EVGA Z68 FTW Motherboard BIOS Update

UPDATE:  This BIOS update made some changes to how Windows 7 detects the hardware and now I have to activate my OS again.  PAIN!

UPDATE 4/10/2013 - I decided tonight to check and see if EVGA had made any moves to get a newer and repaired BIOS update out.  It appears that is true.  On the site now they have version R22 dated 3/13/2013.  I'm loading it now.  Here's hoping....

The new R22 update appears to be solid.  After flashing, setting all to defaults, booting up and having Windows 7 detect a lot of "new" hardware, things appear normal.  Benchmarks are not faster really but the system is stable.  Given the fix list on this BIOS update I recommend you install it.  Below is the list of items fixed in the R21 and now R22 updates:

BIOS R22 Updates:

• BClock overclocking improvements
• Improved 2400MHz memory support

BIOS R21 Updates:

• Fix CPU multiplier control with Sandy Bridge CPU after changing setting from E-LEET to manual
• Fix bug with 2500K showing an error when CPU multiplier set over 43
• Improved PCI-E compatibility
• Fix BClock error when system is booting without any bootable device
• Fix BSOD that may occur when BIOS is set to defaults
• Fix USB port 6/7 labeling
• Fix a crash that occurred after adjusting BClock
• Fix error that did not allow system to boot when OC Mode is enabled
• Fix bug with USB 3.0
• Add E-SATA to onboard devices
• Fix error that caused BClock frequency setting to disappear
• Improvements to BClock overclocking
• VCCIO and VSA are now set to 1250mV when memory set above 2400MHz
• Fix error with CPU Core ratio limits

UPDATE 2/25/2013 - This bad BIOS update is still the latest showing on the EVGA website.

DO NOT use the new R16 update.  I flashed my new board with this and Windows 7 would not run at all.  I was however able to find instructions on how to do flash my BIOS back down to the 05 version from a USB drive.  Click here or read below for instructions:  **All credit for this given to LVCOYOTE on the EVGA forums**

I have seen countless posts on these forums concerning failed BIOS flashing attempts, and most recently the difficulty people are having with the P67 BIOS flashing. I always recommend flashing a BIOS from DOS as it is unquestionably the safest way to go about it. Flashing your BIOS from within windows is inherently the most dangerous way to attempt a flash. There are many things going on in the background when you flash from Windows, any number of which are capable of causing a problem. While flashing from within the Windows environment may work for most, I say why risk it? It is true that newer boards have multiple BIOS's that you can switch to should a flash go wrong, but once you get the hang of the method I'm about to describe, you will use this method from now on...... trust me! Inventory Required USB Flash Drive The BIOS File HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool, V2.1.8 Win98 Boot Files Regarding the above list, I'll assume you know what a USB flash drive is and just about any kind will work. You can even use a SD card or similar which can be plugged in to your card reader if you have one. For those of you that have the FTW version of the P67 you can even use the onboard CF reader, provided of course you actually have a CF Memory Card plugged in to it.   The BIOS file you need can be downloaded from EVGA's web site, usually in a .zip format.   That brings us to the HP tool and the Win98 boot files needed. I have made both available for download on my server and you can obtain them by clicking HERE. Just save the file to your desktop, then go ahead and extract it to your desktop as well. Once the file is extracted, go ahead and double click it to get inside. Once there you will see a file called SP27608 which is the actual HP USB Format Utility and a folder called win98boot.   At this point we need to install the HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool, so go ahead and double click that file and install the program. Follow the on screen instructions, it's pretty self explanatory. Once the installation is finished the installer may or may not put an icon on your desktop to start the utility. If you did not get an icon on your desktop you can launch the utility by  going to start/all programs/Hewlett-Packard Company/HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool.   Go ahead and open the HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool and you should see this Window.   From the "Device" drop down menu at the top, make sure your USB flash device is selected. From the "File System" drop down menu choose FAT32.   The next steps are critical and where most people go wrong. First of all NEVER choose "Quick Format", we want to do a complete format. Make sure you click the "Create a DOS startup disk" and click the "using DOS system files located at" radio button as well.   Now we need to tell the HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool where these DOS files are located. If you remember they are inside of the extracted folder describe above. So, choose the browse button and navigate to that win98boot folder which should be on your desktop if you followed the directions. Simply highlight the "win98boot" folder and click ok, you do not want to navigate inside of the win98boot folder.   You should now see the path to the "win98boot" folder in the bottom box. If everything looks good, go ahead and press the "Start" button to begin the formatting process.

