Which study books to use for MCDST?

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Sorry if this question has been answered many times. But I am looking to self study MCDST.Which are the best books to study MCDST are the MS books the same as the training kit collection of books from amazon. And where can you get hold of lab sim exercises. Would anyone recommend doing MCSA or MCITP cert as an entry level cert or which would be the best entry level Microsoft cert. And do I have enough time to finish the MCDST since they retire in June.Thanks everybody.

 

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I just used the MS press books and yes they are same as the training kit.
The MCSA is for people who have atleast 6 months experience as a newtork admin.
The A+, Network+ and MCDST are entry level certs then at a psuh you could do the MCITP.

If you get cracking now you should be able to get the MCDST done by June 31st.

 

Thanks very much for your advice. I was just wondering if you know anything about ICS home learning MCDST. Are they a good provider. Could you recommend any distance learning MCDST courses or instructor lead or are the books good enough to be able to do it on your own. Your advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks very much Brucelee.

 

I used the MS Press books, got good passes. Took me just under a month to do both exams. (Jan 4th - Feb 1st)

I used the CBT Nuggets video training for 70-271 and found it to be very general and not enough to pass the exam on it's own. Didn't bother for 70-272.

MCSA is not an entry level qualification!

 

Everyone knows my opinion on training providers but since you don't I will break it down.

They charge for too much money
They usually sign you up for a number of certifications which over certify you for experience level.
They promis things that they can get out off which make you sign up to them
You usually end up in debt because of them.

Every entry level certification can be done with some books and some determination
Just about every certification after that can be done with experience and some books and practice.

For example you can do the MCDST for £40 for books and £88 each for the two exams

 

Thanks for the advice Bruce. I've just installed the Virtual PC but can't get it to work any tips?Thanks for the advice.

 

I mean I just see the black boot screen.It wont seem to go past that.

 

Thats what happens. Your now supposed to create a virtual hard disk and install and operating system onto it.

Think of virtual pc as a proper pc. Your not gonna see anything on screen untill it has an operating system. Hwoever you should be able to see a screen which looks sort of like a POST screen then it will say no boot device. This is after creating a virtual hard disk.

oh and by the way virtual pc 2007 only works with windows 7 now so you need virtual pc 2004

 

Thanks Bruce. My operating system is windows Vista SP1 which I suppose means it wont work on my system. Does that mean I will have to dowload virtual PC 2004? Thanks very much for your help again.

 

Yep if your host machine is anything less than windows 7 then you need virtual pc 2004.

Once you install vpc you then create a virtual hard drive on that virtual hard drive you then install a version of windows wether it be server 2003, xp, 200 pro or Vista. You can get 180 day trials of xp from the ms press books and if you subscribe to technet you can download trials for just about all windows operating systems.

 

Thanks Bruce. Once you've got your virtual pc 2004 how do you install windows XP onto it? do you goto Technet. But once you download it wouldn't it be installed on your PC not virtual pc 2004. Any advice wold be greatly appreaciated.

 

If you get the MS press books for the MCDST they both come with 180 day trials of xp. You put the disk in your drive as normal and then on virtual pc you use the option that makes vpc boot from the cd.

You can also download trials of xp in the form of an .iso and you can then burn the iso to disk and do the above.

You can also download a free program called daemon tools lite it allows you to run and .iso on vpc as if it were a proper .exe program and therefor you do not have to burn it to a disk.

 

Thanks Bruce once again for your help. If you get the MS press books and load the trials of XP will that replace your operating system Vista and what is the site from which I can dowload the free XP- the daemon tools lite. where I don't have to burn it onto disk.

 

You dont load the trials onto your pc. You need to put the trials of xp onto virtual pc otherwise you will overwite your os.

Just type deamon tools into google. Google is your friend.

 

Sorry I don't understand what deamon tools does. what Happens when you dowload it. Do you automatically get XP. Sorry if these just seem too obvious questions.

 

I will try and explain in a more simple way

You can download trials of xp from places like technet and microsoft however these come in the for of an .iso
An iso must be burned to a disk for you to be able to use it. Daemon tools eliminates the need for burn the iso onto disk by making virtual pc think the iso is an exe and that there is a disk in the drive when there isn't.

If you intend to use the trial that come with the ms press books then you do not need deamon tools you just install the trials onto virtual pc.

 

Virtual PC 2007 should run fine on Vista. It was optimised to do so. The latest incarnation, just called Virtual PC is the one requiring Win 7 as the host.

 

OK once say you've downloaded XP from technet.How do you install it onto to your Virtual PC using deamon tools. I mean what are the steps please if you don't mind. Thanks Bruce you're being a godsend to me.

 

Thanks Billy But when I'm trying to install Virtual PC 2007 it does say at the beginning something like it is not compatible. So I should try vpc2004.

 

The options all there on the screen you just have to press them.

There is an option on deamon tools *cant rember exactly but it will be something along the lines of mount iso image you also need vpc running at the same time you then go to virtual pc and go to cd and capture iso

remember you first need to create a virtual hard disk on vpc before being able to install anything on virtual pc.select new in the virtual pc console.

Its all pretty self explanatory if you just look through the menus on vpc and the same goes for deamon tools. like I said you can just get the ms press books and install them onto vpc then you dont have to do anything like converting an iso to an exe.