Mailbag 18th January 2011

Have a question or problem?
I can’t guarantee an answer, but I’ll try. Click “ask a question” above!

What will Sandy do for Windows Home Server? Sandy Bridge of course, what did you think I meant! Sandy Bridge is released and many people are raving about the performance increase over the original Core i* processors released, but can it really make a difference to Windows Home Server?

Well I can certainly see a place for it, the power usage will make a massive difference to a machine on 24/7/365 and with the power increase this will certainly allow innovation to flow when it comes to addins, it’s time to make that work horse work.

How can I install SmarterMail on Windows Home Server

T.Bone Asks:

I am looking for information on how to install SmarterMail on Windows Home Server. I found this: http://whs.gs/i2q but it’s out of date they installed v5.5 and SmarterMail only offers v7.4 and I can’t find the install file they used.

How do I go about installing and configuring this for my Windows Home Server using version 7.4, any help would be greatly appreciated?

Just this week Andrew Edney over at usingwindowshomeserver.com has posted his latest guide to installing, configuring and using SmarterMail v7.4 on Windows Home Server.

You can find the guide at http://whs.gs/jlf

How can I extract data from hard drives of a failed WHS?

Paul Asks:

I know you answered ’Can I restore files from a failed WHS hard drive?’ but my Windows Home Server drives have not failed; only my motherboard has failed.

I bought have a USB 2.0 to SATA adaptor so that I can connect these drives to my PC (running XP Home Edition); however, I am unable to read these drives.

Is there a way to extract the data files from the hard drives without using WHS v1?

This is most certainly a different issue to the one I talked about last week. Windows Home Server stores your shared files across multiple drives and keeps track of that data via a database, all the files are kept in the normal raw form that you would find on any normal Windows PC, although they are hidden when on the drive.

If your motherboard has failed and you want to retrieve the data, then this is actually relatively easy, go to http://whs.gs/cqk for a full guide on how to do this.

Windows Home Server Vail 32bit

Anonymous Asks:

Will Microsoft come up with WHS Version 2 (Vail) for 32-bit machines, if it will then when?

Unfortunately Microsoft will not be releasing there next installment of Windows Home Server Vail in a 32bit edition. Anyone currently using Windows Home Server v1 on 32bit architecture, and hoping to upgrade unfortunately this will not be possible.

Microsoft certainly have no plans to change this, I can’t even imagine it would be up for discussion.

Setting up a VPN on Windows Home Sever

Anonymous Asks:

I have been trying to setup a VPN over the 2WIRE DSL/Modem/Wireless router, it looks very complicated, i been trying several options, but none of those works, I have my static IP from AT&T, on the homeserver website the ’compatibles’ routers are Linksys and others but no 2wire, will this be the reason why I am unable to setup?

2wire routers are not the easiest to configure, they are very clunky and certainly cannot be called intuitive, coupled with setting up a VPN problems can easily arise.

There is an excellent guide to configuring your 2wire router over at http://whs.gs/jpo this will show you how to open the relevant ports needed to allow a VPN to establish a connection through the 2wire router, also the ports that need to be opened and pointed at your Windows Home Server are: TCP Port 1723, TCP Port 1701, UDP Port 500.

Also if you are experiencing any issues in setting up the VPN on Windows Home Server or maybe you just want to check you have the right settings, there is an excellent guide at http://whs.gs/5u6 this will walk you through creating and connecting your new VPN.

WHS console and share connectivity

Jim Asks:

I just replaced a faulty router with a new Linksys E2000, since then I have been unable access the shared drives via Explorer (i.e. //server/public/…).

The server is running and other applications (Squeezebox) are able to connect and access files, also the server can connect to the PC’s on the network to perform backups. Any suggestions to get connectivity back?

The first thing I have noticed is the server address you are you using i.e. //server/public/ is incorrect; it should read \\server\public although having said that it doesn’t explain why you have lost connectivity to the console.

Try doing the following:

1. Make sure you have rebooted the server since the install of the router it sounds simple but easily missed.
2. The new router maybe configured for a different IP range to the old router, make sure your WHS is not configured statically assigned, you may need to plug the old router back in, in order to connect to the server again while you go through this process.
3. Make sure your software anti-virus or firewall is configured correctly for the new IP range.
4. See if you can connect to your Windows Home Server via RDC, press Windows Key + R >> type “mstsc” >> type your server name in the box and click connect >> fill in username and password if this works, you will now be able to examine network settings further.
5. Open the WHS Console and underneath the password box click options then click “reset Windows Home Server Console…” then try logging in, this may allow you to login to the console.

There are quite a lot of things that can cause these kinds of problems so you may need to contact me in the forum to discuss the problem further if above has not fixed this.

I know I haven’t been able to answer everyone’s questions, so those that haven’t been answered why not post them in the forum.

Have a question or problem?
I can’t guarantee an answer, but I’ll try. Click “ask a question” above!

Written by
Matthew Glover
www.matthewglover.co.uk

Ask Matt: your questions answered is a post from: MS Windows Home Server - Your Personal Guide to Microsoft Windows Home Server!

Deal of the Week 13th January 2011

Have you spotted any good deals this week?
Let me know and we can share it with everyone, email me matthewglover @ mswhs.com!

Last week’s first post of Deal of the Week was a great success; many people have been letting me know about some of the great deals of the week around the net. This week’s deal is something I spotted last week when looking around but I have been noticing it more and more this week and the deal really is something to behold.

Hard Drive

Western Digital Caviar 2TB for just £69.99/$99.99 plus free delivery!!

Click to enlarge

This really is an incredibly good deal when you consider it is free delivery as well as the great price!

Product Description

Available in capacities up to 2 TB, WD Caviar® GreenTM SATA hard drives reduce power consumption by up to 40% and offer best-in-class acoustics and operating temperature. Based on WD’s exclusive GreenPowerTM technology, these drives are designed to deliver power savings as the primary attribute. As hard drive capacities increase, the power required to run those drives increases as well. WD Caviar Green drives make it possible for energy-conscious customers to build systems with higher capacities and the right balance of system performance, ensured reliability, and energy conservation. They are ideal for PCs, external storage and other devices that require lower power consumption and cool, quiet operation.

Performance Specifications

Rotational Speed             IntelliPower *

Buffer Size                          64 MB

Transfer Rates

Buffer To Host (Serial ATA)          3 Gb/s (Max)

Physical Specifications

Formatted Capacity        2,000,398 MB

Capacity                               2 TB

Interface                             SATA 3 Gb/s

User Sectors Per Drive   3,907,029,168

Physical Dimensions

English

Height                   1.028 Inches

Depth                   5.787 Inches

Width                    4.00 Inches

Weight                 1.61 Pound

Metric

Height                   26.1 mm

Depth                   147 mm

Width                    101.6 mm

Weight                 0.73 kg

Environmental Specifications

Shock

Operating Shock (Read)                65G, 2 ms

Non-operating Shock     250G, 2 ms

Acoustics

Idle Mode           24 dBA (average)

Seek Mode 0     29 dBA (average)

Seek Mode 3     25 dBA (average)

Temperature (English)

Operating            32° F to 140° F

Non-operating  -40° F to 158° F

Temperature (Metric)

Operating            -0° C to 60° C

Non-operating  -40° C to 70° C

Electrical Specifications

Current Requirements

12 VDC

Read/Write        296 mA

Idle                        243 mA

Standby               3 mA

Sleep                     3 mA

5 VDC

Read/Write        503 mA

Idle                        172 mA

Standby               160 mA

Sleep                     160 mA

Power Dissipation

Read/Write        6.00 Watts

Idle                        3.70 Watts

Standby               0.80 Watts

Sleep                     0.80 Watts

You can purchase from amazon.co.uk for £69.99 or from amazon.com for $99.99 or you can see further information about this drive on Western Digital’s website here.

Have you spotted any good deals this week?
Let me know and we can share it with everyone, email me matthewglover @ mswhs.com!

Written by
Matthew Glover
www.matthewglover.co.uk

Matts Deal of the Week is a post from: MS Windows Home Server - Your Personal Guide to Microsoft Windows Home Server!

Mailbag 12th January 2011

Have a question or problem?
I can’t guarantee an answer, but I’ll try. Click “ask a question” above!

