Add-In: StableBit DrivePool Build 4056

StableBit DrivePool for WHS 2011 has had an update.

This add-in will let you add multiple hard drives into one combined storage pool on the Windows Home Server. You can create folder shares on this storage pool, and each folder on the pool can either be duplicated or not duplicated. Files placed in duplicated folders will be protected against single drive failure by being placed onto two separate hard drives.

Features:

  • Combine all your hard drives into one big storage pool (except the system drive with the OS).
  • Add and remove drives from the pool at any time without re-partitioning or manually moving folders.
  • Create duplicated folders on the storage drive pool that are protected against single drive failure. If a drive fails on which a duplicated file was stored, the contents of that file will remain readable even without the drive.

StableBit DrivePool Hard Drive Pooling

Version 1.0.0.4056 change log:

  • Start the client computer backup service after upgrade.

More details on StableBit DrivePool can be found here.

Steve Jobs 1955 – 2011

Steven Paul Jobs, co-founder and until last August CEO of Apple Inc passed away Wednesday at the age of 56.

stevejobs1955-2011

The man behind the Mac, iPod, iPhone and iPad had a long battle with pancreatic cancer. His family released the following statement:

Steve died peacefully today surrounded by his family.

In his public life, Steve was known as a visionary; in his private life, he cherished his family. We are thankful to the many people who have shared their wishes and prayers during the last year of Steve’s illness; a website will be provided for those who wish to offer tributes and memories.

We are grateful for the support and kindness of those who share our feelings for Steve. We know many of you will mourn with us, and we ask that you respect our privacy during our time of grief.

Apple turned its home page into a simple tribute and issued the following:

We are deeply saddened to announce that Steve Jobs passed away today. Steve’s brilliance, passion and energy were the source of countless innovations that enrich and improve all of our lives. The world is immeasurably better because of Steve.

His greatest love was for his wife, Laurene, and his family. Our hearts go out to them and to all who were touched by his extraordinary gifts.

Bill Gates, the Microsoft chairman, issued this statement through a spokesperson.

I’m truly saddened to learn of Steve Jobs’ death. Melinda and I extend our sincere condolences to his family and friends, and to everyone Steve has touched through his work.

Steve and I first met nearly 30 years ago, and have been colleagues, competitors and friends over the course of more than half our lives.

The world rarely sees someone who has had the profound impact Steve has had, the effects of which will be felt for many generations to come.

For those of us lucky enough to get to work with him, it’s been an insanely great honor.  I will miss Steve immensely.

Our condolences go out to Steve’s wife Laurene, his 4 children and his family and friends

stevejobs No Replacements Found

If you would like to share your thoughts, memories, and condolences, please email rememberingsteve@apple.com

The HP ProLiant MicroServer and WHS – Certified

Windows Home Server 2011 is now certified on the HP ProLiant MicroServer.

The HP ProLiant MicroServer  and WHS 2011 now Certified

This is great news because WHS 2011 is now HP supported and OS partner certified. But you may ask what does this actually mean?

Firstly HP will now provide technical support for the HP ProLiant MicroServer drivers and the ProLiant management software that are compatible with WHS 2011 and secondly the MicroServer has met the OS Partner Certified/Logo program requirements, which is good news for end users.

The HP ProLiant MicroServer  and Microsoft Windows Home Server – a match made in heaven!

DVBLink v4 Released

DVBLogic Logo

DVBLogic have released version 4 of their products. Here is their press release:

DVBLink v4 products are released!

04 Oct 2011

We at DVBLogic are extremely proud to announce release of the DVBLink v4 products!
Rebuilt using new architecture version 4 forms the basis for further development and extension of the DVBLink product suit.
DVBLink v4 products have a lot new features, improvements and fixes over previous version. The most notable of them are:

  • More intuitive and easier Windows MediaCenter setup
  • Support of up to 8 virtual tuners in Windows MediaCenter
  • Web based DVBLink server configuration
  • New DVBLink Connect! Server with support for live TV, timer scheduling and EPG on Android, IPhone, IPad and Windows Mobile devices
  • DVBLink Boxee client that enables watching live TV on Linux and Mac computers as well as in Boxee Box itself
  • DVBLink Remote API, which can be used to create 3rd party DVBLink clients

DVBLink v4 launch is accompanied with launch of DVBLogic Wiki. It is the place to go for Installation and Configuration manuals, FAQ’s and How-To’s. We all hope that it will make installation and configuration of DVBLink products much easier and faster.
DVBLink v4 is a paid upgrade for v2/v3 owners who purchased products before 1 July 2011. For those who have purchased DVBLink products on or after that date the upgrade is free of charge.
We would like to thank all of our beta testers who provided their valueable input.
DVBLink v4 products can be downloaded from the first page of our
website.
You can also read official press release
here.
Enjoy!
DVBLogic team

Add-In: Drive Bender 1.2.0.0 RC1

Release Candidate 1 of Drive bender is here and to celebrate you can take advantage of the pre-release sale and purchase a license for $20 as long as you have a valid beta membership.

