- System Requirements: Processor: 1.4 GHz (x86-64 processor); Memory: 2 GB RAM; Hard Disk Space: 160 GB
- Quickly set up networks, user accounts, devices, and storage
- Add any computer to your network: Windows 7, Vista, XP, Mac, or Linux
- Efficiently share folders, files, and digital media
- Remotely access your content from any Internet-connected computer safely and securely
Product Features |
System Requirements
- Platform: Windows
- Media: Software
- Item Quantity: 1
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Product Description
From the Manufacturer
Protect and Maintain
Help keep your files safe and all your devices running smoothly with Windows Home Server 2011, you can:
- Perform daily backups of every computer on your network, including the server.
- Restore everything from individual lost files to entire PCs.
- Easily restore your entire server in the event of a critical disaster.
- Have your files and devices sit behind your firewall with strong password controls.
- Share what you want and keep the rest private.
- Monitor the condition and performance of each computer in your home.
- Keep antivirus and other protection software up to date.
Organize and Access
Get your files in order and access them with ease:
- Store all your photos, movies, and other files in a central location.
- Get to all these files from any computer on your home network.
- Stream shared photos, music, and videos on network devices.
- Enjoy a common music collection with your family.
- Watch smoothly streaming video, digitally recorded TV shows, and Silverlight-powered slide shows, both in and outside your home.
- Watch digitally recorded shows and movies on your TV via an Xbox 360 or other supported digital media receiver.
- Get to your home network remotely.
Product Features
- Automatic, daily backups of all of your families PCs
- Streaming of media files across your network
- Remote, online access to files and home-based PCs
- Extendable with add-ins and third-party apps
Product Description
Use of this OEM System Builder Channel software is subject to the terms of the Microsoft OEM System Builder License. This software is intended for pre-installation on a new personal computer for resale. This OEM System Builder Channel software requires the assembler to provide end user support for the Windows software and cannot be transferred to another computer once it is installed. To acquire Windows software with support provided by Microsoft please see our full package "Retail" product offerings.
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
130 of 134 people found the following review helpful
By Geomancer
Amazon Verified Purchase
I got this mainly for central storage of all my files. More and more I find myself staying in the living room with my family and just using my laptop then going off into the spare bedroom to use my desktop which held all my files. But I do work from both, so getting files between them is a pain.
A simple NAS could have fixed that problem, but while shopping for them I saw some that had some interesting features like being able to access files remotely through a web address. They were extremely limited in this functionality though and lots of people complained that it didn't work well. One company even charges you a yearly fee for this feature. This eventually led me to the HP boxes which worked well and had good reviews, but their price tag scared me. I learned they just ran WHS which I didn't even know existed, so I looked into building my own. This was about the time they announced the WHS 2011 beta so I decided to wait for that to be released so I could have the most current version.
I took an unused computer with a dual core AMD Athlon II processor and 8 GB of RAM, put in a 320 GB hard drive, two 1 TB hard drives, and a 750 GB hard drive.
Installation was effortless and really not much different than installing regular windows. I always build my own computers so I was familiar with the process.
It broke the 320 GB drive up into two drives, one at about 80 GB for the operating system and the other at about 200 GB for storage (the other three drives I connected after installation).
I was able to set up the two 1 TB drives in a mirroring configuration for redundancy by going into the disk manager, you are not able to do this from the main Dashboard application. I just thought I'd share that it is possible if you have a little know how or you can search google for videos showing you how to do it.
Setting up the web access was pretty easy actually and I'm glad to see it runs under an HTTPS connection for free with no certificate errors. Best of all, it can stream your media files. I set the quality to 'best' since I did have a full processor instead of the Intel Atom's the NAS boxes run and the server could transcode video files on the fly just fine. My camcorder uses H.264 in 720p HD which windows normally chokes badly on, but the streaming worked right out of the box with them. The quality is not original quality, far from it, but good enough and will let me easily share with family members without putting them up in places like facebook where who knows when their privacy policies will change.
Client backups are very handy. I have mine setup to do client backups once daily. It will store the last 7 days worth of backups, then the last 4 weekly backups, and the last 6 monthly backups. That means it keeps the last week worth of backups, for older time periods it will dump the older daily and just keep one for the week, then dump the older weekly and keep a monthly. It will do a full initial backup, then it just keeps track of what files have changed between backups, and adds those files the changed to the backup. That means you do not need your backup drive to be several times the size of your client computers.
The backups allow you to roll back a computer to any previous backup. Find out you downloaded a virus 3 months ago? You can roll your computer back to a monthly backup before that. You loose 3 months of changes, but better than loosing everything. Hard drive crashed? You can reload your computer to the previous day and it will be exactly like it was the day before the crash. All your files, all your programs, all your settings, everything.
I only came across two problems so far.