It has been a very interesting week, with a lot of attention on the Consumer Electronics Show. The big news coming out of CES is the naming of Windows Home Server Vail, some very eagle eyed sole has noticed that the next edition of WHS is going to be called Windows 7 Home Server. I presume this is to bring consistency across the board i.e. Windows 7 Server, Windows 7 Home Server, Windows 7 and finally Windows 7 Phone. A Microsoft representative later confirmed this is indeed the official name for the next version otherwise known as codename “Vail”. However MVP Andrew Edney has informed me that it was a printing mistake, so it looks like a Microsoft rep has got it totally wrong! Many people still believe that this is going to be the new name and the Microsoft rep has let it slip; only time will tell!!!

Anybody running the latest beta of Windows Home Server Vail will know that it will have expired yesterday, you can still re-activate via a fix here. No data will be lost if your copy has expired but you will need to re-activate it in order to access the data still further.

The next beta release of Vail is expected in the next 6 – 8 weeks and I will be bringing more news of this as we approach and once released.

Blu-ray drive and ripping software for WHS

Derek Asks:

I’m looking to move my DVD/Blu-ray movie collection into my Windows Home Server so that I can stream them through an Xbox.

Do you have any recommendations on a Blu-ray drive that connects to Windows Home Server via USB? AND, here’s the big one, an application that will allow those protected media files to be added to the server?

I think the perfect drive for this task and at a great price would have to be the Liteon IHOS104, it can be had for just $59.99 on amazon.com or £39.99 on amazon.co.uk, and this really is a great price for a Blu-ray player.

For software to rip your entire library to your Windows Home Server has to be, My Movies for Windows Home Server. This software really is the Swiss army knife for your WHS movies storage collection. It is actually sold as 4 different addins dependent on the task you have at hand. Firstly there is My Movies Monitor which keeps track of your movies on your WHS and adding any relevant meta data. Secondly there is My Movies Disc Copier which is what it says on the tin, it copy’s movies to your WHS, there is also a music copier cunning named My Music Disc Copier. Finally there is Media Center MetaData Connector which allows you to access all of this content via a Windows Media Center enabled device, you will also be able to stream direct to your Xbox.

You read more about these addins at their website mymovies.dk.

Can I restore files from a failed WHS hard drive?

Aaron Asks:

My home server motherboard died, I built a new home server with all new hardware, and I kept the original hard disk aside. I simultaneously had one of my client machines hard disk fail, so I rebuilt the client machine with all new hardware.

I’d like to restore files from the original Windows Home Server Hard drive to the client PC, Can this be done?

Unfortunately the simple answer is no, because of the way Windows Home Server catalogs machine backups, there is just no way of restoring the raw data files, making your new WHS install recognize them in order to do a restore.

Is it possible to have no data on my WHS hard drive?

Kam Asks:

I am setting up a Windows Home Server for the first time; I will be using a WD 2.5 HDD – 500G for the OS, then 4 x 2TB WD Greens for pooled data.

Is it possible to have no data on the 2.5 WD HDD? If so, how do i do this? Also, i would like to create backups/images to another 2.5 WD HDD just for the OS.

It isn’t possible to stop Windows Home Server from putting data on to your OS hard drive, but Windows Home Server naturally doesn’t use the first hard drive as frequent to store data unless necessary. However this isn’t a perfect science this is only an observation from looking at many other WHS systems.

Windows Home Server tends to fill the additional storage first rather than the OS storage, if it is forced to use the OS storage then it will i.e. if all other storage is full it will begin to use it, there are ways to force use of the OS storage, which some people have done to balance the storage across multiple drives via WHS Drive Balancer Utility.

I know I haven’t been able to answer everyone’s questions, so those that haven’t been answered why not post them in the forum.

Have a question or problem?
I can’t guarantee an answer, but I’ll try. Click “ask a question” above!

Written by
Matthew Glover
www.matthewglover.co.uk

Ask Matt: your questions answered is a post from: MS Windows Home Server - Your Personal Guide to Microsoft Windows Home Server!

Deal of the Week 6th January 2011

Have you spotted any good deals this week?
Let me know and we can share it with everyone, email me matthewglover @ mswhs.com!

Firstly, I would like to congratulate Tim Daleo from UsingWindowsHomeServer.com and Tom Ziegmann from TomOnTech.com, who have both been given MVP status as of the start of this year, well done guys.

I have been threatening for weeks now to do a regular weekly deal of the week post, well now here it is. I am aiming to find the best deals each week for Windows Home Servers, UPS’s, and Hard Drives both internal and external, also by popular demand Blu-ray drives. If you would like to see me cover more categories, then just let me know what you would like to see covered each week.

Not all of the categories will be covered every week, the best deal of the strongest category for that week will be featured, the category will try and display one item that is US based and one item that is UK based.

If you come across any top deals for the week let me know, maybe you have your own online store and want to share your top deals for the week, feel free to drop me an email, matthewglover @ mswhs.com. The only stipulation is that any deals posted will be accessible online and purchasable online, we are not restricted by country and I aim to cater for everyone.

Windows Home Server

If are looking for a cheap Windows Home Server then this is definitely the one you want. It’s actually just a standard HP ProLiant MicroServer, it doesn’t come with and Operating System, so you will need to buy a copy of WHS, but it comes with everything else. The price at £251.99inc VAT plus £100 cash back from HP, this is an absolute bargain. So for just £151.99 you get a great Windows Home Server, if you buy it from IT247.com you will receive 1% off with the coupon code below.

Specifications

• HP ProLiant MicroServer
• 1 x Dual Core 1.3 Ghz AMD Athlon II Processor
• 1GB Memory
• 1 x 160GB Hard Drive
• 1 year warranty

Extended Specifications

You can buy this from IT247.com for £251.99 using coupon code AW1PCJAN for 1% off your order, this offer expires on the 31st Jan 2011. Unfortunately it looks like limited stock at IT247.com, so you can always purchase it from the HP Website, it is more expensive but you still get the cash back offer.

Have you spotted any good deals this week?
Let me know and we can share it with everyone, email me matthewglover @ mswhs.com!

Written by
Matthew Glover
www.matthewglover.co.uk

Matts Deal of the Week is a post from: MS Windows Home Server - Your Personal Guide to Microsoft Windows Home Server!

Mailbag 4th January 2011

Have a question or problem?
I can’t guarantee an answer, but I’ll try. Click “ask a question” above!

Happy New Year everyone I hope you have all had a good Christmas. There has been many questions posted over the holidays, unfortunately I haven’t been able to answer anywhere near as many as I would have liked, so as usual if I haven’t managed to answer your questions please post in the forum and we can get them answered for you.

The Consumer Electronics Show (CES) starts this week I am really looking forward to it, I am eagerly awaiting big announcements from Microsoft about Vail and I am sure the Drive Extender fiasco will be brought up at some point during the 4 day event, I will bring any news straight to the site as soon as I know anything.

Network Dropping During Backup

Francis Asks:

I have one PC on my network that just will not backup to Windows Home Server. It has 2 hard drives in it, a 160GB one with 2 partitions and a 500GB one, so Windows Home Server sees the hard drives to backup. It is running one license of a 3 license Windows 7 Home Premium Family Pack, both the other PC’s running the other 2 licenses backup fine.

Whenever I try and do a backup of this PC the process will run for about 20 seconds and then the networking capabilities of the PC will be lost and it will no longer be able to access the LAN and of course the internet, a reboot is required to get it networking again.

I’ve tried removing folders and drives from the backup setup, but I always get the same. Even if I choose to backup just one folder I get the same.

I’ve not got the motherboard make and model handy, but I can get it if needed.

I have a similar issue like this before and it is something that can drive you to disappear, not to worry though because I am well aware of how to resolve it. The problem is simply the network card driver, if you go to the manufactures website of the network card and download the correct driver for the card that should resolve it. If you are using a network card on the motherboard go to the motherboards website and same again if you are using a laptop go to the laptop manufactures website. If you can’t find it, Google the make, model followed by drivers and that should yield results. If you are still been unable to find the driver, feel free to drop me a note on the forum.

EX495 Running Slow & Hot

Frank Asks:

I have had my HP Media Smart Server for 2 years now it is the model EX495. I have all upgrades to power pack 3 and upgraded ram to 2GB. Total capacity of drives is 5.23TB and they are 73% full.

I have 2 questions

1. If I am doing more than one operation at a time the server is extremely slow. An Example is that when I am updating data files using Movie Collector it may take about 10 seconds to complete an operation. But if I am copying files over to the server from another client computer it can take 4 times longer to complete the same operation. Am I expecting too much or is this normal?