1

Re:How to Properly Flash Your P67 BIOS Using a USB Flash Drive Tuesday, July 26, 2011 2:03 PM (permalink) Once the format process is finished you will see the below.   So, guess what?? If you followed the directions correctly you now have a properly formatted and bootable USB Flash Drive! The next step is to put the BIOS files on our USB flash drive. If you have not already done so then download the BIOS version of your choosing and save it to your dekstop. Once the BIOS file is downloaded, extract it to your desktop and open it up. You may have to click a couple of folders until you get all the way inside where the files we need are located, but you want to end up here:   Now open up your USB Flash Drive and copy all these files and folders to it. You don't need the ReadMe.txt, afuwin32.bat, afuwin64.bat, or afuwin folder, but I usually just copy and paste the whole shooting match to the flash drive. It wont hurt anything to have it all there and you may want to refer to them later, so just copy it all over.   At this point you are ready to boot from the USB flash drive and get your BIOS flashed! Enter your BIOS and navigate to the Save/Exit area where you want to choose "Restore Defaults". Once that is done navigate back to the "Boot" area and set it so the first boot device is your USB flash drive, save your changes and reboot. You will probably see a quick flash of the old Windows98 splash screen, don't panic..... perfectly normal! If all goes well you should get to a C: prompt. From here I usually type "dir" (without quotes) which will show you a list of all the files on the USB flash drive, you should see everything we copied to it.   From here simply type "AFUDOS.BAT" or "FPTDOS.BAT" (without quotes) depending on the BIOS files included in your download, and follow the onscreen prompts, you will probably have to type a capital "Y" for the process to continue.   Once the flash is finished I recommend the following after the system reboots. Turn off the power Turn off power at the PSU (Rocker Switch) Remove the motherboard battery Hold down the "Clear CMOS" button for 30 seconds Once this is done, put the battery back in and switch your PSU back on. Start the system, enter BIOS, and make any changes you require. You will need to reset the date/time at a minimum.

Moving All iTunes Information to a New Computer

This morning I decided that since my PC has not had a fresh OS load in almost 3 years and that I recently added in a super fast SSD drive that I would take the time today to do a reload of Windows 7 x64 and all applications.

One of my biggest concerns was losing my family's iPhone, iPad, and iPod syncs.  After doing a lot of research on the web about this I didn't really find any articles that addressed moving EVERYTHING!  I know how to move the music, movies, etc.  I know how to copy the database.  What I wanted to know was how to move everything so my phone and other ijunk will still sync properly.

So I did my own homework on it, tested a few things, and now I have step-by-step instructions here on how to do this.

First I identified the four folders in which iTunes stores everything and can add up to multiple gigabytes of data:

• C:\Users\Username\AppData\Local\Apple Computer\iTunes
• C:\Users\Username\AppData\Roaming\Apple Computer\MobileSync\Backup
• C:\Users\Username\AppData\Roaming\Apple Computer\iTunes
• C:\Users\Username\Music\iTunes (this may be different if you moved your media folder)

Note:  On your system username would be replaced by the username logged on.

 Here's the new folder structure I will be using after the system is reloaded:  **Note I am not moving the location of C:\Users\Username\AppData\Local\Apple Computer\iTunes.  This folder is not that large but does contain some important XML data.

