By on October 24th, 2011

Hard Drive Shortage this Quarter

There could be a heavy hard drive shortage this quarter due to the heavy flooding in Thailand.

Hard Drive with water

Western Digital is under water and Nimec who supply 70 to 80 percent of the worlds hard drive components have flood water around them also. Hitachi, Seagate, and Toshiba are preparing for the worst.

Since manufacturers typically have four weeks’ worth of inventory to respond to situations like this, in the short term supply wont be affected BUT beyond this and it could become the hard drive shortage of 2011.

More details are available from Gizmodo.

News • Windows Home Server
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By on October 23rd, 2011

Add-In: StableBit DrivePool Build 4108

Stablebit_drivepool_logo

An update to StableBit DrivePool to bring the DE type add-in to build 4108:

  • [D] Small change in status return codes to directory queries that don’t find any files.
  • [D] Direct file I/O for deleting files. (off by default …)
  • [D] Direct file I/O for misc. file related APIs, including getting file dates, file allocation information, etc… (off by default …)
  • [D] Direct file I/O for NTFS-like security. (off by default – enabled by master Direct file I/O switch in options)

[D] = Driver

Want to learn more about StableBit DrivePool? If so more info can be obtained here.

add-ins • Windows Home Server
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By on October 23rd, 2011

The BYOB Podcast Episode 63

BYOB Logo

Episode 63 of the BYOB podcast is up and this week its all about Home Automation including how it connects to Windows home Server:

“This week we talk Home Automation with special guest Ted Singh, co-founder and Business Development Manager for Embedded Automation about his mControl product.”

You can grab this weeks episode from here.

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By on October 22nd, 2011

Add-In: StableBit DrivePool Build 4105

StableBit DrivePool has had another update to its Drive Extender type add-in for Windows Home server 2011 users.

Stablebit_drivepool_logo

Build 4105 includes the following changes:

     *[D] Implemented Direct file I/O, directory listing. (off by default – see options)
                        Fast directory querying, written entirely in the kernel. 
                                   * Asynchronously queries all the disks for their directory lists.
                                   * Buffers the results in memory, while returning the master list to the application in parallel.
                                   * Fast algorithm, O(Log(N)) speeds @ up to 65k files per directory. Speed decreases above 65k files, but will still work.

More info on StableBit DrivePool can be found here.

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By on October 22nd, 2011

Tranquil PC Announce the T7-SEHS with WHS 2011

UK based Tranquil PC first released their T7 Home Server back in September 2007 and still it is a very popular model, with 10,000s being sold. Now Tranquil have now enhanced the T7 by adding Windows Home Server 2011 to the mix and the result is the T7-SEHS.

T7-SEHS Top View

The T7-SEHS has the following features:

  • Dual Core 1.8GHz CPU
  • Rugged chassis, made from extruded aluminium, which also facilitate the fan less cooling of the total system
  • Slim size, measuring in at a mere 57mm wide
  • Low power consumption, of under 16W

And the super quiet character of the T7-SEHS, measures only around 15-16dBA.

Available in configurations from £199 + VAT to £399 + VAT, all come pre-fitted with 2GB of RAM, and a choice of 500GB, 1TB or 2TB of storage. With the external USB2 ports allowing for low cost storage extension as required.

T7-SEHS Rear View

For a limited time, Tranquil are offering the unique T7 SEHS Home Server from just £199.00 +VAT which comes with 2GB 1x 2.5” 500GB HDD – with 1x slot free.

More information on the T7-SEHS with Windows Home Server 2011 can be found here.

Hardware • News • Windows Home Server
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By on October 21st, 2011

Backup OS X Lion Apple Mac to WHS v1

If you would like to know how to back up your OS X Lion Apple Mac to Windows Home Server v1 then we have a guide for you.

lion-620x348

WeGotServed’s 2 page guide explains how to get your Mac backing up again to Windows Home Server (v1):

…Mac OS X Lion will no longer backup to a Windows (SMB/CIFS) shared folder when using Time Machine. Only HFS+J formatted USB drives and AFP shares will work. Luckily, an open source package exists that provides support for AFP and Bonjour on Windows Home Server, called Netatalk. Though it was originally developed for Unix systems, it is possible to load a very small Linux virtual machine (<384MB of space) which will host Netatalk, and be configured to run at startup like a service…

You can find their guide here.

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By on October 21st, 2011

Add-In: StableBit DrivePool Build 4099

Stablebit_drivepool_logo

The beta M3 release of StableBit DrivePool has been updated to version 1.0.0.4099.

This latest build includes the following 2 changes:

  • [D] Fixed crash on shutdown / uninstall.
  • [D] M4 pool part runtime. This is big. (not activated yet)

[D] = Driver

As always more information on StableBit DrivePool can be obtained from here.

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By on October 20th, 2011

The Home Server Show Podcast Episode 157

home_server_show_small

Episode 157 of The Home Server Show podcast is up:

…we take a build list from the forums and dissect it part by part.  If you are looking at building your own this is will be a good listen for you.  We also take the week in news and releases in the tech world for you.

You can catch it here.

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By on October 20th, 2011

Securely Delete a Hard Drive

encryption-shield-57903

The Average Guy Blog has an article on secure data deletion which is a must read if you are disposing off or selling hard drives.

The article asks the question "Are you sure it has been deleted?" and recommends 3 tools which will overwrite the drive, rendering it unreadable.

You can read it here.

Tutorial • Windows Home Server
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By on October 20th, 2011

RAID Technology Explained

For those of you using Windows Home server 2011 and wondering if to use a RAID setup on the drives then the MakeUseOf website has a run down on the different RAID configurations.

raid1

You can find this technology explained article here.

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