IcyBox - An unexpected network error occurred - IB-NAS3221-B

In December 2009 our Bufallo Terastation failed first with a corrupt Kernel then a RAID failure. We were forced to purchase a new NAS box and had to take what we could get same day on a Saturday which turned out to be an IcyBox IB-NAS3221-B from RaidSonic.

The device accepts 2 drives and we installed a new 500gb SATA unit. After an arduous 24 hour backup restore from a USB 1.0 drive and then 18 hours of copying across the network to the new NAS box we should have been set.

Several times though the first day of using the device with 4 people using it as a simple file server it was throwing errors:

• An unexpected network error occurred
• Not enough memory to complete opperation

The error happened both at random times when not much was happening and also when we were copying large amounts of files to or from the device. It seemed that anything over 600mb tripped it up or any copy operation involving more than 2000 files.

One of the Dell Desktop PCs seemed less affected when copying files than my ASUS VX2s so it looked like the network controller on my may have been part of the issue. We also tried using RoboCopy to do some copy operations but that too was unable to shift files to and from the IcyBox.

We ended up shifting the files by hand to a Synology DS508 which would allow our nightly backup routines to an external USB 2.0 devide to run without failing.

Now that the IcyBox is somewhat redundant I updated the firmware from the version shipped from the factory to the latest IB-v263n-v01.3-20090826. The firmware upgrade took about 10 minutes and went without issue.

I'm currently copying 26gb [25, 000] of files from Synology unit to the IcyBox and 2 hours in it's running away nicely at around 1.96mb/sec on our 100mbit network. If I'd had the balls to try a firmware update on a working drive looks very much like it would have saved days of time. Given the choice again there's still no way I'd risk that much data on a firmware update with no way of having a full backup available for immediate restore.

UPDATE [03 July 2010]: I noticed a few referrals coming from a topic over at Tom's Hardware and thought I should update this post.  The firmware update I applied did not resolve the issues with the NAS so it was shelved for a good few months.  Fired it back up a couple of weeks ago and the thing refuses to boot now, simply showing the word 'Booting' on the screen.  The drives did spin up but the power button did not turn the unit off.  Removing the drives produced the same results so now it's going back to the store for a credit note.

ECU Remapping for Diesel and Petrol in Ayrshire

ECU Remapping is one of the main performance tuning services provided by Moorfield Motor Services in Kilmarnock, Ayrshire.

Benefits of an ECU remap

• Increased throttle response
• Increased torque
• Better driveability
• Improved fuel economy
• No compromise on reliability

Diesel ECU remap in Ayrshire

Diesel cars, most notably turbo diesel cars, stand to achieve some of the best increases from an ECU Remap. Typically a remapped diesel turbo ECU can produce a 30-40% increase in BHP and up to 60% increase in torque depending on your specific car.

ECU remapping is better than a diesel tuning box

ECU remapping is much safer than using a diesel tuning box which simply tricks your ECU into supplying more fuel to the engine. This approach can lead to problems including excessive wear on components, heavy black emissions and engine check lights being activated. Compare this to the ECU remap service offered by Moorfield which adjusts specific areas of your car's original ECU map.

How much extra power will I get?

Call 01563 537 145 or email info@moorfieldmotorservices.co.uk with details of your car for advice on what can be done for your particular vehicle and the gains you can expect.

Moorfield Motor Services' website is available at www.moorfieldmotorservices.co.uk

Vista Backup Failed - Error 0x80070005, Access Denied

Ran a routine backup using the Vista Backup and Restore Centre today and it failed to complete giving the following error:

Error 0x80070005, Access Denied

Quick search on Google threw up a few tech forum posts noting that various anti-virus software can cause this error. The backup has run successfully many times previously with Kaspersky active but I tried turning off Lavasoft's Ad-Aware and ran the Vista Backup agian. It completed successfully this time. Problem solved.

Useful link for similar problems is Common causes and solutions to Backup, System Restore, and Complete PC Backup problems on the Microsoft Storage Team Blog.

UPDATE: Got the same error again, first thought was that it was being caused by the folder on the NAS box it was backing up to having been set to Hide this shared folder in "My Network Places". Changing that didn't help, turns out it wanted Kaspersky Anti Virus turned off.

Website shows diamond with question mark character

Was working on a website which was showing a strange character that looks like a diamond with a question mark in. Last time I saw this happen it was corrected by specifying the character set as utf-8 with the following meta tag:

meta equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"

On this occasion the meta tag was already in place and it turns out that the page had a strange single apostrophe. In code view the single apostrophe is usually vertical but this one was slanted. Replacing with a regular one resolved the issue.

Setting Dynamic File Type as 404 Error Page in IIS 6

When setting a Custom Error page in IIS 6 you need to watch the drop down option for File or URL. Setting as File means IIS returns the page as markup so if using a dynamic file type such as PHP or ASP this setting returns your dynamic page as if it was a plain HTML page.

To ensure the dynamic 404 error page runs set the drop down to URL which makes IIS to send a redirect to the client so the client requests the Error Page which ensures IIS runs the dynamic page before sending the output to the client.

Firefox 3.5.2 Content Encoding Error

Came across an error with one of our newly launched websites recently where Frefox 3.5.2 was reporting:

Content Encoding Error

The page you are trying to view cannot be shown because it uses an invalid or unsupported form of compression.

• Please contact the web site owners to inform them of this problem.

The website does use gzip compression so initially I thought the encoding error was something to do with the compression routine. Internet Explorer 7 gave an even less helpful generic error message suggesting that the machine might not be connected to the Internet.

Google is full of similar issues which were caused by a bug in the 3.0.3 release of Firefox.

Opera 9.64 came to the rescue displaying the actual error which was related to a PHP switch statement used to set a Google Map API key outputting an error message before the gzip compression routine ran which meant we were attempting to send the headers after page content had been output.

What happens if you put a USB memory stick in a washing machine?

Q. What happens if you put a USB memory stick in a washing machine?

A. It comes out looking shiny new! At least that's certainly the case with my Corsair Flash Voyager. Having been subject to a full wash and spin cycle I partly expected the drive to malfunction next time it was plugged in especially as the area under the protective cap was slightly damp when it came out the wash. Fortunately the Flash Voyager's features a protective rubber body really does work.

Having used the memory stick a number of times over the past few days it is performing as normal - read rate of around 24mb/sec and write rate of around 14mb/sec. Nice to see the manufacturer's claims of water resistance are absolutely spot on.