By on March 07th, 2010

Win PerfectDisk 11 WHS Bundle – Day 4

It’s day 4 and we have another 2 copies of PerfectDisk 11 Windows Home Server Bundle to give away.

PerfectDisk 11 is the ultimate defragmenter for Windows Home Server users, and with the Bundle up for grabs it means each copy entitles you to defrag WHS and a PC too.

For a chance of winning one of todays two copies, just leave a comment below telling us the top 3 resources/sites you use to find out news, tips or tutorials on Windows Home Server.

More details on what is new in version 11 of PerfectDisk can be found here. Winners will be announced Wednesday 10th March.

UPDATE: Day 4 of the competition is now closed and so are the comments.

News • Windows Home Server
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By on March 06th, 2010

4KB Sector Hard Drives are Coming

Tom’s Hardware has a great article on the new generation hard drives with 4KB sectors.

The norm has been 512 bytes, but now Western Digital have launched the EARS-series moving 4KB sectors into the mainstream.

Western Digital WD10EARS Hard Drive

Tom’s Hardware has picked a Western Digital Caviar Green 1TB (WD10EARS) hard drive as a case study, and look at its performance amongst many other things and you’ll find that the 10 page article has plenty of benchmarks too.

The spindle speed remains at 5,400 RPM, and power requirements have reached new record lows: 2.8W idle power is less than any other 3.5” drive. Just keep in mind that this 1TB drive utilizes only two platters; three- or four-platter drives would not be this low on power. Active power is slightly higher than on the WD10EADS, but still very low.

Although there are no noticeable benefits for customers today in moving to 4K sectors, the step is an important one. Modern operating systems, such as Windows Vista or Windows 7, can handle different sector sizes and hence are immediately compatible with the modified technology without any performance impact. Older operating systems, such as Windows XP, can be forced to align their 512 byte sectors into the hard drives’ physical ones via tools that relocate partitions to have them start at a suitable sector. This is important to do if you don’t want massive performance impacts on your writes.

You can read the full article here.

News • Windows Home Server
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By on March 06th, 2010

WHS – The You Tube Channel

The Windows Home Server team have just announced that they have their very own Windows Home Server channel on YouTube.

WHS You Tube Channel

On the channel, you will find variety of different videos including:

  • Team interviews – learn about Windows Home Server’s team members and how they use the product in their day-to-day lives.
  • Windows Home Server overviews – if you are still learning about Windows Home Server, watch an overview on how it can beneficial in your home or even a small business.
  • Informational how-to screen casts – each how-to video will show you how to use various features of Windows Home Server. 

So to catch some Windows home server videos mosey on over to You Tube and don’t forget to subscribe to the channel so that you can watch all of the team’s newly added vids.

News • Windows Home Server
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By on March 06th, 2010

Win PerfectDisk 11 WHS Bundle – Day 3

It’s day 3 of our mega PerfectDisk 11 WHS Bundle giveaway and for a chance of winning one of today’s two copies we want to ask you a couple of questions.

You just need to leave a comment below telling us how many hard drives you have in your Windows Home Server (and their sizes) and also tell us your top 3 or 5 add-ins which you always install.

And don’t forget the NEW PerfectDisk 11 for Windows Home Server Bundle includes 2 licenses, one for WHS itself and the other for one of your client PCs.

Two winners will be announced Wednesday 10th March – Good luck!

UPDATE: Day 3 of the competition is now closed and so are the comments.

News • Windows Home Server
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By on March 05th, 2010

Add-In: WHS QuickBooks

We brought to your attention last month that "The Office Maven" had a couple of new add-ins in the works, one of which was WHS QuickBooks.

WHS QuickBooks User Accounts Access

WHS QuickBooks Web Site Access

WHS QuickBooks enables you to use Intuit QuickBooks from your Windows Home Server.  Installing a copy of Intuit QuickBooks directly onto WHS, along with this add-in will allow you to access that installed copy of QuickBooks using a customized remote desktop connection from the desktop of any client computer that is attached to your work/home network

OR

Allow you to access that installed copy of QuickBooks from anywhere using just a web browser and a PC/Laptop with Internet access.