2. In my network health indicator I have been getting the error message for about 6 months now” Your HP Media Smart Server appears to have a hardware problem. The HP Media server CPU is running too hot.” My temps are between 35 and 55 C. I have called HP tech support and they say the error message is normal and there is nothing I can do about it but ignore it since my temps are in line with what they should be.

I believe a server should work better than this and I am thinking of just building another WHS to replace it.

Firstly it is always difficult to judge just how slow your server is running, if at all, the only real way to tell I find, is to install AdminiMe, this will certainly allow you to see the performance of your server in real-time and will give you an idea of the server as a whole is running. Although from your description when transferring files the server seems slow, this can only usually be attributed to one thing, the network. It really depends on what kind of network you are transferring data over which dictates the speed you will relatively get, over a wireless connection dependent on distance from the router and walls in between, expect a lot of lag and slow speeds, as unfortunately it is the slowest way to transfer data to your server. Over a wired connection however speeds will be much quicker and certainly more stable; again however there are two different speeds 10/100Mbps and 10/100/1000Mbps, obviously the latter is the quickest and you would certainly notice a dramatic distance between the two.

Secondly, temperatures of any machine hi or low are affected by the environment to which it is situated, if your server is near a radiator or in a cupboard try and relocate it to somewhere where there may be better air flow, if it is in a cupboard try a fit a vent on the front for good ventilation. This message will probably appear more frequent when the server is in use, this is simply because the CPU generates more heat when in use, however if this message is appearing all the time then more than likely it will need relocating. The other thing that can be done is to remove any dust from around, on and in the server. Dust stops the air from circulating efficiently in and around the server and hence you will see an increase in your CPU temperature. This sounds very much like an environmental issue, chances are building another server will only see the problem reoccur immediately if in poor air circulation or in time if simply down to dust build up.

What next for Vail?

Bob Asks:

I have been using Windows Home Server for little over a year, it is fantastic, it runs backups without any hassles and I can share folders on it.

My biggest complaint would be that the shared folders are not backed up automatically. I suppose I could map one PC to them and have them backed up as local drives but that seems clumsy.

Now I learn that the ability to just toss in disks with Disk Extender may be going away, that is a deal breaker. Worse still, I was hoping to start installing Windows Home Server for other. That is now on hold.

Does anyone know if the next version will be as easy to use as this one or will Microsoft make it next to impossible to figure out, as they do with so much of their other software?

For $117 for the software and a minimal retired PC you can’t beat the price. Add an e-SATA card and outboard drives an you have a winner of a backup solution on the cheap.

I can’t agree more, the simplicity and ease of use makes Windows Home Server so domesticated it can be a pleasure to use. I have spoken of my disappointment in the past of drive extender being removed from the upcoming Vail release and I think it shows just how much it will be missed by the fact it is still getting mentioned.

I still think Vail will be a very worthwhile product once released, the backup capabilities, media streaming and addins will all make it an extremely versatile and well-rounded piece of software.

Shared folders can actually be backed up on to an internal/removable drive, just install the drive, when coming to add to the storage pool just select it as a backup drive instead of adding to the storage pool.

HP X510 Health Indicator Doesn’t Alert

Phil Asks:

I have just purchased a HP X510 and received a lot of helpful advice from Bodog across on WeGotServed. I have migrated everything across from my EX475 to X510 but the Health indicator light on the X510 does not reflect the status shown on the console (or in the system tray), I have a red indicator on my console at present due to a few things being out of date but the X510 health lights are still bluish (not as nice a blue as on the EX475!) Anyway the point is that it is certainly not red; I have also tried to raise an issue on the HP site but their web form does not recognize the HP Storage Works X510 as a valid product so cannot raise a support call, I will try and call them on the phone during office hour.

I am hoping you have managed to get further clarification from HP because unfortunately I haven’t. I am not sure whether the health indicator light is only to show failing drives on the X510, although at the moment I have had no further clarification from HP at the time of writing.

If you have had something back from them please post in the forum.

I know I haven’t been able to answer everyone’s questions, so those that haven’t been answered why not post them in the forum.

Have a question or problem?
I can’t guarantee an answer, but I’ll try. Click “ask a question” above!

Written by
Matthew Glover
www.matthewglover.co.uk

Ask Matt: your questions answered is a post from: MS Windows Home Server - Your Personal Guide to Microsoft Windows Home Server!

Mailbag 21st December 2010

Have a question or problem?
I can’t guarantee an answer, but I’ll try. Click “ask a question” above!

This is my last mailbag before Christmas, so I would like to take this opportunity to thank you all that read the mailbag each week a very Merry Christmas. I will still be posting over the Christmas period, plus with the January sales just around the corner I will be taking the opportunity to start posting the deal of the week, if anyone does see any real WHS bargains please let me know.

WHS system storage very high

Ryan Asks:

I recently had my Windows Home Server tell me there were some conflicts with a few files and that one drive needed to be repaired. My Windows Home Server has a 250 GB drive for the OS and 2 x 1TB drives for data storage. 20 GB of the OS drive is used for the system and currently I’m only using 288 GB for my data.

After repairing the effected drive it’s now telling me the system is using 719 GB’s where before it was only using 20 or so. Is that the system telling me that 700 GB’s of the one drive that needed to be repaired has failed? If not how can I reclaim this storage space?

I have to admit that is quite a jump from using just 20GB to 720GB, I have seen WHS miss report storage figures in the past but never like this. I would say that CHKDSK has certainly done this, I have seen WHS miss report how much usage it was initially using and then once a CHKDSK has been completed the usage immediately jumps up and by quite a considerable amount.

The main reason for these kinds of problems are because of the file system that Windows Home Server employs, although it is NTFS on the surface the drive extender is essentially a file system that works in conjunction, unfortunately drive extender has been fraught with problems ever since WHS was released, highlighted heavily by the corruption problems that was first found after release but have since been fixed.

I would recheck exactly the storage usage your data is consuming, also check which shares have duplication enabled. The fact you have already done a CHKDSK leads me to believe your new storage requirements are correct and have only been highlighted by the CHKDSK and large discrepancy afterwards.

Windows 7 64bit console is not compatible

Phil Asks:

Sorry I know you’ve been asked this question many times but I can’t fix my problem. I recently upgraded from an EX470 v3 to an EX495 v3. All went very well except now I keep getting this message on my windows 7 x64 PC’s only WHS Notification Alert HP Media Collector – Please update the client software,

“Error: The version of software on”PHIL-PC” is not compatible with the server. Please uninstall the client software and reinstall it from the server”.

My notebook with windows 7 x32 is fine. This problem is only on my windows 7 x64 PC’s, I have two. I’ve followed the instructions given to a T, uninstalled and reinstalled the client software and shutdown the PC’s and Server after uninstall many times many variations still to no avail.

I can access the server via console no problem and everything else using the PC’s. But I do not get auto backup and media collection. Also did all updates. This problem will not go away, this all worked fine on previous EX470 v3 server.

You don’t mention which ways you have tried to re-install the connector software so I am going to go through things one by one. Firstly make sure your Windows Home Server has all windows updates completed and up to date. Secondly when installing the connector software make sure you have chosen the option during install to download any updates from my home server, this way it should get the latest connector software direct from the server if it wasn’t already. Thirdly press Windows Key + R >> type “\\YOURSERVERNAME\Software\Home Server Connector Software” double click “WHSConnector_x64.msi” this should then launch the 64bit connector software manually. Finally if none of this has worked try downloading the latest Windows Home Server Connector software ISO from Microsoft’s website here.

I am pretty certain that one of these fixes will bear fruit, if not don’t forget I am in the forum most days, let me know and I would be only too happy to troubleshoot further with you.

News on FlexRAID the Drive Extender replacement

Ray Asks:

I am one of the many unhappy users of Vail beta now and I see their maybe some light at the end of the tunnel in regards to DEv2 being removed with the FlexRaid solution so my question is, when can we expect some kind of Beta for the FlexRaid Add-in? Where can I find info on the developers working on this so I can stay up to date on the development of the add-in?

I am really looking forward to seeing more from these developers on this specific addin, Al West is one of the developers on this project, Al writes from time to time on MSwhs.com, I don’t really have any further news on the addin at the moment, but as Al is a one of my co-writers I will be letting everyone know of all the developments as they come in.

