RAID Activation problem

wrote in message

I’ve been reading about this problem since I just got bit by it. My Photoshop CS has been running smoothly for a couple of years. However a couple of days ago it unexpectedly started complaining that I needed Administrator privileges for Adobe Activation to work. Of course I have Administrator privileges. The error simply closed Photoshop without recourse to reactivate the product.

My system is installed in a RAID 5 configuration but I haven’t been able to find the RAID patch on Adobe’s site. Has it been removed?

RAID 5 is not a good choice for PS. Due to the amount of parity calculating required, RAID 5 can seriously slow down a system. Performance will depend to some extent upon the stripe size chosen. It is seen though 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, e.g. PS.

Adobe support has not been helpful since they say my only option is to reformat the RAID array and reinstall Windows. However they can’t warranty that the problem won’t return latter. They say I have to reinstall Windows and Photoshop in a single drive configuration!!!!!!!!
I’ve since found out that Adobe Activation writes information to some protected disk sectors (which it shouldn’t write to!!!!) and this

This is an anti piracy/using the free download for longer than the 30 days device.If you have a system on which the conventional retail version (single user, 2 activations, CS or CS2) of Photoshop was installed, there is an activation hash that is written to a hidden area of the hard drive boot sector. Unless you perform a low-level format of the hard drive (most of us don’t when reformatting) that also deletes the boot sector information, the reinstallation of PS will always see that data and recognize a prior activation has been performed. The result is that you will be fully denied any further use of PS until a repair activation has been performed. Adobe ignores providing a reduced grace period (5-7 days perhaps) that is reasonable for all situations where PS has had to be reinstalled and a repair activation is immediately required. This was a more signficant problem with CS than with CS2, because of the more fragile nature of the license management process and no means to perform a Transfer Activation.

MH

causes problems with soma RAID configurations. Since the problem also exists with CS2 upgrading is not an option and it tells us that Adobe hasn’t addressed the problem (they probably blame the RAID manufacturers) and probably will not address it in CS3 either.
Can someone please point me to a repository where I could find that RAID patch or send a copy to me, please…..

Thanks.

fgm

Mike Hyndman wrote:

RAID 5 is not a good choice for PS. Due to the amount of parity calculating required, RAID 5 can seriously slow down a system. Performance will depend to some extent upon the stripe size chosen. It is seen though 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, e.g. PS.

Yes, I know that. But it is a long story and RAID 5 is my only choice for the forseable future.

This is an anti piracy/using the free download for longer than the 30 days device.If you have a system on which the conventional retail version (single user, 2 activations, CS or CS2) of Photoshop was installed, there is an activation hash that is written to a hidden area of the hard drive boot sector. Unless you perform a low-level format of the hard drive (most of us don’t when reformatting) that also deletes the boot sector information, the reinstallation of PS will always see that data and recognize a prior activation has been performed. The result is that you will be fully denied any further use of PS until a repair activation has been performed. Adobe ignores providing a reduced grace period (5-7 days perhaps) that is reasonable for all situations where PS has had to be reinstalled and a repair activation is immediately required. This was a more signficant problem with CS than with CS2, because of the more fragile nature of the license management process and no means to perform a Transfer Activation.
MH

I can’t do a repair activation (whatever that is) since I can’t access the activation process from within Photoshop. I’ve uninstalled and reinstalled, but since I can’t access the insides of Photoshop I can’t reactivate it. I have a valid license but I won’t be formating and reinstalling my workstation every time Photoshop decides that it doesn’t like my RAID array as instructed by Adobe’s support line. By the way, I have the lattest Silicon Image drivers and there is nothing regarding this problem on SI’s knowledge base.

So my question still stands, does the purported RAID array patch exists or not and where? The person I talked to didn’t know anything about what a RAID was and when I tried to explain it to her she became defensive and acused me of trying to install Photoshop to more than one hard drive!!!!! Go figure.

wrote in message

Mike Hyndman wrote:

RAID 5 is not a good choice for PS. Due to the amount of parity calculating
required, RAID 5 can seriously slow down a system. Performance will depend
to some extent upon the stripe size chosen. It is seen though 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, e.g. PS.

Yes, I know that. But it is a long story and RAID 5 is my only choice for the forseable future.