WHS QuickBooks Settings

WHS QuickBooks is the ideal add-in for keeping track of your books while you are away from home and your Home Server and allows full access to all the features of QuickBooks, without having to install a copy of QuickBooks on every machine that you want to use it from.

A WHS QuickBooks Connector application is also available which can be installed on any client machine that is used to connect to WHS QuickBooks. This small app which provides server-to-client and client-to-server interactions for both local AND Internet-based WHS QuickBooks connections (allowing you to transfer files from the server to the client, transfer files from the client to the server, quickly lock the connection to the server, change settings, etc.)

WHS QuickBooks Connector Client Control

WHS QuickBooks Connector Server Control

This commercial release of WHS QuickBooks is available as a 21-day trial, after which a single-server license is $24.99 USD.

WHS QuickBooks has been localized in English, German, and French languages, and a  copy of can be downloaded by using the Add-In Central add-in. Just open up Add-In Central, select WHS QuickBooks from the list of available add-ins, and click on the Download button. But given that Add-in Central is currently still in beta and you are seriously interested in trying out WHS QuickBooks you can contact Mike Craven directly to request a download link (BE SURE TO INCLUDE YOUR FULL NAME & EMAIL ADDRESS).

More details are available from here.

add-ins • Windows Home Server
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By on March 05th, 2010

Add-In: Squeezebox Server for Windows Home Server 7.4.2

The add-in Squeezebox Server for Windows Home Server has been updated to version 7.4.2.

The add-in allows the Logitech Squeezebox to playback music from Windows Home Server.

This release fixes Squeezebox Radio bugs found by 7.4.1 users. It is required when operating the Radio with the optional battery.

Squeezebox Server:

  • Improved alarm reliability.
  • Various scanner-related tag reading fixes.
  • Fixed audio glitches at the end of WAV/AIFF files.
  • Fixed gapless playback when playing PCM on Squeezebox 1.

Radio:

  • Improved alarm reliability
  • Improved network connectivity with MySqueezebox.com. Improves alarm reliability when connected only to MySqueezebox.com
  • Maintains battery charge

Software Versions:

  • Squeezebox Server: 30215
  • Radio: 8423
  • No change to software for Controller, Squeezebox 2 / 3, Transporter, Receiver and Boom

Bug Fixes:

  • Fixed UPnP compatibility with Simplify Media server.
  • Fixed FLAC seeking on files that contain ID3v2 tags.
  • Fixed sample rate detection for MPEG-4 files.
  • Changed Tag Version info to display all versions of ID3 tags contained within a file.
  • Added missing Monkey’s Audio (APE) decoder binaries for i386 FreeBSD, i386/ARM/PPC Linux.
  • #10449 – SqueezePlay, wrong track played when playing an artist’s compilation albums
  • #13955 – Remote ASX playlist containing MP3 stream fails
  • #14110 – Fixed scanning of iTunNORM Sound Check value in MP3 files when there is only one comment
  • #14321 – Applet Installer shows duplicate entries
  • #14328 – Need useful error messages when artwork fails
  • #14496 – Player display goes blank after upgrading to 7.4
  • #14824 – Reciva Internet Radios claim to support Icy-MetaData, but then glitch on metadata packets (Simon Hyde)
  • #14861 – SBS preventing HDD shutdown
  • #14883 – Audio pops at the end of WAV/AIFF files
  • #14905 – Not compatible with Ubuntu 9.10 due to MySQL 5.1
  • #14913 – Scanner calculates incorrect bitrate on Windows
  • #14931 – Can’t save preset 0 on SB3
  • #14933 – Scanner only includes one comment per song
  • #14946 – Strip trailing nulls from the end of WAV LIST INFO tags
  • #15001 – Save playlist plugin locks SQB classic UI
  • #15014 – Scanner should prefer Vorbis tags over ID3v2 tags for FLAC files
  • #15105 – Scanner intolerant of bad FILE value in embedded cue sheets (Gordon Harris)
  • #15190 – File Types page shows active option for WMA Lossless/Pro
  • #15196 – Multiple genre tags in ID3v2 not read properly
  • #15197 – Wrong bitrate/duration calculated for MPEG-2 Layer 3 files
  • #15262 – Unable to scan some MP4 files encoded by Nero
  • #15380 – Return the proper content-type when streaming files (agillis)
  • #15483 – Scanner fails when ReplayGain tag are invalid
  • #15490 – Gapless playback broken for PCM on SB1
  • #15491 – Try harder to read radio playlists that return text or HTML content-types
  • #15630 – Invalid characters in comment tags can break the scanner
  • #15707 – Lyrics tag in WMA files not scanned

