Remove Hidden Devices (does not display devices that are not connected)

I was having issues of booting up the VM.  It was corrupted of the XML for the VM.  So I re-created a new VM but attach back the Hard Disk from the old VM.

I boot up the new VM, then I was configuring back the IP address and suddenly it doesn’t allow me to input the IP address cause it indicated that it has been used.  I went into the Device Manager and see no items, even though I select “show hidden devices”

The steps are the following that I do :

• Open Command Prompt (run as administrator)
• type devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices=1 then hit [Enter]
• type start devmgmt.msc then hit [Enter]
• Then click Show hidden devices in the View Menu
• Remove the unnecessary devices (e.g. the Microsoft Hyper-V Network Adapter)

• Then return to your NIC to input the IP address. 
• It works for me !!

Thank you and hope this helps.

keywords : Device Manager does not display devices that are not connected to the Windows XP or Windows 2003 -based computer, Device Manager displays only non-Plug and Play devices, drivers, and printers when you click Show hidden devices on the Viewmenu. Devices that you install that are not connected to the computer (such as a Universal Serial Bus [USB] device or "ghosted" devices) are not displayed in Device Manager, even when you click Show hidden devices.

Can’t Remove VM in Hyper-V Manager (stuck)

Scenario

The VM was backup by ALTARO. The Anti Virus didn’t do an exclusion on the drive that the VM VHD was residing in.  The VM was corrupted after a few days.  A restore was done but it’s still unsuccessful.

When trying to cancel the restore, it just not successful. 

The challenge here is to remove the corrupted VM.  Even after restarting the Hyper-V Host, there’s still no success in removing the VM.

Resolution :

I look into the Task Manager and saw a few process that looks like below :

I found the Virtual Machine Worker Process (vmwp.exe).  I found one that is very low in memory that coincides with the Restore VM.

So I decided to kill the the process (the above was the snapshot after I terminated the process. I forgotten to take a snapshot of the low memory VM that was stuck.  It was like 4MB)

Then I go back to Hyper-V Manager and found that it allows me to remove the VM successfully.

This helps me and hope it helps you guys and gals too.

keywords : Virtual Machine, starting state stuck, workaround to remove stuck VM, Altaro restore, Virtualization, Virtual, restoring stuck

Protection Agent Installation Error (Error 313, 0x80070643)

 

Recently had issue in deploying the DPM 2012 agent to protect an old Windows Server 2003 client.

DPM Server	DPM 2012 SP1
Protected Client	Windows 2003 SP2

After going through the DPM Installation Wizard, the error came up as follow :

After some troubleshooting, found out that in order for the DPM 2012 SP1 to protect the Windows 2003 SP2, one of the pre-requisite is at least .NET 2.0 Framework.  The package can be downloaded from Microsoft website.

One other DPM pre-requisite is the Visual C++  Redistributable Package (have 2 versions – 64bit and 32bits depending on the OS)

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How To Convert Physical to VHD

If you do not have the Virtual Machine Manager (VMM) to help you to convert the Physical Machine Hard Disk, then you can use another tool from the SYSINTERNALS .

To download this tool from the Microsoft Technet click Disk2vhd v1.63

Hope this helps as it has helped me.

keynote : Disk to vhd, physical to virtual, microsoft sysinternal, disk2vhd, VMM,

How to Create Fixed Disk in VHDX using PowerShell

I’m going to share with you on how you can create the VHDX with Fixed Disk using PowerShell.  It’s fun and fast.

Firstly launch the PowerShell (running as Administrator)

Key in the following command :

New-VHD –Path “C:\ClusterStorage\Volume1\ServerVM\Virtual Hard Disks\ServerVMDisk2.vhdx” –size 50GB –Fixed

note : make changes in the yellow highlighted in your environment.  Please include the quotes “  ”.  As for the size, make the change accordingly in BLUE colour in the command above.

Can see the progress and wait (it’s much faster compared to GUI)

The Result as :

Hope the above steps help.

keynote : create fix disk , create fixed disk, create vhdx fix disk using powershell, PowerShell command, Hyper-V creating fix disk using powershell

Checking ISO or DVD that is Still Attach to VMs (Using Powershell)

Sometimes we tend to forget to detach the DVD or ISO from the VMs.  So we would go in to individual VMs to check the setting.

So today I’m going to share what I learn by using the PowerShell, you can check all the VMs in one go.

In the PowerShell command (run as administrator), key in as

Get-VMDvdDrive *

and the results will be something as below :

So hopefully the steps above helps you.  Thank you .

keywords : DVD, ISO, DVD & ISO in VMs, checking is ISO attach to VM, checking DVD attach to VM, Hyper-V with powershell

How to Connect a Drive Recognize in Remote Desktop Session (MSTSC)

Over here I have a situation, I can access to the remote session (Terminal Services) to a server, but I can’t access it physically.  I need to copy some of the files into the server for certain application update.  I can’t use the \\servername\<drive> either from my station to copy from my drive to the server. 

Here’s the solution that I would like to share.

• Run the Remote Desktop Session (or type ‘mstsc’ from RUN box)
• Don’t connect it yet.
• Click on the “Local Resources” tab

• In the Local devices and resources click More

• Select the drive that you want to attach, then click OK.

• Key in the computer name and username.
• Click “Connect”.
• Then you can see the extra drive in the remote server.

Hope this guide helps you.

keywords : remote access, mstsc, attach external drive to remote access, attach external drive to be recognize by terminal services or remote access. USB drive recognize by remote access.

 

Installing .NET 3.5 Offline or Manually

 

Part of the DPM 2012 requirement is install the .NET 3.5.  Somehow in this project, there was no internet connection for it.  So I’m going to share with you the steps :

1. Insert your Windows 2012 Installation Disk into your DVD Drive.
2. Now run Command Prompt as Administrator. (Hint: Start > Type cmd > Now right click on Command Prompt and hit on Run as Administrator from the bottom)
3. Now key in following command or copy and paste it in the command prompt window.
4. Now .Net Framework will be installed within few minutes.

 

DISM /Online /Enable-Feature /FeatureName:NetFx3 /All /LimitAccess /Source:z:\sources\sxs

Note : z is the drive letter of DVD drive. Change it with your DVD drive letter. 

keynote : .NET 3.5 .Net DPM 2012 requirement, how to install .net 3.5 manually install .NET offline

Error in Opening Document (Older version)–Visio

 

Recently I just reinstalled my Visio with Visio 2013.  When I opened the document (that was save in the earlier version), I couldn’t open my Visio documents.  The error is as follow :

So did the following :

• Click on the File tab
• Click Options
• Click Trust Center, then click Trust Center Settings.

• Next select File Block Settings.
• Then UNCHECK the File type.
• then click OK

Now the old Visio documents can be open.

Keywords : KB922850, Error message in Office when a file is blocked by registry policy ..., cannot open old visio, cannot open visio 2003 , visio 2007, visio 2010