Todo: I need to test Windows Home Server

I completely forgot about the Windows Home Server beta (invitation only program) that I got few weeks ago. I was going to install it last weekend but completely forgot about it, again.

Personally I just like use any Linux distribution for NAS, not FreeNAS. If you just want to install and forget about it, then FreeNAS is the best choice. But I always ended up wanting to add more functionality. Last time I use Linux for file server, I ended up trying to write custom backup script with web management; didn't worked as I planed, I'm not a good programmer.

One thing that I hate about any Linux based NAS or FreeNAS, is the limitation of NTFS support(it works but not as native as in Windows). I had two NTFS-formatted USB external hard drives for my Windows machine, and I founded was hard to work with Linux. FAT32 is not an option since it doesn't support large file than 4GB.

So the main reason I wanted to try Windows Home Server is to find out how easy is to work with NTFS formated USB extnal hard drives. Until the end of the last year, I've been using Windows Server 2003 for the file server on my P4 1.8GHz machine. Windows Server 2003 is resource hog, but I did like the fact I can run few Windows only program. Actually I mostly used as the file server as 2nd Windows machine.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to try Windows Home Server again this weekend. I just want to check whether it really works well with my external drives: hopefully something like temporally connect-and-share with low CPU usage. Don't really care about "Home Network health Monitoring" features; I have a router as firewall, have Firefox, and don't run as Administrator. All the other features in Windows Home Server, were already implemented someway in Linux file server.

How to install FreeNAS by Novell

Pretty good tutorial on how to install FreeNAS by Novell.

Link

Microsoft Windows Home Server

I've been looking for a NAS with gigabit Ethernet for while. So I was little excited about Microsoft Windows Home Server announcement. The most NAS with gigabit network, 2-4 drive bays, and USB ports costs more than $500. I tried to build a Linux NAS box but I had a lot of problem with setting up removable NTFS formatted external USB hard drives. And also I couldn't find any MicroATX case that I like. The most of them are too bulky and won't fit on my desk. I was hoping that the Windows Home Server solve my problem of moving the NTFS formatted external hard drives computer to computer/NAS, but it still has same problems: expensive and bulky.

CrunchGear has a picture of Windows Home Server and some info:

HP is releasing their version in Q2 this year with a storage capacity between 500GB and 1TB. There’s also four USB ports and three extra drive bays in case ... Rumors are that it’ll be in the $500-ish zone.

Picture of Roomba running Home Server?

Engadget has picture of different model. It looks a computer. I don't think it will fit in my desk.

on10.net has video about Windows Home Server. It surely targeted for a Windows users. $500 NAS box without hardware RAID(?) but has Microsoftified VPN, better NTFS support than Linux, and some version of Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer?