Microsoft Windows Home Server

Windows Home Server Software

Strengths: Home backup and NAS solution; good documentation

Weakness: Expensive; still some bugs

I was a beta user of this software back in June 2007. I eventually purchased the RTM (release to manufacturing) version when it came out. It took a while for me to install the official version, as I was afraid to "break" anything! Whatever you do, install from bootup, and not within the WHS console. There is a reinstall option, which will overwrite the System partition of WHS, but leave all of...
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I was a beta user of this software back in June 2007. I eventually purchased the RTM (release to manufacturing) version when it came out. It took a while for me to install the official version, as I was afraid to "break" anything! Whatever you do, install from bootup, and not within the WHS console. There is a reinstall option, which will overwrite the System partition of WHS, but leave all of your data intact. It worked fine for me, though it does take a while to fully install. Depending upon your motherboard and which hard drive you are installing WHS on, you may need to enter in order to properly load the drivers for the hard-drive controller. This is poorly documented, but extremely important for a successful install! Be sure and put the drivers on a floppy or flash drive beforehand.

When building my system, I used a budget motherboard with on-board video, a Pentium 4 CPU and 1GB RAM. I started with a 750GB SATA drive for the main drive, but have added on since then, as I now have five drives in my system (two previously used PATA and three SATA). The nice thing about building your own server is that you can add more drives as you like, and re-use older components as the system requirements are not all that high.

I will say that the RTM release (the version you buy) is more stable than the beta version. The only problem I've had is with one Windows XP Media Center computer not being able to back up. I did some tweaking, and finally got it to work.

Once the WHS is up and running, you install the "connector" software on all the Windows PCs in your home network (be they wired or wireless). This allows the PCs to communicate with the server. You also have the ability to login to the server from any of these PCs, and perform system setups like configuring backups, media shares, user accounts, etc.

The nice thing about WHS is that it automatically goes out and performs a backup every night on all the connected computers (if you have backups turned on for that PC). Even if the computer is in sleep/hibernate, WHS will wake-up the computer, perform the backup, then put the computer back to sleep. Very cool! If the computer is turned off, it will skip the backup for the night. The first backup takes some time, but those afterwards are fairly quick, as they are incremental. If a PC crashes, there is a recovery CD that should put that PC back to it's original state, or you can recover individual files.

I also use WHS as a Network Attached Storage (NAS) solution. I put all of my pictures, videos, music, etc on this box, and can share it will all my computers on the network. In addition, you can remotely login to the WHS box from the internet, and access those same files, or even remote-desktop to any computers on your network (assuming that those computers support remote desktop).

WHS does not use RAID, but instead does mirroring. It will duplicate the data on two different drives, so if one drive fails, you don't lose you data. If both drives fail, well, you are out of luck! ;-)

Thus far, I am quite pleased. I was happy enough with my WHS box that I have sold my Infrant ReadyNAS box.

The main knock I have on this product is that it is so darned expensive! This should really be priced at around a hundred bucks.

If you don't want to mess with your own DIY installation, there are quite a few companies selling pre-configured WHS boxes. They will ultimately be more expensive, but will be easier to setup.

By SDTechDeals - Nov 25, 2007

Windows Home Server

Strengths: Backup and Restore. Remote access. Central store. Add-ins

Weakness: None

This product is a sure thing, a can't miss, gotta have. I have been using it since it was RC1 and it does everything I need it to do for my home. It backups all my computers unassisted and if needed I can restore to a previous backup. I can remotely access files and computers. It acts as a central store for my entire famiy's photos, music, files, etc. This is by far the best Microsoft verion 1...
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This product is a sure thing, a can't miss, gotta have. I have been using it since it was RC1 and it does everything I need it to do for my home. It backups all my computers unassisted and if needed I can restore to a previous backup. I can remotely access files and computers. It acts as a central store for my entire famiy's photos, music, files, etc. This is by far the best Microsoft verion 1 product I have ever used. Keep in mind that this product is software only. The specs are so modest you could run it on an old computer. One of the best parts is the Add-ins that people are writing that adds even more functionality to in my opinion a GREAT prouct.

By drapion - Dec 1, 2007

Great product, Great software, great merchant

Strengths: Easy to use, backs up all PC's on home network, easy restore of files or complete PC, easy sharing of all multimedia

Weakness: Can be a bit technical if there is a problem, never believe microsoft will have a non technical product

Once installed the software sits quietly in the background, backing up all the PC's you have on the home network, allowing easy restore of the PC's files or complete PC. Adds shared storage for everyone, if you are into sharing music, videos, pictures this is the answer as everyone on your network can share and you can set up a easy web site to share with anyone you want to give access to. You...
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Once installed the software sits quietly in the background, backing up all the PC's you have on the home network, allowing easy restore of the PC's files or complete PC. Adds shared storage for everyone, if you are into sharing music, videos, pictures this is the answer as everyone on your network can share and you can set up a easy web site to share with anyone you want to give access to. You can also administer everything remotely. There are a lot of 3rd party add-ins to give you additional functionality.
Overall this is a great product.

By rykow - Sep 29, 2008

This software rocks!

Strengths: Great value, easy to setup, tonds of awesome features.

Weakness: Less robust than some other backups solutions

It's not often that I'm a huge fan of a new Microsoft release, but this software is loaded with features for both the home and small business office. It includes "bare-metal" restore across the network of crashed computers, backup, data sharing, the ability to access files and control PCs via the Internet, a domain name that can be used to access the server to check backup status, security...
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It's not often that I'm a huge fan of a new Microsoft release, but this software is loaded with features for both the home and small business office. It includes "bare-metal" restore across the network of crashed computers, backup, data sharing, the ability to access files and control PCs via the Internet, a domain name that can be used to access the server to check backup status, security status, updates status of the connected PCs. The license includes an allowance for 10 PC clients, and backup software for 10 clients alone is worth the price. It also duplicates data if the server has more than one drive and enough available space to prevent the loss of backup data in the event of a server hard drive failure. This software rocks!

By msweeden - Feb 1, 2008

Microsoft Home Server

Strengths: Easy to Install. Backsup all other systems. Remote connectivity

Weakness: OS on partition vs seperate drive Lack of printer drivers since it is based upon Server 2003

No previous experience with this operating system but I wanted something to host pictures and video. Tried Ubuntu but kept having problems with permissions and could not figure out how to get web access. Home server solved both problems. Files are available to designated users on both local network and via internet. I have not tried remote access to control home computer.

By tnkelso - Dec 20, 2007