data recovery professional.

Data recovery specialists are innovative problem solvers. Often, the application of basic common sense, when no-one else is in any condition to apply it, is the beginning of the journey towards data recovery. The data recovery specialist draws on a wealth of experience, married to a "never say die" attitude, and a comprehensive tool kit of problem-solving procedures. Successful recovery outcomes hinge on a combination of innovative logistics, applied problem-solving, and "technology triage," the process of stabilizing an affected system quickly, analyzing and treating its wounds, and preparing it for surgery. The triage process sets priorities, such as targeting which files are needed first or which are absolutely vital to the functioning of the business, and establishes whether files might be recovered in less structured formats (such as text-only), which may be desirable when time is crucial.

The art and science of professional data recovery can spell the difference between a business' success or its failure. Before that level of intervention is required, though, users can take steps to ensure that the probability of a data loss disaster is minimized.

Basic to any business technology plan is a regular fire-drill procedure. Back-up routines may be in place, staff may assigned to specific roles, hardware and software may be configured - but, if the user isn't completely sure that everything works the way it should, a data loss event is inevitable. Having adequate, tested, and current backups in place is critical. A hardware breakdown should not be compounded by human error - if the malfunctioning drive is critical, the task of dealing with it should go to a data recovery professional.

Just as data loss disasters are rooted in a combination of mechanical failure and human error, so, too, the data recovery solution lies in a creative marriage of the technological and the human. The underlying philosophy of successful data recovery is that technology is something to be used by human beings, not something that uses us.

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Before You Take the Plunge Essential Information For Users Considering Data Recovery

Know what you're dealing with

The world of data recovery is a big mystery for most consumers and even some IT professionals. This is largely because hard drives themselves are complex devices and their technological specifics are not generally well known. Data recovery companies thrive on their customers' lack of information and often get away with charging obscene rates for any recovery, regardless of complexity. I hope this article will be a helpful resource for consumers and professionals alike. I provide some basic information about data recovery by shedding some light on how hard drives work, how they can fail, what are the chances of successful recovery and how much the user can expect to pay. This information will enable the user to make an informed decision when choosing a data recovery company.

A bit about Hard Drives

A computer hard drive stores data on metal oxide platters which spin up to 10000 revolutions per minute. An actuator arm contains the 'head' which reads and writes the data in the form of magnetic charges one millionth of an inch above the surface. Any given drive can have multiple read and write heads and each head can 'crash' independently. A head crash occurs when the read/write head comes in contact with the platters of the disk (more on head crashes below). As manufacturers strive to cram more space on hard drives without increasing their physical size, the data gets written increasingly closer together, making for very difficult recovery should one or more heads crash. The brain of the hard drive is its controller board and this is unique for each individual hard drive. One other detail worth a mention is the service track of a hard drive. This is an area located on the outer part of the disk platter and it contains the drive's firmware zone. The firmware of a hard drive is the information used by the computer to communicate correctly with the drive. These are the main components that make a hard drive work, now let's talk about what can go wrong.

There are many ways in which a hard disk can fail

Hard drives are extremely fragile and can suffer failures in many different ways, leading to a loss of data. The five most common types of drive failures are: logical errors, mechanical failure, electronic failure, firmware corruption, and bad sectors, or any combination these. Least severe of these is usually data loss due to logical errors.

Logical errors are often the simplest and sometimes the most difficult problems to deal with when recovering data. They can range from an invalid entry in a file allocation table, a simple problem that needs little work; to severe issues such as the corruption or loss of the entire file system. Logical errors can be spotted when files become inaccessible, there is a delay in starting up the computer, and programs do not run properly. Logical errors are often seen as simple because there is nothing wrong with the physical drive leading users to try recovering it themselves by using third party software. This is quite risky, however, as running such software on a damaged drive can result in total loss of data. The most effective way to prevent logical errors on your hard drive is to regularly use the Disk Defragmentation tool in your operating system. For more comprehensive information on preventing data loss, visit the tips section of our website.

