HP unveils Windows Home Server systems

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Hewlett-Packard Co. began taking preorders today for its MediaSmart Server, the first system from a major manufacturer powered by Microsoft Corp.'s Windows Home Server (WHS) software. MediaSmart, which won't ship until later this month, is priced at $599 with 500GB of storage, or $749 with a terabyte of disk space. Those prices were identical to the listings leaked by Amazon.com in late August.

Other servers running the new operating system will ship later this year and into early next, including units from Iomega Corp. and LaCie Ltd., Microsoft said as it announced the official launch of WHS today. WHS, loosely based on Windows Server 2003, made its debut at last January's Consumer Electronics Show and entered public beta about a month later. It provides automatic backup, data restore, file and printer sharing, and remote Web-based access for up to 10 Windows XP or Vista PCs on an Ethernet or wireless network. Microsoft has hammered hardest on the automatic backup feature.

View: The full story @ ComputerWorld

(2 replies) #1 markstock on 06 Nov 2007 - 11:32

Let me ask a dumb question, do your computers need to be on to back up or does WHS wakeup computers and then backup?

#1.1 +primortal on 06 Nov 2007 - 12:41

With this plug-in you don't need the computer to be on.

#1.2 Durfman on 06 Nov 2007 - 15:44

If the computer is sleeping, it will automatically wake up, backup, then go back to sleep. My laptop operates this way with WHS. I just shut the lid and leave it plugged in to charge and it backs up every night.

#2 webeagle12 on 06 Nov 2007 - 14:45

well I don't think its THAT bad of think and price is pretty good, if I would have a hell a lot of money, I would buy it

(1 reply) #3 necrosis on 06 Nov 2007 - 16:06

RAID5? If not, no thanks. Id rather spend a bit more for that feature.

O... im not sure if this was fixed but last I heard the WHS server client had issues with Vista64.

EDIT:
http://mswhs.com/2007/11/02/installing-the...e-on-vista-x64/

Quote -

Microsoft are currently internally testing an x64 Connector for Windows Vista Machines, which should be available between December 07 - March 08.

2 of my 3 Windows systems are running x64. Looks like I will be staying with Linux (samba) and Allway Sync for a bit longer.

#3.1 MioTheGreat on 06 Nov 2007 - 17:25

WHS Drive Extender is capable of mirroring to help prevent data loss.

(8 replies) #4 Croquant on 06 Nov 2007 - 16:20

Which version of DirectX does WHS ship with? 9 or 10?

#4.1 necrosis on 06 Nov 2007 - 16:37

O.o why would it matter? Its not a full OS. You can't do a whole lot directly from the computer. Its fully operated over the network through the client or web interface.

#4.2 neufuse on 06 Nov 2007 - 16:55

Quote - (Croquant said @ #5)

Why in the world would you need DirectX on a system that is designed to never be used besides as a File Server?

#4.3 MioTheGreat on 06 Nov 2007 - 17:26

9. But it's designed to be a machine without a keyboard or monitor attached, so I can't fathom a reason why you'd ask.

#4.4 Litespeed on 06 Nov 2007 - 18:26

Quote - (necrosis said @ #5.1)

Technically it IS a full OS. It's just been stripped of lots of features and runs headless.

#4.5 Skyfrog on 06 Nov 2007 - 20:12

Aren't those two sentences sort of contradictory?

#4.6 MioTheGreat on 06 Nov 2007 - 20:38

Quote - (Skyfrog said @ #4.5)

Not really. It's still a full OS.

#4.7 Pc_Madness on 06 Nov 2007 - 21:05

Quote - (neufuse said @ #4.2)

Because it'd make a pretty good Media Center? Why MS didn't include MCE in the damn thing..

#4.8 Litespeed on 06 Nov 2007 - 21:25

Not at all. It's no different to how some people use nLite to trip out unnecessary features. It's still an OS.

#5 ShiZZa on 06 Nov 2007 - 19:32

Its running a build of Windows 2003 Web Server SP2 as core. With some cool addons. Slightly modified so you can't have more then 10 open TCP/UDP connections on the box. IIS is 6.0 so its better then XP Pro. You get a couple more connections. Full RDP support. You can put a monitor on it. It will not install MS SQL, it will install SQL Express.

#6 Glen on 07 Nov 2007 - 00:34

Anyone know if WHS will have anything included that will not be in the Server 2008 release build?

#7 ShiZZa on 07 Nov 2007 - 02:10

Lots. WHS is based off Windows 2003 not Vista.

#8 necrosis on 07 Nov 2007 - 14:44

If they released a WSUS for WHS I would be in hog heaven, even if it is a trimmed down version. One of my windows machines is a test/dev machine so I constantly break things and have to reload. With the death of Autopatcher (RIP) this would be a good alternative.

Yes... I know I could just ghost the drive. I just personally prefer a reinstall from the CD (unattended network) install.

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