HP YouTube Videos

We Got Served has the details that HP have set up a channel on YouTube, to show off their MediaSmart offerings. Four videos are up at the moment, one of which shows the MediaSmart Server in all it’s glory.

The Top 2 Straight in the Charts

Its the top 100, and at number two and climbing up the charts its the HP EX475 MediaSmart Server, and straight in at number one this week, in the computer & PC Hardware category its the HP EX475 MediaSmart Home Server.

http_www.amazon

OK, enough of sounding like a DJ. The charts I’m referring to here are the ones at Amazon.com and  both of the HP units only went on sale yesterday. That’s not bad going, two hot new releases straight in at the top. I’m sure were going to see many happy HP owners shortly.

Thanks to The Windows Home Server Blog for the info.

Win a Copy of Diskeeper 2008 HomeServer Edition

DK2008-Gen-Flat

We announced yesterday that Diskeeper 2008 HomeServer Edition had been released, and courtesy of Diskeeper we have a copy to give away to 5 lucky winners. The defrag tool, especially for Windows Home Server integrates into the console and defragments your computer in real-time with no drain on system resources, making your system run faster. Available for only $69.95, more information on the technology behind Diskeeper 2008 HomeServer Edition is available from their site.

dk2008-homeserver-console

So if you fancy winning 1 of the 5 copy’s that are up for grabs, all you need to do is tell us the answer to the following:

What is the maximum supported volume size supported in Diskeeper2008 HomeServer Edition. Is it:

A) 768GB
B) Unlimited
C) 2TB

He help you with the answer may we suggest you check the Diskeeper 2008 HomeServer Edition page and sub-pages from here for the answer. Email your answer A, B or C with the following completed in 15 words or less. I Love this MS Windows Home Server Website because….. to competition at mswhs dot com before 11.59PM GMT, 14th November 2007 and good luck!

Five correct answers with the best phrase will be selected on 15th November 2007 to receive a copy of Diskeeper 2008 HomeServer Edition as an electronic download. By entering you grant permission for us to publish your full name and city of residence for promotion purposes.

Two Videos

We have two new videos for you on Windows Home Server. The first one is at Channel 10, the place for enthusiasts with a passion for technology where Product Manager of the Windows Home Server team Charlie Kindel talks and shows us the newly released small HP MediaSmart Server and it’s screwless hot swap drive facility. You also get a chance to see the round “hockey puck” Home Server prototype and see the Home Server Charlie built himself and uses at work.

Windows Home Server now available!

Available from here as a MP3, WMA, WMV, Zune, PSP or iPod file.

The second video is on the developer site Channel 9 where Lead Developer Chris Gray shows you Home Server’s extensibility model (fully .NET managed APIs) and talks about some of the add-ins customers have created. Chris demos a few simple add-ins to show how easy it is to extend the Windows Home Server admin console using Visual Studio. He even provides the source code.

Available as a WMV, WMA or MP3 from here.

Velocity Micro NetMagix HomeServer

NetMagix-HomeServer

On sale from the 9th December (2007), the Velocity Micro NetMagix HomeServer is a small, sleek unit that can be situated in a horizontal or vertical position. Starting with 500GB of expandable storage capacity. It is available with the following specs for $899:

  • Black Chassis
  • Dual Core E2140 dual 1.6GHz Processor
  • 1x 1024MB Corsair DDR2-800 PC6400 Memory
  • 500GB Hitachi 7200rpm 16MB Cache SATA 300 w/NVQ
  • 2 Integrated 10/100/1000 LAN (Rear)
  • 4 USB 2.0 Ports (2 front, 2 rear)
  • 2 FireWire (both rear)

The system can be further customized by adding further storage using Velocity Micro’s system configuration tool.

