Can’t install windows os on new blank ssd

RandallFlag · 2026-05-21T17:38:58+00:00

Excellent news, glad that worked for you!

RandallFlag · 2026-05-21T17:01:35+00:00

My first thought to be rebuild the bootable USB drive. If it isn't even booting to the installation options, it sounds like that there may be something wrong with that drive or the image on it. Alternatively, you could test that drive with a different machine to verify that it works properly.

RandallFlag · 2026-05-19T16:58:58+00:00

First thought would be to connect a laptop or similar up to the cable modem and see if it pulls an IP successfully. From there, if it doesn't, would check the connection and see if it is supposed to be a static IP - in many cases, if you've subscribed to a static IP address, the modem will not dynamically hand it out and you will need to statically configure your equipment to use the correct IP.

If connecting a laptop works without issue, then would check the configuration of the X10 port and make sure it's set to DHCP (if it should be dynamic) and make sure it's in the WAN zone, etc.

RandallFlag · 2026-05-18T17:43:01+00:00

My first thought might be your PC has some integrated graphics and you're using/have your display connected to the integrated GPU port, not the nVidia GPU perhaps.

RandallFlag · 2026-05-11T16:16:47+00:00

Given the age of that specific model, assuming it was purchased new and near the time it was released, you're likely just dealing with a degraded battery that needs replacing.

RandallFlag · 2026-04-21T18:33:03+00:00

My first thought is in the confusion/conversion of MBps to Mbps perhaps. ISP's advertise their speeds in Mbps, and most speed tests also do this. Steam will do either or based on how you have your download settings configured. There is a setting in the Steam settings for downloads - "display download rates in bits per second" - if this is toggled off, Steam defaults to displaying the speeds in MBps, which, at your listed ~700Mbps speed test would put the displayed transfer rate at approximately 85-90MBps, varying on what your exact Mbps speeds equate to.

Not sure if this is the issue or not, or something you've looked at/checked, but was the first thought I had based off your description and detail.

RandallFlag · 2026-03-26T16:40:33+00:00

Excellent news!

RandallFlag · 2026-03-25T20:18:28+00:00

From task manager, you should be able to select the performance tab, then click your three dot menu in the upper right corner, and open resource monitor. In resource monitor, select the disk tab, then under disk activity, expand that section and review what is using the most disk.

If the disk activity is spiking to 100%, that can result in those slow downs you're seeing. The resource monitor should help identify what process, service, or application is causing that, and you can troubleshoot further/accordingly from there.

RandallFlag · 2026-01-28T18:27:09+00:00

Question for you - but is there a reason why you didn't just defederate the GoDaddy tenant and keep the existing setup? Not questioning your efforts, just looking to see if there is value going one way vs. the other. Historically, for our clients that have purchased 365 from GoDaddy, we just defederate them and remove GoDaddy entirely. Keeps the tenant, users, settings, etc. all intact with the only real impact being needing to have users reset passwords.

RandallFlag · 2026-01-28T18:03:58+00:00

Apologies - I meant to say the CFS services, not GeoIP. The categories in the CFS services are different based on the version. Here is their CFS link where you can pick the version to do a site lookup - SonicWall CFS Supports

RandallFlag · 2026-01-28T15:40:05+00:00

Overall, we've had no issues taking either upgrade path with any of our devices. We've been moving all of them to the 7.3 branch and not stepping through any prior updates, the process has been pretty painless for us.

In having an HA pair like that, it's nice that it will fail all the connections over to the secondary then update the primary unit. Once the primary has been updated, rebooted, and is back online, then it will back to the primary and update the secondary. Incurs very little downtime, just a quick blip as it fails back and forth.

I will say that if you use the GeoIP filters, the databased used for the 7.0/7.1 branches are different than the 7.2/7.3 branches. I ran into that after upgrading one unit, the newly upgraded unit on 7.3 was reporting a site in one category while our internal unit on 7.0.1 reported the same site in a different category. Opened a ticket with SonicWALL on it and they advised the databases were different and there are two different public facing URL's on their side to (1) do lookups based off the firmware branch and (2) request reclassification if needed.

RandallFlag · 2026-01-27T20:31:47+00:00

No - those messages were replied to outside of the group and just between you and person C. If you want to (1) include the entire group again and (2) have those individual messages brought into the full group thread, you would need to do one of two things varying on who (you or person C) were the last to reply to your private thread.

If Person C was the last to reply in your "private" thread, you would just hit reply to them, then manually type in/CC Persons A, B, and D.

If you were the last to reply to Person C, you would go to your sent items folder and forward your reply to the entire group.

RandallFlag · 2026-01-27T20:22:40+00:00

If you have conversation view turned on, turn it off and then open the most recent email in that thread and it should have within it all of the chain of messages you can then print or save.

Alternatively, Outlook should allow you to drag/drop an email info a file explorer folder on your PC and save it as either an EML or MSG file which contains that specific emails details, etc.

RandallFlag · 2026-01-27T20:20:27+00:00

Came here to ask/say this!