1) It automatically created shares on the 200 GB partition for things like Music, Documents, and Movies. The problem is I already had folders for this on my 1 TB drives that use to be in my desktop computer. There was no way to edit the path for these share folders that were automatically created. You can move them, but not point them to a different directory. The work around is to remove the shares, then recreate them with the existing folders. A bit of a pain, and again this couldn't be done entirely from the main Dashboard application. An alternative would be to move the folder to the drive you want it on, then copy all your files over manually into the new one.
If you are not trying to install drives that already contain data, but are merely going to centralize all your files on the server this won't be an issue for you. Just move the share folder to the drive you want it on, and then transfer all your files over the network.
2) In order to configure a server backup, it needs an entire hard drive, it can not be included with any other files and can not be a smaller partition of a larger drive. I had originally intended to break the 750 GB drive into two chunks. One for client backups, the other for a server OS backup. Unfortunately I can't do that. 750 GB is a bit extreme for the OS backup, which is only about 60 GB... so currently I'm only doing client backups and not doing the server backup. Hope that dosen't come back to bite me. Hopefully in a future service pack they'll add functionality to that feature to be more flexible. The motherboard I have this only only has four SATA ports so it's full. SATA controller cards are rather pricy so I haven't looked into buying one much.
To add to server backups, the default is actually to backup everything on the server, not just the OS. You can configure it though (easily) to only backup specific things. In my case I was going to just back up the WHS 2011 OS, and the client backups (backup of a backup? Sure why not!).
Overall I'm fairly happy with it. I do not have virus software on it because none officially support WHS 2011 yet (some have announced they are working on it). I'm not too worried though, I don't work directly on the server and any files that get transferred to it will first come from the client computers which all have virus scanners. Putting a virus scanner program on it would amount to scanning the files twice, once on the client and once on the server. Redundancy is not a bad thing though.
There are several add-ons you can download for it, for disk management, power management, media libraries, etc. I looked into the power management one called Lights Out, looks cool to suspend the server when not in use to conserve power. It's not free though, so I'm looking into seeing if I can do it manually, I don't need the server on all night when I'm sleeping and don't want to go down to the basement to turn it on/off every day.
A simple NAS could have fixed that problem, but while shopping for them I saw some that had some interesting features like being able to access files remotely through a web address. They were extremely limited in this functionality though and lots of people complained that it didn't work well. One company even charges you a yearly fee for this feature. This eventually led me to the HP boxes which worked well and had good reviews, but their price tag scared me. I learned they just ran WHS which I didn't even know existed, so I looked into building my own. This was about the time they announced the WHS 2011 beta so I decided to wait for that to be released so I could have the most current version.
I took an unused computer with a dual core AMD Athlon II processor and 8 GB of RAM, put in a 320 GB hard drive, two 1 TB hard drives, and a 750 GB hard drive.
Installation was effortless and really not much different than installing regular windows. I always build my own computers so I was familiar with the process.
It broke the 320 GB drive up into two drives, one at about 80 GB for the operating system and the other at about 200 GB for storage (the other three drives I connected after installation).
I was able to set up the two 1 TB drives in a mirroring configuration for redundancy by going into the disk manager, you are not able to do this from the main Dashboard application. I just thought I'd share that it is possible if you have a little know how or you can search google for videos showing you how to do it.
Setting up the web access was pretty easy actually and I'm glad to see it runs under an HTTPS connection for free with no certificate errors. Best of all, it can stream your media files. I set the quality to 'best' since I did have a full processor instead of the Intel Atom's the NAS boxes run and the server could transcode video files on the fly just fine. My camcorder uses H.264 in 720p HD which windows normally chokes badly on, but the streaming worked right out of the box with them. The quality is not original quality, far from it, but good enough and will let me easily share with family members without putting them up in places like facebook where who knows when their privacy policies will change.
Client backups are very handy. I have mine setup to do client backups once daily. It will store the last 7 days worth of backups, then the last 4 weekly backups, and the last 6 monthly backups. That means it keeps the last week worth of backups, for older time periods it will dump the older daily and just keep one for the week, then dump the older weekly and keep a monthly. It will do a full initial backup, then it just keeps track of what files have changed between backups, and adds those files the changed to the backup. That means you do not need your backup drive to be several times the size of your client computers.
The backups allow you to roll back a computer to any previous backup. Find out you downloaded a virus 3 months ago? You can roll your computer back to a monthly backup before that. You loose 3 months of changes, but better than loosing everything. Hard drive crashed? You can reload your computer to the previous day and it will be exactly like it was the day before the crash. All your files, all your programs, all your settings, everything.
I only came across two problems so far.