Unable to access Windows Home Server shares

Anonymous Asks:

I have a HP Windows Home Server product; I recently added two Windows 7 systems to my network, I was able to install the WHS connector software and the backups worked fine. The thing I am having trouble with is getting access to the shared folders on the server, this only happens on the Windows 7 (home premium and professional) systems.

To be honest without the error message it is difficult to say exactly what the problem is, but I am going to hazard a guess at WHS not authenticating your username and password correctly, as this tends to be the most common problem that is similar to this. Make sure that your username and password are exactly the same on the Windows Home Server and the workstations (it sounds simple but it does happen).

If that hasn’t worked try press Windows Key and type “credential manager” click on credential manager in the list, here you should now see all the username and passwords associated with certain accounts on your local networks and the internet that you have saved. Under windows credentials check and see if you have an entry for your Windows Home Server, if so delete it, click add windows credential then fill in the name of your server, your username and password, click ok and then try and access your server resources.

As I mentioned earlier it is very difficult to diagnose the fault properly without the full error message, you can always post the error on the forum if this hasn’t resolve the issue where I would be only too happy to diagnose further.

I know I haven’t been able to answer everyone’s questions, so those that haven’t been answered why not post them in the forum.

Have a question or problem?
I can’t guarantee an answer, but I’ll try. Click “ask a question” above!

Written by
Matthew Glover
www.matthewglover.co.uk

Ask Matt: your questions answered is a post from: MS Windows Home Server - Your Personal Guide to Microsoft Windows Home Server!

Mailbag 15th December 2010

Have a question or problem?
I can’t guarantee an answer, but I’ll try. Click “ask a question” above!

This week the spotlight has been around the open source alternatives to Microsoft’s Windows Home Server. There are many alternatives to WHS and it is very surprising just how worthy some of them really are, what’s more surprising is how many people are looking at the possibility of moving to some of them on offer.

It takes an incredible amount of faith to put all your home videos/photos, hundreds sometimes thousands of £/$ of music, and in many cases there entire film/DVD collection to an operating system like Windows Home Server, could you have the same trust/confidence in an unknown operating system?

I am not trying to discourage anyone from using open source software, after all many people really on open source software and I am certainly one of them, but I would say make sure you have a failsafe backup and make sure you have read reviews and write ups, about the pros and cons about any of the alternatives.

WHS Open Source Options

Michael Asks:

Due to the drive extender issue I am thinking about getting a different package rather than updating WHS without drive extenders. My question is what are some of the options out there? Any open source packages available?

Also Varun Asks:

So I was part of the shocked DEv2 removal crowd. I firmly believe that Vail is DOA without DE. What alternatives do we have? Have you tried any?

I’m trying out Amahi, and had a FreeNAS machine for a few years, but interested in knowing what options exist.

At the moment I am getting these kind of questions asked at least once a day, with the death of drive extender everyone wants to know, is there any alternatives and can it run on WHS Vail?

Well there are a couple of alternatives, Amahi which is very similar to Windows Home Server it has all the features WHS has got and more an endless list of plugins to choose from and being open source most are free. FreeNAS is exactly as the name suggests, it is an open source NAS server and unfortunately nothing more and nothing less, it has got its benefits but the features list is no vast array of innovation. Finally there is FlexRAID which I definitely favor the most, it basically is a software raid utility, its versatility is endless, if anything its better than drive extender, you need to install an OS and that could be Windows or Linux and then use FlexRAID to span the data across all of your drives.

I have mentioned before in previous posts, there are a couple of developers working to harness the power of FlexRAID and use it in an addin for Vail, this way you will be able to install this addin once Vail is installed and essentially have all the features and more that drive extender promised, this really is looking like a win, win situation now!!

Should I stick with WHS v1 or go for Vail when released?

Tim Asks:

I am currently running a homebrew WHS V1 which is now coming on three years old. When I built the system I didn’t anticipate I would upload my DVD and now Blu-Ray collection to my server. I have over 6TB of storage…the system has become sluggish and I have run out of SATA ports. I had planned on building a new system with 8 SATA ports once Vail was released, but with the elimination of Drive Extender I may just build a new system based on Windows Home Server V1.

My question… What steps do I need to follow to transfer the data from one server to another? I would like to build the server, transfer the data, and then replace the old server with the new one, hopefully not needing to make too many changes to the other systems to get it to work with the new server.

Should I build this system or should I wait and see if something positive happens with Vail?

There is an old saying, when everyone is digging for gold, be the one selling the shovels, unfortunately Microsoft don’t look likely to be making any U-turns any time soon with Drive Extender. That leaves many people who were planning on buying/building a new Windows Home Server with quite a predicament, there are actually 4 options facing these very people at the moment and some of the options are already above in this very post.

Do they buy/build later, once Vail is released on the proviso that Microsoft will make a huge U-turn, and actually ship Vail with its intended Drive Extender, but only for the domestic market?
Do they buy/build now and base there new system around the current Windows Home Server V1, sticking to what they already know and love?
Do they buy/build a new system, install Vail and hope someone comes up with a great optional addin that will give you the Drive Extender technology based on FlexRAID?
Or the fourth option, buy/build a new system and move completely away from Microsoft to something more unknown yet possibly innovative, such as Amahi?

To be really and truthfully honest I can’t tell you which way to go with this one, all I do know is that 2 of the 4 options above come with Vail. I don’t know how things will change for WHS in the future, although I don’t think sticking with Microsoft at the moment would be bad idea, because in the long run, there are a lot of developers in the Windows Home Server community that truly like this product, and that counts for a lot, when it comes to new addins, well.. That’s the users shovel.

How to rebuild my Windows Home Server

Gordon Asks:

I have Windows Home Server on a dedicated HP WHS server. I have been unable to do Windows Updates but the server was working okay a year ago before we moved.

Is there a way to reload the software and retain all the data on the WHS server?

First of all there’s no need to reinstall WHS if you don’t have to, although I will tell you how just in case it is something you want to do anyway.

Try to remote into your WHS first; press Windows Key + R >> Type “mstsc” >> fill in your server name, click connect >> fill-in your administrator username and password, you are now logged into your WHS remotely. Open internet explorer and click tools >> windows update, you should be able to do the windows update without issue from here, if you get an error message then that is a separate issue, it may be worth you posting that on our forum if you do get an error.

If you really want to do a clean install pop in your Windows Home Server disk in, rerun the install choosing WHS reinstall instead of clean install.

Does RAID & Windows Home Server really mix?

Anonymous Asks:

I am looking at getting a Windows Home Server and was told that it can run RAID 5, is that really correct, If so, what is your recommendation on drives and how many internally?

This is very similar to a question from Dean in the Mailbag last month, he wanted some impartial advice on purchasing a new Windows Home Server and what would be the best hardware to use. RAID 5 most certainly can be used with Windows Home Server, I will not cause any issues with the current Drive Extender, any Windows OS that works on top of a RAID formation never actually sees the RAID, Windows can only ever see the drives to which RAID makes up, for this reason WHS will only ever see 1 drive or however many drives in a RAID formation you create.

I never really recommend specific drives, but what you are looking for is something that is going to be reliable, try buying drives that have at least been released for some time say around  6 – 9 months, the reason for this is simple, new drives may possibly come with a firmware glitch it happens very rarely but better to be safe than sorry, remember you are looking for a lorry not a Ferrari, at the end of the day the drive is going to store data, not run crysis at 90fps.

Can I move my hard drives from my old WHS to my new WHS?

Doug Asks:

I have a HP EX470 with stock memory, but I put in 4 1TB Seagate Hard drives.

My question is:
1) Given HP’s announcement, if I choose to get a X510 or a EX495, could I just take my 4 1TB’s drives out and put them in my new server and I would be set, or would I have to manually transfer the data?
2) Given HP’s announcement, would you recommend getting one of the few remaining EX475s or something else on the horizon?

When adding a new hard drive to any Windows Home Server, the requirement is that the drive is formatted in order to be added to the storage pool. In doing this all data on the drive would be erased, if you was moving the drives to a new server, you would need to backed up the data on the drives first, before adding them to the storage pool.

The HP EX475 certainly is an excellent Windows Home Servers and I have feeling that the last few remaining will go quickly, if you are looking for a new WHS then you can certainly do worse than an EX475.

I know I haven’t been able to answer everyone’s questions, so those that haven’t been answered why not post them in the forum.

Have a question or problem?
I can’t guarantee an answer, but I’ll try. Click “ask a question” above!

Written by
Matthew Glover
www.matthewglover.co.uk

Ask Matt: your questions answered is a post from: MS Windows Home Server - Your Personal Guide to Microsoft Windows Home Server!

Mailbag 8th December 2010

Have a question or problem?
I can’t guarantee an answer, but I’ll try. Click “ask a question” above!

I have to admit when Microsoft announced drive extender was being cut from WHS Vail I was as shocked as anybody, this feature was the life blood of WHS, and certainly a feature heavily relied upon. Here I am 2 weeks after the decision was made and we are all still talking about it, I am still receiving emails from angry users asking why this has been cut and where to go from here.

I don’t really have any answers for those people, its true Microsoft have made a crazy decision, and the fact is, that it was cut based on Microsoft being unable to  implement the same technology in its business products. Surely Microsoft should realise that if they can’t use it in their business products but can be used in WHS, then just use it in WHS. I think the main problem is that most of the original WHS team is no longer present, Microsoft merged the WHS and SBS team at the start of Vail’s incarnation. I don’t think the new team really realised the impact of cutting a feature as big as drive extender would have on such a well-rounded product.

It still remains to be seen if Microsoft will throw a life line to Vail, and reinstate drive extender solely into Windows Home Server, I personally would back them all the way if they did this, and I will continue to campaign for this change to be made.

On a final note, some of you may have noticed that the forum is currently down for maintenance, we are in the process of bringing a new fresh new interface into play, with features galore, we are hoping to be completely up and running again either today or tomorrow, so watch this space, and look forward to seeing you all in there.

Ronald Asks:

Simple question (I hope). My Windows Home Server has gotten a bit sluggish over the past 2 years of usage (as my collection of audio files has grown).

May I change out the processor (currently dual core at 2 GHz + 1 MB cache + 800 MHz bus) with another manufacturer-approved processor (4 core at 2.66 GHz + 8 Mb cache + 1066 MHz bus)? Current processor is Intel E2180; proposed replacement is Xeon X3230, Memory on board currently is 4 GB DDR II – 667 MHz

Your current CPU the E2180 uses the LGA775 socket architecture, the new CPU you plan to install the Xeon 3230 also uses the LGA775 architecture, this means that you can swap the processors without any repercussions or detrimental effect.

The only thing that you may have to do is reactivate your Windows Home Server with Microsoft, because you are not making any changes that require any serious driver changes this process is very simple, if on the other hand you decide to change the motherboard at the same time, the process becomes very tedious, at this point you will almost certainly have to completely reinstall your entire Windows Home Server.

Art Asks:

I have a Windows Home Server that has been flawless for the past two years. My daughter recently bought a new laptop with Windows 7 Home Premium on it. I set it up as with all other computers in my system – with matching passwords to allow instant access, however, i keep getting a message that the passwords don’t match. I have re-installed the Windows Home Server connector software, re-wrote passwords, etc.. to no avail.

In researching this problem it appears to be quite common with Windows 7 and Windows Home Server and there are a variety of strategies being put out there. The most positive seems to be to run secpol.msc and change a setting in it – but Windows 7 Home Premium does not have this file, I am at a loss, any thoughts?

I can certainly assure you that secpol.msc (Local Security Policy) does exist in Windows 7, try going through below, this should certainly resolve your problem.

Run “secpol.msc” >> Go down to Local Policies | Security Options >> Find “Network Security: LAN Manager Authentication level” >> Then set this to “Send NTLM response only”

David Asks:

Ok, I know it’s in Beta; I stumbled upon the Windows Home Server V2 beta (Vail) while researching Windows Home Server V1. I REALLY want to use this platform. I can see where the Drive Extender being taken out would be a major step backwards when it already works. I am currently using the Windows Home Server V2 Beta (Vail) software. LOVE IT. But that may just be because I haven’t used a home server before, especially one designed to go with all my PC’s.

I have a 2-fold question…

I know there is no direct upgrade path from V1 to V2 due to 64bit etc… BUT! Is there any word/rumor/info on whether or not, once V2 goes live, I can continue to use my files/system/setup and simply re-install a licensed copy of the OS? Or will I have to do a total, complete reinstall of EVERYTHING?!

Next: For those of you in the know, is V2 REALLY pointless if no Drive extender is included? All BS aside, I still have all my files still on all the PC’s simply because it is a Beta after all. But If V2 isn’t going to be worth it if they take out DE, then maybe I should just plunge into V1

What are your opinions?

These questions can only be answered by yourself as only you know your requirements, to answer your first question, if you are using Vail beta at the moment you won’t be able to perform an upgrade to the final release you will need to do a fresh install and although this is painful and tedious, I wouldn’t really recommend upgrading from beta software under normal circumstances anyway.

Your second question certainly divides opinion, drive extender was brilliant for those with lots of data, you can keep adding more drive to your WHS and it will keep spanning the data across those drives all day long, so for those people it is a massive loss. On the other hand there are people that only use there WHS to backup there PC’s, for them I think they will be pretty safe, Microsoft will be doing everything they can to make sure that the backup side of WHS will continue to work without hiccup, after all there really isn’t anything else on the market that can do this in this way so consistently, at the end of the day you will have to make a decision as to which version of WHS best meets you needs.

Have a question or problem?
I can’t guarantee an answer, but I’ll try. Click “ask a question” above!

Written by
Matthew Glover
www.matthewglover.co.uk

Ask Matt: your questions answered is a post from: MS Windows Home Server - Your Personal Guide to Microsoft Windows Home Server!

Mailbag 30th November 2010

Have a question or problem?
I can’t guarantee an answer, but I’ll try. Click “ask a question” above!

Drive Extender Removed From Vail

Unsurprisingly the biggest talking point this week has been Drive Extender, to hear that it was being removed from the upcoming Vail release was gutting, I am really not sure what Microsoft are thinking about by removing such a massive and popular feature from the final release.

In response to the madness, there are a few developers out there that are trying to develop their own drive extender, in the form of an addin, this looks promising and is going to be based on FlexRAID, when I know more I will let everyone know.

As far as I am concerned if the FlexRAID addin comes through, then Windows Home Server will go on, but I don’t think it will ever become a successful mainstream product whilst popular features get cut from each new version. We have to remember Microsoft aren’t replacing this feature with something else bigger and better, and in my view will be offering poor value for money when Vail does finally get released, as they haven’t improved Vail enough from WHS v1 to really warrant an upgrad with such a massive feature missing.

The out pouring from the Windows Home Server community has been unprecedented, and has certainly caught Microsoft off guard, Terry Walsh @ WeGotServed has written to Steve Ballmer personally, whether this will have any bearing on the final decision, which seems to have already been made, remains to be seen. It’s now left with Microsoft to stick or twist.

Let me know what you think of Drive Extender being removed from Windows Home Server in our forum.

Can I Retrieve a Deleted Share

Anonymous Asks:

I deleted a share by accident in the Windows Home Server console and it deleted the share and directories/files off of server. No Duplication for that share was enabled. Is there any way to recover the share in Windows Home Server?

Basically Windows Home Server stores data over multiple drives and does not work in the same way as a normal file system such as NTFS and FAT. Yet despite that NTFS is still at the heart of Windows Home Server, with the controversial drive extender sat on top of that. This means there is always ways and means of recovering data when deleted, although I must warn you that these are ways that could cause more harm than good.

Try going here, I have seen other people retrieve data that has been deleted using this method on a number of occasions; I must stress though I take no responsibility for anyone following these steps, as followed incorrectly could cause further data loss.

Unable to have multiple open connections to an Access database on WHS

John Asks:

I run Windows Home Server Power Pack 3 with several home PCs. I’d like to use Microsoft Access (2003 or 2010) and have the back end tables on the server with the front end file on each of the PCs.

When I’ve tried this, only one PC can access the database at any one time. It works when I host the tables on one of the PCs–everyone can use the database at the same time.

Can Windows Home Server handle this? I’ve tried different variations with the Access table file on a Windows Home Server folder as well as directly on the server C: drive with no luck.

There is no technical reason as to why you are unable to open the same database on multiple machines simultaneously; Windows Home Server certainly has no limitations in this way either.

Having looked in to this further the only real reason I can think of is opening the database in exclusive mode, this all depends on the way you open your database, File >> Open, has an option for opening in exclusive mode, which I believe is unchecked by default, whereas if you double-click, it checks to see if that profile is set to “open exclusive by default“, then opens in exclusive mode. To change which mode you are in go to Tools >> Options >> Advanced tab and select Exclusive and All Locks, you will need to do this on each machine but this should do the trick.

Can I manually balance my data across my drives

Renny Asks:

I am running Windows Home Server Version 1 with 3 internal 500GB hard drives and 3 further 1TB hard drives in a Tower Raid box.

One of the internal drives (not the system drive) is showing 95% full while all other drives are between 33% and 60% full.

Is this cause for concern?

Can you manually invoke drive balancing to better spread the data?

This is very common and certainly not an issue to worry about, if you have drive duplication turned on, Windows Home Server will simply be spanning your data across multiple drives for you. The reason WHS does this, has to do with when you add your additional data drives and all of your data.

Example: If you install WHS with 2 x 500GB hard drives, then transfer 600GB of data to your new WHS, with duplication enabled, you then add the rest of your hard drives as per your example above, WHS will not balance the data across the new drives because it sees no need, as the data is duplicated on the 2 drives you originally had installed.

In time WHS will shift some data around and you will see the other drives fill up, If this is something that is worrying you and you would feel more at ease seeing the data spread wide and far across your drives, then yes you can force WHS to balance the data manually, Tom Spinoso over at  homeservershow.com has got a great feature about an application you can download called Windows Home Server Drive Balancer (really where do they get these names from) to force WHS to balance better and shift the data around to the other drives.

Windows Home Server Drive Balancer Article: here

Can I backup my Android phone to Windows Home Server

Craig Asks:

I love my Android phone and I love my Windows Home Server. What I would like to see is an App for the phone that would back up the phone to the Windows Home Server.
Does anyone know of one?
Does anyone want to write one?

Put simply, I don’t know of one and I can’t be sure if anyone wants to write one. So I am throwing this one out to everybody to answer, and see what they think. Let me know with comments below or post in the forum, I am sure if we get enough support, someone would want to write the addin.

Have a question or problem?
I can’t guarantee an answer, but I’ll try. Click “ask a question” above!

Written by
Matthew Glover
www.matthewglover.co.uk

Ask Matt: your questions answered is a post from: MS Windows Home Server - Your Personal Guide to Microsoft Windows Home Server!

Mailbag 23rd November 2010

Have a question or problem?
I can’t guarantee an answer, but I’ll try. Click “ask a question” above!

Where has Vail Gone? When will it be released?

I am getting these questions on a daily basis at the moment, the truth is I don’t truly know what’s happening, things have gone very quiet of late and the Windows Home Server team blog hasn’t been updated since May.

In recent weeks Microsoft has announced the release dates Windows Small Business Server 2011 Essentials (previously codenamed “Aurora”) and Windows Storage Server 2011 Essentials (previously codenamed “Breckenridge”). There is no fixed date set for these but they have said in the first half of 2011, I can only presume that this is the same for Windows Home Server Vail also.

Unable to Access Windows Home Server Remote Site

Frank Asks:

When I go to another site, I can easily connect to my Windows Home Server, but if I try using my iPod touch running Safari, after I enter my username & password it thinks for a while and then comes back to the username & password screen.

The desktop is hardwired and the iPod is on Wi-Fi connected to the same router. This is supposed to be do-able.

If I am honest at first this one got me a little stumped, I certainly know that you are able to access WHS via the iPod touch. The one thing I do want to point out is to make sure you are not trying to login using the administrator username and password, as this is restricted to local use only.

I have spoken to a couple of people about this and they have also experienced this as well, they reliably inform me that clearing the History, Cookies and Cache in the Safari settings should resolve this problem, follow the tutorial below to clear these.

Clear iPod Touch Safari Cache

1. Home screen
2. Settings
3. Safari
4. Make sure to scroll down to tap all three buttons: Clear History, Clear Cookies and Clear Cache.

Click to enlarge

Unable to open/connect to the Windows Home Server Console

Per Asks:

I cannot connect to the Windows Home Server Console any more, the icon say’s ”Network health on risk”

This problem started some days ago and it doesn’t occur at a particular time of day; it isn’t possible to connect the WHS Console any time.

Now I have tried to uninstall & reinstall the Windows Home Server console on my computer and I now get an error message saying “This operation cannot be completed at this time. Please try again later”.

I can still see and use all the files I have saved on my Windows Home Server from my computer.

Any help would be much appreciated.

This does seem a little unusual, as from the email Pers sent, I know this has suddenly stopped working, first of all the simplest thing to try is restarting your Windows Home Server.

If that hasn’t worked, when you open the Windows Home Server console but before entering your password, try clicking “Options” underneath the password box >> then click “Reset the Windows Home Server Console”.

Re-install the connector software making sure to uninstall and then restart your PC afterwards, once you are ready to install the software again make sure you do this by either going to http://yourservername:55000 or \\yourservername\software\Home Server Connector Software, there has been many cases of these problems, generally originating from people installing the incorrect version of the WHS connector software, to make sure you are using the correct version you can download the latest connector software from Microsoft’s website here.

If it is still not working, I would be inclined to think that something new has been installed on the machine such as internet security, McAffee has been known to cause these sorts of issues with the WHS console.

The WHS console runs inside the Remote Desktop Connection software installed on all PC’s, it may be that your anti-virus program could be stopping the RDC protocol, try disabling any anti-virus on the PC and also add an exception in the program, then try accessing the Windows Home Server console, I am pretty sure this will resolve the problem.

Have a question or problem?
I can’t guarantee an answer, but I’ll try. Click “ask a question” above!

Written by
Matthew Glover
www.matthewglover.co.uk

www.lpower.co.uk | Quality Laptop Batteries, 30 Day Money Back Guarantee, 12 Month Warranty.

Ask Matt: your questions answered is a post from: MS Windows Home Server - Your Personal Guide to Microsoft Windows Home Server!

• Install Aurora on HP Mediasmart Server EX487
• Windows Home Server Failed Raid
• Windows Home Server Adding Drive without Formatting & Finding old Disk ID’s
• Unable to login to Windows Home Server Remotely!

Have a question or problem?
I can’t guarantee an answer, but I’ll try. Click “ask a question” above!

Install Aurora on HP Mediasmart Server EX487

Dale Asks:

Any reason(s) you know why I should not remove WHS from my HP Mediasmart Server EX487 and install ”Aurora” ? My application is more business than personal. Thanks for your consideration.

I can’t see any reason what so ever why this would be a problem, essentially Vail is the same operating system as Aurora and that installs without any issues on the EX487. My advice would be to wait until the final version arrives especially as you will be using it for business use, as you may already know Aurora is still in Beta and has still got bugs, it would definitely be worth the wait in the long run.

Windows Home Server Failed Raid

Tony Asks:

My RAID 0 drive failed so I took the opportunity when replacing the drive(s) to upgrade to windows 7 ultimate 64bit from Vista 32.

I know I cannot do a complete backup from Windows Home Server but must replace file-by-file.

I am an avid gamer and while I know I have to re-install each game I would like to recover my game status/progress on several games if possible. Where do I find these files on Windows Home Server?

When you mount a backup that you want to restore, you will find it opens a mapped drive on Z:\ here you should see the exact file structure your Hard Drive previous had.

For instance if you wanted to retrieve your saved game files from Football Manager 2011 on Windows 7 you would go to “Z:\Users\Username\Documents\Sports Interactive\FM2011\Saved Games\” in Windows XP you would go to “Z:\Documents and Settings\Username\My Documents\Sports Interactive\FM2011\Saved Games\”

Windows Home Server Adding Drive without Formatting & Finding old Disk ID’s

Joar Asks:

A few weeks ago my Windows Home Server did not start up anymore. I am pretty sure that it wouldn’t boot up correctly because when I push the power button it stops immediately.

Then I removed the system disk and connected it to my workstation and run chkdsk \r/f on the system partition only. Inserted it again and my WHS started up again and it was available through remote desktop.

When I now go to the Windows Home Server console >> Server Storage tab, it says system disk is missing and it keep on calculating server storage without result. There is also a new hard drive ready for ”adding” and that must be the original volume. The question is, how can I add the original volume again without formatting it?

Click to enlarge

What has happened is the Disk ID’s that Windows Home Server has got for your hard drive, is now different from the one it had for the Hard Drive before you have done the CHKDSK on your workstation.