Recovering a drive with logical errors can be simple and quick, however if the problem requires manual bit-by-bit reconstruction of the data, it can also be quite complex and time consuming. Normally, logical errors are in the lower end of the price range as they do not require manual disassembly of the drive, however there are cases when logical failures end up in the higher end of the price range. The bottom line with logical errors is the sooner they are caught and the less a user tampers with the drive, the better the chances for a quick and thorough recovery.

Mechanical failures are often much more serious than any other failure and frequently lead to a partial or even total loss of data. The most common type of mechanical failure is a head crash, which is when the read/write head comes in contact with the disk platter. Head crashes can be caused by a variety of reasons, including physical shock, static electricity, power surges, and mechanical read/write failure. Mechanical failures are detected by a constant clicking or grinding noise coming from the drive. If you suspect mechanical failure, you must immediately shut down your computer and call a data recovery company for advice.

Mechanical failures are usually the most severe and most challenging to recover from. All mechanical failures require physical disassembly of the drive. The replacement of a read/write head is one of the most complex and costly procedures that can be performed by a data recovery engineer, especially with larger capacity drives. The chances of recovery depend entirely on how much damage the drive has sustained, however they can be quite good. A crashed head does not mean that all your data is lost! Once again, the sooner you catch a mechanical problem and turn off your drive, the more of your precious data is likely to be rescued.

Electronic failures are most common after a power surge or due to some other electric problem, and the most common type is control board failure. A power surge can knock out the control board, making the drive undetectable in the BIOS. Because each drive is fitted with a unique control board, recovery of this type is relatively complex. However, the good news is that normally once the control board issue is fixed, the data is usually 100% recoverable.

Recovering a drive that has suffered from an electronic failure can be time consuming, mainly because the specific problem takes some time to diagnose. Once diagnosed, though, the recovery is usually not tremendously complex and would probably land in the mid-range in terms of price. Most of the time, we are able to achieve a 100% recovery from drives that have suffered an electronic failure.

Firmware corruption is caused by logical problems or physical damage to the firmware zone on the disk platter. When the firmware becomes corrupt, the computer is often unable to properly communicate with the hard drive, and drive is not recognized in the BIOS. Fortunately, when the drive fails due to firmware corruption, the data is usually fully recoverable once the drive has been repaired.

Recovering a drive that has suffered from Firmware corruption is possible with the use of our proprietary technology. Because the firmware information is isolated on the outer rim of the disk, most of the data can be recovered successfully. The complexity of recovering a drive that has suffered from firmware corruption depends on the amount of damage suffered by the service track on the disk's platter. Expect the cost of this type of recovery to be in the mid- to high-price range.

Bad sectors are a common fate of all hard drives.

Eventually, all drives develop areas that are no longer functional and when this happens, they are isolated by the operating system. Bad sectors are very much like bumps in the road, areas which are avoided by the read/write head and which are no longer accessible to the user. If mission critical data exists on the drive, we recommend to backup as soon as possible, as the formation of bad sectors often indicates the impending demise of the drive. Finally, and most importantly, do NOT under any circumstances run the ScanDisk or Chckdisk utilities when data becomes inaccessible. These utilities are designed to fix only file system errors and not any other types of errors, so if your hard drive has suffered from bad sectors, these utilities only make things worse.

Bad sectors are accessible

We are able to recover drives with bad sectors using our proprietary mirroring technology. The process often involves manual mirroring bit-by-bit, which can be time consuming. The price of this type of recovery will generally be in the mid-range of the pricing schedule.

I hope the above explanations are of some use to all computer users. The basic fact is that data loss happens to everyone. Every hard drive crashes, and often when you least expect it to. Backup is essential for end-users and business users alike, and there are many excellent ways to back up your data. But if you've lost data, attempt to understand the problem before calling a data recovery company. Be informed, save your money, get your data back.

