Using DiskPart

This post is mainly for me, since I never can seem to remember the commands to use. :)

DiskPart is a utility that, among other things, allows you to specify the cylinder alignment of hard drives. Exchange and SQL particularly benefit from a 64KB sectors. So much so, in fact, that 64KB alignment is (finally!) the default in Windows Server 2008.

There are plenty of resources on the net that explain when and how to use it. A good explanation by the Exchange Blog can be read here and the Microsoft reference for DiskPart is here.

The commands I use are:

C:\>diskpart
Microsoft DiskPart
version 5.2.3790.1830
Copyright (C) 1999-2001 Microsoft Corporation.
On computer: Exchange2003

DISKPART> select disk 1

Disk 1 is now the selected disk.

DISKPART> create partition primary align=64
DiskPart succeeded in creating the specified partition.

Then open Disk Management, assign a drive letter to the new drive and format it as usual.

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Fixing Side-By-Side Errors

I've run across a few servers that are throwing the following "Side By Side" error in the Application event log:

Event Type: ErrorEvent
Source: SideBySide
Event Category: None
Event ID: 59
Date: 10/12/2007
Time: 7:30:55AM
User: N/A
Computer: FDOMOPS01
Description:Generate Activation Context failed for C:\WINDOWS\WinSxS\x86_Microsoft.VC80.MFC_1fc8b3b9a1e18e3b_8.0.50727.42_x-ww_DEC6DDD2\MFC80U.DLL. Reference error message: The referenced assembly is not installed on your system.

Usually, I've found these servers to be running SQL 2005. The fix is to install the Microsoft Visual C++ 2005 Redistributable Package. It's available here:

• Microsoft Visual C++ 2005 Redistributable Package (x86)


• Microsoft Visual C++ 2005 Redistributable Package (x64)

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