What you will need to do is go into the BIOS of your WHS in order to retrieve the old ID, follow below:

1. Remotely access your WHS using Remote Desktop Connection
2. Start >> Run >> Type “regedit”
3. Drill down to “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows Home Server\Storage Manager\Disks\
4. You should now see something like you can on this screenshot below, each instance under disk, is a hard drive in the WHS data pool, by clicking on each hard drive instance you will see the friendly name of the system drive will be set to System disk, again this is exactly the same as in the screenshot.
   

   Click to enlarge

5. Once you have found the instance marked with the friendly name System disk, the first 8 digits is the old system disk id, make sure you write this down as you will need this later.
6. Now the next bit involves following “ymboc’s” post over at mediasmartserver.net click here, you only need to follow from “Part 3: Updating the WHS Registry” this was written for cloning your system drive to a new/different hard drive, but it fits perfectly for this post to change your drive ID.

Once you have finished with ymboc you have should now be able to see your system drive present in the Server Storage tab and showing as Healthy.

Unable to login to Windows Home Server Remotely!

Max Asks:

I cannot sign in to Homeserver.com from my copy of Windows Home Server. I have my Hotmail account and have access to Messenger, Hotmail and Live.

I do have communications with Homeserver.com in as much as the sign in screen comes up. Windows Home Server says everything is working.

What exactly do I put in the sign in area for a user name and for the password? I have changed my sign in many times without success. Do I have to put ”@hotmail.com” along with my username? Nothing I try seems to make a difference; I still cannot log in.

Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.

The first thing to note is that you don’t need to use your Messenger, Hotmail or Live sign in id in order to login to Windows Home Server Remotely, all you need is you username and password that you would normally logon to your PC at home.

Example:
I logon to my PC in my office with the Username: matt and the Password: 123456789, my Windows Home Server web page is available at “matthewglover.homeserver.com”, once I get to this page and it asks for my username and password it is actually asking for the username and password I use to logon to my office PC, so I put in Username: matt and the Password: 123456789 and that then allows me to login.

The only time you need to use your “Messenger, Hotmail or Live sign in id” is when you are setting up your Windows Home Server for remote access; it will then store your IP address on your account and keep it up to date.

Have a question or problem?
I can’t guarantee an answer, but I’ll try. Click “ask a question” above!

Written by
Matthew Glover
www.matthewglover.co.uk

www.lpower.co.uk | Quality Laptop Batteries, 30 Day Money Back Guarantee, 12 Month Warranty.

Mailbag 16th November 2010 is a post from: MS Windows Home Server - Your Personal Guide to Microsoft Windows Home Server!

• Streaming Video, Music & Pictures from Windows Home Server
• Home Media Server
• Failing System Drive on Windows Home Server

It’s always difficult giving advice, but when giving advice, knowing someone is actually going to make a purchase based on my recommendation is always something that is unnerving! I would hate someone to make a purchase based on my recommendation, only to find it doesn’t fit their needs.

Personal judgement is strongly advised, if you have 500 DVD’s you are planning on archiving on your Windows Home Server, then a 1TB  hard drive isn’t going to suffice, think about what resources are essential to your needs and what you are going to utilise, plan for that and try and future proof at the same time. There is no point in getting 6 months down the line, only to find you need to spend more money on replacing something you should have planned better for initially.

The recommended specification below is something I would recommend to many average users; this is solely based on my personal experience with many users, which usually more than covers the use of an average family/household.

I am always interested to hear what hardware other users are actually using; leaving your comments below would be much appreciated.

Have a question or problem?
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Streaming Video, Music & Pictures from Windows Home Server

Robert Asks:

What do I need in order to stream video/photos/music from WHS to my TV’s?

Many people are asking me this same question a lot recently and I am surprised if I am honest. The solution is either of two options, both of which have been in the marketplace for some time now, both has not been marketed very well to the masses.

You can stream media content via using a Windows Media Centre PC connected to your TV; the integration with Windows Home Server is now second to none, once you have setup the Windows Media Centre PC and installed the WHS console you will be able to play your movies, music and pictures direct on your TV.

Any PC running Windows Vista and above has the Windows Media Centre so

ftware installed as standard, just go to Start >> All Programs >> Windows Media Centre. If you install a TV/Capture Card with Freeview capabilities in to the PC, you will be able to watch TV directly though the PC, if you purchase a TV card with multiple TV tunners, you will be able to pause and record live TV.

A great source of information about Windows Media Centre is TheGreenButton.com; there you will be able to get advice on the right TV card for you.

The other option I mentioned is to use a media streamer; this is not as feature rich as the Media Centre but still very similar. The main features you don’t tend to get on media streamers are TV Cards/Tunners; basically it will give you the option of streaming movies, music and pictures via a wired or wireless connection.

Some media streamers have the capabilities of an inbuilt hard drive to store media on or you can plugin a USB hard drive; the one I can really recommend at the moment is from Western Digital called WD TV Live Plus you can find it here, it has a great range of file format support plus you can listen to almost any radio station using Live365, which is directly integrated.

Home Media Server

Dean Asks:

I’m thinking of installing a Windows Home Server, but impartial advice is hard to find.
Can you help, please?

This is a very good question, I get asked it regularly and the only thing I can say is “Horses for Courses” what might be ideal for one person, doesn’t necessarily mean it’s ideal for another. So I am going to give you the ideal average home server, based on my experiences with many users.

There are a few things that need to be taken in to account when planning a Windows Home Server build. I always try to keep in mind the main features at the behest of WHS, such as;

1. Centralised Storage
2. Individual Backups
3. Remote Access
4. Media Server

WHS centralised storage essentially means it will store and share all your videos, music and pictures efficiently as and when requested. For me this means the more storage the better and that means large hard drives. Many WHS builds have the ability to hold between 4 -6 hard drives including the system drive, most average users would suffice with 3 x 2TB hard drives.

Individual backups, again is all about storage and the more the better!

Remote access really only needs a good internet connection (which generally means it’s out of your hands).

Media Server can mean very different things when it comes to WHS. You could use specific addins to archive your entire CD and DVD collection; you could use addins to stream videos, music and pictures over the internet.

My ideal hardware would for an average WHS would be;

Processor – Atom 1.6GHz
Memory – 2GB
Storage – 3 x 2TB
Network Card – 1Gbps

Whichever use you make of it Windows Home Server can handle it.

Failing System Drive on Windows Home Server

Frank Asks:

I am starting to get warnings on my Windows Home Server home-build. An error is reported for the system drive about once a week. Repair is recommended with the caution that data loss may occur.

I have been performing the repair from the console and so far haven’t seen any problems. Any suggestions on how to tell what is causing this, how to fix it, or how to replace the system drive?

This is a real pain when these kinds of errors start, especially when it happens on your system drive. After having an email conversation with frank, I am aware that this problem has reoccurred and he has gone down the road of changing the system drive by following a post I did a couple of weeks ago, over at mediasmartserver.net with Alex Kuretz, you can check out my last post about this here.

Have a question or problem?
I can’t guarantee an answer, but I’ll try. Click “ask a question” above!

Written by
Matthew Glover
www.matthewglover.co.uk

www.lpower.co.uk | Quality Laptop Batteries, 30 Day Money Back Guarantee, 12 Month Warranty.

Mailbag 9th November 2010 is a post from: MS Windows Home Server - Your Personal Guide to Microsoft Windows Home Server!

Windows Home Server Custom Build
Andy Asks:

I’m looking to build a small windows home server and had planned on a 3 drive system: 1x small SSD for the OS and 2x Large HDDs in a RAID 1 configuration for everything else.

However, I noticed WHS needs a minimum of 64Gb and ideally 300Gb for its primary drive? Would I be able to get away with a 64Gb SSD (or ideally smaller) for the primary drive or is WHS really that awkward?

Solid State Drives are coming down massively in price and they are really starting to come in to their own in the domestic market. Although they are coming down in price and well worth a purchase, they are still relatively expensive in terms of £ per gigabyte, compared to their mechanical counter parts.

SSD’s main benefit is additional speed and battery life, which makes them ideal for both laptops and desktops. Windows Home Server is all about lots of storage, so I really can’t see any real reason for using one in a WHS build.

However, Windows Home Server does require 64Gb of available space to be able install the operating system, so you would have to go for a larger SSD to be able to play out the scenario above, although I can only see the SSD space to be your only stumbling block.

Windows Home Server  - This organization’s certificate has been revoked

Anonymous Asks:

Whenever I go to my home server’s domain, and attempt to log onto the secure site, I receive the error:

There is a problem with this website’s security certificate.

