How to Find and Change Windows Product Key and Registration Information

Magical Jelly Bean Keyfinder is freeware utility by which you can you do the following:
Find your Windows 95, 98, ME, NT4, 2000, XP, Server 2003, Windows Vista product keys.
Find your Windows 95, 98, ME, NT4, 2000, XP, Server 2003, Windows Vista registration information.
Change your Windows 95, 98, ME, and XP product key. (Windows 2000, 2003, NT4 and Vista supported)
Change your windows registration information.
Find your Microsoft Office 97, Office XP, and Office 2003 installation key. (Office 2000 not supported).

The screenshots provided below illustrate the process of changing your windows product key and registration information.

Is this software legal?
Yes this legal because Microsoft itself has knowledge base article which describes how to change your windows key and provides the script for this process. This freeware utility utilizes those scripts.

You can download this freeware (File Size: 260Kb):Download 1
Download 2

Disclaimer:
Certain antivirus software like Mcafee and Nod32 consider this file as spyware and delete it, but this file is absolutely harmless you can go ahead and try it.

XP expires

To reduce instances of "casual copying" (a nice name for software piracy), Microsoft has implemented a two-stage antipiracy scheme in its upcoming OS. The first stage is the installation and registration counter: this lets you install Windows XP only five times on the same system. (Note that you'll be able to install the final version of XP on only one machine, as opposed to the current beta, which can be installed on five machines for testing purposes.) The second stage creates a profile of the system to prevent you from reinstalling or registering the OS on different PCs.

To make this scheme work, you must activate your copy of Windows--over the Internet or by calling for an activation code--within 30 days of installation. Activation differs from a classic registration process in that no personal information is requested by or sent to Microsoft, just a record that a specific copy of Windows XP is installed on your specific PC. If you fail to activate your copy of the OS within 30 days, your login will fail. (Since XP is based on Windows NT-like privilege levels, you can't use your computer until you log on.)

Microsoft says the scheme should not prevent you from reinstalling your copy of XP on your PC as many times as you need to, as long as it's the same PC or close to it, allowing for some hardware changes. It's the "some" that has most folks worried. In theory, you might have to reactivate your OS if you upgrade significantly or swap out a lot of components because XP might think it's running on a new PC. So far, Microsoft isn't saying what system information the OS uses to determine the "same PC or close to it" status. That means we don't know to what degree you can upgrade your hardware before you cross the invisible line. We also don't know how much, if any, personally identifiable data Microsoft is gathering from your PC.

Microsoft says you can, of course, change at least one and possibly several hardware components--RAM, video or sound cards, CPUs, motherboards, and so on--without having to reactivate your OS. But if you try to reinstall your copy of Windows XP on what Microsoft calls a "different or significantly upgraded or changed PC" (again, the company declined to specify how different), the activation will most likely be rejected, requiring you to call Microsoft to explain and get a new (free) activation code.

Microsoft plans to set up a new call center for U.S.-based customers to expedite activation issues. Many non-U.S. customers will likely have to go through the existing, shared Microsoft technical support lines they currently use. Microsoft says it expects only 2 percent of the total installed base of Windows XP to have to reactivate the OS. Whether the anti-piracy initiative will present problems for consumers or result in fewer upgrades to XP remains to be seen. Remember, the final release is at least a few months off.

