CompTIA^® A+ It Technician Exam Cram Notes : Event Viewer, Application Logs, System Monitor Counters

38)FDISK can be used with MBR switch to replace the Master Boot Record with a backup copy.

File names can be 255 characters long on a FAT, FAT32, and NTFS file systems.

First you need to partition the disk. A hard disk can have one Primary partition and one Extended partition. An Extended partition can be divided into one or more logical partitions. After partitioning the hard disk, each partition need to be formatted.

For accessing the Internet using static IP addressing, you need to configure the IP address, subnet mask, default gateway (if required by the ISP), and DNS server information.

For effective communication, you need to spend roughly 50 percent of time for listening to your customer

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE is the hive where the information specific to the machine will be stored. The information may include, network settings, hardware drivers etc.

HKEY_LOCAL_USER hive stores data specific to user configuration, such as desktop color schemes, screen savers, wall paper, and user specific application settings.

39)Hub: A hub is basically a multi-port repeater. When it receives a packet, it repeats that packet out each port. This means that all computers that are connected to the hub receive the packet whether it is intended for them or not. It's then up to the computer to ignore the packet if it's not addressed to it. This might not seem like a big deal, but imagine transferring a 50 MB file across a hub. Every computer connected to the hub gets sent that entire file (in essence) and has to ignore it.

Bridge: A bridge is a kind of repeater, but it has some intelligence. It learns the layer 2 (MAC) addresses of devices connected to it. This means that the bridge is smart enough to know when to forward packets across to the segments that it connects. Bridges can be used to reduce the size of a collision domain or to connect networks of differing

media/topologies, such as connecting an Ethernet network to a Token Ring network.

Switch: A switch is essentially a multi-port bridge. The switch learns the MAC addresses of each computer connected to each of its ports. So, when a switch receives a packet, it only forwards the packet out the port that is connected to the destination MAC address. Remember that a hub sends the packet out every port, and you can see how much more efficient this it

40)If Microsoft Windows Firewall is blocking a port that is used by a service or by a program, you can configure the Windows Firewall to create an exception. Windows Firewall may be blocking a program or a service if the following conditions are true:

• Programs do not respond to a client's request.
• Client programs do not receive data from the server.

If the CMOS setup is not properly setup the computer may ignore or not look at the CD-ROM as a bootable option. Verify in the CMOS that your settings are properly set to boot from the CD-ROM drive.

Generally, these settings will be under the boot options. Setup your boot options similar to the below example.

1 - Floppy / LS120
2 - CD-ROM
3 - Network (if available)
4 - Hard Disk Drive

If CD-ROM is listed after a device that is bootable it will boot from the other device before the CD-ROM. Verify that the devices before CD-ROM, such as floppy, do not have bootable media in them.

41)If the SCSI bus termination is not done, SCSI devices on the bus will not function properly. This is due to reflection of the signals at the end of the bus. To prevent this, both ends of the SCSI bus needs to be terminated. If one end of the SCSI bus is terminated, you may find intermittent problems. Never terminate the bus at a device connected in between.

If you are creating a Striped volume on a new Windows 2000 machine, it can only be created on dynamic disks. However, if you are upgrading a Windows NT computer to Windows 2000, any existing stripe set will be supported.

42)If you are finding that the Logical Disk > %Free Space counter is less than 10%, you might need to make additional free space available. This can first be done cleaning up the disk of any unwanted files, duplicate files etc. If required, additional physical disk may be provided. Some of the important System Monitor counters are:

1. Memory>Available Mbytes: measures the amount of physical memory that is available. Typically > 4MB. If less than 4 MB, consider adding more memory.
2. Memory>Pages/Sec: Shows the number of times that the disk has been accessed, because requested information was not available in memory. If the value of the counter is not below 20, you should add more memory. A value of 4 or 5 is typical.
3. Paging File>%Usage: Indicates the % of allocated page file utilization. Should be less than 99%.
4. Processor>%Processor Time: measure the time that the processor is busy. Should be typically less than 80%
5. Processor>Interrupts/Sec: Indicates the average number of hardware interrupts that the processor receives each second. If more than 3,500, you can suspect a program or faulty hardware.
6. PhysicalDisk>%Disk Time: Measures the amount of time that the physical disk is busy servicing read or write requests. If more than 90%, you can improve the performance by adding another disk channel.
7. PhysicalDisk>%Current Disk Queue Length: indicates the number of pending disk requests that need to be processed. The value should be less than 2. The disk problems might arise from less memory, resulting in usage of excessive paging. Ensure that the memory is sufficient before attending to the disk problem.
8. LogicalDisk > %Free Space counter: Indicates the amount of logical disk's free disk space. Typical value is 10% or above.

43)If you are getting a keyboard error, you need to do one of the following things:

1. Check if the keyboard needs to be cleaned
2. Check if the keyboard cable has become loose
3. Check if one or more of the keys are stuck
4. If required, replace the keyboard

If you fail to boot, first try to boot in Safe Mode. If it doesn't work, try booting to Last Known Good Configuration. If both fail, you can try using Recovery Console.

