I had posted an my earlier thread about my failing EX470.
http://www.mediasmartserver.net/forums/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=13300Because of that, I had decided to move to WHS 2011 and build a new server. I wanted to re-cycle my 6.5 TB of drives from the EX470 to keep the costs down. I almost bought an HP Proliant Server and used that but decided to go with the Shuttle build instead. So, here are the components I selected:
Shuttle SH67H3 Barebone System
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004UC4HCG/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i02?ie=UTF8&psc=1Cheap Kingston RAM (4GB)
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004QXT98Q/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i04?ie=UTF8&psc=1Cheap Celeron Processor
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00B4BJYVU/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1Samsung DVD Drive
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00CE58ZYC/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i03?ie=UTF8&psc=1WHS 2011
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0050TVAWS/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i01?ie=UTF8&psc=1Total cost: $359.84 with free Super Saver shipping from Amazon. The cost of the barebone kit and memory went up right after I ordered, so I felt lucky!
The build went pretty smooth. I really like the cable management and heat management in the Shuttle PC. The Shuttle case has room for two 3.5" drives and one 5.25" drive. I loaded it up with one clean 1TB drive and my 1TB backup drive from the EX470. I had planned on connecting the other 4 drives using my Sans Digital eSATA tower from the EX470. (more on that later)
WHS 2011 install went pretty smooth. I had one issue where I had no keyboard or mouse when I first booted the system to the WHS 2011 DVD. Moving the keyboard and mouse to different USB ports solved that problem. WHS 2011 needed drivers for some of the Shuttle hardware. I directed WHS to the DVD and let it pick the drivers it wanted, and all was well. After putting in the drivers, the install was pretty much complete minus product activation and updates.
So next I try to recover my data from the backup disk, and that's when the fun started! I got the backup disk to mount and gave it a drive letter and then I could access it. I am still having major problems getting my other disks to mount to be accessible. I have to say that this point I am really under-whelmed with WHS 2011.
I know it's already water under the bridge, but Microsoft did not do us WHS V1 users any favors when they came out with WHS 2011. How about a WHS V1 data import wizard tool??? Geeze! Getting my data moved over to the new platform is a major pain and more trouble than it should be. I am not impressed! So I am still trying to access my 1.67TB of movies. I'll figure something out, but it should not be this hard to do!
I was hoping that the eSATA port on the Shuttle supported a port multiplier, but no such luck. I knew that it would probably not work, but it was worth a try. I will need to install a RAID card to access all the drives in the Sans Digital tower. Until I do, I can access only one drive in the tower. So while I am not really happy with WHS 2011 so far, there are some positives. The biggest is that I really like having the ability to have a keyboard, mouse, monitor, and DVD drive on my WHS, none of which was easily do-able on the EX470. No port multiplier? No problem, just add a RAID card! Try that with a HP MSS!
I will get this new machine all figured out, with all my data on it like I want, running like I want, and then I will be happy with it. It's just going to be a pain getting it to that point. I have added some pics of the build!