Automated System Recovery

This tip will attempt to show you how to set up and use Automated System Recovery in Windows XP.
ASR is a two–part system of recovery:
1.ASR backup
2.ASR restore.
You should make Automated System Recovery (ASR) sets regularly as part of your plan for system recovery in case of it failing.
IMPORTANT: ASR should be a last resort for system recovery, it should be used only after every other option has been exhausted, such as Safe Mode Boot and Last Known Good Configuration.
1. ACCOMPLISHING THE ASR BACKUP
The backup part uses the ASR Wizard located in Backup to complete this task. The wizard backs up:
the system state
system services
and all disks associated with the operating system components.
It also creates a file containing:
information about the backup
the disk configurations (including basic and dynamic volumes)
and how to accomplish a restore.
HERE'S HOW TO CREATE AN ASR SET USING BACKUP
1.You will need a blank floppy disk to save your system settings and media to contain the backup files.
2.To open Backup. Click Start-->All Programs-->Accessories-->System Tools-->then click Backup. The Backup Utility Wizard starts by default, unless it is disabled.
3.Click the Advanced Mode button in the Backup Utility Wizard.
4.On the Tools menu-->click ASR Wizard.
5.Follow the instructions that appear on your screen.
IMPORTANT: Only those system files necessary for starting your system will be backed up using the Backup Utility Wizare.
HOW DOES ASR WORK?
You can get to the restore portion by pressing F2 when prompted in the text–mode portion of setup. Automated System Recovery will read the disk configurations from the file that it creates and restore all of the disk signatures, volumes and partitions necessary, so that, at least, you'll be able to start the computer. Although, under some circumstances, it might not be able to restore all of the disk configurations. ASR then installs a simple installation of Windows and automatically starts restoring using the backup that was created by the Wizard.
RECOVERING FROM A SYSTEM CRASH USING ASR
Here's how:
1.Make sure you have the following items before you begin:
Your previously created Automated System Recovery (ASR) floppy disk.
Your previously created backup media.
The original Windows XP installation CD.
2.Insert the Windows XP installation CD into your CD/DVD drive.
3.Restart your PC. If prompted to press a particular key in order to start the computer from CD, do so.
4.Press F2 when prompted during the text–only mode section of Setup. You will be prompted to insert the ASR floppy disk you have previously created.
5.Follow the directions on the screen.
Important To Remember:
ASR will not put back your data files.

McAfee Command Line Tool for removing Virus

Follow the steps to clean Virus:

1) Click Here to Download a File (Download) (OR) Go to the following link
http://www.mcafee.com/apps/downloads/security_updates/superdat.asp?region=us&segment=enterprise
I. Select SDAT tab
II. Click on sdat5598.exe and save the file
NOTE: Verify that the file should be more than 100MB
2) Create a folder SDAT at c:\
3) Copy the file into SDAT folder.
4) Turn off System Restore on All Drives.
I. To turn off System Restore Do the Following.
II. Right Click on My Computer icon on Desktop Select Properties.
III. Select System Restore tab, put a click on Check box and click ok
5) Reboot the System and Press F2/F8/ or whatever your computer document suggest when the POST begins but before Windows start.
6) Select Safe Mode and allow the system to boot in Safe Mode.
7) Click START Select Run and type CMD to get Command Console.
8) Type cd \SDAT.
9) Type sdat5598.exe /e at command console .
10) This Command will Extract 19 files.
11) After Extracting all files Type "scan /adl /all /clean" Command.
12) This Will Clean virus from your system.
13) After Completing scanning restart your computer Normal Mode.
14) Turn on System Restore point (For this user Point 4)
System Restore Window

Using sfc /scannow for your windows repair

Self File Protection System In Windows

Windows XP has the ability to protect itself from system instability caused by the overwriting important system files. This is a problem with Windows 95 and Windows 98. With the introduction of Windows Millennium Edition, Microsoft made a strong effort to stop this from happening. Now, in Windows XP, there is a much better protection of these important files. This system is called Windows File Protection

Windows File Protection is always enabled and allows Windows digitally signed files to replace existing files safely. If you introduce a file replacement in any other way, Windows File protection will overwrite your file!

An important part of Windows File Protection is the command line utility: System File Checker (sfc.exe) This is a great tool for troubleshooting Windows XP problems.

The main reason for using this utility is when you suspect there may be a problem with a Windows XP system file. Perhaps you get a dialog box appear informing you of a problem with a .dll file, or your program will just not load! It is therefore worth checking to see if there are any corrupt system files using scannow sfc.

To do this simply go to the Run box on the Start Menu and type in: sfc /scannow

This command will immediately initiate the Windows File Protection service to scan all protected files and make sure of their correctness, replacing any files that it finds with a problem.

Note : Make Sure That OS CD On Drive.

A box should appear to give an indication of how long the process is taking.
If all goes as it should, any corrupt, missing or incorrect files would be replaced by this process. However, as with most actions in this world, things can go wrong and the following should help!

The most frequent complaint with scannow /sfc is that a dialog box appears asking you to insert your Windows XP CD-ROM to continue.


Why Does This Happen ?

There are several settings in your computer's registry that are checked when you run scannow /sfc.

As stated before, the Windows File Protection constantly monitors for any changes to the main system files. These are usually stored in:C:WINDOWSSystem32Dllcache (C: in most cases is the root drive) The dllcache folder is extremely important so Windows XP hides it from you! To view it go to:

My Computer -> Tools -> Folder Options -> View -> "uncheck" Hide protected operating system files.

There is normally no need for the original XP CD to be inserted as your computer has a copy it can get hold of in this cache.

