Microsoft Windows Home Server 2011 64-Bit Software (OEM) $39.99 Free Shipping

Newegg has the Microsoft Windows Home Server 2011 64-Bit Software (OEM) for a low $39.99 Free Shipping after Coupon Code: "WIN227" (Exp 2/28). Tax in CA, NJ, TN.
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love OEM service,but not this kind of things,normally the lingerie

i just built a whs2011 server to replace my original whs. I really like it a lot more than the old one. Its much lighter, faster, feature rich. Great for backing up everything in your house. I have it running a raid 6 array with 6 x 3tb drives so I have about 10tb total space plus 2 drives must fail at once for me to lose the data

Running a copy at my home and I'm really happy with WHS 2011. For the price, it's tempting to buy a couple more for some processing servers I use, but right now I'm running Server 2003 and getting along okay. The OS is a great bargain if you need shared file services, automated backups, printer sharing, things like that. It's not a good desktop OS, so don't buy it for that.

My favorite feature: Shadow Copies on shared drives. In addition to backing up all your clients and itself, you can enable shadow copies of all your shared libraries. Then your users (kids, wife, whatever) can right click on any file to "Restore a Previous Version" and instantly go back to a prior copy of any particular file. It's very self-service, easy to understand, and avoids the panicked calls to Dad that "I messed up my homework and pressed save", they can fix it themselves.

this is tempting but I still love my original WHS

cpabster said:   Does WHS 2011 still have Drive Extender? I heard they pulled it from the later releases. That would be the only thing I would use it for, to aggregate storage with more flexibility than a standard NAS box or whatever. Drive Extender allowed you to mix and match a bunch of drives, of varying capacities, to create a single large volume. Think Drobo, but without the $400 cost for the box. Any one have any input on this?

In for one - sounds like a good use for an old P4 Computer I have sitting in my garage.

Is Drive Entender synonymous with JBOD ?

WHS 2011 does not have Drive Extender but this StableBit DrivePool looks like it is a good replacement.

Drive Extender is hands down the best thing about WHS. I wouldn't trust my 6tb of data to a beta 3rd party drive extender replacement. My advice is to stick to the original WHS. I've had a 1.5tb drive fail and didn't lose a single file in a folder set for duplication. RAID is just not reliable with large drives (2tb+) http://www.zdnet.com/blog/storage/why-raid-5-stops-working-in-20...

cpabster said:   That's a shame they took it out of the newer releases (Drive Extender). I used it previously several years ago and it was great. Just pooled a bunch of old drives I had laying around of various capacity and made a big storage pool. Sure you can do the same thing with other things but they cost a lot more. Hardware RAID is expensive and don't get me started on the software-built-in-to-my-motherboard type RAID.

Yeah, I had an Intel MB with Built-In RAID. I took four identical 1TB drives and built a RAID 0+1 Array. All was fine for about two years, then one day the machine would not boot. Everything was lost.

I had a Backup, but as I was relying on the RAID 0+1, the Backup was not as fresh as it could be.

I never did figure out what happened. I had an UPS, so it would not have been a Power Surge/Spike. Afterwards the PSU, MB, RAM, and all four Hard Drives worked perfectly. I still use most of these parts in various machines.

Bottom Line: I don't trust RAID as much as I once did.

I never did trust RAID, I follow the 3-2-1 approach. 3 copies of everything, 2 different mediums, 1 off-site. Always.

I guess Drive Extender offered some RAID-like capabilities but I don't believe I ever used them, just used it to pool storage, not as a backup. I wouldn't trust it for backup anyway.

SalemCat said:   Is Drive Entender synonymous with JBOD ?

No. JBOD is a generic term to describe raw storage space hanging of some "external to it" intelligence (ie, a controller). Drive Extender was a feature in WHS that allowed for mult-disk redundancy and OS-level disk aggregation (ie, this disk, that disk, and that other disk, regardless of hardware type, all get rolled up into a meta-volume, and presented to the user as a single namespace).

labboypro said:   
Belt, suspenders, AND duct tape cinched around the waist? Your approach is fine, but modern RAID algorithms are VERY well established and highly reliable. Every speck of data that represents your existence, from birth certificate and beyond, is stored by someone somewhere on a RAID system (and, I'm sure copied, on different media, with an offsite archive).

Yes but not on consumer-based software RAID systems. Those are enterprise-level RAID setups with hardware, not software. And they damn well better have off-site backup on top of it.

MS dumped Drive Extender becuse consumers bitched nonstop about it. All of the forums were full of people who couldn't seem to make it work. Personally, I have 2 systems that use it and won't consider upgrading because I love the functionality. It's great to be able to add or subtract disks without worry and to be able to simply pull a drive and read it somewhere else. You can't do that in RAID. This is s perfect example of the vocal majority forcing a change. 2011 does have some more plugin support that I would love to be able to use, but it's not worth giving up the DE to get those.

If anyone is having problem streaming videos from WHS2011 to xbox360 like me, this is what I found that might be helpful.

1. Remote into your server

2. Right-Click Network and go to properties

3. Click on 'change advanced sharing settings' to the left

4. Under 'Home or Work (current profile)' scroll down to Media Streaming. Even though I set media on in the dashboard, this was still off.

5. Choose 'media streaming options' Click on ALLOW ALL or choose what you would like to allow.

Once I did this, I had no more trouble from my XBOX 360s.

I was able to stream video from whs2011 to my kindle fire as well.

f2000sa said:   I have one in my basement with lightout. Basically set it up, and forget it. It wakes up automatically doing its stuff. I wake it up remotely when I need to access it..

The RONCO Home Server - just "set it and forget it".

drodge said:   MS dumped Drive Extender becuse consumers bitched nonstop about it. All of the forums were full of people who couldn't seem to make it work. Personally, I have 2 systems that use it and won't consider upgrading because I love the functionality. It's great to be able to add or subtract disks without worry and to be able to simply pull a drive and read it somewhere else. You can't do that in RAID. This is s perfect example of the vocal majority forcing a change. 2011 does have some more plugin support that I would love to be able to use, but it's not worth giving up the DE to get those.Sort of like unraid?

good deal

delzy said:   Ubuntu server is a much better value. And that would be true if the price of this deal was FREE.

Thanks for the suggestion !

Being knowledgeable using a variety of OS's, including Linux, is a certain Resume-Enhancer.

I wish that I didn't miss this. I'm always a day late.

bestdealseaker said:   For those that missed this, is this the same product? http://www.amazon.com/Windows-Server-64-bit-English-Builder/dp/B... (with no tax, by the way)

Looks the same to me, but that's regular price at many stores.

I can tell you it's not a good idea. WHS2011 is not a good desktop OS. It's designed to be accessed through a dashboard application instead of interacting directly with the computer. It's (somewhat) optimized for doing tasks like running backups, not running spreadsheets and browsing. In fact, by default the browser is locked down with high security that will disable a majority of web pages from displaying correctly. It's easy enough to turn that off, but that tells you it's not intended to be used that way.