1) It automatically created shares on the 200 GB partition for things like Music, Documents, and Movies. The problem is I already had folders for this on my 1 TB drives that use to be in my desktop computer. There was no way to edit the path for these share folders that were automatically created. You can move them, but not point them to a different directory. The work around is to remove the shares, then recreate them with the existing folders. A bit of a pain, and again this couldn't be done entirely from the main Dashboard application. An alternative would be to move the folder to the drive you want it on, then copy all your files over manually into the new one.
If you are not trying to install drives that already contain data, but are merely going to centralize all your files on the server this won't be an issue for you. Just move the share folder to the drive you want it on, and then transfer all your files over the network.
2) In order to configure a server backup, it needs an entire hard drive, it can not be included with any other files and can not be a smaller partition of a larger drive. I had originally intended to break the 750 GB drive into two chunks. One for client backups, the other for a server OS backup. Unfortunately I can't do that. 750 GB is a bit extreme for the OS backup, which is only about 60 GB... so currently I'm only doing client backups and not doing the server backup. Hope that dosen't come back to bite me. Hopefully in a future service pack they'll add functionality to that feature to be more flexible. The motherboard I have this only only has four SATA ports so it's full. SATA controller cards are rather pricy so I haven't looked into buying one much.
To add to server backups, the default is actually to backup everything on the server, not just the OS. You can configure it though (easily) to only backup specific things. In my case I was going to just back up the WHS 2011 OS, and the client backups (backup of a backup? Sure why not!).
Overall I'm fairly happy with it. I do not have virus software on it because none officially support WHS 2011 yet (some have announced they are working on it). I'm not too worried though, I don't work directly on the server and any files that get transferred to it will first come from the client computers which all have virus scanners. Putting a virus scanner program on it would amount to scanning the files twice, once on the client and once on the server. Redundancy is not a bad thing though.
There are several add-ons you can download for it, for disk management, power management, media libraries, etc. I looked into the power management one called Lights Out, looks cool to suspend the server when not in use to conserve power. It's not free though, so I'm looking into seeing if I can do it manually, I don't need the server on all night when I'm sleeping and don't want to go down to the basement to turn it on/off every day.
43 of 44 people found the following review helpful
By Brett
Amazon Verified Purchase
Several years ago, I bought an HP EX485 that served as my backup solution until recently. The EX485 had Windows Home Server 2007 as its OS and I loved it. It simplified backup and recovery for all of the computers in my household. The ability to recover a single file or backup and restore complete images (similar to Symantec Ghost) was exactly what I needed. I rarely used any of the additional features or add-ins. Fast forward to today, I recently built a new entry level server specifically for Windows Home Server 2011. The updated user interface for WHS 2011 is refreshingly simple and less clunky than its predecessor. Administration is simple and straightforward, even for the novice. Besides computer backups, I use WHS 2011 as a centralized repository for music and movies, where I can stream them to other TVs in my home.
There is at least one drawback I've found with WHS 2011. The drive extender has been removed. With drive extender, you simply plugged in a new hard drive and the OS would automatically add it to the usable storage. With WHS 2011, I opted to use a motherboard with on-board RAID. I mirrored 2x 2TB drives. Since WHS 2011 is built on Windows Server 2008 R2, I simply chose a motherboard that supported that operating system. In other words, drivers that work in Server 2008 R2 should work in WHS 2011.
Another quirky feature is the Remote Web Access feature. This essentially lets you access files on your server remotely and securely. While the wizard effortlessly guides you through the configuration, it provides little flexibility. I wanted to use my current domain registrar to enable use of my domain name with WHS 2011 and bind an SSL certificate for secure communications. I wasn't able to figure out how to manually do it and ended up transferring my domain name to GoDadday, one of the options in the wizard. I think Microsoft makes money as an affiliate from GoDaddy. Seems kind of scandalous to me. A minor issue though. GoDaddy in my opinion is reliable and inexpensive.
Supposedly, WHS 2011 will have a larger variety of add-ons for purchase. Similar to an App Store on your OS. I have yet to utilize any add-ons, but look forward to any unique software that increases the ability of my WHS 2011 box.
There is at least one drawback I've found with WHS 2011. The drive extender has been removed. With drive extender, you simply plugged in a new hard drive and the OS would automatically add it to the usable storage. With WHS 2011, I opted to use a motherboard with on-board RAID. I mirrored 2x 2TB drives. Since WHS 2011 is built on Windows Server 2008 R2, I simply chose a motherboard that supported that operating system. In other words, drivers that work in Server 2008 R2 should work in WHS 2011.
Another quirky feature is the Remote Web Access feature. This essentially lets you access files on your server remotely and securely. While the wizard effortlessly guides you through the configuration, it provides little flexibility. I wanted to use my current domain registrar to enable use of my domain name with WHS 2011 and bind an SSL certificate for secure communications. I wasn't able to figure out how to manually do it and ended up transferring my domain name to GoDadday, one of the options in the wizard. I think Microsoft makes money as an affiliate from GoDaddy. Seems kind of scandalous to me. A minor issue though. GoDaddy in my opinion is reliable and inexpensive.