The 50MB download is available from here.

Information courtesy of WeGotServed.

add-ins • Windows Home Server
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By on March 05th, 2010

Win PerfectDisk 11 WHS Bundle – Day 2

It’s day 2 of our great PerfectDisk for Windows Home Server Bundle giveaway and today we have 2 copies of the upcoming version 11 up for grabs. And the bundle version means you will have a license for Windows Home Server itself as well as a license for 1 of your PCs as well.

PerfectDisk Logo

To win one of the two copies available today just leave a comment below telling us about a new feature in Version 11. In the meantime you can check out some version 11 videos on YouTube with additional information available here.

Winners will be announced Wednesday 10th March.

UPDATE: Day 2 of the competition is now closed and so are the comments.

News • Windows Home Server
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By on March 04th, 2010

Intel Atom Processor Platform Supports WHS

Intel have today (March 4th 2010) launched its first Atom processor-based platform optimized for networked home and small office/home office (SOHO) storage devices.

The platform comprises either a single-core D410 Atom processor or a dual-core D510  with an Intel 82801IR I/O Controller. Which provide up to 50 percent power reduction and improved performance compared to Intel’s previous generation of Intel Atom processors.

The new platform features six PCI Express* lanes, 12 USB 2.0 ports, a port multiplier function and eSATA ports that give OEMs the ability to add peripheral devices and expand storage capacity outside of the box. It also features hot plug capabilities for easy capacity upgrades and an integrated gigabit Ethernet MAC controller for improved data transfers to and from the home server or small office NAS device. The storage platform also offers the flexibility to support Microsoft Windows Home Server…

The full press release can be read here.

News • Windows Home Server
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By on March 04th, 2010

The Home Server Show Podcast Episode 79

home_server_show_small

Episode 79 of The Home Server Show podcast have the gang discussing Icy Dock enclosures and the different methods of storage available to you. That’s as well as the latest news and views.

You can grab it from here.

News • Windows Home Server
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By on March 04th, 2010

Win PerfectDisk 11 WHS Bundle – Day 1

PerfectDisk for Windows Home Server has a new version around the corner, and until its release on Tuesday the 9th of March we will be giving away 2 copies per day from tomorrow and 1 today (that’s 11 copies in total). And why 11 copies you may ask? That’s because version 11 is the version coming up, and with a new name too.

PerfectDisk Windows Home Server will from version 11 be called PerfectDisk Windows Home Server Bundle, with the word Bundle added to the product name as you can now defrag any licensed connected PCs as well as WHS itself.

So, what’s new in this latest version?
As the PerfectDisk website will not be updated with the latest version 11 info until the 9th March, you can find out whats new from here.

To win today’s (1) copy of PerfectDisk 11 Windows Home Server Bundle just leave a comment below explaining why you should defrag Windows Home Server

Winners will be announced Wednesday 10th March.

UPDATE: Day 1 of the competition is now closed and so are the comments.

News • Windows Home Server
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