OEM Pre Built: Proteon Home Server

 Sonata III - Side     Sonata III - Front

OEM System Builder Advantec Computer has been added to the Windows Home Server pages at Microsoft. Their PC entitled the Proteon Home Server (nice name), includes the following:

Antec Sonata III Chassis with 500W Power Supply
Intel S300AH Motherboard
Core 2 Duo 2.4Ghz 1066Mhz FSB 2x4MB Cache
2GB DDR-II 667Mhz ECC (2 x 1GB), 8GB Max
3x 500GB Sata-II, Raid 5 on 3-Ware 9650SE Raid Card
20X DVD-RW Drive
Windows Home Server Loaded
Integrated ATI ES1000 16MB Graphics
Dual Intel 10/100/1000 Giga-bit LAN
1x PCI-E x8, 1x PCI-E x4, 1x PCI-E x1, 2x 32-bit/33mhz
3 Year Limited Warranty, Upgrades Available.

More information is available here.

What I would like to ask is why does this include Raid 5 via a raid card when WHS does NOT officially support it?

Microsoft Updates WHS Pages

After all the press releases yesterday, Microsoft has updated its Windows Home Server pages with details of retail venders, WHS system builders, manufacturers and some links to some cool extras as well.

http_www.microsoft

The pages can be found from here and clicking on System Builder, Manufacturer or Cool Extras in the left hand pane will take you to the relevant pages.

Microsoft's Troubleshooting Tips

We have the following troubleshooting tips for help during setup of Windows Home Server, courtesy of the Windows Home Server sub-pages over at Microsoft.

Troubleshooting tips

Having problems setting up Windows Home Server? Ensure that you’ve taken these simple steps:

  • Plug in and power on your home server.

  • Connect your home server with a wired network connection to your broadband router or to a switch that is connected to your broadband router.

If you’ve encountered issues while setting up your home computers with the Windows Home Server Connector software, run through this quick checklist:

  • Connect your home computer to your home network (using either a wired or a wireless connection), and make sure the home computer is on the same logical network as Windows Home Server.

  • Make sure firewall software on your home computer is not blocking access to Windows Home Server.

  • If your computer has been joined to a corporate network (such as a corporate laptop), check with the corporate network administrator about the IPsec policy. This may block access from the corporate computer to Windows Home Server.

Add-In: New Version of Duplication Info

The add-in Duplication Info has been updated to Version 1.0.1.1 1 1.0.1.2. What is unique about this add-in, is that it displays what hard drives your duplicated files reside on, enabling you to see how drive extender works 

 Duplication Info 1.0.1.1

Change Log for 1.0.1.2:

  • When exception raised while initializing, try to display stack trace.

Change Log for 1.0.1.1:

  • Ignore hard drive(s) not joined to WHS storage.
  • I hope “Tab does not appear” problem would be fixed.

Download

Add-In: Windows Home Server Event Monitor Update

Just 7 days and this is the 4th update. Wow, developer Dave Mercer is very quick at bug busting his add-in. Windows Home Server Event Monitor has now been updated to version 1.1.0.0 with some big changes this time.

Bugs:

  • The UI now scans the available Event Logs as opposed to hard-coding what I think you have
  • Fixed race sending multiple message at the same time
    This was nasty!!!  I’m not 100% sure I’ve nailed it.  Please let me know if you see problems.
  • Fixed the SMTP No-Auth problem (Yet again).  For real this time, I promise
  • I now start the service automatically on install.  If there is no config, it will fail but will restart when a new config is saved from the UI.

New stuff:

  • WHSEventMonitor_Readme.htm now drops in WHS dir and in WHS Event Monitor dir under PFiles.
  • I’ve added a tool (EventGenerator.exe) that will allow you to test your rules.
    It drops in the WHS Event Monitor dir under PFiles. Yes, I know I’ve hard coded “Event Generator” as the source of the events and yes I know that the actual source I use is “Event Generator:x” where x is the index of the log you are sending to.  There are some very good reasons for this all of which have to do with not messing up your machine.  I’ll explain more if you like but I expect you don’t. Regardless of what I do, the FIRST event fired by the EventGenerator will register to the EventLog but will NOT be processed by the WHS Event Monitor.  I have no idea why, and have spent too much time trying to understand the issue, so I’ve decided to declare it (in MSFT talk) “By Design”.
  • PDBs are now dropped so I can better get a handle on issues when they arise.

Download and more information at Dave’s Website.