FAQ Space Issues?

Does your server space look like this?

Many time I get calls from people saying that the "S drive was full", and they could not save anything there.  I replied: "The S drive is not full--You are full"!  I did not mean they were full of you know what...but meant that the amount of space assigned to their individual user account is full.

The Department of Technology assigns the amount of space an individual can take up on the server based on district wide policies.  For example, students are allowed to save up to 100 MB of files, teachers-- 300 MB, Lead Secretaries, administrators & Tech facilitators--1 Giga byte. 

The amount of space you take up is determined by login.  So if you login to your computer and save a large file to the server (for example a Learn 360 video that might be 30 MB) that amount of space gets deducted from your user name's allotted total of 300 MB.  So with one save of a video you are using ~10% of your allocated server space!  Another important thing to remember is that the amount of your allotted space gets deducted whether you save it to your H drive (the drive with  your user name on it) or the Staff Shared drive.  Even though you are being nice and saving it for others, it still counts against your individual account!

That is why I suggest people save large files (such as music, pictures or videos) to the K drive/Archives folder.  The Archives folder is a special place on the K drive that students DO NOT have Access to--which is important because the K drive is not backed up on a daily basis like the other drives (S & H), and saving to the K Drive does not count against your allotted space!  Woo Hoo!  The K drive also gives users full rights, so it is "vulnerable" in the sense that other people could accidentally delete your files (in the case of the archives folder other teachers could delete your files, but not students).  That's why it is always "safer" to save backups of important files or folders to at least 1 other location.

Where might you save backups ?  Your local hard drive on your computer (the C drive) is a fine place to save.  You might make a folder on your C drive (right click over the C drive and choose new and folder) and perhaps call it something like DOWNS FILES.  This is a better place to save than say your desktop which on occasion may get "swept" by the school district, and might cause you to loose everything saved there.  So,  the C drive is a good backup place, however the C drive is "vulnerable" too.  If your computer ever crashes or needs re-imaged because of a virus, then those local files would be lost.  Another place to save backup files would be a large flash drive--realizing that they too can be lost or damaged in transit.  Finally consider backing up most of your really important files to google docs.  Those files are saved on google servers and can be accessed anytime (assuming you have Internet access) and from any computer with Internet access :)

Also,  sometimes there is confusion between the amount of space you can take up on the server (Your H drive and S Drive) and the amount of space you have on your E-mail account.  At this time, email only allows 100 MB, (your H drive allows 300 MB) but they are separate allotments.  So, just because your e-mail account is giving you warning messages about being full, does not mean your local "server" space is filled as well.

So,  getting back to the teachers whose "S drives" were "full" message, what should they do?  CLEAN UP,  but before you do,  MAKE BACKUPS  as discussed earlier.

HOW TO CLEAN UP?
You might try organizing your files on your H Drive "by size" to see which ones are taking up the most space.  For example, if you right click on your main server drive and choose "ARRANGE BY" and choose SIZE, the largest files will be at the end of your list.  If you don't need those files, delete them first since they will "free up" the most space.  To delete files. simply click on them and either right click on choose delete or hit the delete button on your keyboard.  You can select multiple files at one time, by holding down your CNTL key and randomly clicking on several files.  Holding down the Shift key allows you to select a "range" of files  (everything between your first click and your next click.

With your email, if you go to your "all documents" view, then click at the top where it says "size" you will sort all your email by size.  It will show the largest emails (most likely with attachments) at the top.  Delete those first to "get the most bang for your buck" in deleting.  Don't forget that your percent full message will not change until the next time the district "compacts" your file--which ordinarily takes place ~  only once per week.  Also, keep in mind that when you are in "all documents" view that any item you delete completely deletes it from your mail file including those saved in folders.  Email saved in folders does count against your alotted space :(


Happy Deleting!!

Trying to Retrieve Data from a Computer that will not boot

Today, a teacher brought a hard-drive to me. The computer had "crashed" and would not boot in any mode, safe mode, repair mode, nothing. She was desperate to try and get all her pictures and files that were never backed up. I came across this website, and we were actually able to retrieve the data. Tho, it was a slow process, and especially interesting when I downloaded the German version of the boot-up CD. I was literally on translator.reference.com trying to translate the menu items so I could figure out what to do. But in the end it did work :)

http://www.help2go.com/Tutorials/Computer_Basics/How_to_recover_files_from_an_unbootable_dead_computer.html


There are a lot of steps, but it may be worth it if you don't have backups of your treasured files.