But, if the Dllcache folder, or part of it, has become corrupted for some reason then you will be prompted for the XP CD - so your computer can get a clean copy!

However, not ALL installations of Windows XP have ALL the system files cached into this folder! You may only have around 25-50MB of files in this folder under Windows XP depending on the settings in the registry.

If your Task Manager is Disabled

Main

1) Click "Start" Button
2) Select "Run"
3) Type "regedit"

4)Navigate HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System
5) After Point System Check in the right pane for Disabletaskmgr, if you find it double click and change the D-word Valu to zero(0)
6) Close the regedit and restart system
7) Last but not Least When ever if u find any errors like this, That means Your System is infected with Virus. Better Update your anti virus software.

OR

Method 1 - Using the Group Policy Editor in Windows XP Professional

1. Click Start, Run, type gpedit.msc and click OK.
2. Under User Configuration, Click on the plus (+) next to Administrative Templates
3. Click on the plus (+) next tSystem, then click on Ctrl+Alt+Delete Options
4. Find Remove Task Manager in the right-hand pane and double click on it
5. Choose the option "Not Configured"  and click Ok. 
6. Close the Group Policy Window

Method 2:  Change the Task Manager Option through the Run line

1. Click on Start, Run and type the following command exactly and press Enter

REG add HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System /v DisableTaskMgr /t REG_DWORD /d 0 /f

Method 3: Change Task Manager through a Registry REG file

1. Click on Start, Run, and type Notepad and press Enter
2. Copy and paste the information between the dotted lines into Notepad and save it to your desktop as taskmanager.reg

------------------------------------
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System]
"DisableTaskMgr"=dword:00000000
-------------------------------------

      3. Double click on the taskmanager.reg file to enter the information into the Windows registry

Method 4: Delete the restriction in the registry manually

1. Click on Start, Run, and type REGEDIT and press Enter
2. Navigate to the following branch
   HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Software \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ Policies\ System
3. In the right pane, find and delete the value named DisableTaskMgr
4. Close the registry editor

Search Option Not Working

Do the Following to restore your search option
1) Click Start and then Run
2) Run the following files
I. regsvr32 wshom.ocx
II. regsvr32 jscript.dll
III. regsvr32 urlmon.dll
3) Then you will see that your search engine works normally

Help Desk and Asset Management software for IT People

ServiceDesk Plus is a web-based helpdesk software that helps you manage all your communications from a single point. It offers an integrated Request management (Trouble Ticketing), Asset management, Purchase order management, Contract Management, Self-Service Portal, and Knowledge Base.

ServiceDesk Plus Features

Helpdesk Management

ServiceDesk Plus help desk management gives you everything to manage your help desk requests effectively. It includes self-service portal, knowledge base, auto routing of requests, notifications, sla management,email integration, LDAP, AD integration, API integration, custom request form,user survey, flash reports, multi-site support, help desk reporting.

Self-service portal to enable login for users to submit their trouble tickets Web-based knowledge-base system for users and technicians to search and add the troubleshooting docs NMS Integration to integrate with Network Monitoring Software for tracking events and network failures Service Level Agreements to set escalation levels for the SLA violations Multi-site functionality to manage requests, assets and technicians separately for different sites in your organization Email Integration to handle all the help desk emails sent by the users Notification alerts via email or sms, to inform users or technicians for request handling Request scheduling to manage and track the preventive maintenance tasks API integration to integrate your web-based help desk software with any third-party software Active Directory integration to enable user authentication with single sign-on functionality Robo technician to automate the "reset password requests" Request survey to know the technician competent level and user satisfaction level on request resolutions Flash Reports to get a consolidated view on what is happening with your helpdesk Help Desk Reports to schedule and review the reports based on Request-status, SLA-violation and many more from the list of default reports or to create your own custom reports

Where ever you can browse this software using URL in LAN.

like : " http://:8080

Ex.: http://172.16.1.1:8080

AdventNet ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus here you can download

Download Here

Fast Duplicate File Finder Detects Extra Copies on Hard Disk Space

H is a Free Software

utility that you can consider. Named as Fast Duplicate File Finder, it will able to help you identify duplicated copies in your hard disk drives

and allow you to delete them, freeing up the hard Disk Space more optimized PC performance.

Once install and launch the utility, it will bring you to a simple GUI. Without complicated setup guide, users just need to select and add those folders that are intended to be scanned for duplicated files. Under the option, users can select to tick on the ‘Scan subfolders’ so that all of the sub directories will be covered without miss. It may take some times for all the files to be scanned through depending on your file and folder size. Good thing is, the utility will able to list down all the duplicated files with preview capability so that users can decide if to delete them straight away.