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The Best Data Recovery Choice For You

The best defense against a loss of data is a really solid and faithful backup routine of important files to reliable media. It's also a good idea for the media to be removable and portable if possible so that even if something happens to your whole computer for any reason, the data is protected by being in a totally different physical area.

OK, so that is the best solution to data loss. But what if you have not been backing up your drive like you should and now you find yourself confronted with the daunting task of getting all the important files back that were on your computer before the emergency happened? (By the way, you can take some comfort in knowing that quite a few people find themselves in this situation. You are not alone.) What are your choices at this point?

Well, basically there are two ways of recovering data from a damaged disk, either by using a data recovery service or a data recovery software package. Either can do the job, but there are some factors that should go into your decision about which one to use. First, are you pretty computer savvy? If you are then maybe data recovery software will work for you. If not, do not try this method at all. The other is how much time do you have to spend on retrieving this data? If you have lots of time to put into it, then consider doing the job yourself with a reputable software package. If you don't have much time to devote to this endeavor, don't waste both time and money with the software option.

If you have decided upon using a data recovery service, you should know that the odds are that you will get a good portion, if not all of your data back. The generally accepted success rate in the industry is around 80%. Much of the success will depend on the skill and determination of the data recovery specialist who will be working on your drive. They all have sophisticated software tools to work with, but data recovery is not as simple as just plugging in a piece of software, walking away and coming back when it has found all the files. It often requires a specialist who is a bit of a detective, andnot easily discouraged, to get back a good portion of data, especially on drives with physical damage.

Don't be surprised to get two quotes for data recovery from some companies either. One for logical data retrieval that is much easier to handle and will be a much lower figure, and one for physical damage which is far more challenging and therefore rightly costs more. You will also find that cost quotes will often vary considerably. It is usually best to choose somewhere in the middle of the pack toward the higher end. The reason for this is that some companies engage in a bait and switch tactic that indicates that they will cost less initially, but when they actually receive the drive they wil claim that upon review the cost will be much higher. It's best to avoid messing with these companies at all.

So if you have lost data and have no backups to fall back on, data recovery can still be done. Just use the guidelines presented in this article for choosing the data recovery method that will work best for you.

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MCSE 70 290 Certification Primer

Microsoft Certifications are one of the most widely acclaimed, pursued, and achieved technical certifications in the IT industry. The demand for Microsoft Certified Professionals in the job market is increasing every year.

Microsoft offers a number of certification levels depending on specific areas of proficiency and nature of job. Some of the certifications pertaining to networking are

Microsoft Certified Professional (MCP)

Microsoft Certified System Administrator (MCSA)

Microsoft Certified System Engineer (MCSE)

Each certification level has certain exams associated with it. You can decide the appropriate certification exam based on your experience, skills, and interests.

Benefits of Microsoft Certifications

Microsoft Certifications provide a standard method for testing employee skills. The certifications provide employers a valid benchmark for evaluating the employee's abilities. This will provide you the recognition and reward as per your expertise.

Microsoft Certifications offer prospective employers a baseline to judge your knowledge, skill, and expertise in the field. Certifications can provide added advantage if you are at the same level of experience as another person without certifications.

Certifications are a valuable tool if you have no or very little experience. The certifications that you hold can prove and reassure your employers and consultants about your knowledge in the field. This will help you secure good job as well as negotiate a good salary.

Pre-Requisite Experience (Recommended) for Microsoft Certifications

To pursue this certification you should have at least 1 year of experience in:

Implementing and administering a network operating system in environments with 50 to 26,000 supported users, in approximately 3 to 150 physical locations.

Implementing network services and applications such as file and print services, database services, messaging services, proxy server or firewall services, dial-in server services, and Web hosting.

Implementing and administering a desktop operating system.

Designing a network infrastructure with 3 or more domain controllers.

