Microsoft home server (1 Viewer)

moandick

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Sorry, Shifty, but for some of us technophobes you are going to have to explain that a little bit more - like - what is a "Microsoft Home Server"?

Obviously we are talking computers, even I know that - but what does a 'server' do - compared to a 'PC'
 

400ixl

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Microsoft Windows Home Server

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It is a great solution for people with multiple computers at home who want some centralisation for streaming from, easier backups etc.

The HP version adds some additional features which enhance it even further.

There is a newer version currently being developed as this one still runs on a Windows 2003 Server base. The new one will run on Windows Server 2008 (Codenamed Veil) and was looking really good until this week. They have decided that they will be discontinuing the disk pooling feature called Drive Extender which was one of its best features.

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Munchie

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I was told once that running your main computer as a "server" would make it faster and more responsive. I tried it and could see no difference. ::bigsmile:
 

400ixl

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Windows Server 2008 tweaked to run as a workstation was quicker than Vista. Not the case or worth the effort with Windows 7 though.
 

meanders

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A properly configured server will have a fairly slow desktop as its been optimised to do a specific function. At home that's likely to be serving files, but could conceivably be an SQL, web or mailserver. Each of these really calls for a different configuration, but servicing the console (desktop) will always be low priority.

Vista was a dog of an OS. Using an old adding machine was generally faster. XP with tweaks was way faster. Win7 so far is very impressive and is back to XP speeds. Howver it is memory hungry.

Having a home server is a good idea if you need fast PC's as it offloads much of the the underlying processing leaving the PC free to do what its does best.
 

Chani

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We were using it as our local file server - until last week when finally got a chance to wipe it and start again. It's probably great if you're using it as a media server and have a few large files, but if you have millions of very small files as we have, it's a absolute pig. Try searching for 'demigrator.exe'. Basically it spent most of the day thrashing our hard drives, checking every file for changes so it could make a duplicate for backup. Slowed everything down and we were getting worried about the life-expectancy of the drives! Only solution was to set up a batch file to prevent it checking through the day, but then that defeated the object of having the duplicate.

I believe they've fixed this problem in Vail, but then having removed Drive Extender (the thing which allows you to add extra drives easily), I'm left wondering what the point of it is!
 

meanders

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I agree. Better to go for a PC running XP or 7 with RAID and configured to give priority to services and background tasks.

Robin

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