The utility consumes around 1.6MB and is suitable to be used on any Windows OS. If you think this is useful, just download it here to figure out how much space you are able to save after deleting the duplicated copies.

Restart or Shutdown Windows (XP, 2000 and Vista) from Command Line or One-Click Shortcut

In order to shutdown or restart the Windows with just one click shortcut or from command line, users can use shutdown command line utility/command that comes with Windows 2000 (with the Resource Kit installed) and Windows XP or Windows Vista (native). To access shutdown command, simply go to DOS command prompt by clicking on Start -> All Programs -> Accessories -> Command Prompt or Start -> Run and then type in Cmd to launch a command prompt window.

Type shutdown -s -t 01 Here "01" Means time for shutdown in no. of Seconds.

If you want brief discription for shutdown command

Type shutdown /? in command line

How To Monitor for Unauthorized User Access in Windows 2000

Summary:

This article describes how to monitor your system for unauthorized user access. There are two main steps: Enabling security auditing and viewing the security logs. Note that different systems have different security needs, and the security topic is complex. Any user who sets up security audits on your system must be assigned to administrative groups or be given security rights and privileges.

How to Enable Security Auditing

You set up security auditing differently depending on whether the computer is a standalone computer or a domain controller.

Standalone Servers, Member Servers, or Windows 2000 Professional

1. Click Start, click Run, type mmc /a, and then click OK.
2. On the Console menu, click Add/Remove Snap-in, and then click Add.
3. Under Snap-in, click Group Policy, and then click Add.
4. In the Select Group Policy Object box, click Local Computer, click Finish, click Close, and then click OK.
5. In the Local Computer Policy box, click Computer Configuration, click Windows Settings, click Security Settings, click Local Policies, and then click Audit Policy.
6. In the details pane, click Audit logon events.
7. Click Action, click Security, select Unsuccessful logon attempts, and then click OK.

Windows 2000-Based Domain Controllers

1. Click Start, point to Programs, point to Administrative Tools, and then click Active Directory Users and Computers
2. In the console tree, click Domain Controllers.
3. Click Action, and then click Properties.
4. Click the Group Policy tab, click Default Domain Controllers Policy, and then click Edit.
5. Click to expand Computer Configuration, Windows Settings, Security Settings, Local Policies, and then Audit Policy.
6. In the details pane, click Audit logon events.
7. On the Action menu, click Security, click to select the Define these policy settings check box, click to select the Failure check box, and then click OK.

How to View Security Logs

1. Click Start, point to Programs, point to Administrative tools, and then click Event viewer.
2. In the console tree, click Security log.
3. Look in the details pane for information about the event you want to view, and then double-click the event.

Troubleshooting

• If your computer is connected to a network, security logging may be restricted or disabled by a network policy.
• The security log is limited in size; carefully select the events to be audited and consider the amount of disk space you are willing to devote to the security log.
• If security auditing is enabled on a remote computer, you can view the event logs remotely with Event Viewer. Start a Microsoft Management Console (MMC) console in Author mode, and then add Event Viewer to the console. When you are prompted to specify which computer the snap-in will manage, click Another computer, and then type the name of the remote computer.
• Security auditing for workstations, member servers, and domain controllers can be enabled remotely only by domain administrators. To do this, create an organizational unit, add the appropriate machine accounts to the organizational unit, and then use Active Directory Users and Computers to create a policy to enable security auditing.

How to determine whether users changed their passwords before an account lockout

Summary :

This step-by-step article describes how to determine whether users changed their passwords before an account lockout. You may want to configure an audit account management policy to determine whether users changed their passwords before an account lockout occurred. This policy may be useful when users forget their new passwords, or when users continue to use their old passwords.

Audit Account Management in Microsoft Windows 2000 Server and Windows Server 2003

1. Click Start, and then click Run.
2. In the Open box, type mmc, and then click OK.
3. On the Console menu, click Add/Remove Snap-in, and then click Add.
4. In the Add Standalone Snap-in dialog box, click Group Policy, click Add, click Finish, click Close, and then click OK.
5. Double-click Local Computer Policy, and then double-click Computer Configuration.
6. Double-click Windows Settings, and then double-click Security Settings.
7. Double-click Local Policies, and then double-click Audit Policy.
8. In the right pane, double-click Audit account management.
9. In the Local Security Policy Setting dialog box, click to select the Success and the Failure check boxes, and then click OK.
10. Click Start, point to Programs, point to Administrative Tools, and then click Event Viewer.
11. Click Security Log, and then in the right pane, double-click Success Audit or Failure Audit.