Significance of Microsoft Certifications for Microsoft Windows Server 2003

Microsoft has developed independent certification requirements for Microsoft Windows Server 2003. An aspirant can certify directly for MCSE/MCSA in Windows 2003 if they are new to certification process. If the aspirant is already a certified MCSE /MCSA in Windows 2000, then they can follow the upgrade path for MCSEs in Windows 2000 to secure Windows 2003 Certifications. If the aspirant certifies in MCSE for Windows NT4.0, they can earn MCSE in Windows 2003 by following the upgrade path for MCSEs in Windows NT4.0.

The exams are slightly more challenging than their Windows 2000 counterparts, but they will actually test your hands-on knowledge since that is the most important part of ensuring that a certification is credible.

Exam 70-290: Managing and Maintaining a Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Environment

Exam 70-290 is the first in the series of the core exams for MCSE certifications.

When you pass the Managing and Maintaining a Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Environment (MCSE 70-290) exam, you achieve Microsoft Certified Professional (MCP) status. You also earn credit toward the following certifications:

Core credit towards Microsoft Certified Systems Administrator (MCSA) on Microsoft Windows Server 2003 certification

Core credit towards Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer (MCSE) on Microsoft Windows Server 2003 certification

MCSE 70-290 exam objectives are

Objective 1: Managing and Maintaining Physical and Logical Devices

In this objective you will need to demonstrate expertise in managing and maintaining physical and logical devices. As an administrator, you should understand Basic and Dynamic disks, RAID configuration and troubleshooting, driver signing, and the use of tools, such as Device Manager and Hardware Troubleshooting Wizard. Familiarize yourself with Device Manager and the warning and disabled icons found when problems are present on installed devices.

Objective 2: Managing Users, Computers, and Groups

This objective includes many topics, so you should be prepared to face many questions that fall into this category. Have a healthy introduction to profile management, user and group accounts, permissions, and troubleshooting. Practice a lot on GPOs and perform a variety of administrative tasks, including configuration of desktop settings, control of security settings, assignment of scripts, redirection of folders, and software distribution. Also, get a clear understanding on inheritance and filtering.

Objective 3: Managing and Maintaining Access to Resources

Knowing how to configure, monitor, audit and troubleshoot NTFS permissions based issues are one of those most important areas that you need to know this concept thoroughly and also be sure to brush up on your share permissions and share/NTFS permissions interaction. Do not forget to brush up on how folder and file permissions can change or stay the same when copying or moving within a drive or between drives.

Objective 4: Managing and Maintaining a Server Environment

In this objective you'll find questions from topics, such as Event Viewer, System Monitor, software updates (including the functionality of Microsoft's Software Update Service or SUS), Remote Assistance, disk quotas, print queues, performance objects and IIS 6.0. Spend time understanding IIS topics around Web sites, Virtual and physical directories, files and host and cname records in DNS. New to Windows Server 2003 is SUS. Understand clearly how SUS is used for deploying and managing client and server critical updates.

Objective 5: Managing and Implementing Disaster Recovery

In this objective you'll find questions on ASR, VSS, backing up files and system state data, configuring security for backup operators, verifying backup jobs, managing media, restoring and scheduling backups and recovering from server hardware failures. You should take some extra time to get familiar with the various types of backups that Windows Server 2003 supports, as well as the various configuration options that are available to you. Practice making backups of different types and then practice restoring them.

MCSE 70-290 Exam Model

Most of the questions in the MCSE 70-290 exam are multiple choice type. The questions require the "best" answer from several close responses. Other questions may present an implementation scenario, requirements, and a proposed solution and then ask if the solution meets all of the requirements or combinations of the primary and secondary requirements. Microsoft has introduced some testing innovations for the certification exams. These question types present a more realistic visual representation of the tasks a MCSE would do in future. These are

Hot Area Questions

This type of question requires indicating the correct answer by selecting one or more elements within a graphic.

Active Screen Questions - This type of question asks you to configure a dialog box by changing one or more elements.

