Forum Spotlight: How to install 2.5 Software Update on your EX470 and EX475 Part 1

by Alex Kuretz on April 24, 2009 · 13 comments

in Forum Spotlight

Forum Moderator Nigel “Cougar” Wilks is at it again, this time with the beginnings of a series of tutorials that will guide EX470 and EX475 users on how to get the recent 2.5 Software Update running on their first generation MediaSmart Servers. Note that this is a work in progress and does not yet get the entire 2.5 Software Update functioning on the server. Part 1 covers downloading and extracting the update to gain the Twonky and S3 Online Backup Add-Ins.

Here’s what Nigel has to say in the forum post.

Now that people have released the ftp link for the 2.5 upgrade; we can now pull out the add-ins you are all hankering after. Reverse engineering the 2.5 code has taken a little while, and I’ve nearly got that figured out and will post a guide on what to do once I have it all working fully, and I can repeat it! I am missing the status lights; and I don’t think they will come back but everything else appears to be fully functional.

Obviously; this isn’t endorsed by HP, recommended by anyone and may stop your machine from getting future updates from HP. So tread carefully, and if you are not sure about following this, then don’t. Follow at your own risk.

This is obviously exciting news, as the majority of the feedback I’ve heard about the 2.5 Software Update has been from unhappy EX470 owners.

You can read the full forum post here and leave your feedback if you give it a try. I look forward to the full tutorial from Nigel once he gets the steps fully ironed out and repeatable.

Update: Nigel has posted a screenshot showing the 2.5 update running on his AMD-processor EX470. He’s now running through all the tabs and functionality to make sure it all works correctly before sharing more details on how to accomplish this.

AMD processor EX470 running 2.5 software update

AMD processor EX470 running 2.5 software update


Article by

I'm Alex Kuretz, and I'm the founder of MediaSmartServer.net. I was the Lead Test and Integration Engineer at HP for the MediaSmart Server until April 2008 when I moved on to other opportunities outside HP. I've kept active in the Windows Home Server community, creating several add-ins and helping users make the most of their Home Servers.


{ 12 comments }

Cougar April 24, 2009 at 9:25 am

No pressure then! :-D

Texas-Hansen April 24, 2009 at 10:16 am

Awesome job Cougar!!! Hopefully, this will pressure HP to take a second look at enhancing the package of software it plans to release to EX 47x owners and maybe put EX47x owners a little higher up on their update priority list than where HP seems to currently put 47x owners.

t-bone April 24, 2009 at 10:26 am

This is awesome. I have been trying to do some stuff on my own but nothing has worked quite right..

Graham April 24, 2009 at 11:48 am

That’s great news. But I’d rather not pirate the HP updates or push an unsanctioned update onto my 470. I’m not buying HPs line that the software platform and hardware platforms have changed too much. We can pay an upgrade fee to get onto the same platform if they want, to fund the level setting. But, honestly, I feel as if they need to do something to engender our goodwill again.

If you bought Adobe photoshop and got 1 or two free upgrades and then they said, “We are moving to 64bit platform, and are no longer supporting 32bit machines”, so that you needed to buy a new machine to get an upgrade to the software, you would be justifiably irate, and would probably make sure to buy all future software from one of their competitors. Platform changes like that for software need to be roadmapped so you notify your consumers well in advance of a platform change, not dropped on them as a surprise.

The reality of the MSS platform is that it is both a hardware device and a suite of supporting software. When we bought an MSS we expected the hardware to be treated like hardware and the software like software. And you don’t tell a software consumer that he cannot even buy an upgrade. That may fly when you are selling servers to CORPORATIONS with technology spendin budgets, but it does NOT fly when you are selling hardware/software to normal consumers.

Richard April 24, 2009 at 8:51 pm

Please keep trying. This is just the upgrade I bought the 475 for. We are the bedrock of HP success.

Make the 2Gb memory upgrade a requirement (£19.54 inc VAT from Crucial)and release the softwre to us please HP.

Does it really need a new processor to run it?

brian April 24, 2009 at 11:25 pm

*this is good

HP could have released this update if they wanted to, how much trouble could it be to..
1. create a check to see how much ram that is installed *before the update is processed.
2. not turn your backs on your loyal customers, just release the update.
3. maybe make it a requirement that the update is purchased from HP as a new set of disks AND it would require a fresh re-install to eliminate potential issues.

* suggestion to HP on cd set replacements include the updates.
or release a method to update via a supplicant disk, Be Smart HP save bandwidth and these odd update aches that we have with our HP MediaSmart ‘EX47x’ servers.

anybody else agree?

Robert April 25, 2009 at 5:33 pm

I will give this a try on my EX47X (2 GB RAM) system in the next day or so. Thanks Cougar!

revengineer April 25, 2009 at 7:31 pm

I knew this was gonna work!!! :-)

Phil May 3, 2009 at 1:32 pm

Was just wondering if this can be undone? Say if the updates don’t work or HP releases this to us legit is there a way to roll this back as you were able to before? I really want to do this to my EX470 but kinda want to know if there is a safety net if I decide to go back. Any help with the question would be greatly appreciated.

Alex Kuretz May 3, 2009 at 2:56 pm

Phil, the “safety net” would be a Server Recovery. That said, I’d be careful doing this unless you are comfortable with taking risk with your server. It’s worked for a lot of people, but there may be issues.

Phil May 3, 2009 at 3:07 pm

I haven’t heard of to many issues. What are some of the known issues? The only way to rollback this update is to do a “server recovery” I don’t really want to risk the information on my server. I hope all this pressures HP into doing something. Thanks for the help. I guess I’ll sit on the sidelines alittle longer then or until I start seeing more success.

scott August 18, 2009 at 5:23 pm

I’ve played with my server plenty but I think I’m just going to wait for HP on this one.

http://www.wegotserved.com/2009/05/05/hp-to-release-v25-to-all-ex47x-owners-bring-mediasmart-server-back-to-europe/

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