Audit Account Management in Microsoft Windows NT 4.0

1. Click Start, point to Programs, point to Administrative Tools, and then click User Manager for Domains.
2. Click Policies on the menu bar, and then click Audit.
3. Click Audit These Events.
4. Click to select the Failure check box for the Logon and Logoff event.
5. Click to select the Success and the Failure check boxes for the User and Group Management event, and then click OK.
6. Click Start, point to Programs, point to Administrative Tools, and then click Event Viewer.
7. Click Log on the menu bar, and then click Security.

*******************************************************
The following is an example an account management event:


Event Type: Success Audit
Event Type: Success Audit
Event Source: Security
Event Category: Account Management
Event ID: 642 Date: 8/12/2008
Time: 3:13:33 PM
User: CONTOSO\administrator
Computer: CONTOSO-DCB
Description: User Account Changed:
Target Account Name: t
Target Domain: CONTOSO
Target Account ID: CONTOSO\t
Caller User Name: administrator
Caller Domain: CONTOSO
Caller Logon ID: (0x0,0x233FF)
Privileges: -
Changed Attributes:
Sam Account Name: -
Display Name: - User
Principal Name: -
Home Directory: -
Home Drive: -
Script Path: -
Profile Path: -
User Workstations: -
Password Last Set: 8/12/2008 3:13:33 PM
Account Expires: -
Primary Group ID: -
AllowedToDelegateTo: -
Old UAC Value: -
New UAC Value: -
User Account Control: -
User Parameters: -
Sid History: -
Logon Hours: -
**************************************************

How to track users logon/logoff

The Auditing

Option 1:

1. Enable Auditing on the domain level by using Group Policy:

Computer Configuration/Windows Settings/Security Settings/Local Policies/Audit Policy

There are two types of auditing that address logging on, they are Audit Logon Events and Audit Account Logon Events.

Audit "logon events" records logons on the PC(s) targeted by the policy and the results appear in the Security Log on that PC(s).

Audit "Account Logon" Events tracks logons to the domain, and the results appear in the Security Log on domain controllers only


2. Create a logon script on the required domain/OU/user account with the following content:

echo %date%,%time%,%computername%,%username%,%sessionname%,%logonserver% >>
\\SERVER\SHARENAME$\LOGON.LOG

3. Create a logoff script on the required domain/OU/user account with the following content:

echo %date%,%time%,%computername%,%username%,%sessionname%,%logonserver% >>
\\SERVER\SHARENAME$\LOGOFF.LOG


Note: Please be aware that unauthorized users can change this scripts, due the requirement that

the SHARENAME$ will be writeable by users.


++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Option 2:


Use WMI/ADSI to query each domain controller for logon/logoff events.

Technical help for a system administrator: RAID 5 overview

Technical help for a system administrator: RAID 5 overview

Technical help for a system administrator: regedit not opening

Technical help for a system administrator: regedit not opening

Technical help for a system administrator: Disabling USB storage on a Windows platform

Technical help for a system administrator: Disabling USB storage on a Windows platform

Technical help for a system administrator: RAID 10 overview

Technical help for a system administrator: RAID 10 overview

Technical help for a system administrator: Mcafee antivirus ( Virusscan 8.5 ) 8.5

Technical help for a system administrator: Mcafee antivirus ( Virusscan 8.5 ) 8.5

Technical help for a system administrator: Windows key finder software

Technical help for a system administrator: Windows key finder software

Multi Ping batch file script

If you want ping for multi ip address and know the status in log file
This script will help you a lot
copy this all script in a notepad
save as ping.bat file on desktop

And create a computers.txt text document in c:\ ( C drive)
Here give required IP address in computers.txt file
Like




Now You can ping and check the status N number of ip's at a time.

open ping.bat file which is saved on desktop

Its going to ping all ips and open a new log file with the status of all ip's


Its really helpful to system and network administrators.


