Hi:

I have been running the HP MEDIASMART SERVER EX490 with 1drive,but have decided to upgrade to a Windows7-based WHS11 package running on a new multi-drive computer using raid 5 mirroring. This is working well. I would now like to use the hardware in the HP MEDIASMART SERVER EX490 box to run a NAS that would allow me to use Acronis True Image Home software to do mirror imaging of my computers to the NAS box (no raid) and to just copy folders from my computers to the same box in some manner.

Does anyone know how to do this or know that this is possible and can they give me some leads in making it happen? Thanks for any help.

Personally I keep my clients clean meaning I send all data directly to the server and only keep data that I consider a Work In Process on the client and when I am done with it I will move it to the server. An example of this is when I am ripping movies I will dump the rips on a specific drive and when the rips are done I and in proper working order I will then move them to the server and delete them from the client.

Because I also all the Client Backups to occur I also know that all the files on the client will be backed up on the server and can be recovered individually from the backups.

Now I do run WHS2011 on an EX485 at home and on a custom build at work but have yet to setup a VPN on them which would allow you to connect directly to the server and access it much like you would when your at home. I do this with my WS2012E server and its a pure joy to be able to access my data directly since I store all my data on that particular server so no matter which client I am using I always have access to the same data.

Then from the server side you can concentrate on backing up the data from the server to either dedicated backup disks or media of your choosing making the backup process much easier then say trying to do this with multiple clients. WHS2011 does come with a built in backup feature set if you chose to use it. You might be able to also install a 3rd party solution to backing up the data from the server to a backup location of your choosing which again is a much simpler task then doing it from each client.

I would encourage you to connect an external drive to the EX490 and dedicate it to backing up the system drive because the recovery process is quite different then what your use to with WHSv1 in that you can recover the server from a backup and it will place the server in the state of the backup you chose meaning no reconfiguration or major updates its more like a client recovery. Otherwise what you will end up having to do is reinstall the Server OS, run tons of updates and set the server up all over again.

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Exploring the possibilities!

Migrated from WHS2011 to WS2012E: HIGHLANDER

~ Norco 4220 Enclosure
~ Gigabyte GA-990FXA-UD5
~ AMD Phenom II X4 995 3.2 GHz
~ 8 GB Corsair Vengeance DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800)
~ 3 Supermicro AOC-SASLP-MV8