This organization’s certificate has been revoked.

Recently I upgraded both the RAM and processor of my server and I kept receiving an error on my computers saying that I needed to update my domain name because I had upgraded the server. The error notice said to go to ”Remote Access”, click the ’configure’ button for the domain name and follow the prompts to refresh the domain name.

After ignoring the error notice for quite some time, I finally decided to attempt to do this. I released the domain name and then re-selected the domain name and everything seemed to work just fine.

This has been a known issue for some time now; it seems to have originated around when Power Pack 3 was released. The fix is actually quite a simple one just open the WHS console and go to settings and then remote, you now need to reconfigure your domain name by clicking “configure”, when you are prompted, you should select the same domain name as you was previously was using, this should resolve the problem as it will re-issue the verified SSL certificate to your Windows Home Server.

Recovering Files from a Failed Windows Home Server

Fritz Asks:

I had a home-built WHS and saved my music and pictures to it (not duplicated). The motherboard failed and I pulled the hard drive out. I’ve since bought a HP Media Smart Home Server. I want to recover the files from that drive by installing it into a Windows Vista machine, thinking I can just copy them off, but get a ”0×80070780 the file cannot be accessed by the system” error.

The folder that they are in is called ”shares” and there are a few hundred gigs of data there. If I choose the ”skip” option it actually creates the empty folders in the destination drive, odd I thought.

I’ve opened the security to ”everyone”, shared it and even tried to take ownership of the drive, that went ok but still no luck. There seems to be very little info on this subject using Google so I really hope you can help.

This is quite a tricky situation because most of the time the process of putting the drive into a different PC just won’t work with Windows Home Server drives. There is an excellent guide of how to get your data recovered from your data drive @ servethehome.com here, although I want to point out that this is very much hit and miss, but I certainly hope it bears fruits for you.

Adding new drive to Windows Home Server needs partitioning

Anonymous Asks:

I’ve fitted a second hard drive and would like to use it to back up the data on the primary drive. Since fitting the new drive the corresponding LED has been flashing blue?

I have then gone to ’add a drive’ on the console and after following options I get the error message ’the new drive needs to be partitioned’ but I don’t know how or why I need to do that?

Try going through the following:

Remote in to the server by going to Start >> Run >> type “mstsc /v YOUR-SERVER-NAME” using your server name instead of “YOUR-SERVER-NAME” click ok, type the login information with the username “administrator” and then your WHS console password.

Once in you can right click “My Computer” select “Manage” go to “Storage” and then “Disk Management”, you should be able to see the new hard disk you have added, try right clicking the drive and deleting, now try re-adding to your WHS console, this should do the trick for you.

Do you have a question?
I can’t guarantee an answer, but I’ll try. Click “ask a question” above!

Written by
Matthew Glover
www.matthewglover.co.uk

www.lpower.co.uk | Quality Laptop Batteries, 30 Day Money Back Guarantee, 12 Month Warranty.

Mailbag 2nd November 2010 is a post from: MS Windows Home Server - Your Personal Guide to Microsoft Windows Home Server!

The HP almost has a 2,5X faster processor but not on memory performance. More details including a graph are available here.

HP Microserver vs Acer h340 is a post from: MS Windows Home Server - Your Personal Guide to Microsoft Windows Home Server!

Most people experience the same issues just in different ways, because of the nature of Windows Home Server people have nobody to turn and ask their questions too. So I am here to help, inspired by Paul Thurrott’s Supersite Mailbag, I decided to do something similar.

I am now going to start doing the same on MSwhs.com, each week I will be answering your many unanswered questions you may have about Windows Home Server V1 and Vail. If you have a question, let me know and I will do my best to answer them.

Just hit the “Ask a Question” button on the menu bar above which will take you to the form to ask your question. I can’t guarantee a response, but if you have a question, problem, or would like to make a comment, please drop me a message.

Matt’s Weekly Mailbag is a post from: MS Windows Home Server - Your Personal Guide to Microsoft Windows Home Server!

We have lots of new features planned for MSWHS.com and would like some volunteers to help us take this site to the next level.

From color scheming to database searching with lots of interesting stuff in between. So if you know any, some or all (wow!) of these technologies please leave a comment below and we will be in contact.

• CSS
• PHP
• HTML
• WordPress
• MySQL

Volunteers Required for MSWHS is a post from: MS Windows Home Server - Your Personal Guide to Microsoft Windows Home Server!

We have seen the HP MediaSmart range develop and expand into the domestic market over the last few years, but this is only the second server in the MediaSmart family to wear the small business orientated StorageWorks brand.

The X310’s bigger brother, the StorageWorks X510 is essentially a re-badged business version of the MediaSmart EX495, but the lower hardware spec and reduced software capability X310 has no domestic market equivalent. So why would anybody want a reduced capability server?

Hardware

Well the answer is pretty straightforward; cost. Although the X510 is a great server and comes loaded with HP’s excellent media friendly MediaSmart software, if we are honest it is a little over spec’ed for the typical small business user and is far better suited to media rich domestic duties.

With this in mind, HP have lower the hardware specifications, removed a lot of the media transcoding and streaming software and slightly simplified the casing for the X310.

Anybody remotely familiar with MediaSmart/StorageWorks servers will immediately recognise the X310 as part of the family. The external cosmetic differences include a matt black finish, changes to the lower silver foot section and the removal of the door mounted light-pipes in favour of drive LED’s at the bottom of the case.

Connection wise things remain the same. There is still a front mounted USB 2.0 connection, and around the back you will find gigabit Ethernet, three x USB 2.0 ports and an eSATA connection with port multiplier. All of these connections add up to plenty of potential expansion capacity once you have fully populated the internal drive bays.

Inside, the X310 has an Intel Atom D510 @ 1.6GHz and 2Gb of RAM, which is more than adequate for core WHS duties especially after the burden of media transcoding and streaming software has been removed from the Data Vault software bundle.

The X310 comes in a single 1Tb storage capacity variant, which is perfectly fine as adding additional hard disks to the three spare drive bays it absolute child’s play using the same screw-less caddies we have seen on the other MediaSmart servers.

Software

To illustrate what software has been removed, lets compare the X310 and X510 Data Vault console screens:

So it looks like we have lost:

• Web/iPhone Streaming
• HP Media Collector
• HP Video Converter
• Media Server (Twonkymedia)

All of those functions run better with a powerful server and will not be very useful to a small business user, so it seems sensible to lower the hardware costs and do without them for the business market.

Lets have a closer look at what has been included.

The Tour page tries to explain the concept of what the Data Vault server is doing, bringing together file storage, user accounts, backups and remote access all into a single server.

The Systems Status page is much more useful and addresses a missing facility from the core Windows Home Server software. Here you can see what you server is up to, how busy your CPU is, how your storage is being used and what your network utilization is.

If your office uses Macs as well as Windows PC’s, then the next page gives you information on how you are also able integrate them with the X310.

There is some basic media streaming capability with the X310. This initial page shows you what is available, and how to access it, either from the home (or office) network or from the internet.

The Windows Home Server software is able to stream media by default, and this screen reminds you of the fact in case you didn’t know.

What isn’t standard in WHS is the ability to be an iTunes server. The X310 retains this capability from is bigger siblings and will be useful if a small business user wants to fill their office with music.

HP MediaSmart servers have a pretty cool utility for putting photo libraries onto the internet and this is also retained on the X310.

Last is a jumping off page to purchase additional plug-in software for your server. Not exactly an applications store, but there are some useful packages here that will benefit the server.

Verdict

Would a regular small business user notice the lower hardware specification of this server?

Well no, not really as the X310 is very spritely and its performance belies its humble hardware specification. In use the X310 is every bit as quick as the X510 for basic WHS file serving and PC backup duties, is quiet and only consumes around 25-30 watts of power.

Sure, a home user is going to want to store video, converted to other formats and stream it to multiple client devices, but in general a business user won’t. So why pay extra for unwanted capabilities? It is when you see that the price for a 1Tb X310 is currently $519 and a 1Tb X510 price starts at $649 and goes up to $949 for the 3Tb, that all this makes sense.

Core WHS capability, fast performance, no unnecessary software, lower price.

Oh, and the X310 Easter Egg is pretty cool as well.

HP X310 details page

HP Entry NAS Appliances

HP StorageWorks X310 Data Vault Review is a post from: MS Windows Home Server - Your Personal Guide to Microsoft Windows Home Server!