@echo off (Set InputFile=c:\Computers.txt) title,Pinging list of computers &color 9e ::datestamp for /f "tokens=2-4 skip=1 delims=(-./)" %%i in ('echo.^|date') do ( for /f "tokens=1-4 delims=-./ " %%m in ('date /t') do ( (set dow=%%m)&(set %%i=%%n)&(set %%j=%%o)&(set yy=%%p) ) ) For /F "tokens=1,2 delims=:, " %%i in ('TIME /T') Do (Set HHMM=%%i%%j) (Set OutputFile=c:\Pinglog %yy%-%mm%-%dd% %HHMM%.txt) If Exist "%OutputFile%" Del "%OutputFile%" For /F "eol=;" %%* in ('type "%InputFile%"') do ( >>"%OutputFile%" (echo.&echo.---------------&( echo.%%*;&(ping -a -n 2 -w 750 %%* | Find ".")) )&echo.done %%*,) ::check start notepad.exe %OutputFile%

Creating a batch file for simple ping command to an ip

Open a notepad
Copy below text in notepad


echo off
echo.
cls
color 5e
echo.
echo.
echo.
echo.
echo ********** ISDN **********
echo.
echo.
ping 192.168.1.1 -t -l 4
echo.
echo.
echo.
echo.
pause
COLOR
ECHO ON
EXIT

Replace the ip address which you want to ping

This text file save as .bat (ex: ping.bat )

RAID 5 overview

RAID 5 is a method of spreading volume data across multiple disk drives. The DS6000™ series supports RAID 5 arrays.

RAID 5 increases performance by supporting concurrent accesses to the multiple DDMs within each logical volume. Data protection is provided by parity, which is stored throughout the drives in the array. If a drive fails, the data on that drive can be restored using all the other drives in the array along with the parity bits that were created when the data was stored.

One of the most popular RAID levels, RAID 5 stripes both data and parity information across three or more drives. It is similar to RAID 4 except that it exchanges the dedicated parity drive for a distributed parity algorithm, writing data and parity blocks across all the drives in the array. This removes the "bottleneck" that the dedicated parity drive represents, improving write performance slightly and allowing somewhat better parallelism in a multiple-transaction environment, though the overhead necessary in dealing with the parity continues to bog down writes. Fault tolerance is maintained by ensuring that the parity information for any given block of data is placed on a drive separate from those used to store the data itself. The performance of a RAID 5 array can be "adjusted" by trying different stripe sizes until one is found that is well-matched to the application being used.

This illustration shows how files of different sizes are distributed between the drives on a four-disk RAID 5 array using a 16 kiB stripe size. As with the RAID 0 illustration, the red file is 4 kiB in size; the blue is 20 kiB; the green is 100 kiB; and the magenta is 500 kiB, with each vertical pixel representing 1 kiB of space. Contrast this diagram to the one for RAID 4, which is identical except that the data is only on three drives and the parity (shown in gray) is exclusively on the fourth.drive.

Controller Requirements: Requires a moderately high-end card for hardware RAID; supported by some operating systems for software RAID, but at a substantial performance penalty.

Hard Disk Requirements: Minimum of three standard hard disks; maximum set by controller. Should be of identical size and type.

Array Capacity: (Size of Smallest Drive) * (Number of Drives - 1).

Storage Efficiency: If all drives are the same size, ( (Number of Drives - 1) / Number of Drives).

Fault Tolerance: Good. Can tolerate loss of one drive.

Availability: Good to very good. Hot sparing and automatic rebuild are usually featured on hardware RAID controllers supporting RAID 5 (software RAID 5 will require down-time).

Degradation and Rebuilding: Due to distributed parity, degradation can be substantial after a failure and during rebuilding.

Random Read Performance: Very good to excellent; generally better for larger stripe sizes. Can be better than RAID 0 since the data is distributed over one additional drive, and the parity information is not required during normal reads.

Random Write Performance: Only fair, due to parity overhead; this is improved over RAID 3 and RAID 4 due to eliminating the dedicated parity drive, but the overhead is still substantial.

Sequential Read Performance: Good to very good; generally better for smaller stripe sizes.

Sequential Write Performance: Fair to good.

Cost: Moderate, but often less than that of RAID 3 or RAID 4 due to its greater popularity, and especially if software RAID is used.

Special Considerations: Due to the amount of parity calculating required, software RAID 5 can seriously slow down a system. Performance will depend to some extent upon the stripe size chosen.

Recommended Uses: RAID 5 is seen by many as the ideal combination of good performance, good fault tolerance and high capacity and storage efficiency. It is best suited for transaction processing and is often used for "general purpose" service, as well as for relational database applications, enterprise resource planning and other business systems. For write-intensive applications, RAID 1 or RAID 1+0 are probably better choices (albeit higher in terms of hardware cost), as the performance of RAID 5 will begin to substantially decrease in a write-heavy environment.