Viruses/ Spyware on your computer?? Try these steps

Just in the last two weeks, I have had more than 5 people bring in computers/laptops from home that have been infected with Malware/Virus or serious spyware. The following are some specific things you might try.

A quick way you can get your computer to start up without tons of pop up and interference from SPYWARE is to do the following:

Start your computer in SAFE MODE...Depending on your operating system and manufacter, if you hit F7 or F8 as your computer is starting, and choose to start in "SAFE Mode with Networking".  Once you get to a desktop try the following:

A) Go to your START Menu, click on RUN , in the open box that comes up, type: msconfig
A window will pop up, click on the START-UP tab , and remove the checks off anything that looks suspicious, (In fact, it is safe to remove all the checks from this window, and often your computer will start up more quickly even when you don't have a virus)

After you remove all the checks you will have to click on APPLY and OK , and then restart. The next time you restart a window will pop up letting you know that you changed the system start-up utility, simply check the box to never show that message again, and hit ok.


B) If you don't have anti-virus or anti-spyware utilities on your computer , at least download the following free installs and save them to a Flash Drive (from another computer if you can't get them to download on your computer because of an infection) Be careful and read everything when downloading and installing--Some will try and get you to click on the paid for versions...or try to add toolbars when you do the install.--if you are careful and read you can uncheck those add ons...

1)
CC CLEANER
(review of CCCLEANER) (Using CCCleaner)

2)
MALWAREBYTES

(Review of Malwarebytes)

3)
AVG FREE ANTI-VIRUS
(Review of AVG Free)

Now, these are some basic steps you can take to try and remove viruses or malware:

BEFORE YOU DO ANYTHING MAJOR....If you are able to get onto your computer, MAKE BACKUPS of any files you will want to keep (your "my documents" folder, pictures, music, etc. Get yourself a large flash drive (4 GB or better cost in the area of 20$ or less) and move files to it as a backup. You should do this on a regular basis anyway!

Step 1 )

Disable the System Restore feature on your computer. If this is still turned on, the system will restore any infected files that were deleted, including those infected by the Trojan horse. Here's how: Right-click the My Computer icon on the desktop and click Properties.
Click the System Restore tab.
Select Turn off System Restore.
Click Apply > Yes > OK.
Continue with step 2. infected files under the _Restore folder can now be deleted.
After you complete the steps below you can Re-enable System Restore by clearing Turn off System Restore.

Step 2)

Turn on the computer and run it in safe mode . Restart the computer and when the words begin appearing on the screen, press the F8 key. This takes you to a new screen, where you'll select the safe mode option . Let the computer start as it regularly would before you continue. While in safe mode, Run the ANTI-Virus/Spyware programs that I suggested you download above.

Step 3)

Go into the Control Panel by clicking on the "Start" button at the bottom left-hand side of the screen and looking for the Control Panel. Select the Add or Remove Programs icon. The computer should then show a list of all programs existing on your system.

Look for programs that look suspicious --Such as Spyware or adware on your computer and select the Remove program option . Many users have found it helpful to look for programs that they didn't install and those that were installed when they downloaded a game or other program onto their computer.


STILL CAN'T GET ON THE INTERNET....??

Sometimes, Viruses or Spyware will disable your internet connection. After completing all the scans above, and you still can't get on the internet...

Try going to START, RUN,
type cmd in the box that comes up.
A black box will appear. Type ipconfig/release and then enter
Then after that is completed,
Type: ipconfig/renew and hit enter.

You might also try going to control panel and internet options, and under the ADVANCED Tab choose to RESET under reset internet explorer settings...

Sometimes viruses or spyware will disable your wireless connection. Try going to your control panel and right clicking on your wireless network connection, and choosing REPAIR...

IN THE FUTURE BE CAREFUL:

Lastly, continue to be very careful surfing the net...if a pop up comes on your computer saying it has found a virus or you need to take immediate action (it is probably part of the spyware/trojan trying to get you to click on it and install it), Instead of clicking on it, immediately unplug your computer and restart and see if it returns. If it does, follow the steps above...