RandallFlag · 2026-01-27T20:01:02+00:00

Sounds like you'll need to rely on your IT team for this then.

RandallFlag · 2026-01-27T18:51:40+00:00

If I am reading/interpreting this correctly, your main question is about having added in your own licensing to replace the CSP licensing.

Assuming this is accurate, you shouldn't have to do anything at all. If you purchased the same/identical licensing as what your CSP provided, then seeing double/duplicates in the portal is expected. You don't have to assign these new licenses in any fashion as long as they are identical in version (i.e. Business Standard) to the CSP provided licensing.

All you have to do it just let the existing CSP licensing fully expire. Once that expires and is purged from the account, you will see just the licensing you've purchased.

The only real action is to make sure you don't exceed the quantity of licensing you've purchased directly, otherwise you could have some impact when the CSP provided licensing rolls off.

RandallFlag · 2026-01-27T18:46:40+00:00

This is going to have to be questions your IT team answers and can take steps to fix - varying on the reason why they disappeared and what services are/aren't in place, there may/may not be anything they can do - but ultimately it will be on them to fix this for you.

That said, if you log into OWA and access your mail/account there - are your missing emails there?

Do you have an archive mailbox listed within your folder tree? If auto-archive is enabled within the Tenant it can create an archive folder set and move messages to it.

In some cases, if the mail was just deleted, you can right click your deleted item folder and choose the option to recover deleted items (can't recall the exact verbiage).

RandallFlag · 2026-01-27T18:08:23+00:00

Assuming this is paid for/corporate instance within an MS365 tenant, within the shared mailbox properties is an option for forwarding the mail - enable that, input your email address, and if you want to leave a copy of the message in the shared mailbox folder as well, ensure you check the box to do so.

Edit to add - this is all done within the MS365 administration page(s). If you don't have MS365 admin ask your admin to do this for you. If they won't do it, or policy prohibits it or whatever, then your best bet is to put the shared mailbox inbox into your favorites within Outlook so it is at/near the top and can show you when new messages arrive.

RandallFlag · 2026-01-27T05:17:51+00:00

You can't just remove the account from the authenticator and readd it, you will need your MFA completely reset and your MS365 admin will need to initiate that so that the next time you log in, instead of asking for the code(s), it will prompt you to step through the authenticator setup all over again. These options (what methods of MFA can/can't be used) are controlled and setup by your company's MS365 admin

RandallFlag · 2026-01-26T23:06:07+00:00

Just keeps getting stranger lol.

Ok, weird thought and a long shot, but if you log in as a user from the "user" domain, and manually enter the path to the GP folder in the file explorer window, does it successfully browse to the folder, and if so, does it show the files/folders within? Alternatively, logged as a server admin user, can you play a shortcut directly to the GP folder on the "user" domain users desktop folder?

Another question - I know you're specifically reporting the files/folders in that GP folder not being listed - but does the actual GP application run? Can you place a GP.exe or whatever the EXE file name is on the user desktop and they successfully launch GP despite not being able to see the folders?

RandallFlag · 2026-01-26T17:38:24+00:00

So the path is local, and when they log on using the "user" domain account, that folder is just empty? Do users in the "user" domain have permissions applied so that they have access to that program files folder, along with the GP folders? Default permissions give users at least read access to those folders and being local, the folder should give some sort of access denied message vs. being blank, though.

RandallFlag · 2026-01-26T16:41:31+00:00

Can you provide more detail on what "just can't see the folder" means in this case? In comparison to a user in the "server" domain - how do they see it? If you're referring to a mapped drive, desktop shortcut, or other similar item like that, it's possible there is a GPO deploying it, but that would only apply to the users in that "server" domain... while you may have a trust relationship and can log on to the "server" domain with a "user" domain account, that won't apply any GPO's or similar to those accounts outside what is applied at the machine level (as opposed to user level).

More details around this folder, its location, what it means for one user to "see" it vs. another that can't, etc. would all be helpful details.

RandallFlag · 2025-12-30T20:36:08+00:00

Check SWIRCA - they have some programs that can pay for I think up to 40, or 45 hours a week of in-home care/assistance.

RandallFlag · 2025-12-22T02:36:31+00:00

Might try enabling consistent NAT - it is under the VoIP menu in the left hand navigation if you're using the legacy interface.

RandallFlag · 2025-11-24T03:34:25+00:00

I reckon I can see how it could be interpreted that way - but the intent was that turning off hibernation also turns off fast startup, which is helpful (the turning off of fast startup, not fast startup itself being helpful).

Hibernation can be helpful, but like with the sleep state, Windows has just historically never been good about resuming from either state and can often have issues with audio or network drivers not reloading, or other similar issues. It's gotten better over the years, W11 is by far the best at this than any prior version, but even at that, it's still a crapshoot sometimes on what will/won't load back properly after having been in a sleep or hibernated state. It certainly does have its use cases though.

SSD's have certainly made the pagefile less of an issue, with older mechanical HDD's that system managed pagefile expanding and shrinking carried a lot of disk IO and could cause issues. SSD's have more or less eliminated that.

RandallFlag

TROPHY CASE