I guess that many of us reading this already know the answer to that question, but what if you need to convince your partner that it’s going to be a good purchase in the holiday sales? What if you’ve got some mates asking you about home servers, backups and NAS devices – they might be looking for some advice from someone in the know.
The Home Server team just posted a great table – it takes me a lot to get excited about a table, that has a whole bunch of questions in for people looking for a home storage solution and it shows basically how far WHS kicks butt (it’s got a way to go to be as good as some of us want but there’s no denying it’s good). It’s also got some really great links if you’re looking for some more info on Windows Home Server.
I’ll leave you with this quote, from the post which sums up what a Windows Home Server does for you.
“A smart, extensible, always available device that provides services within the home and while away from home.”
Posted by Simon May, follow me on Twitter or if you like email me
Not being funny, but the question should be Why would you want one? I can understand HS for people that don’t understand Windows Server OS’s but for those that do, why would you rather not just have a Server 2008 box on your LAN?
I used to think that I didn’t need WHS, but here’s the thing…it’s designed for home use, and it really is Windows Server (SBS actually) under the hood.
What it’s got over your normal Windows Server that made me switch is (very) simple but complete (really it’s imaged based it is an image of your machines) backup. That plus the fact that you can just slap in any old hard disk, any size any interface it’s just provisioned for use with no intervention or config….call me lazy, but I’ve spent too long configuring RAID arrays to be bothered doing it at home.
I don’t use my WHS (yet) for anything but backup…3 PCs backup every night (I keep 30 copies) my Media Center is in there (300gb) and my Laptop (60gb) any my total backups are up to 420gb at the moment (that’s SIS for you).
To sum up, I have one ‘cos I don’t want the hassle of running a server!
I have to agree with Ashleigh on this one. if someone is using a Mediacenter to view and access their home digital content. I have no idea why they would want to dedicate another machine for just backups and storage. They already have a Mediacenter that runs 24/7, so it makes more sense to utilize that machine.
HomeServer 2007 makes a lot of sense in a non Mediacenter environment, especially for a small business, since it is really SBS 2003 without exchange. If a Small business doesn’t want to host their email, has less than 10 workstations, then the real question is why would you want buy Small Business Server?
I still rely on robocopy for my daily backups. Whenever I build a new machine, I save the image. From there I rely on a daily backup script that uses robocopy to mirror the data I want to be backed up to a dedicated backup drive on my MediaCenter. While ancient, it’s a solid and reliable solution for me.
It would be really great if that 24/7 media center also had the storage and backup ability. A media server 😀
I had some spare kit lying around (one of the disks is 6 years old) (Windows Server is by the way MUCHO EXPENSIVO and WHS isn’t)….the simple reason I have one is why I keep backups – so I don’t loose my photos (there isn’t much else I can’t replace)…..there are other solutions but for lack of effort it beats most (including backup to the cloud – I don’t think anywhere will give me 420gb for free)…
Great point about WHS in a business though, if I were setting up a small business (<10 machines) I'd be putitng a WHS in the mix
about WHS i am planning on building one with loads of storage put all my DVDs, CDs etc. and then build couple of small media center pc to use as clients in different zones in my house
also planning on making the server a beast of a server with blu-ray reader so i can stream blu-ray movies also fitting in a ATI graphics card for decoding HD videos etc. aasus xonoar HDAV 1.3 sound card for DTS-HD decoding and quad core processor. this all sound exciting but do you think this kind of setup will work i also want to link it to mu opus 500 multi-romm system so i can control the hole thing throught the WCU600 touchscreen controller
well maybe not streaming, don’t think media center can stream blu-ray movies but hopefully it will in windows 7 but i heard about a software called arcsoft total media that is fully integrated in media center unlike powerDVD 8 which doesn’tr integrate thinking of having this software installed on the clients media center pc and playing the blu-ray moviesthrough the blu-ray drive and about the touchscreen opus now supports media center via a connection called the MCL600 which connects to the media center pc via USB and to ther serial controller which gives you full video control of your media center check it out on youtube (opus cedia)
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Not being funny, but the question should be Why would you want one? I can understand HS for people that don’t understand Windows Server OS’s but for those that do, why would you rather not just have a Server 2008 box on your LAN?
I used to think that I didn’t need WHS, but here’s the thing…it’s designed for home use, and it really is Windows Server (SBS actually) under the hood.
What it’s got over your normal Windows Server that made me switch is (very) simple but complete (really it’s imaged based it is an image of your machines) backup. That plus the fact that you can just slap in any old hard disk, any size any interface it’s just provisioned for use with no intervention or config….call me lazy, but I’ve spent too long configuring RAID arrays to be bothered doing it at home.
I don’t use my WHS (yet) for anything but backup…3 PCs backup every night (I keep 30 copies) my Media Center is in there (300gb) and my Laptop (60gb) any my total backups are up to 420gb at the moment (that’s SIS for you).
To sum up, I have one ‘cos I don’t want the hassle of running a server!
I have to agree with Ashleigh on this one. if someone is using a Mediacenter to view and access their home digital content. I have no idea why they would want to dedicate another machine for just backups and storage. They already have a Mediacenter that runs 24/7, so it makes more sense to utilize that machine.
HomeServer 2007 makes a lot of sense in a non Mediacenter environment, especially for a small business, since it is really SBS 2003 without exchange. If a Small business doesn’t want to host their email, has less than 10 workstations, then the real question is why would you want buy Small Business Server?
I still rely on robocopy for my daily backups. Whenever I build a new machine, I save the image. From there I rely on a daily backup script that uses robocopy to mirror the data I want to be backed up to a dedicated backup drive on my MediaCenter. While ancient, it’s a solid and reliable solution for me.
It would be really great if that 24/7 media center also had the storage and backup ability. A media server 😀
I had some spare kit lying around (one of the disks is 6 years old) (Windows Server is by the way MUCHO EXPENSIVO and WHS isn’t)….the simple reason I have one is why I keep backups – so I don’t loose my photos (there isn’t much else I can’t replace)…..there are other solutions but for lack of effort it beats most (including backup to the cloud – I don’t think anywhere will give me 420gb for free)…
Great point about WHS in a business though, if I were setting up a small business (<10 machines) I'd be putitng a WHS in the mix
about WHS i am planning on building one with loads of storage put all my DVDs, CDs etc. and then build couple of small media center pc to use as clients in different zones in my house
also planning on making the server a beast of a server with blu-ray reader so i can stream blu-ray movies also fitting in a ATI graphics card for decoding HD videos etc. aasus xonoar HDAV 1.3 sound card for DTS-HD decoding and quad core processor. this all sound exciting but do you think this kind of setup will work i also want to link it to mu opus 500 multi-romm system so i can control the hole thing throught the WCU600 touchscreen controller
That’s going to be a beast!!
How are you planning to stream your Blu-Ray? Loving the touch screen controller, I want to get one working myself soon…not easy though that one.
WHS is a nice place to keep your stuff though….
well maybe not streaming, don’t think media center can stream blu-ray movies but hopefully it will in windows 7 but i heard about a software called arcsoft total media that is fully integrated in media center unlike powerDVD 8 which doesn’tr integrate thinking of having this software installed on the clients media center pc and playing the blu-ray moviesthrough the blu-ray drive and about the touchscreen opus now supports media center via a connection called the MCL600 which connects to the media center pc via USB and to ther serial controller which gives you full video control of your media center check it out on youtube (opus cedia)