***UPDATE****


Brent Atkinson sent some good advice about making sure your computer is doing updates...Just for the record, We are talking about your home computers here...However, this could be the reason why many people are getting "attacked" with Trojan's...Here's an article about it.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-27080_3-10439004-245.html

and another...

http://clubhouse.microsoft.com/Public/Post/cba7a218-9069-4708-9658-07d6a9db92c1




This article suggests using an alternative browser may not be a bad idea. Also, The article talks about the steps for updating Internet Explorer. Firefox and Google Chrome are two alternative browsers among several others...

Microsoft's Update site:


http://update.microsoft.com/windowsupdate/v6/default.aspx?ln=en-us

Blogging Tips

I saw this link about tips for starting bloggers...

http://edtechpower.blogspot.com/2010/01/10-tips-for-beginning-bloggers.html

Some of them are general tips, and other things are pretty technical, but I was able to use tip #8 about Feedburner which allows readers of your blog to subscribe via e-mail and get an update anytime you update (recall blogger.com only allows us to signup up to 10 readers to subscribe to your blog-- If everyone subscribes, then there is no reason to have to send out an e-mail to remind folks when you update your blog. It will also automatically send out an e-mail when you make a change to your blog--Woo Hoo!

So, with Feedburner I was able to add what's called a widget to my blog. This gives you a form on your blog that allows readers to sign up to receive an e-mail whenever you publish new content--with an unlimited number of subscibers. Feedburner is part of google so it is legitimate and not dangerous in terms of SPAM!

MS Office 2007 conversion Problems

I am seeing more and more office 2007 issues --students bring in flash drive, file won't open because student completed it at home with a newer version of Office (2007). I don't see the school system updating anytime soon especially with the current budget crunch. But you can do a one time install on your computer by following the directions below , and in the future your computer will recognize those files. I have also seen this problem when teachers receive an e-mail from someone who has attached an Office 2007 (usually word) document. This install will solve that problem too :) See below...


At home, you go to the Microsoft conversion download site:


But, here at school, I have placed the converter install file on the staff shared drive:
S:\TEACHER SHARED\installs

Here is what you do:

From your desktop, Go to " my computer ":

Go to the data on 406 dc01 (S) drive (double click on it)

Then, Find the Staff Share folder (double click on it)

Then find the Installs Folder (double click on it)

Find the item that says: (And double click on it)
File Format converters for MS Office 2007
(it may take several seconds to come up, once it does....)

Choose RUN
place a check in the box to accept the terms
then click on continue

That should be it. Once it is completed on a computer, you should not have to run the converters again and that particular computer :)

You might also mention to students if they are working at home, they can " SAVE as" and choose to Save as a word 97-2003 document. That also will eliminate the conversion issue.

Some Video Editing Tips

Since we recently had training in MS Movie Maker before the holidays, I thought I would share this entry in the WS/FCS tech blog about movie maker:

http://wsfcsintouch.blogspot.com/2009/12/importing-videos-from-flip-camera-into.html

If you happen to have received a Flip Video Camera for Christmas, and were trying to use Movie Maker to edit it, then this article may be relevant. I made a comment on the article, and I also recommend a program called "Any Video Converter" that is a free download-able program you can use to convert file formats:

http://www.any-video-converter.com/products/for_video_free/

Finally, some might want to convert from a Windows Media File to actually make a DVD:

http://www.online-tech-tips.com/computer-tips/burn-wmv-to-dvd/

Technology for a new school year: 2009-2010

Hey Everyone,

I am excited about another year at TJMS. Recently, We got some great news from the state of NC! As part of budget cuts, the state has removed the requirement for students in North Carolina to pass the NC On-Line test of computer skills :) While this test brought a focus to learning technology skills, too much emphasis was placed on the actual test, and in my opinion this hurt the learning of real life applications in technology.

So...with the testing burden off our backs, I am looking forward to a year of integrating technology into all curriculum areas, and getting back to learning real-life web 2.0 and beyond skills!

This year, every single staff member will have a HEAT self service log-in. This is this system that we currently use for requesting help with technology. The on-line form will generate an e-mail…and create a database of requests that will help us better serve teachers and the equipment that frequently breaks. There will be a combination of face to Face training and video training for this application. They will be greatly simplifying the HEAT ticket process. Teachers can just go to your browser address bar and type in “Heat” and it will take you yo the on-line form for submitting technology requests. If you see me in the hall and ask me something I will probably say: “I promise to forget that”--fill out a heat ticket instead!

Check out the WS/FCS In Touch Blog there are many ideas for technology uses in the classroom:

http://wsfcsintouch.blogspot.com/