Drag and Drop Questions - This type of question asks you to drag source objects to appropriate targets within a work area.

Build List and Reorder Questions - This type of question asks you to indicate the correct answer by building an answer list. In a Build List and Reorder question, you need to build a list by dragging the appropriate source objects to the answer list and then placing them in the correct order based on criteria defined in the question.

Create a Tree Questions - This type of question asks you to create a tree structure. You indicate the correct answer by dragging source nodes to the correct locations in the answer tree. Nodes consist of text and a small icon.

Windows Simulation Questions - This type of question asks you to indicate the correct answer by performing specific tasks such as configuring and installing network adapters or drivers, configuring and controlling access to files, and managing hardware devices. Many of the tasks that systems administrators and systems engineers perform can be presented more accurately in simulations than in most traditional exam question types.

You can get hands-on experience on new set of questions that are available in Whizlabs MCSE 70-290 Exam Simulator. This will help you plan your study regime to ensure success.

Passing Score

Microsoft has normalized scoring for all MCP exams, so the same passing score applies to all exams. 700 is now the minimum passing score for all MCP exams. However, the maximum score (which used to top out at 1000) varies per exam, depending on the complexity of the skills measured.

Time Limit

The exam duration is 175 minutes with 45 questions. You will have plenty of time to answer the exam questions, so there is no need to rush. If you have spare time available, you can double check the questions and ensure that you have read them correctly and actually answered the question as intended.

Exam Result

Instead of reporting results based on major categories for exam objectives as it used to, Microsoft is now providing numerical scores and bar graphs for "skills clusters". Visually, the bars in the exam report show you how well you fare in each skills cluster. If bars that represent cluster scores are close to one end of the graph, they indicate stronger skills; bars near the other end indicate weaker skills. Please store your exam results in both paper and electronic format for later reference.

Sample Questions

Question 1

You are a systems administrator for TicTacToe Toy Manufacturers. All servers in the company run on Microsoft Windows Server 2003. The company's Active Directory infrastructure consists of a single domain hosted on two domain controllers named Tic1 and Tic2.

Tic2 experienced a hard disk failure, and hence has been taken offline. Tic2 remained offline for some days while all Active Directory updates were made to Tic1. You proceed to restore the data from backup while ensuring that the latest Active Directory changes are replicated to Tic2.

How should you restore the lost data from backup?

Choices:

Perform authoritative restore on Tic1.

Perform normal restore on Tic2.

Perform primary restore on Tic2.

Perform authoritative restore onTic2.

Correct Choice: B

Explanation:

Choice B is the correct answer.

During a normal restore operation; Backup operates in non-authoritative restore mode. That is, any data that you restore, including Active Directory objects, will have their original update sequence number. The Active Directory replication system uses this number to detect and propagate Active Directory changes among the servers in your organization. Because of this, any data that is restored non-authoritatively will appear to the Active Directory replication system as though it is old, which means the data will never be replicated to your other servers. Instead, if newer data is available from your other domain controllers, the Active Directory replication will update the restored data. Hence, choices A, C, and D are incorrect.

Question 2

You are a systems administrator for Blueberry Packaging Industries. All servers in the company run on Microsoft Windows Server 2003.

You create a folder named Custom Package on the company's file server to contain the company's files. You share this folder as Custom Package. The folder is configured with default NTFS permissions and default share permissions. The file server is located in a secure room.

Within the shared folder, Managers should be able to add and change files and subfolders. Employees in the Sales and Packers department should be able to change and delete files and subfolders. All other employees should only be able to view the files.

All Sales employees are members of the Sales domain local security group. All Managers are members of the Managers domain local security group. The Packers are members of the Packers global security group.

How should you modify share level permissions on the Custom Package folder so that the appropriate users have the minimum required privileges? (Choose all that apply)

Choices:

Grant Change share permissions to Managers.

Deny Full Control share permissions to Managers.

Grant Change share permissions to Sales.

