MSWHS - Your Personal Guide to Microsoft Windows Home Server

By Philip Churchill on May 09th, 2012

Add-In: Drive Bender v1.3.1.0

Drive Bender have released version 1.3.1.0 of their Drive Extender type add-in for Windows Home Server 2011 users.

This latest version adds polish to the Tomcat release prior to them moving on to v2 aka Hornet:

Bug fix: When deleting a pool, the dashboard may not refresh correctly.
Update: When adding a pool, the newly added pool is automatically selected.
Added: Introduced a start-up specific log file. This captures all start up logging and ensures it does not get deleted during log rotation.
Update: Improved file balancing algorithm.
Update: The way duplication is handled when moving a folder within the same folder tree has changed. For details please visit support.drivebender.com
Added: Better support for slower connecting drives (i.e. USB drives). Drive Bender will now wait for these drives to connect for a period of 2 minutes.
Bug fix: If none of the drives within the pool are connected at start up, the loading of the mount point will no longer be aborted.
Update: Improved mount point conflict resolution.
Bug fix: You were not able to change some key properties if user security was enabled.
Bug fix: Remounting of networked mount points.
Added: Automated release license request option under support.
Bug fix: Issue with user security and session time out resolved.
Bug fix: The progress screen in the WHS addin may not close at start-up.

More info on Drive Bender can be found here.

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By Philip Churchill on May 08th, 2012

Migrate from Windows SBS 2003 to Windows SBS 2011 Essentials

Available at the Microsoft Download Center is the Migrating Windows SBS 2003 to Windows SBS 2011 Essentials document.

The 47 page guide describes how to migrate an existing Windows SBS 2003 domain to Windows SBS 2011 Essentials on new hardware, and then to migrate the settings and data. The guide also describes how to remove your existing server from the Windows SBS 2011 Essentials network after you finish the migration.

You can find it here.

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By Philip Churchill on May 08th, 2012

WHS 2011 for $40 with Free $10 Gift Card

Newegg are offering the Windows Home Server 2011 software for $39.99 instead of their normal $59.99.

As well as saving by using the coupon code EMCNENB246 (with free shipping) Newegg are also offering a free $10 promotional gift card with the purchase.

Microsoft Windows Home Server 2011 64-bit OEM System Builder

But hurry as the discounted price and promo codes are valid till 11:59pm PT 05/09/2012.

News • Windows Home Server

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By Philip Churchill on May 07th, 2012

The BYOB Podcast Episode 85

Episode 85 of the BYOB podcast is up:

“Special Guest Chris Barnes from the DMZ podcast thEndUsr joins us to discuss his systems. We’ll also tackle nVidia’s GTX690. Amazon plays me too with their cloud drive. Playon is told to move on. Welcome to Episode 85 of the BYOB Podcast.”

You can find episode 85 here.

News • Windows Home Server

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By Philip Churchill on May 06th, 2012

Add-In: Home Server SMART 2012 v2.2.5.2

Matt Sawyer the developer behind Home Server SMART has coded the last few SSDs into the final beta of Home Server SMART 2012.

Home Server SMART 2012 is an add-in for Windows Home Server 2011, Windows Small Business Server 2011 Essentials and Windows Storage Server 2008 R2 Essentials.

The free add-in automatically and continuously monitors the health of most of your hard disks attached to WHS. Home Server SMART examines the S.M.A.R.T. data exposed by your disks and determines the health of the disk. If problems are detected, Home Server SMART informs you which attribute(s) are critical or problematic, and it presents a summary of problems found. If the problems are serious, Home Server SMART will make a recommendation to you that you replace the disk.

More information is available from here.

add-ins • Windows Home Server

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By Philip Churchill on May 06th, 2012

20% Off at Tranquil PC

UK based Tranquil PC are celebrating their 10th year and to celebrate you can save money when you place your next order.

So what’s the deal?

You get 10% of any order you place on line, during May 2012 by using the coupon code 10THSPECIAL10 during checkout BUT if you order online before May 10th using coupon code 10THSPECIAL20 then you can get 20% off of your order.

So what are you waiting for, to order a Home Server or Media Centre machine you can check out their online catalogue here.

News • Windows Home Server

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By Philip Churchill on May 05th, 2012

Log File Locations in WHS 2011

The Official SBS Blog have published an article which explains where all the log files are located for Small Business Server 2011 Essentials (which also applies to WHS 2011).

For the details of over ten different log files and where they are located then have a look at this post here.

Tutorial • Windows Home Server

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By Philip Churchill on May 04th, 2012

The Home Server Show Podcast Episode 181

home_server_show_small

Your weekly dose of The Home Server Show podcast is available with episode 181 just being published:

“The Home Server Crew is back and we have a marathon for you. There was plenty to cover since we missed a week. We have a lot of media related news and gadgets to talk about but the big topic is cloud services. How many do you have? Use? It was eye opening just trying to list all of the ones we use. We hope you enjoy.”

you can find episode 181 here.

News • Windows Home Server

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By Philip Churchill on May 04th, 2012

InteliSAN Release LDisk-D Add-In

InteliSAN have released LDisk-D another version of their Disk Pooling and iSCSI Target Storage add-in.

LDisk-D does not require a blank hard drive to do its job (unlike LDisk) but does not do Disk Pooling instead being an iSCSI solution for WHS 2011 users.

Available for $59 for WHS 2011 users, more information can be found here.

add-ins • Windows Home Server

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By Philip Churchill on May 03rd, 2012