This is an anti piracy/using the free download for longer than the 30 days
device.If you have a system on which the conventional retail version (single
user, 2 activations, CS or CS2) of Photoshop was installed, there is an activation hash that is written to a hidden area of the hard drive boot sector. Unless you perform a low-level format of the hard drive (most of us
don’t when reformatting) that also deletes the boot sector information, the
reinstallation of PS will always see that data and recognize a prior activation has been performed. The result is that you will be fully denied
any further use of PS until a repair activation has been performed. Adobe ignores providing a reduced grace period (5-7 days perhaps) that is reasonable for all situations where PS has had to be reinstalled and a repair activation is immediately required. This was a more signficant problem with CS than with CS2, because of the more fragile nature of the license management process and no means to perform a Transfer Activation.
MH

I can’t do a repair activation (whatever that is) since I can’t access the activation process from within Photoshop. I’ve uninstalled and reinstalled, but since I can’t access the insides of Photoshop I can’t reactivate it. I have a valid license but I won’t be formating and reinstalling my workstation every time Photoshop decides that it doesn’t like my RAID array as instructed by Adobe’s support line. By the way, I have the lattest Silicon Image drivers and there is nothing regarding this problem on SI’s knowledge base.

There won’t be, this is purely a PS problem with your configuration. Re SI RAID controllers I have read of a problem with the BIOS of these controllers not recognising certain sizes of harddrive, in particular Maxtors.This BIOS is not flashable either, it requires a hack, which has been done, but not as of yet incorporated into the motherboards.

So my question still stands, does the purported RAID array patch exists or not and where? The person I talked to didn’t know anything about what a RAID was and when I tried to explain it to her she became defensive and acused me of trying to install Photoshop to more than one hard drive!!!!! Go figure.

ISTR the patch was around in March at least and with RAID 5 you could be accused of trying to install PS to 4 drives. Have you tried asking in the PS section of the AdobeForum? @ http://www.adobeforums.com

Regards
MH

On Fri, 14 Jul 2006 12:02:15 -0700, a36633663 wrote:

Adobe support has not been helpful since they say my only option is to reformat the RAID array and reinstall Windows. However they can’t warranty that the problem won’t return latter. They say I have to reinstall Windows and Photoshop in a single drive configuration!!!!!!!!

A typical shabby Adobe response, I’d say. They suggest a similar "fix" for the repeating repair activation CS suffers from.
My expensive and fully legal CS does a repair activation 40% of the times I start it, claiming that the machine’s configuration has changed – except it hasn’t; it’s a single-use, fixed setup, Photoshop-only machine. Having no other recourse I simply suck it up but I’m half expecting that dreaded day where for some reason it’ll refuse to re-activate, and I’ll need to beg permission from Adobe to use the software I’ve paid for.

I’ve since found out that Adobe Activation writes information to some protected disk sectors (which it shouldn’t write to!!!!) and this causes problems with soma RAID configurations.

With CS and assuming the usual 512-byte sector size, it’s written to sector 32. Normally (a typical "ordinary" Windows setup) this area and much either side of it is all zero bytes. This 512 byte sector gets re-written on each start (shutdown?) of Photoshop, but the first 8 bytes don’t change and the last 4 bytes aren’t written.

An appalling choice, really – just because it isn’t *usually* used, doesn’t mean it will *never* get used. This decision effectively forces CS users to (1) never upgrade hardware around an installation and (2) don’t use a fancy disk system.
It’s also somewhat ironic that a clever, fast disk subsystem is what Photoshop would, at the same time, benefit from and get clobbered by because of this half-baked "protection" nonsense. There has to be a better way but Adobe don’t care enough to find it.

Since the problem also exists with CS2 upgrading is not an option and it tells us that Adobe hasn’t addressed the problem

I’ve read that it’s "less likely" to occur in CS2 than CS – and therefore since 40% of my Photoshop starts are a waste of time I’m certainly not going to spend more money and upgrade to another version with the same design problem.

Can someone please point me to a repository where I could find that RAID patch or send a copy to me, please…..

I’m so sorry – I’ve been no help at all, I know…
I couldn’t resist blowing off steam and wanted to let you know that I’m also thoroughly annoyed with the problems this "protection" racket causes.

B.
—
Cementation Fault (building dumped)

Mike Hyndman wrote:

There won’t be, this is purely a PS problem with your configuration. Re SI RAID controllers I have read of a problem with the BIOS of these controllers not recognising certain sizes of harddrive, in particular Maxtors.This BIOS is not flashable either, it requires a hack, which has been done, but not as of yet incorporated into the motherboards.

