MS Windows Home Server

By Philip Churchill on February 17th, 2008

Add-In: Windows Home Server Disk Management 1.0.6.0

The Windows Home Server Disk Management add-in has been updated to version 1.0.6.0 what have either added, changed or fixed the following:

Added: Each drive bay now has a user-editable comment field (currently only displayed in the Settings dialog)
Changed: Drive bay settings dialog now has Update/Replace functionality (previously you had to delete the old drive bay and recreate it if you wanted to make a change)
Changed: Shadow copy size is now correctly deducted from “Used Space” counters (this is more intuitive)
Changed: Misc UI improvements in Settings dialog
Fixed: Unhealthy System disks now correctly show in the Attention Required category
Known issue: Unmanaged disks mounted as mountpoints are displayed as requiring attention

whsdiskmgt_image01

Available from here.

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By Philip Churchill on February 16th, 2008

World Cup – Windows Home Server Style!

The Windows Home Server Team Blog has posted the results (so far) of the top 16 countries in the Windows Home Server World Cup Competition from the 40+ countries where the software has been purchased in the world.

In third place its Denmark

In the runner up position its New Zealand

And in top place it is Norway

And I’m afraid for the rest of us including , the and the , we are slightly lower down the table.

All the details are available to read here.

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By Philip Churchill on February 15th, 2008

Tranquil PC T2-WHS-A3 Harmony Home Server Review

PC Pro magazine reviews the Tranquil PC T2-WHS-A3 Harmony Home Server which gets an impressive 5 out of 6 stars and it receives a “PC Pro Recommended” award as well.

Read the full review here.

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By Philip Churchill on February 14th, 2008

Home Server Setup Recommendations

Blog “Respect Sakura” has listed 4 important rules in her article entitled Home Server Recommendations Part 1, which include:

Buy the biggest drive you can afford for your SYS volume
Why you should Keep your total amount of volumes low e.g. maximum of 4 to 6.
Use the onboard SATA, and don’t bother with any RAID setups
When removing a drive, wait a day or two before removing any more

Give it a read for all the info.

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By Philip Churchill on February 14th, 2008

HP MediaSmart Server Unboxing Video

Blogger Ian Dixon of TheDigitalLifestyle.com has posted a video of the unboxing of the HP MediaSmart Server.

Unboxing of a HP MediaSmart Windows Home Server

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By Philip Churchill on February 14th, 2008

Tamba Bay SBS User Group Q&A

Small Business Server MVP (Most Valuable Professional) Kevin Weilbacher gave a two and a half hour presentation and demo on Windows Home Server at his local Tamba Bay SBS User Group and has kindly posted for us the Q&A from the event which can be found here.

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By Philip Churchill on February 12th, 2008

Tranquil PC T7-HDX Provides addon Storage

The T7-HDX Home Server Extender, is a storage extension unit designed specifically for the T7-HSA from Traquil PC.

T7-HDX Logo

The T7-HDX slides on to the T7-HSA’s chassis to form one integral unit, and can be configured at purchase with a range of storage options. Along with the 2TB storage capability this makes for a very nice add on to the T7 Home Server.

The T7-HDx will be available in two versions, the 2X5 (2x 500GB) at £249 + VAT and the 2X1 (2x 1000GB) at £449 + VAT. The HDDs used are the low energy, reliable, quiet Western Digital Green Power disks, which can be set to function as 2x individual disks (default), or 1x large disk, or a safe RAID (mirrored) array. The disks are heat pipe cooled to the alloy chassis, with a unique, heat pipe, cooling system.

Up to four of these T7-HDx devices can be attached to a T7 Home Server, providing up to massive 9TB of storage. The drives themselves are controlled by a port multiplier device, which seems to boost I/O performance, according to SANDRA tests.

When Windows Home Server PowerPack 1 is released later in 2008, you shall be able to use the T7-HDX to backup the server itself, allowing the backups, and data to be easily ‘removed’ and stored off site, from time to time for complete peace of mind.

http://www.tranquilpc.co.uk/

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By Philip Churchill on February 11th, 2008

HP EX470 Review

UK Mag Computeract!ve reviews the HP MediaSmart Server EX470 and gives it 4 out of 5 stars. Here’s an excerpt:

Power consumption was higher than other network hard disks – we estimate annual energy bills of £39 for the Mediasmart EX470. These niggles, and the £400 price tag, mean it’s only suited to those who enjoy tinkering with add-ins and need top performance from a backup device. More Home Server devices are on the way from other manufacturers but this sets the bar high.

Read the full review.

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By Philip Churchill on February 11th, 2008

It's Electric

Green Computing is given a look at in an article at Economist.com who state It’s about saving money, not the environment.

Following on from this article is the RandomElements Blog entry on Conserving power in a multi-PC household which has even more on saving how much electric our servers may consume.

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By Philip Churchill on February 11th, 2008