NewEgg

[Jammrock]

People can rave about Amazon and Google all they want, but I tell you, NewEgg.com has the best web analytics. I've been looking at 2TB HDDs to give my home server redundancy, and external drives to backup my backups (I've gotten paranoid about my data lately, I will openly admit).

Been shopping around for about three days. Today I get an email from NewEgg with a list of popular HDDs in the size and format I've been looking at, including a list of deals for the available drives.

The scary part...I have been searching for drives on four different devices and have not been logged on. That's some scary good data mining.

[Umfriend]

That'd piss me off big time.

Is that for a WHS 2011 machine? I love mine. Spent some time installing a minecraft server for the kids and getting torrents and streaming with Serviio going. Like a charm (although the minecraft server gives me some issues). Too bad M$ decided not to develop WHS on later M$ Server versions anymore.

[Jammrock]

That'd piss me off big time.

Is that for a WHS 2011 machine? I love mine. Spent some time installing a minecraft server for the kids and getting torrents and streaming with Serviio going. Like a charm (although the minecraft server gives me some issues). Too bad M$ decided not to develop WHS on later M$ Server versions anymore.

I was too surprised to be pissed off. Amazing analytics.

Yes, drives for my home server. I upgraded to Server 2012 Essentials though. WHS2011 doesn't support backing up GPT volumes yet, and my two main systems are UEFI/GPT based. Though a GPT update has been promised for WHS2011 in the next power pack or rollup.

I'm going to setup a ReFS Storage Pool with three 2TB WD Red drives in parity (think software RAID 5), and use my current 2TB WD Green drive as either a hot spare or for data I don't mind losing, like DVD/BD rips and TV recordings, which are just inconvenient to lose but not heartbreaking if they are gone.



I'm disappointed about that WHS decision too. It's an amazing package. But it never took off so the bottom line killed it. People not scared of building their own WHS's love it, and those who own one love them, but it tanked in the OEM market. Mainly because it was never marketed correctly. The average user is scared by the word "Server".

Server Essentials is nearly identical to WHS with three exceptions. The base OS, the price, and you can't join a HomeGroup. Beyond that it is WHS on Server 2012, which is, in my opinion, a superior server product to Server 2008 R2 (which is a great OS in its own rights). Say what you want about Win8, Server 2012 is awesome-sauce.

Essentials adds other stuff too, like VPN, automatically sets up File History for your Win8 devices (RT needs manual setup), DirectAccess for domain joined laptops and homes/businesses with IPv6, an Active Directory domain with your own private certificate authority (joining the domain is not required for connected systems, but it makes things easier if you do), and Network Access Protection. It has the normal connectors and WHS 2011 features like media streaming, a dashboard, pre-defined shares, etc.

[degrub]

Try installing Ghostery to see what is monitoring your searches/web traffic on your machine.

Their 'analytics" was probably no more than that, a spy tracker.

Frank

[Umfriend]

Thx for that Jamm. I did not think the more advanced Server editions would come with a dashboard. Is it similar to WHS 2011? Never new what Homegroups were good for anyway so that is no loss to me. Domains, Active Directory etc. I am ignorant on and, well, a bit scared LOL.

But I guess for when I would need it, Essentials 2012 might be the upgrade path. Not sure when or why that would be though. Perhaps when my data exceeds 2Gb but that'll be a ways off.

[Jammrock]

Thx for that Jamm. I did not think the more advanced Server editions would come with a dashboard. Is it similar to WHS 2011? Never new what Homegroups were good for anyway so that is no loss to me. Domains, Active Directory etc. I am ignorant on and, well, a bit scared LOL.

But I guess for when I would need it, Essentials 2012 might be the upgrade path. Not sure when or why that would be though. Perhaps when my data exceeds 2Gb but that'll be a ways off.

Essentials is like WHS for small businesses. They are cut from the same cloth. Which is why people are frustrated the WHS line was discontinued. They are 95% to WHS 2012/3 with Essentials, why not just take out the business stuff, drop the price and release it? Oh well, not my call to make.

WHS can support drives over 2TB as long as your computer hardware does. You just have to format them using GPT (it's an option in Disk Manager). Just don't try to boot from one unless your motherboard has UEFI. Which I'm sure just makes all the more confusing

Active Directory (AD) is a central security and authentication database that companies use to control user accounts and computer configurations. To greatly simplify it. A domain is a function of AD...think of it as a really big security group inside AD. AD means you can have a single user account that works on any computer joined to the domain, and access to any file share, without creating the user account on every single computer. Instead the computers go to the AD server and ask if the username and password is valid, then authorize access once AD authorizes the account.

[Umfriend]

AFAIK, WHS 2011 can deal with drives over 2 TB but can not backup more than 2TB. Something with limits to VHD?

Yeah. my server runs on a UEFI MB, no more BIOS.

Perhaps I'll turn around some time and you can give me an AD crash course.

[Jammrock]

AFAIK, WHS 2011 can deal with drives over 2 TB but can not backup more than 2TB. Something with limits to VHD?

Yeah. my server runs on a UEFI MB, no more BIOS.

Perhaps I'll turn around some time and you can give me an AD crash course.

I think I remember hearing that. 2012E uses a series of 4GB files. Probably makes then quicker to open later on, but also works around a 2TB limit. 2012 also supports VHDX, which has a capacity limit of 64GB.

If you ever move to 2012E I'd gladly give you a crash course. For a home environment it's really easy to use, and the setup part is automatic.

[Umfriend]

I think WHS2011 also uses 4GB files (I know it does for client backups), perhaps VHDX will be coming at some stage too. I wonder how long WHS2011 will remain supported/updated. I think I understood that MS would keep WHS2011 available for OEMs for a long long time.

[Jammrock]

I think WHS2011 also uses 4GB files (I know it does for client backups), perhaps VHDX will be coming at some stage too. I wonder how long WHS2011 will remain supported/updated. I think I understood that MS would keep WHS2011 available for OEMs for a long long time.

OEM availability and support end in 2025. By then the OS will be older than XP is now. Given the popularity of Win7 and Server 2008 R2, I'm sure it will still be thriving then too.