Yes, I know.

ISTR the patch was around in March at least and with RAID 5 you could be accused of trying to install PS to 4 drives. Have you tried asking in the PS section of the AdobeForum? @ http://www.adobeforums.com

Regards
MH

No, that isn’t right. Simplifying it a lot, in my particular configuration with 4 drives in a RAID 5 configuration only 1/4 of Photoshop would be installed in a particular drive at a time. But anyone with 2 cents of IT knowledge should know what a RAID array is and dispense you the idiotic accusations.

If you want a solution see my last message.

Thank you for your help.

Brian wrote:

I’ve since found out that Adobe Activation writes information to some protected disk sectors (which it shouldn’t write to!!!!) and this causes problems with soma RAID configurations.

With CS and assuming the usual 512-byte sector size, it’s written to sector 32. Normally (a typical "ordinary" Windows setup) this area and much either side of it is all zero bytes. This 512 byte sector gets re-written on each start (shutdown?) of Photoshop, but the first 8 bytes don’t change and the last 4 bytes aren’t written.

The solution to my problem was quite simple. Uninstall ALL Adobe products from your system and reboot. Buy a copy of WinHex and install it.

++Tools>Open Disk>HD0 (for single drive or RAID configurations) ++Search for sector 32/33 (depends on the first sector being 0 or 1): Position>Go To Sector>type 32>OK.
++The previous and the following sectors should be filled with zeros: 00
++Select the sector with your mouse if it isn’t already selected. ++Edit>Fill Block>Fill with hex values>type 00>OK ++Apply, Save and you’re ready.

Reinstall your apps.

Since the problem also exists with CS2 upgrading is not an option and it tells us that Adobe hasn’t addressed the problem

I’ve read that it’s "less likely" to occur in CS2 than CS – and therefore since 40% of my Photoshop starts are a waste of time I’m certainly not going to spend more money and upgrade to another version with the same design problem.

Since you said that it was less likely to occur with CS2 I upgraded my CS to CS2. I’ll let you know how long it sticks with CS2.

I’m so sorry – I’ve been no help at all, I know…
I couldn’t resist blowing off steam and wanted to let you know that I’m also thoroughly annoyed with the problems this "protection" racket causes.
B.
—
Cementation Fault (building dumped)

On the contrary. You were right on the money with the sector 32 advice. Thanks.

By the way, you might try this trick to solve your own problems.

On Fri, 21 Jul 2006 12:23:37 -0700, a36633663 wrote:

The solution to my problem was quite simple. Uninstall ALL Adobe products from your system and reboot. Buy a copy of WinHex and install it.
++Tools>Open Disk>HD0 (for single drive or RAID configurations) ++Search for sector 32/33 (depends on the first sector being 0 or 1): Position>Go To Sector>type 32>OK.
++The previous and the following sectors should be filled with zeros: 00 ++Select the sector with your mouse if it isn’t already selected. ++Edit>Fill Block>Fill with hex values>type 00>OK ++Apply, Save and you’re ready.

Reinstall your apps.

Well, how interesting. 🙂

Apparently something in your installation had written stuff to sector 32 which confused the "protection" scheme – and as you said, Photoshop had been working Ok for some time so it wasn’t failing simply because PS had been installed onto a RAID system.
Since sector 32 is open territory, it’s difficult to know if it was PS which wrote rubbish, or something else claiming prospector’s rights on that sector.

Of course by filling it with zero bytes and then reinstalling PS you’ve replicated a brand new installation.
But… (and without your upgrade to CS2) – I wonder how long it would last before the problem repeats?

Since you said that it was less likely to occur with CS2 I upgraded my CS to CS2. I’ll let you know how long it sticks with CS2.

Thanks – I’d be interested to know if Adobe really managed to improve anything.
Is sector 32 still being used by CS2? I’d guess it is, to retain backwards compatibility with the earlier scheme although their methods have probably changed if their "less likely" claim has any validity.

On the contrary. You were right on the money with the sector 32 advice. Thanks.

By the way, you might try this trick to solve your own problems.

Heh – I’m very pleased a mini-rant helped at al! 😉
And I think I will give it a go on my system too – I’m pretty sure that the first couple of months of CS use had no problems with repeating activation so at the very least, doing it should provide a few months of nonsense-free CS startups.

B.
—
Sic semper tyrannus – your dinosaur is ill.