Welcome aboard. I hope you never go through that again but if you do, your MSS should make things much easier.

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HP MSS EX490, Intel Core 2 Quad Q9300, 1TB System drive, 6TB Storage pool managed by StableBit DrivePool

So I kept it short and just said hello. I found this sight using after originally ordering my MMS through amazon.... Now with the help of this site I ordered the EX487 through HP with coupon code SV0660 for the 10% off! <-- Thanks for that!

Drew.

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Aluminum MacBook 2.4, MacBook PRO 2.4, iMac 24", Q9300/4Gig DDR2/9800/Win7, MediaSmart 487

I came across this site via Google after researching the best NAS/Drobo/RAID-ish solution that will run in a mixed-environment network. The MMS was a contender but I really wanted to know how well it handled communications with a Mac and the section you dedicated for that purpose really helped me out.

I've been running a Mac Mini with an external 500 GB hard drive for about a year now as a HTPC. I've slowly been ripping by DVD collection and I'm just about out of space. At first wanted just a plain jane storage solution, but the idea of streaming music/photos to other computers and backing up data started to appeal to me (and the wife...and she has the checkbook).

So about a week later I ordered a MMS using the discount code and I should get it tomorrow. I'm looking forward to sharing my experiences and learning from other board members. I'm also super excited to see what kind of add-ins I can write since I spend my working hours writing Windows and web apps in C#. Muahahaahahahahaaha!

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EX485 with 3.0 TB of usable space.
Primary use: Serving media to Plex on my Mac Mini, streaming music online and to my iPhone.

Welcome aboard jas8340. Be sure and checkout the WHS Add-Ins section. While this forum is my favorite for MSS questions/issues, I also frequent the WeGotServed forum. They have more add-in development activity there which you would likely find helpful. Here are a few other links related to add-in development.

Home Server Development Tips
tentacleBlog
Windows Home Server Add-Ins and Developer Information : Windows Home Server : Microsoft Forums

Hopefully you'll be able to answer questions given your day job.

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HP MSS EX490, Intel Core 2 Quad Q9300, 1TB System drive, 6TB Storage pool managed by StableBit DrivePool

Howdy all!

I just ordered an ex485 from HP yesterday, and this site definitely helped me to make that decision! I've spent over a month researching the MSS and WHS, and found this site during that time. I'm definitely looking forward to its arrival. I also plan to buy a couple 2TB drives to get me started.

My planned usage (for now):
- Backup my main Vista32 rig and my wife's XP laptop
- Run iTunes on it to manage music/movie library (almost 1TB so far), and stream media to 1 AppleTV and 1 AirTunes device (w/o needing my power-hungry Vista rig running)
- Store/manage photos and home videos
- Serve photos to the web
- Serve files to the web
- Run uTorrent

That's a start. I've read about a few add-ins I'd like to try, and we'll see where it goes from there!

Great forum!

Just love being a noob again - mere moments away from ordering the EX487. Have read so many threads and helpful links here. Can't wait to get a real backup and server functioning in the home with 2 desktops, 3 lappies and 2 mac lappies. This will take a lot of worries away for me. Thanks for all of your efforts here, and I look forward to working with you all in the near future.

Based on what I know, the 487 doesn't give you the extra bang for the buck. You are paying a premium to have them install a 750gig hard drive for you. For the same price, you can pick up probably a 1.5TB drive. IMO

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Guy

HP EX475 at work as a backup server
HP EX485 at home for fun

Hello,
Great site. I found this site through Google. I'm glad I did. I ordered a 485 through Amazon them found the code for $30 off at HP. Amazon didn't know when it would be shipped. Cost me only $13 more through HP and was shipped today. Looking forward to some MSS fun.

Thanks, MJ

Don't recall exactly how I found the site - probably Google. Lurked for several months. Finally pulled the trigger on a EX485 a week ago when I found the 15% discount code here. Still sorting things out, but it is going well so far.

Hi Alex and everyone

I found this page through google search. Was trying to look up some information and found this forum to be the best place (both information and layout wise).

Keep up the good work!

Hello All,

I found this site through while trying out WHS on a home built server. I was looking for a smaller foot print machine to run WHS on and HP nailed it with the EX 4XX. I recently acquired my HP EPP EX 487 and promply removed the 2x750 and replaced them with 4x1.5 drives.

My first experience with the EX487 was trying to do the Server Restore without turning off my ESET firewall. Took me a full day to figure that one out. The setup manual, I mean poster, was almost useless. So finally got that one fixed and was off to the races.

I bought the EX487 so I could back up all my machines MAC Pro, Multiple XP, and some linux machines.

About me:

I am an HP TSG employee (so please do not blast me for mistakes the PSG team makes ) who manages Unix servers for a large <insert large automaker name here> company, and have done so for almost 11 years.

Once again, thanks Alex for this great site.

Mark from Michigan.

I found this site while researching storage solutions for my video media. I have about 9tb of movies ( three years of ripping my purchases) with no backup. The MSS looked like a great way to accomplish a couple of my needs so I ordered a EX 485 and add 3x 1tb drives. Got it all yeaterday and in less than a hour I had it installed and started moving files to it. All I can say is WOW. Great machine. As soon as I can get a couple of the usb drive moved and clear I'm going to add them to the MSS and move more over to it.
Another note is this is sure going to simplfy my drive mapping. I was maxed out and not sure what I was going to do next.

Thanks for the great fourm.

Mike

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EX-485, 10TB, | 2x Dlink DSM-520 | AsRock 330-BD
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I joined after purchasing a new 485 and needing to ask a question about setting it up. I found it though a few google searches on something a long the lines of "MediaSmart upgrade system drive"

I love these kinds of enthusiast forums... you can always get the best information here. I'm a strong advocate of "search before asking," however, this is typically much easier if there is an option to "Search only titles." Would you be able to enable this?

Cheers,
Leo

I found this site through google after I had purchased an EX487; but before I had received it. I came from a very bad experience with a linksys media hub NMH410 and through searching saw the HP Mediasmart line. It sounded great, so I ordered the EX 487 immediately. Had I found this site before I had ordered, I would have known I would be better off getting the 485 and purchasing a separate HDD. On the other hand, if I had found this site first, I'm not so sure I would have made the purchase as this site has made me realize that I am in way over my head in terms of technical abilities related to a home server. Whereas the NMH 410 basically plugged in and worked, or didn't work, it is amazing what some of you guys are capable of figuring out and accomplishing with the mediasmart server.

My purpose with the mediasmart was to backup and aggregate. We have two desktops, two laptops, five differing MP3 players, a PS3, an XBOX360 somewhere, and also a Wii. I thought it would be nice if a majority of these items could somehow communicate and share media as they are spread around the house. As I alluded to above, I am not very experienced in the ways of home servers so bear with me if it takes me a while to catch on. So far I have had the MSS up and running about a week. I am extremely happy with how things have turned out so far. I only have one glaring problem left to resolve and then I will consider this a successful purchase.

Rob

Great stories, everyone, thanks so much for sharing. I don't reply to everyone, but know that many of us are reading them and appreciate you sharing with us.

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Alex Kuretz
Remote Notification: Monitoring and alerting for your Home Server via email, Twitter, text message, RSS, push notifications, and on your Mac desktop
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