If you have a standard desktop PC that uses integrated drive electronics (IDE) disk drives, then these will be detected during setup. If, however, you use SCSI disks or have Redundant Array of Independent Disk (RAID) storage systems, you will see, shortly after the reboot, the following line of text displayed at the bottom of the screen:

"Press F6 if you need to install a third party SCSI or RAID driver..."

Pressing F6 will start a dialog that allows you to configure and install the drivers for your SCSI or other disk subsystem controllers. This option is usually used on server platforms that use large-capacity, high-speed, fault-tolerant disk subsystems. For most PCs, however, you won't need to use this option.

44)If you want to format a drive and also make it bootable, you need to format with /s switch. By issuing this command, the boot files IO.SYS, MSDOS.SYS, COMMAND.COM get copied to the disk.

If your Microsoft Windows XP-based computer does not start correctly or if it does not start at all, you can use the Windows Recovery Console to help you recover your system software.

Automated System Recovery (ASR) is a part of an overall plan for system recovery so that you are prepared if the system fails. ASR should be a last resort for system recovery. Use ASR only after you have exhausted other options. It is recommended that you use ASR only if all other options to repair the system (such as Last Known Good, and Safe Boot) have failed.

45)Important RAID (Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks) details are given below:

1. RAID 0: This has striping but no redundancy of data. It offers the best performance but no fault-tolerance.
2. RAID 1: This is also known as disk mirroring. It consists of two or more drives that duplicate the storage of data. There is no striping. Read performance is better since either disk can be read at the same time.
3. RAID 2: It uses disk striping across disks with some disks storing error checking and correcting (ECC) information. RAID 2 is hardly used because it is expensive and does not provide fault tolerance like other forms of RAID levels.
RAID 3: It uses disk striping and dedicates one drive to storing parity information. The embedded error checking (ECC) information is used to detect errors.
RAID 4: Block-level striping with dedicated parity. RAID-4 offers no advantage over
RAID 5: Uses block-level striping with distributed parity. Thus, all read and write operations can be overlapped. RAID-5 stores parity information but not redundant data (but parity information can be used to reconstruct data). RAID 5 requires at least three disks for the array. It's suitable for multi-user systems in which performance is not critical.

46)In Windows XP:

To schedule Automatic Updates:

1. Click Start, click Control Panel, and then double-click System.
2. On the Automatic Updates tab, click Automatically download the updates, and install them on the schedule that I specify.
3. Click to select the day and time that you want to download and install updates.

In Windows 2000, to configure Automatic Updates, do the following:

1. Click Start, click Control Panel, and then double-click Automatic Updates.
2. Click Automatically download the updates, and install them on the schedule that I specify.
3. Click to select the day and time that you want to download and install updates.

47)IPCONFIG gives the current IP address asigned to the Windows 2000 computer.

It is important that you consult manufacturer's documentation before starting any preventive maintenance or cleaning operation. Usually, manufacturers provide proper cleaning methods and the solvents / tools to be used for this purpose.

It is important to know that the ENDs of a SCSI chain need to be terminated. There are 3 configurations possible:

1. The SCSI host adapter and only internal SCSI devices
2. The SCSI host adapter and only external SCSI devices
3. The SCSI host adapter and both internal and external devices on the same SCSI segment.

In case 1, and case 2 the SCSI host adapter and the extreme end device need to be terminated. In case 3, the SCSI adapter usually sits some where in between the internal and external devices, and hence should not be terminated. Only the end devices (i.e. one at the end of the internal SCSI segment, and one at the end of the external SCSI segment) need to be terminated. Note that the devices that are not at the extreme ends of the SCSI chain should not be terminated. For any given SCSI segment, only two devices (that are at the ends) should be terminated.

48)If you are unable to use a USB device, it is likely that the USB is not enabled in the BIOS. This is the first thing to be checked while configuring USB port. If the keyboard is USB keyboard, and you are unable to enter BIOS configuration, it may need to be replaced with a conventional keyboard for the purpose of changing/ verifying the BIOS settings. Note that USB interface need to be enabled in the BIOS.

It is obvious that the shock is due to sudden discharge of static electricity. Since the operator is touching the memory module when the discharge happened, it is most likely that the memory module may have internally damaged. This damage may or may not show up immediately. In any case, it always recommended to replace the statically damaged module with a good one. Follow anti-static precautions before touching any electronic components inside a PC.

It is possible that the floppy disk drives on the two computers are incompatible. Try reading the floppy on another computer before reformatting.

It is recommended that the backup tape is stored at a location away from the building where the backup was taken. For most companies, backups contain important data and loosing backups may affect the continuity of one's business. If a backup is stored in the same building, it may get damaged in fire or any other natural calamities along with the computers. As a result, both the server, as well as back fail at the same time. Therefore, it is recommended to store the backup at a different location.

It is recommended to leave the setting to the Operating System. Choose Windows XP to automatically manage the virtual memory.

Laptop batteries (and most other batteries) consist of hazardous material. You need to dispose them according to the hazardous material disposal procedures. Enquire local authorities about disposal procedure.

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