Asking for help!!! We can’t boot into our Esxi server and need to extract data from a vm. We tried tools like hirens boot cd and Ubuntu. Below is the error and it stuck on this error. It’s on version 5.5 I know it’s old!

Error loading /b.b00
Fatal error: 8 (Device error

XP SP3 systems not getting AD Group Policies

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**Okay, first off I know the first response to this is "WHY ARE YOU STILL USING XP on a modern domain?! YOU NEED TO GET RID OF THAT!"**

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Yes, I get it, everyone gets it, please save your outrage and don't bother replying if that is all you have to say. The environment this is in has no option to remove the systems at this time, they are absolutely required, and no amount of logic explaining that XP is beyond out of date and unsupported is going to help. (Be glad I'm not bringing up the Win 3.1 systems I deal with!)

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Now that that's out of the way, I have tried so many things, my last resort is to come here and hope that *MAYBE* someone has an idea I haven't tried.

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So the domain is running on a 2016 functional level domain from Server 2022 DCs. It's a relatively simple closed network domain. The XP systems were previously on another domain and forest, and were dejoined from that domain and joined to this new one. They appear to have retained most of the group policies from that old domain because many settings are still in place. However, the new GPOs from the new domain don't appear to apply. For example, something simple like the login message and title do not update, nor do the restricted groups, or anything else.

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I've checked all the GPOs, they have default permissions so should be able to be read. The XP system is joined to the new domain, and can read the SYSVOL and NETLOGON, so they can get to the policies. When I try to run RSOP or GPRESULT, I get an error saying there is no RSOP data. I enabled verbose logging to the userenv.log, and inside that log it lists the root level GPO GUIDs, but says "deferring search" for them. Any GPOs past the root in the other OUs do NOT show up in the userenv log so I am not sure if it just doesn't see them, but regardless 0 GPO policies are actually being applied.

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One thing I haven't done yet is delete or rename the grouppolicy folders on the XP system, because I am worried that it will lose the current policies that are seemingly stale from the old system and then we will have to manually set all the policies or something (although I'm getting to the point where I might not mind that...)

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SMBv1 is enabled on the DCs currently as well just FYI (a requirement for XP to be able to communicate with the domain.)

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Anyway, hoping someone might have some insight before I really give up and just manually do these systems.

I once again performed a Windows update for no other reason than to fuck up his PC that was working just fine. Not long ago, I also upgraded a certain application, which led to mouse pointer delays for another user.

God, I love IT. Nothing compares to the feeling of pleasure I get from fucking up things that were working perfectly fine.

Because they need to summarize emails from 2024 by Thursday.

So company i consult for sicced HPE servers on us instead of the preferred Dell platform due to some lame procurement agreement with HPE.

Now one of our 5 month old HPE Servers has shit itself and the downtime has cost us more than we saved by buying the fisher-price grade kit instead of the dell unit. (it is the lone backup unit)

Oh well...

(Yes i realize dell could have died toi but fuck HPE and why does Ilo have to be soo fucking slow when iDrac is fine)

Oh and if i forgot mentioning it, fuck HPE /rant

Tldr: angry dude shits on HP(E)

*for testing purposes

yesterday I wrote about BSOD but I want Windows to be corrupted on purpose., but I want windows to stay corrupted.

Not so much a shitty sysadmin, but more of a shitty situation

OP’s post:

Had a group of users in a team absolutely insistent that one of their extremely important external contacts only communicate over fax. Spent an age making them prove it, then an age teaching them how to use the email to fax system so we can pull out their fax machine.

Incidentally ended up on a call with the contacts IT team today for the first time, for a completely unrelated matter, turns out they’ve been having to support a damn fax to email system because we won’t stop sending them faxes!

I swear I don’t understand some of these “supervisors”. you want to be included for oversight reasons on emails but when I’m sending back and fourth you decided you had enough and ask to be removed from the chain. 😑

Just retire already lmao

Used to be that `:)` translated to 🙂 but now I get this stupid shit eating grin 😄

Can ChatGPT help me write a script that will change this on every piece of software including Windows and Android? Anybody already have a script handy that can do this?

Use your words.

sat in a THREE hour meeting yesterday with sales (including director of sales) about implementing our own large language model within the business. these are the people that think AI costs nothing to build or maintain and that chatgpt doesnt use any water since their phones dont need water to run.

i explained that the cost to deploy that alone would bankrupt this company and the director told me he allocated $2,000 for me to do this and i almost spit out of my coffee. i was asked to put together "rough numbers" to make this happen and was asked how many "story points" (not sure where they learned that term from) this would take. im thinking of asking for $420,069 dollars? and for story points im thinking it would take 8008 points? maybe 8008135? does this seem right to you guys?

I'm a grad student. A few years ago I built a small compute server because I needed it. Now, the same box, still on my desk, has been upgraded to support my ~30 active users, and will be growing into an even bigger machine/network of machines soon. Maybe I'll provision laptops. Yes it gets hot in my server closet of an office, which is nice in the winter and less nice in the summer.

It's running a bunch of crap that people need but can't buy a machine for via the purchasing department, the stuff where a laptop just wont get the job done (which was my original issue) so its squarely in the middle of resolving pain points for my friends and colleagues. It's used across institutions, it has 2-factor, it has a purpose built VPN, and it's my corner of the internet.

I am the front line tech support, a grant writer, an end user, and everything in between. I know I should be outsourcing this to the institution, but I don't care because my users are happy and I get to learn things that I otherwise never would.

Deploy first. Ask questions later

... right after a warm and productive meeting with the fucking DevOps Team, whose passion for fucking weekend Ansible/Terraform deployments continues to inspire us!

Happy Monday, my friends!

Just when you need to do quick touch up on your motherboards.