WHS with MediaBrowser and MetaBrowser

[andyd]

They will not be accessible on the network and only visible to the WHS.

can i share them over the network though?

If it's like adding additional drives, you share specific folders not the drives itself. You will only see one drive letter on the WHS for all drives combined. The WHS will manage how something gets stored (ie which drive (or drives if duplication is on) the data ends up

[andyd]

WHS for me is much simpler than RAID, just shove another drive in whenever you want to and it does the rest. Most of the issues you likely read about were probably related to the early versions, WHS is now on its third PowerPack (don't know why they didn't just call them Service Packs) and all of the old issues I know of have been fixed. Works fine with Windows 7, MediaBrowser and MetaBrowser.

Question - are you streaming blurays? I'm wondering whether it was mistake to rip blurays to folder structure as WHS will spread the files / folder across several drives. Trying to figure out why some movies are skipping during playback and just thought of this. Trying to isolate the issue. Could just be TMT3 and the latest update not playing nicely as well

[vinomarky]

Not sure if you'll need a second one in the lifetime of the first one.... it has eSata port in the back into which you can plug in a eSata disk enclosure to add a whole heap extra disk space without the full cost of another WHS

I've got a EX495 with 7.5TB and am loving it - much faster than my old Thecus 4100+ (noticeably snappier MB response when browsing videos and super fast transferring files over gigabit), quieter, larger, automated backups of our 5 PC's and one offsite PC via VPN, pretty well hands free once initially setup... what's not to love!?

Oh, and with respect to problems you heard about - it may have been related to some data corruption issues that occurred in some of the earlier releases - MS has long since addressed the issue I believe.

[Shidojin]

WHS for me is much simpler than RAID, just shove another drive in whenever you want to and it does the rest. Most of the issues you likely read about were probably related to the early versions, WHS is now on its third PowerPack (don't know why they didn't just call them Service Packs) and all of the old issues I know of have been fixed. Works fine with Windows 7, MediaBrowser and MetaBrowser.

Question - are you streaming blurays? I'm wondering whether it was mistake to rip blurays to folder structure as WHS will spread the files / folder across several drives. Trying to figure out why some movies are skipping during playback and just thought of this. Trying to isolate the issue. Could just be TMT3 and the latest update not playing nicely as well

No I don't use folder structures of any type, only single file stuff. Though I'm not sure that's how the duplication works in WHS, as far as I know it just creates a full copy on another drive and marks that as the duplicate, I don't think it will do RAID type things like trying to access it from two drives at once.

[shooty*]

+1 for "Built my own WHS, and it ****ing rocks".

No issues.

[FlyGuyAZ]

Let's say I added four drives to this thing. Will it show up in WHS as four individuals drives so I can add them to the pool? I am looking for way to expand my WHS and the Rosewill box looks promising.

Not 100% certain but I believe if you didn't use any of the RAID features of the external box (setup the disks as JBOD) that WHS would show them each individually. Either way, the disk(s) would be listed in the drive pool and could be added as storage. I believe the forums over at wegotserved.com have some specific posts for this kind of setup.

[FlyGuyAZ]

WHS for me is much simpler than RAID, just shove another drive in whenever you want to and it does the rest. Most of the issues you likely read about were probably related to the early versions, WHS is now on its third PowerPack (don't know why they didn't just call them Service Packs) and all of the old issues I know of have been fixed. Works fine with Windows 7, MediaBrowser and MetaBrowser.

Question - are you streaming blurays? I'm wondering whether it was mistake to rip blurays to folder structure as WHS will spread the files / folder across several drives. Trying to figure out why some movies are skipping during playback and just thought of this. Trying to isolate the issue. Could just be TMT3 and the latest update not playing nicely as well

No I don't use folder structures of any type, only single file stuff. Though I'm not sure that's how the duplication works in WHS, as far as I know it just creates a full copy on another drive and marks that as the duplicate, I don't think it will do RAID type things like trying to access it from two drives at once.

Duplication works at the file level, not the folder level. For instance, I have several video_ts folder rips and the vobs are spread out across different drives. You can use an add-in to check which files are where: http://akiba.geocities.jp/duplicationinfo/. Original review: http://www.wegotserved.com/2008/12/06/add-in-review-duplication-info/

[tp546]

okay heres another question, hopefully its not a dumb one, but, other than the WHS OS, what is the difference between me buying the HP and just building another computer that would serve as a server, but running win 7 ultimate? what are the pros/cons of each?

[Shidojin]

okay heres another question, hopefully its not a dumb one, but, other than the WHS OS, what is the difference between me buying the HP and just building another computer that would serve as a server, but running win 7 ultimate? what are the pros/cons of each?

Hardware wise there is very little difference, to my knowledge the HP doesn't have a VGA output or keyboard/mouse inputs so it can only be used via the WHS console or RDP. All of the real differences are in the OS.

[FlyGuyAZ]

Hardware wise there is no difference beyond the minimum requirements of each MS OS, drivers not withstanding. WHS, 7, Vista, XP, Linux whatever all can share files over a network and can all be installed on the same brew of hardware. If you are just looking at simple file storage and perhaps a little RAID/file protection then I would suggest neither 7 nor WHS. A simple NAS or Linux RAID box (like FreeNAS or Openfiler) could be a nice option if you like to tinker even a little bit.

The big thing for WHS is the additional features it has over a file server/NAS. It is the best platform Microsoft has put out imho. I would say 7 but MC really makes 7 what it is for me and Media Player drags it down so WHS wins. Beyond being a glorified file sharing/NAS solution WHS offers a ton of features. The usefulness of those features is up to each person though. If you live alone and only have one PC then the backup features are pretty useless. Also kind of makes centralized file storage a moot point if you only have one machine accessing it.

Check out MS's website for WHS. There is a nice features table somewhere in there. WHS is great for backup of PCs, sharing files, remote access, and a plethora of add-ins: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/winfamily/windowshomeserver/default.mspx