• E:\Backup\MobileSync\Backup to relocate C:\Users\Username\AppData\Roaming\Apple Computer\MobileSync\Backup
• E:\Data\iTunes to relocate C:\Users\Username\AppData\Roaming\Apple Computer\iTunes
• E:\Data\iTunes to relocate C:\Users\Username\Music\iTunes

The last item of business is to put a pointer in place so that iTunes can find the data where I have moved it to without issue.  This is done by making a link to the new locations from the old.  Below are the commands to run that will accomplish this:



1. C:\mklink /J "C:\Users\Username\AppData\Roaming\Apple Computer\MobileSync\Backup" "E:\Backup\MobileSync\Backup"
2: C:\mklink /J "C:\Users\Username\AppData\Roaming\Apple Computer\iTunes" "E:\Data\iTunes"
3. C:\mklink /J "C:\Users\Username\Music\iTunes" "E:\Data\iTunes"


What this does is allow these files to grow considerably larger, not be on my SSD, and iTunes is none the wiser.  By creating the links the whole move is transparent to iTunes as the application thinks it is accessing data on C: drive.

I hope this helps you to move your iTunes library and even relocate it to a larger drive if necessary.  Good luck!

How to Cluster IronPort C-Series Appliances

This will explain the quick overview of how to cluster two of these devices together to provide an easy way to administer multiple IronPorts on the same network.

1. Login to the IronPort using SSL.  I prefer Putty.

2. Enter CLUSTERCONFIG

3. The CLI will ask if you want to enter cluster mode.  Select Y.

4. You will then see a list of cluster commands.

5. At this point if you have no cluster enter the option to create a cluster.

6. Follow the prompts.  Give it a name, select the ports, etc.  I always recommend setting the cluster to communicate on the internal management IP address.

7. Once the cluster config is complete the IronPort will apply the changes which only takes a minute or so.

8. To add other machines repeat this exact process only selecting the option to join an existing cluster.

9. During the join select the IP address of the first IronPort you put into the cluster.  Follow the prompts and complete the join.

I have found this process very helpful if an IronPort fails because I don't have to take the time to configure the replacement from scratch.  

This setup shares the configs so all you do is bring the replacement IronPort online, give it a static IP address and the same name as the unit you are replacing, login to it via the CLI and join it to the cluster.  

Once you have done that it will copy the configuration  from your cluster and will be ready to run.

Good luck on your cluster setups.

PrivateKeyMissing when running Enable-ExchangeCertificate

PrivateKeyMissing when running Enable-ExchangeCertificate

Enable-ExchangeCertificate : The certificate with thumbprint XXXXXXXXX was found but is not valid for use with Exchange Server
(reason: PrivateKeyMissing).
At line:1 char:27
+ Enable-ExchangeCertificate <<<< -Thumbprint XXXXXXXXX -Services "IIS"

The above error is a result of a glitch with Exchange 2007. This issue does not happen all the time as it is completely random, but when it does happen no certificate can be installed or removed through the Exchange Management Shell (EMS). For whatever reason it may be, the system forgets where it placed the Private Key or the certificate store is damaged.

Repair Damaged Certificate Store:

1) Open MMC (Microsoft Management Console) to the Certificate Manager (Certificates Snap-in) for the Local Computer account.
2) Double-Click on the recently imported certificate (It will be missing the golden key).
3) Go to the Details tab.
4) Click on the Serial Number field and copy down that number. (Leave window open)
5) Open up the command prompt (DOS Prompt -- CMD.exe)
6) Type: certutil -repairstore my "SerialNumber"( SerialNumber is that what was copied down in step 4.)
7) After running the command, go back to the MMC and right-click Certificates and select "Refresh".
8) One should now see the golden key associated with the certificate.
9) Double-check in the Exchange Power Shell with: Get-ExchangeCertificate

Alternatively if the above does not work try the following:
Note: Follow these steps if running Windows Server 2008 only

1) Open MMC (Microsoft Management Console) to the Certificate Manager for the Local Computer account. (Certificates Snap In)
2) Look in the Personal section of the Certificate Manager and there should be icon(s) without a little golden key. (Those with the key have the private key bonded to them.)
3) Delete the icons without the golden key.
4) Go back to the EMS.
5) Run the Import-ExchangeCertificate and Enable-ExchangeCertificate in one line like so: [ Import-ExchangeCertificate -Path c:\exchange.globessl.com.crt | Enable-ExchangeCertificate -Services "SMTP, IMAP, IIS, POP" ]
*** Please modify the command according to your needs. ***
6) Things should be golden from here and if they are not, please contact Microsoft.

