Event 7026: Boot-Start Device SBRE Failed to Load

Mark Berry May 15, 2013

I was getting this message when rebooting a Windows operating system:

Log Name:      System
Source:        Service Control Manager
Event ID:      7026
Level:         Error
Description:
The following boot-start or system-start driver(s) failed to load:
SBRE

Scoped Snapshots vmicvss Error 13 on Server 2012, Windows 8

Mark Berry May 6, 2013

I’m running Server 2012 Essentials running in a Hyper-V machine under Windows Server 2008 R2.

The Hyper-V host does a daily Windows backup at 9pm. The backup is configured to capture Bare Metal Recovery, System State, System Reserved, and the C: drive. It does not back up the E: drive where the VHDs of the client machines are stored. (The guest machines do their own backups.)

During the Hyper-V host backup, the following message appears five times in the Application log of the Server 2012 guest.

Batch Convert PDF to PDF/A

Mark Berry April 15, 2013

I’m developing a paperless workflow for my home and office. I want to save all my documents in PDF/A-1b archival format so I will be able to open them for years to come. The PDFs should be searchable, meaning they contain not only images of documents, but strings of text. This allows the documents to be indexed so I can quickly find documents when I type in Windows Explorer’s search box.

Find the Largest Files on a Linux Machine

Mark Berry April 12, 2013

The PBX in a Flash machine at a client site sends me a daily Logwatch email (setup described here). At the bottom of that email are a few lines telling me how much disk space is in use. I also SNMP to monitor disk usage (described here).

Both of these tell me that disk usage is up to 75%. Looking back a few months, it was only 50%. What is using up so much space?

Use CutePDF to Print to PDF/A for Free

Mark Berry April 12, 2013

I’ve been working on developing a paperless workflow. I want to save my digital files in PDF/A format, specially designed for archiving. (In particular, I want to create PDF/A-1b documents.) An important part of this workflow is the ability to print documents and emails to PDF/A. I found that with some tweaking, I can use CutePDF to do so. Here’s how.

Access Point Won’t Stay Up with POE

Mark Berry April 8, 2013

I’m working on installing four Cisco 1131AG access points at a client’s location. We want to use Power Over Ethernet (POE) to provide power, and purchased a Cisco SG200-08P switch, which has four POE ports, to provide power.

Restore a Hyper-V Server to an Optiplex 960, Take 3

Mark Berry April 6, 2013

This is the third in the series of almost annual articles about my experiences testing a Hyper-V restore. I’ve done this successfully in 2011 and 2012. Why repeat? To make sure disaster recovery is still possible, and to try a new approach.

Adding a Target Volume Using Wbadmin

Mark Berry March 25, 2013

Option 3 of Microsoft KB 2009365 describes how to add a disk to Windows Server backup when other disks are offsite:  you have to use the wbadmin command line tool. But the article does not explain how to add a volume, not a disk, as a target.