Grant Full Control share permissions to Sales.

Grant Change share permissions to Packers.

Grant Full Control share permissions to Packers.

Deny Full Control share permissions to Everyone.

Remove Everyone from the share permissions list.

Correct Choices: A, C, and E

Explanation:

Choices A, C, and E are the correct answers.

Change permissions allow the users to create, delete, and change any files and folders in the shared folder, provided the users have appropriate NTFS permissions on the files and folders. The default NTFS permission in Windows Server 2003 is Read for Everyone and the default share level permissions grant Read access to Everyone. You should not remove Everyone from the share permission list. By default, share level permissions grant Read access to Everyone.

How to Prepare for Microsoft Certification?

Following are the steps to prepare for Microsoft certification.

MCSE exams are not easy, as advertised on many websites. The MCSE Certifications are tough, so plan to put in a lot of time and effort getting ready for your certification exams. Get all information you can about the certification exams and then start working towards your goal.

Get hands on experience. The first step in the preparation for any Microsoft Certification is hands on experience with the related product. For MCSE, the aspirant needs to have at least a year of working experience and for MCSA, the minimum recommended time of experience is 6 months. If you are not working anywhere, it will help, if you can volunteer your IT skill services to gain valuable experience.

You can set up a small network at home to practice. Setting up the home network will give a great opportunity to learn. You can practice the lab exercises in the home network as and when you study. This will give you a better understanding of the theories than just studying the exam guides.

Get trained in the related product. If possible, try to get training in the related product in a Microsoft Authorized Training Center. You can use training resources to supplement your skills and experience. You can also use the Microsoft Official Curriculum for the related exam as well as Microsoft Press books that are available for the exam.

For Exam 70-290, the main areas that you need to concentrate are

Automated System Recovery (ASR)

Diskpart utility

Diskraid utility

Emergency Management Services (EMS)

File Replication Service (FRS)

Group Policy Management Console (GPMC)

Open File Backup

Password Backup and Restore Wizard

Remote Assistance

Remote Desktop

Shadow copying of shared folders

Software Update Services (SUS)

Virtual disk service

Permissions -Share and NTFS

Users, Computers, and Groups

Use the preparation guide of the exam that you want to take and read it thoroughly. You should know all the exam objectives of MCSE 70-290 covered in the exam preparation guide.

Use practice test software packages. Whizlabs MCSE 70-290 Exam Simulator is an example.

Do NOT use Braindumps. Braindumps might help you get the certification, but you will lack important practical knowledge about the product. Hence, your prospects of landing a good IT job will be less. Some brain dumps deliberately mislead you. So BEWARE!

You can participate in any online discussion forum, where you can participate in an ongoing dialogue and even ask doubts if you have any. You are sure to get the right guidance.

You've learned the details about the MCSE 70-290 Exam, its pattern, objectives etc. Download the MCSE Exam Preparation Guide to learn how Whizlabs can help you achieve the MCSE credential.

Resources

Exam simulators

Whizlabs MCSE 70-290 Exam Simulator

Besides identifying your weak areas and giving you a feel of the exam environment, Whizlabs Exam Simulator nurtures your potential to acquire domain expertise so that you not only succeed in your certification exam but succeed in your career too.

Articles on Windows 2003

Microsoft's Windows 2003 Server Home Page

What's New in Active Directory

Windows Server 2003 Demos

Windows Server 2003, Standard Edition

Microsoft Online Resources

TechNet : Designed for IT professionals, this resource includes Howto's, best practices, downloads, technical chats, and much more.

MSDN : The Microsoft Developer Network (MSDN) is a reference for developers, featuring code samples, technical articles, newsgroups, chats, and more.

Training & Certification Newsgroups : A newsgroup exists for every Microsoft certification. By participating in the ongoing dialogue, you take advantage of a unique opportunity to exchange ideas with and ask questions of others, including more than 750 Microsoft Most Valuable Professionals (MVPs) worldwide.

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