Migrate Windows 7 to a new SSD

What you’ll need: your old hard drive; a back-up drive, either internal or external; a blank CD-R/DVD-R or the Windows 7 installation disc and your new SSD.

Step 1: Shrinking your original partition to fit on the smaller

First make sure your original OS drive only contains two partitions -- the system reserved partition and the partition that houses your OS. If you have any others, back everything up from them onto the backup disk as you'll lose them in this process.

Once that’s done, it’s time to shrink your OS partition so it will fit inside the SSD, which is likely to be smaller than the older OS drive. Go to the start menu and right-click 'Computer' before selecting 'Manage'.

Select 'Disk Management' on the left, just under the 'Storage' header.

Right-click your OS partition, which is usually labelled as C:, and then select 'Shrink Volume'. The computer will think for a moment as it queries the volume for available shrink space.

In 'Enter the amount of space to shrink in MB', enter a value that's at least 10% smaller than the usable capacity of your new SSD. For example, if you’re moving over to a 120GB SSD, enter 100,000 to be safe.

If you can’t shrink the partition enough, try defragging the drive first. If that fails, you’ll need to start uninstalling applications from C:. Do this until you’re able to shrink the drive enough. Once it’s shrunk, your new OS partition will be small enough to fit inside your SSD.

Step 2: Create an image of the now shrunken OS drive

Plug in your backup drive, be it an external drive or an internal drive. It must be bigger than the size of your shrunken original OS partition.

Head to the control panel and double-click the 'Backup and Restore' option.

On the left-hand side, select 'Create a system image'. During the backup wizard, it will ask where you want to store the new image -- select your backup drive.

Start the backup and then hurry up and wait -- this can take up to 15 minutes or more to complete.

Once it's finished, you’ll be asked if you want to create a system repair disc. If you don’t have your Windows 7 installation disc, select yes and it will guide you through the creation of a system repair disc. If you do have your Windows 7 installation disc, select no. Then shut down your PC.

Step 3: Install the new hard drive and restore from the image

We’re halfway there -- now it’s time to set up the new drive. Firstly, open your PC case and disconnect all of your drives except for the backup disk. Plug in your new SSD as described in our photo tutorial this week. After double-checking all your connections, boot up your system and insert the repair disc or Windows Install disc in your optical drive.

The computer should boot from the optical disc and at the first screen select the 'Repair your computer' option. Then select the 'Restore your computer using a system image that you created earlier' option from the next screen before clicking next.

On the next screen, select the 'Use the latest available system image (recommended)' option and then click next.

Now you need to double-check you’re not going to wipe any other drives, so click the 'Exclude disks' button.

You should only see one hard drive in the list -- if there are any more, make sure they’re selected with a tick mark otherwise they’ll be erased.

Click 'Next' and finally, 'Finish'. A warning sign will pop up, asking if you’re sure you want to continue -- select Yes.

If this process fails, it means your shrunken partition still wasn’t small enough, so you’ll need to go back to Step 1 and uninstall more applications before shrinking and mirroring the drive again.

If this process works, you’ll be prompted to restart your computer. Click 'Don’t restart', and then click 'Shutdown'.

Step 4: Final Steps

Plug all your other drives back in, but don't plug the original OS drive in at this point. If you want to use that drive, save it for later -- our priority now is to make sure the new drive is working.

Boot the PC up -- Windows should load from your SSD, though it may need a reboot once it's detected a new device in the SSD.

It’s time to go back into the Disk Management area. Go to the start menu, right-click 'Computer' and select 'Manage'. Once again, head into the same 'Disk Management' section on the left as you did in Step 1.

Right-click your new OS partition (again, usually called C:) and select 'Extend Volume', then click next.

Don’t adjust any of the default values -- Windows will automatically calculate exactly how far you can extend the partition to fill your new SSD. Click Next and then Finish, and your partition will be extended to fill the SSD.

Finally, we need to enter a single command via the command prompt in administrator mode. Go to 'Start > All programs > Accessories', then right-click 'Command Prompt' and run it as an administrator. Type this command at the command prompt:

winsat disk

This command makes Windows detect the new drive as an SSD and thus enable all the features unique to these drives. You’re now good to go!