Figured out weaknesses

Well after sitting through a couple of adaptive and linear practice exams on this CD I have, I've finally found some of my weaknesses and they are the following:

Memory in DOS and windows: Himem.sys, emm386.exe, different areas of memory and what they're called (conventional, upper memory, extended memory, high memory etc..). The exam get's very detailed here. For example it asks which type of memory transparently swaps data on and off the harddrive in 4k pages.

File systems: I know the different file systems and their pros and cons but why do I have to learn what size the cluster is on a particular size disk for a particular file system?!?!

Differences between Windows NT and windows 2000: differences in administrative tools(mainly the names are different). This is because I have little experience with both. I did use 2000 when I was building servers but I didn't install them. I just downloaded an image of the OS and other software and tested the server hardware for 30 minutes. It was all pretty much automatic.

That's it for now. I just acquired this one particular practice exam CD and it is stumping me. The trancender linear exams aren't so bad. Sybex was a little harder but I still got into the 80 percentile range.

Anyways I'm just wondering if any of you guys can point me in the right direction.

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Comments

ghaouf

read over all your weakness spots from your books, if you still do not understand them, do some more research on the internet or at the library

bellboy

you may be asked on sizes of extended, expanded, etc, and you will need to know the different file systems, how to convert and which operating systems can and cannot use them, but

trick000 wrote:

which type of memory transparently swaps data on and off the harddrive in 4k pages.

do I have to learn what size the cluster is on a particular size disk for a particular file system?!?!

are unlikely to be asked.

nt and windows 2000 will be asked on. if you do not have access to them, you will just have to try to memorise from your book(s) or get hold of screen shots.

i will be away for the weekend and am unable to do it, but send me a pm and i will see what i can do next week

Drakonblayde

Memory in DOS and windows: Himem.sys, emm386.exe, different areas of memory and what they're called (conventional, upper memory, extended memory, high memory etc..). The exam get's very detailed here. For example it asks which type of memory transparently swaps data on and off the harddrive in 4k pages.

File systems: I know the different file systems and their pros and cons but why do I have to learn what size the cluster is on a particular size disk for a particular file system?!?!

That first one is a bit over the top hehe. I seriously doubt the A+ exam would get that detailed in DOS memory management, I'd bet even alot of the folks who grew up having to figure out the optimal way to load their drivers and TSR's wouldn't be able to answer that one of the top of my head. I know I sure can't.

The second one is actually sort of important. The cluster size determines the amount of space you waste with small files, and if you're aiming for efficiency, it's helpful to know. When FAT32 showed up, it helped alleviate alot of the wasted space on hard drives. FAT16 was so bad that I ran OS/2 for many many years simply so I could use HPFS. I was running a BBS at the time, and disk space counted for a whole lot hehe. I didn't stop using OS/2 until about 4 months after Win95OSR2 was released.

Differences between Windows NT and windows 2000: differences in administrative tools(mainly the names are different). This is because I have little experience with both. I did use 2000 when I was building servers but I didn't install them. I just downloaded an image of the OS and other software and tested the server hardware for 30 minutes. It was all pretty much automatic.

While the A+ itself isn't likely to going to test in depth, this is still very good information to know, especially if you plan to go into system administration. There are still alot of NT4 machines out there, and there are some rather big differences between the two. I absolutely hate NT4 because it lacks native support for so many things. I'd never run it as a mission critical server, and for a client, I'd take ME over it any day of the week. On the flip side, I love 2k pro, and while I still prefer either Linux or FreeBSD for server software, I will say that 2k doesn't do a half bad job before you inevitably have to reboot the server

lazyart

If you have the time (roughly 3 months until the new tests kick in i estimate) you can get Windows 2000 Advanced Server trial straight from MS for $10. It's a 120-day evaluation copy, and will certainly let you get a feel for the system and will augment anything you are just trying to read and memorize. I installed it on a different hard drive on my PC and physically swap drives in my main machine to dabble in Win2k.