Drive Bender Logo

Here is the change log for release v1.2.0.0 release candidate 1 (2011-10-04)

  • Update: New user interface for both the Windows and WHS clients.
  • Bug fix: Balancing operations could create a locking issue if there was a file / folder rename or delete request.
  • Update: All drives are now checked at start up and an alert is raised if there is one or more drives missing from the pool.
  • Update: Drive letter management is now fully implemented (this automatically removes and adds drive letters to drives added and removed from the pool).
  • Update: Improvements to adding, removing and merging of drives.
  • Bug fix: Improved duplication when enabled on existing folder.
  • Update: Orphaned Drive Bender temp files are now cleaned up.
  • Bug fix: Logging no longer stops when there are a large number of entries.
  • Bug fix: Installation of blank license key is no longer allowed.
  • Known issue: Documentation was omitted from this release due to time constraints. This will be supplied in RC2.
  • Known issue: The unmanaged pool mode is disabled. Because of the “feature freeze” for RC1, this is still incomplete.
  • Known issue: The list view in the WHS addin is not grouping by default. To manually group this view, right-click the view and select “Group”, then “Drive type”.

You can find the download here.

Microsoft Forefront Client Security works on WHS 2011

As you may be aware Microsoft Security Essentials (MSE) does now work with Windows Home Server 2011, but the second best thing does. Microsoft Forefront Client Security which also does heuristics based scanning works fine but the installer file can be hard to locate.

Forefront UI Running On WHS2011

To make life easier for you here is a Download/Install/Update Guide for installing Microsoft Forefront Client Security on WHS 2011 and a accompanying video too.

Thanks to Alexander Kent for the heads up on this article.

AWIECO WakeOnLAN Pro Beta Testers Required

AWIECO are looking for beta testers for their WakeOnLAN Pro add-in.

AWIECO WakeOnLAN 1.1.0 PRO

AWIECO WakeOnLAN allows you to remotely turn on a computer. It enables the Server to start up every computer attached to your network and also power off a computer out of the Launchpad. The Pro version adds giving users individual rights to turn computers on.

So if you are interested drop an email to info at awieco dot com

Lights Management for WHS 2011 1.06

Lights Management for Windows Home Server 2011 has been updated to version 1.06.

This driver allows the lights on the front of the following hardware to continue to work after upgrading these units with WHS 2011:

  • HP: EX48x, EX49x, X510, X310, X311, X312
  • Acer: H340, H341, H342
  • Lenovo: D400

HP MediaSmert Server LEDs

Here’s what’s new in version 1.0.6:

  • Support for Acer H341 and H342. Please do some tests and report any issues.
  • Disk light status can be changed in the configuration file. This is particularly useful for users of DrivePool, DriveBender, RAID arrays and drives without shares when the user does not want a blinking aqua LED.
  • Removed some uncessary DLL’s from the setup.

NOTE: Not compatible with the HP EX47x (AMD based hardware) models.

More details are available from here.

Add-In: StableBit DrivePool Build 4055

Stablebit_drivepool_logo

Four new updates for the Drive Extender replacement add-in StableBit DrivePool over the last few days.

1.0.0.3959:

  • When FolderLinks had no security set, setting permissions on a folder issued an access denied error. Now fixed.

1.0.0.4039:

  • Change permissions on C:\ServerPool\ServerFolders.Mount to prevent file / folder creation when DrivePool is not running.
  • Before sharing a folder, ensure proper access to it.
  • Added reset folder permission settings option. See folder properties, permissions tab.
  • [D] Fixed new file creation change notification.

1.0.0.4040:

  • Security functions should be Unicode enabled.

1.0.0.4055:

  • Changed reset permissions to apply owner / inheritance rules in separate stages.

[D] = Driver

As always more information on StableBit DrivePool can be found here.

Rip your DVDs and CDs to WHS Automatically

If you would like to rip your DVD and CD collection to Windows Home Server using only freely available tools without manual interaction then a user by the name of Phil2011 may have the answer for you.

Using an external USB DVD player, a copy of DVDFAB DVD Copy and ExpressRip, a batch file and the scheduler on Home Server is all that is required to get this set up and working automatically.

Autorip Script Task

Interested? If so you can find all the details here.