Adding a Hard Drive to the Asus TS mini

LinusTechTips have another video, this time on upgrading a hard drive in the Asus TS mini.

Their 8 minute video walks you through the process, as well as having a look at the internals of the Asus unit.

Backing Up your WHS System Files

The How-To Geek explains how to backup your Windows Home Server system state.

And why is that important you may ask? Here’s what the geek had to say in his own words:

Sometimes when your making tweaks to WHS or installing certain Add-Ins, it can make the system unstable. Here we take a look at how to backup the WHS System State and / or Registry so you can restore it if something goes wrong.

So if you would like to know how to back up your servers registry, Startup Files, and Protected System files then head on over here for all the details.

How To Add Advanced Format Drives to WHS

If you buy an advanced format drive for use in Windows Home Server you have to make sure to jumper it before adding it to the Home Server pool.

Mike from PricklyTech encountered the problem after adding a Western Digital 2 TB Caviar Green SATA Hard Drive (WD20EARS) to WHS:

I did not realize that I needed to do anything special to my new Advanced Format drive to add it to my WHS – but soon witnessed some odd behavior after installing it.

My nightly backups started to fail and my nightly backup to the cloud hung. In the morning none of my clients were able to access any shared folders. Rebooting seemed to resolve the issue (until the next morning)…

Mike shows us where to jumper the WD20EARS hard drive for error free use in Windows Home Server, which you can find here.

How to Test Vail Using VirtualBox

"How to Setup and Install Windows Home Server “Vail” Beta on VirtualBox" is another great tutorial from the guys at the website "How-To Geek".

Oracle’s VirtualBox is free virtualization software which is a great way to test out Windows Home Server codename Vail.

While we had no problem installing Vail on VirtualBox, but it didn’t run as smoothly as it did on VMware products in our tests. However, if you’re a fan of VirtualBox and want to try out Windows Home Server Beta “Vail” without the need for another machine, this will do the trick.

You can read their tutorial here.

WHS Stored Pictures and Videos in Media Center – Changing the Default Folder

If you access your WHS stored Photos and Videos from Windows Media Center then you probably noticed that you have to go into the \\SERVER\Photos directory (for example) for your pictures to be displayed even if that’s your ONLY picture library.

Thankfully Missing Remote has the solution (which I have already implemented) for your library of pics and videos to instantly appear.

You don’t have to do this for Recorded TV as its recording location can already be set within the Media Center settings.

Their guide is available here.

Access WHS on the iPhone or iPod Touch

Would you like to get basic access to Windows Home Server from either an iPhone or iPod Touch without installing any Apps?

If so, then the How-To Geek shows you how to get it setup on your Home Server and how to access using Safari on the specific device.

You can read their guide here.

How To Recover Data from a Failing Hard Drive

“All hard  drives will eventually fail. Some earlier than others”

Patrick from ServeTheHome goes through how to recover data which is on a failing drive in your Windows Home Server system.

“…I was able to get vital tax information and work information off of the drive easily by just copying directories.”

Patrick takes us through the stages from physically removing the drive, to attaching it to a different pc, showing hidden files and where to find your data files for recovery.

You can find his guide here.

Integrate an iPad with WHS

Tech lover Chris Oldroyd explains how to uses AirVideo with his iPad and Windows Home Server.

Chris describes AirVideo as the best application he has ever bought for the iPhone and iPad and describes how it helps integrate his iPad with his home entertainment setup. By installing the small server application directly on Windows Home Server and the Apple app store app AirVideo on either an iPod or iPhone you can have video streaming from WHS to either of these devices when you are out or about.

Chris goes through the setup steps here.

Install Microsoft Security Essentials 2.0 Beta on Windows Home Server “Vail”

Last week I went through how to install Microsoft Security Essentials 2.0 on Windows Home Server v1, I mentioned that it was able to be installed on Windows Home Server “Vail” and unfortunately How-to Geek have beaten me to reviewing it on Vail.

They give you full install instructions and have plenty of screenshots; they have reported no issues with installing or running it even after a week.  So head on over there and try the install.

More info here.

Written by
Matthew Glover

How To Setup and Install Windows Home Server “Vail” in VMware Player

How-to geek have just posted a walk through of how to setup Windows Home Server “Vail” in VM Player, this will be great for those that haven’t got a spare machine but want to checkout the new features in Vail.

They show you everything from downloading VM Player to fully adding connector software to your workstations and setting up the shares.

You can see the full walk though here.

Written by
Matthew Glover