Supposedly, WHS 2011 will have a larger variety of add-ons for purchase. Similar to an App Store on your OS. I have yet to utilize any add-ons, but look forward to any unique software that increases the ability of my WHS 2011 box.
49 of 53 people found the following review helpful
By TEEBEEWEEBEE
Installed WHS 11 on a HP Microserver (8gb RAM, 3 x 2TB Drives). Had to install DVD drive, HD's and RAM on Microserver before install. WHS11 install took about an hour total. It was painless and easy. The new client connector software installs fast and easy also. Configuration is a breeze. Remote access requires a web address so I just went with Microsoft's "yourname.homeserver.com" url.
Had an existing Ver 1 HP EX 470 so I just copied pasted the data over. I didn't transfer the PC backups from the old server. Couldn't tell you how to.
I have a Windows Phone 7 and it works like a charm via the web based client. Can search and download files with ease. Xbox 360 works perfectly also.
Drive Extender issue wasn't big for me. I have about 2 TB's worth of data and have the other two 2 TB drives back it up. If I double my data I can add a forth and final drive and have one of the other two backup drives back it up.
If you have torrent and ripped DVD's in the tens of TB range WHS11 is probably not for you.
WHS11 only runs on 64 bit CPU's and it runs fast on my dual core 1.3 GHZ AMD system. HD video requires a much faster CPU such as a i5, i7 or some other quad core CPU. I don't use my WHS11 for video but if you do want to stream HD you have to get a faster power hungry CPU.
I am glad I did the upgrade from ver 1 WHS.
Had an existing Ver 1 HP EX 470 so I just copied pasted the data over. I didn't transfer the PC backups from the old server. Couldn't tell you how to.
I have a Windows Phone 7 and it works like a charm via the web based client. Can search and download files with ease. Xbox 360 works perfectly also.
Drive Extender issue wasn't big for me. I have about 2 TB's worth of data and have the other two 2 TB drives back it up. If I double my data I can add a forth and final drive and have one of the other two backup drives back it up.
If you have torrent and ripped DVD's in the tens of TB range WHS11 is probably not for you.
WHS11 only runs on 64 bit CPU's and it runs fast on my dual core 1.3 GHZ AMD system. HD video requires a much faster CPU such as a i5, i7 or some other quad core CPU. I don't use my WHS11 for video but if you do want to stream HD you have to get a faster power hungry CPU.
I am glad I did the upgrade from ver 1 WHS.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Saves Your S***
Transparently backups all the computers on your home network. Full nightly backups will be appreciated the day you hard drive dies. Client restoration is a breeze.
Published 6 days ago by Layne Hunter
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent
Very nice and works good, shipped very fast and I was not expecting it to come that soon overall it's great
Published 1 month ago by Latoya
5.0 out of 5 stars
Server Software
I purchase this to run on an HP microserver I bought at a bargain price. Now I just need to learn how to set it all up ;-)
Published 2 months ago by Sherman Shell
5.0 out of 5 stars
Its Great
I can backup all my pc's and also I use it for streaming media server as well, for music and movies..
I wish I would have found this along time ago but It's Great... Read more
I wish I would have found this along time ago but It's Great... Read more
Published 2 months ago by cj
3.0 out of 5 stars
Good Product, Confusing Name, Lot of Requirements
When I first got this, I was worried because there were a bunch of crazy warnings on the front of the box. When I tried to install it, it said Unknown Error. Read more
Published 2 months ago by Zachary
5.0 out of 5 stars
Easy install and setup
This home server software is easy to install and setup. It allows me to interface my servers , and hard drives in my home. Read more
Published 2 months ago by Lester
5.0 out of 5 stars
After year of use
First bad news if your considering this and have a Windows 8 OEM built machine.
I recently purchased a Windows 8 laptop and because it used GPT for disk partitions, WHS... Read more
I recently purchased a Windows 8 laptop and because it used GPT for disk partitions, WHS... Read more
Published 2 months ago by Anthony Thomas
5.0 out of 5 stars
Finally, M$ released a UEFI hotfix
[...] This hotfix allegedly allows the backup of the most modern UEFI-based computers, i.e., WIN8 generation computers. Read more
Published 2 months ago by Old Guy
5.0 out of 5 stars
home server
it is nice to have home server for more storage and multiple backups for all family.
I would highly recommend it for all families. less pain and easy recovery.
I would highly recommend it for all families. less pain and easy recovery.
Published 3 months ago by ALKAF
5.0 out of 5 stars
Hesitant at first, but glad I upgraded from WHS v1
I've been running WHS v1 since about 2009 and followed the release of WHS 2011 closely when it came out. Read more
Published 3 months ago by ==ASA==
