By on March 10th, 2012

Add-In: Drive Bender v1.2.5.0 (Beta 4 of the Tomcat Release)

Drive Bender Logo

The final beta of Drive Bender is here in the form of version 1.2.5.0 (beta 4 of the Tomcat release) released 9th March 2012.

Here’s the change log:

  • Bug fix: During an upgrade from v1.2.x, it is possible that a drive could be added to the pool more than once.
  • Update: Check disk feature is now available to volumes.
  • Bug fix: An exception can occur during drive removal causing the final process (pool validation check) to be aborted.
  • Bug fix: A number of minor file balancing issues including file count tracking.
  • Update: Improved handling of queued tasks.
  • Bug fix: Under certain conditions the driver can deadlock.
  • Update: File read / write performance improvements.
  • Update: Drive Bender licenses can now be deactivated.
  • Update: License manually activation is now supported.

Drive Bender is due for a gold release in late March with a couple of added surprises I am told. In the meantime more details on this Tomcat release can be found here.

add-ins • Windows Home Server
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By on March 09th, 2012

Add-In: Home Server SMART 2012 v2.2.3.8 Beta 4

The latest beta release of Home Server SMART 2012, which supports Windows Home Server 2011, Windows Storage Server 2008 R2 Essentials and Windows Small Business Server 2011 Essentials has been released.

Version 2.2.3.8 Beta 4 of the Windows Home Server disk monitoring add-in, is 100% free to use for personal and commercial use.

HSS_2012_overview

This latest beta release, released on March 8, 2012, can be downloaded from here. It includes support for Indilinx, Indilinx Everest, Intel, SandForce and STEC based Solid State Disks.

Thanks to MediaSmartServer.net for the heads up on this latest release.

add-ins • Windows Home Server
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By on March 09th, 2012

Video: Connect your iPad, iPhone or Android to WHS 2011 using My Movies

My Movies have posted the following video on how to connect either My Movies for iPad, iPhone or Android to your Windows Home Server running My Movies for Windows Home Server 2011, which allows you to download movies from your server to your mobile device:

More information on My Movies can be found here.

News • Windows Home Server
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By on March 09th, 2012

Video: Ultimate Windows Home Server Guide Part 1

NCIX Tech Tips have posted part 1 of their video "Ultimate Windows Home Server Guide".

This 1st part from the US/CA shopping site goes into choosing the right hardware for their WHS 2011 build, and I must say its impressive. So if you have 11 minutes to spare, give it a view:

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By on March 09th, 2012

StableBit DrivePool Beta Ending and a New Home

StableBit DrivePool is coming out of beta and also has a new home page.

stablebit_drivepool_server_folders_enable_duplication

StableBit gave the following announcement:

The DrivePool BETA is coming to an end.
DrivePool now has a new home on http://stablebit.com/DrivePool

And what a nice home it is too, with lots of information on all of the add-ins features and lots of screen shots to clarify too.

A one month free trial plus more information on StableBit DrivePool can be found here.

The StableBit DrivePool forum can be found here.

News • Windows Home Server
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By on March 08th, 2012

The Home Server Show Podcast Episode 174

home_server_show_small

Episode 174 of The Home Server Show podcast is available, and this week:

“We are back with a ton of news.  Windows 8 and Storage Spaces are both still popular items for the week.  There are also a lot of software updates to talk about.”

You can catch episode 174 here.

News • Windows Home Server
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By on March 08th, 2012

Installing WHS 2011 onto a USB Flash Drive

Brian Burgess from GroovyPost.com has written a walkthrough on how to install Windows Home Server 2011 onto a USB flash drive.

USB-WHS

In his how-to Brain takes us through the flash drive setup steps and also links to his WHS 2011 installation steps.

A great way of installing WHS if your Home Server has not a DVD drive.

You can find Brian’s article here.

Tutorial • Windows Home Server
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By on March 08th, 2012

Known Issues Joining Windows 8 Beta to WHS 2011

Microsoft has published a Wiki article on TechNet on known issues when you join Windows 8 Beta to Windows Home Server 2011.

Known Issues Joining Windows 8 Beta to WHS 2011 Wiki

Apart from the .Net Framework 3.5 issue which we have already covered, also of importance is 3 other issues which others have experienced:

  • Power setting of Client backup doesn’t work.
  • The thumbnail of picture folder is not displayed properly in Remote Web Access page.
  • When user tried to access the share folders from client computers that had joined home group, user still get prompts for credential.

These other issues are still awaiting workarounds which will be updated in the Wiki article once resolved.

Tutorial • Windows Home Server
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By on March 08th, 2012

Computer Monitoring Error Workaround if you have a Mac on your Network

A wiki article is up for those of you who are receiving a computer monitoring error in the Dashboard of Windows Home Server 2011 after installing Update Rollup 2.

Computer Monitoring Error TechNet Wiki

There are several reasons that the Alert service will generate “Computer Monitoring Error”, including:

  1. Client or Server are missing Powershell execution engine.
  2. An alert evaluation component throws unhandled Exception. (That’s the most common cause we have seen)
  3. An alert evaluation component can’t find its Feature Definition file that includes the evaluation rules.
  4. An alert evaluation component does not report results after a certain time.

When these situation happen, those alerts evaluated by that component will never show up. But other alerts or product features will not be impacted.

More information and a workaround if you also have Mac clients in your network can be found here.

Tutorial • Windows Home Server
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By on March 07th, 2012

Add-In: CloudBerry Backup for WHS v2.7

CloudBerry Backup for WHS, the add-in which automates data backup directly to Amazon S3 and Windows Azure has been updated to version 2.7.

The add-in which works for V1, WHS 2011 and SBS 2011 has the following enhancements:

1) Rackspace Cloud Files and OpenStack Object Storage support. This is a new storage option in addition to Amazon S3, Azure, Google, etc for those who already have Rackspace and other OpenStack compatible accounts.

CloudBerry Backup 2.7 - Rackspace Account settings

More details – http://blog.cloudberrylab.com/2012/02/introducing-cloudberry-backup-for.html

2) Intelligent Bandwidth Scheduler. that that allows you to control the bandwidth throttling in real-time based on the time of the day and day of the week. With this feature for instance, you can set the backup to consume all available bandwidth during the off hours and on the weekends while consume only 10% of available bandwidth during the working hours allowing you to use the network for other tasks.

CloudBerry Backup for WHS 2.7 - Intelligent Bandwidth Scheduler

More details – http://blog.cloudberrylab.com/2012/02/cloudberry-backup-intelligent-bandwidth.html

3) Restore only new files option that allows you to restore only the files with newer modification date could be restored. This is particularly important in the Sync scenario, where you want to have your target folder look exactly as the source.

CloudBerry Backup 2.7 - Restore Only New Files

More details – http://blog.cloudberrylab.com/2012/03/how-to-restore-only-newer-files-with.html

4) Memory usage optimization The memory usage has now been optimized.

More details on CloudBerry Backup for Windows Home Server can be found here.

add-ins • Windows Home Server
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