By on January 27th, 2009

PerfectDisk 10 Disk Defragmentation for Windows Home Server

Raxco PD10 Box Raxco PD Logo

Raxco Software today announced the release of PerfectDisk 10 for Windows Home Server. The disk defragmentation software has a significantly improved interface, faster defrag engine and new features:

Improved performance:
Saving you time and resources, PerfectDisk’s engine now runs up to 30% faster.

Exclusive to PerfectDisk – Smart automatic StealthPatrol:
Working in background of your system, StealthPatrol now intelligently self-adjusts to conserve valuable Windows Home Server resources.

Exclusive to PerfectDisk – Complete space management reports:
PerfectDisk for Windows Home Server offers a host of new reports that enable you to quickly analyze space distribution of file and folders.

Enhanced User Interface:
Easier to use than ever before, PerfectDisk 10 for Windows Home Server’s user-friendly interface includes tabbed navigation, setup wizards and graphics of your Windows Home Server’s fragmented files.

PerfectDisk 10 for Windows Home Server is priced at $49.99 for a single license ($24.99 upgrade available) and $99.99 for a up to 10 site license ($49.99 for upgrade).

More information including a trial copy for download is available from here.

Other Software • Windows Home Server
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By on January 27th, 2009

Windows Update for Windows Home server

A new Windows Update is available which improves the capability of Windows Home Server to repair abnormalities detected in the home computer backup database on machines with 512MB of RAM.

More Information:

Windows Home Server regularly checks the home computer backups for abnormalities. If it finds any, it will prompt the user to fix them by displaying the following message – "To troubleshoot and repair backup database problems, click Repair. This should repair problems that cause the backup service to stop running." To address this issue, you are instructed to click the "Settings" tab in the Home Server Console, choose "Backup" from the left pane and click "Repair" at the bottom right.

Before the update, some users may have experienced the Windows Home Server Console crashing or losing network connection when attempting to run a repair operation. There is a greater chance of this issue occurring if the home computer backups contain a hard drive that has more than 150 GB of used space. This happens because the server may need more memory than what is available to process the backups. The fix involves using the available memory more efficiently in order to complete the task successfully.

The update will be downloaded automatically to Home Server as long as you have Windows Update turned on and more information is available in Knowledge Base article 958926.

NOTE that the link to the KB article is not live yet as of 27 Jan 09.

News • Windows Home Server
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By on January 26th, 2009

Lights, Action, Home Server!

A couple of short videos for you:

First up Todd Headrick, Product Manager on the Windows Home server Team demonstrates new hardware which will soon be available for Home Server in this video from Microsoft’s enthusiast site Channel 10.

CES09WHS_large_on10

http://on10.net/blogs/nic/CES-2009-Windows-Home-Server-Update-New-Hardware/

Secondly, The Home server Show has a video interview with Allen Buckner of HP who demonstrates the new features of the HP MediaSmart Server EX485 and EX487 on a windows and a Mac laptop.

HP CES - WHS Show

Allen also confirms that the Mac backup capability and the Amazon S3 secure offsite backup feature of the Ex485 and EX487 will both be available later this year for existing EX470 and EX475 owners too.

http://homeservershow.com/ces-interview-with-allen-buckner-of-hp-mediasmart-server.html

News • Windows Home Server
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By on January 23rd, 2009

WHS Travla RackMount Chassis

Mini-ITV enclosure manufacturer Travla have a great case which is great for Windows Home Server. The 1U 19" rackmount case incorporates 4 hot-swappable 3.5" SATA drive caddies and can be further expanded thanks to space for a further 2 x 2.5" drive bays as well as a slim CD/DVD bay. Travla recommend using the VIA SN10000 or SN18000 mini-ITX motherboard in this chassis, but the inclusion of a universal I/O shield makes using other mini-ITX boards possible too.

Travla TE-1160

Specifications:

  • 1 x Power switch
  • LED indicators: 1 x disk activity  1 x power on
  • 1 x Audio In/Out 
  • 1 x RS-232
  • 2 x USB port
  • 1 x Compact flash slot (does not include CF card reader)
  • Optical drive support: 1 x slim type
  • I/O shield design: 2 x Travla patented universal I/O shield
  • 2 x PCI Expansion slot
  • System cooling: 2 x 40mm fan
  • Memory height: Accept standard size
  • Internal HDD bracket: 2 x 2.5" IDE/SATA brackets
  • External HDD tray: 4 x 3.5" Serial ATA trays
  • Dimensions: 19"(482.6mm)x1.75"(44.45mm)x15"(381mm)
  • Applied M/B form factor: Mini-ITX
  • Material: Heavy duty cold-rolled steel
  • Surface: Black wet paint with texture coat
  • Colour: Black

The chassis costs approx $349 (£270 UK)

More information is available here.

Hardware • Windows Home Server
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By on January 23rd, 2009

Free 5 Year Signed SSL Certificate for MediaSmart Users

We discussed yesterday about the latest update package from HP being available for the EC470 and EX475. Today MediaSmartServer.net has more details that within that update package HP and TZO are now delivering a Comodo 5 year signed SSL certificate so that users using the TZO domain name will no longer experience a certificate warning in Internet Explorer and Firefox.

Website Security Certificate Problem

More details and installation instructions are available from here.

News • Windows Home Server
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By on January 23rd, 2009

The Home Server Show Podcast #31

The Home Server Show Podcast

The Home Server Show podcast #31 is now available with the latest news and views for the Home Server enthusiast.

You can find it here.

News • Windows Home Server
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By on January 23rd, 2009

Windows Media Center and Windows Home Server Awards

The Media Center Awards Show podcast is available for listening, where host Ian Dixon announces the awards for various categories for Windows Media Center and Windows Home Server.

It’s good to see that the best free Windows Home Server application award went to My Movies which was followed voting wise by Whiist and Grid Junction. And congratulations to WeGotServerd who won the best WHS community award, well done guys.

The award show starts approx 19 minutes into the podcast, which you can find here.

News • Windows Home Server
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By on January 22nd, 2009

HP EX470 and EX475 Software Update Package

MediaSmartServer.net is reporting that an update package for the HP MediaSmart Server EX470 and EX475 is available for download.

hpmss-13-r1_install

Labeled as HPMSS-1.3-R1, the update has a built date of Jan 12 2009 and provides the following enhancements:

  • Improves the image processing performance in HP Photo Webshare.
  • The correct error messages are now displayed when using using SSL and TZO certificates.
  • The unnecessary temperature sensor displays have been removed.

More information is available from here.

News • Windows Home Server
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By on January 22nd, 2009

HP EX485 and EX487 Support Pages and FAQ Available

The HP Customer Care site has now been updated to include information on the new EX485 and EX487 MediaSmart Server’s. Detailing setup and install and information on how to solve a problem from either an error message or from the front lights there is lots of information here.

HP Customer Care EX487

Some of the best information is under the "How To Use" – "Software" section which goes through some of the additional components which HP have added onto the MediaSmart.

Also available is the HP MediaSmart Server EX485 and EX487 FAQ  which has 37 of the most asked questions for the new models including (of course) the answers.

Support pages: EX485, EX487 and FAQ.

News • Windows Home Server
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By on January 22nd, 2009

NAS on Steroids Video

Chris Pirillo best known from the geek site Lockergnome has a short video of the HP MediaSmart Server which was recorded at the recent Macworld event where HP picked up the best of show award. And as the HP guy states; NAS on steroids!

News • Windows Home Server
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