MSWHS - Your Personal Guide to Microsoft Windows Home Server

By Philip Churchill on May 05th, 2013

zebNet Home Server Backup 2012

Supported on Windows Home Server and Windows Home Server 2011 is Home Server Backup 2012 from zebNet.

zebNet Home Server Backup 2012 is the optimal backup, recovery and synchronization solution for professional home users, that easily want to back up, recover and synchronize their files and folders on a Microsoft Windows Home Server.

Key Features

Creates full, incremental, differential and mirror backups
Fast and reliable recovery with advanced options
Synchronizes local and remote folders
Plug and run backup feature for external drives
Can easily be extended through add-ons
Continuous Data Protection (CDP)
Native 64-bit backup and synchronization components
Intuitive user interface with advanced management options

It is currently on sale for £10 whilst a evaluation copy with limited functionality is also available.

More details are available from here.

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By Philip Churchill on May 04th, 2013

Add-In: StableBit DrivePool v2.0.0.230 BETA

StableBit DrivePool have released version 2.0.0.230 BETA for users of WS2012 Essentials.

This latest beta release includes horizontal UI updates and disk remove options.

Here is the full change log:

* Added disk remove options. SHIFT+Click on "Remove" to bypass, if you need to quickly remove many
disks.
* Added re-balance markers and disk usage, for each disk in the pool, in the horizontal UI.
(stretch the window wide).

You can download this from here.

StableBit has also published a blog post on the UI updates in this release, which you can find here.

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By Philip Churchill on May 03rd, 2013

The Home Server Show Podcast Episode 222

home_server_show_small

Drive Bender, the QNAP TS-269L, Windows Server Status, Syncberry v1 (very much like synctoy), Cloudberry new features and StableBit Scanner Beta are all talked about on this weeks episode of "The Home Server Show" podcast.

Episode 222 can be found here.

News • Windows Home Server

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By Philip Churchill on May 02nd, 2013

Add-In: My Movies Home and Essentials Server Solution v2.13 Build 6

My Movies Home and Essentials Server Solution has had an update.

Version 2.13 Build 6 has the following change log:

Fix: Incorrect check could lead to icon not showing in dashboard.
Fix: Deletion of BDMV folders did still not work correct after video conversion if enabled.

This latest release can be downloaded from here.

add-ins • Windows Home Server

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By Philip Churchill on May 02nd, 2013

Storage Spaces FAQ on TechNet

TechNet have a great FAQ on Storage Spaces, and go give you an idea of what’s in it, here’s the table of contents:

How can I manage Storage Spaces?
What are the recommended configuration limits?
What are the best uses of simple, mirror, and parity spaces?
What types of drives can I use with Storage Spaces?
What types of storage arrays can I use with Storage Spaces?
What types of storage spaces can I use with a failover cluster?
What properties can I change after creating a storage space?
How does Windows let me know of a disk failure?
How do I replace a physical disk?
What are columns and how does Storage Spaces decide how many to use?
     Example 1: A Two-Column Simple Space
     Example 2: A Three-Column Parity Space
     Example 3: A Two-Column Two-Way Mirror Space
     Controlling the Number of Columns
Why do I have a low capacity warning even though I still have unused pool capacity?
     A two column, two-way mirror space that uses thin provisioning in a four disk pool
How do I increase pool capacity?
What happens to Storage Spaces when moving physical disks between servers?
How do I prepare Storage Spaces for upgrading from the Windows 8 Consumer Preview to Windows 8 Release Preview?
How do I check Storage Spaces resiliency health in a failover cluster?
How do I know repairing a storage space starts and successfully completes?
What happens if I run out of physical capacity on a thinly provisioned storage space?

You can find the answers to all these questions here.

News • Windows Home Server

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By Philip Churchill on May 01st, 2013

What’s New in StableBit Scanner 2.4.0 BETA

As you may have noticed the other day, version 2.4.0 beta of StableBit Scanner has been released which has some interesting new functionality. And to guide us through what’s new, the guys at StableBit (Covecube) have documented the details in a blog post.

Explaining file system scan, file system repair and looking at the age of the sector scan makes StableBit Scanner even better than it was before.

You can read their blog post here.

add-ins • Windows Home Server

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By Philip Churchill on May 01st, 2013

Add-In: Windows Server Status v1.0.0.0

The add-in Home Server Status has been renamed to Windows Server Status and the developer has put up a version for testing.

The freeware add-in is for Windows 8 and WS2012 Essentials only, and this is what the developer had to say about it:

This is merely the start of a new app. It is not alpha software, barely beta, and is just a step or two from being considered final. This step is using you guys to test it out. Why have I not put out the Windows 7 version yet? Well, I am focusing on those Toast Notifications and some other items on the back-end. So, when I am comfortable with this, then the Windows 7 version isn’t much different and will be released.

So, what does it do?

Tray icon (Best used if you allow it to be shown all the time)
Context menu for quick access to MS Launchpad items
Toast Notifications for backup status. (e.g.: Successfully completed, InProgress, Failed/InComplete) – Toast Notifications can sometimes be a little slower than the client.
Hovering over icon will give you current backup progress in percentage and Last Status date, time, and status of backup.

More info including the download link can be found here.

add-ins • Windows Home Server

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By Philip Churchill on April 30th, 2013

Add-In: StableBit DrivePool v1.3.2.7550 RC

StableBit DrivePool for WHS2011, SBS 2011 Essentials and Storage Server 2008 R2 Essentials has been updated to version 1.3.2.7550 RC.

This is the Release Candidate (RC) build and has no changes, and the good news is that Release Candidate is one step away from a final build.

This release can be downloaded from here.

add-ins • Windows Home Server

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By Philip Churchill on April 30th, 2013

Add-In: StableBit Scanner v2.4.0.2908 BETA

The beta build of StableBit Scanner for WHS2011, SBS 2011 Essentials, Storage Server 2008 R2 Essentials and Windows Server 2012 Essentials has been updated.

Version 2.4.0.2908 BETA (WSS) has the following change:

ESET’s NOD32 anti-virus was incorrectly flagging the .wssx file as a trojan.
Only their anti-virus was doing it, and no one else’s. The problem was an EXE that stops / starts the service during the upgrade process. Recompiling the EXE with the zlib compression and no code changes resolved the false positive. Otherwise this version is identical to 2.4.0.2905.

As always this latest release can be downloaded from here.

add-ins • Windows Home Server

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By Philip Churchill on April 30th, 2013