Windows Home Server 64-bit?

The more files I have had to store over the years and the larger my home network has become, I'm thinking I need something straight forward to help share and setup access to these files.

First of all, I only see Windows Home Server 32-bit. Is there a 64-bit option?

Also, can it be used as a regular desktop OS for some desktop apps and possibly occasional game? I use my "home server" for basic word processing, managing finances, web browsing, and occasional movie viewing and gaming.

Can I really do with Vista Business what I could do with Home Server? Is it much easier or just a different flavor of OS for Microsoft to cash in on?

Sorry, but its all new to me, but have read about it a few times, and now am curious if it would be beneficial! Thanks!

 

Indeed it can be used as a normal OS...

It's very different than just using Vista. This thing is dedicated to media support and streaming... here's some details:

http://lifehacker.com/5162026/best-home-server-software

 

not yet. Windows Home Server may get released in 64bit version in the next release sometimes next year.

The Home Server should not be used for normal os stuff, but only accessed troukgh the Home Server Console.

It is MUCH MUCH easier for backup and filesharing (esp with the family and such) than a normal os, but ment for standalone boxes with tons of hdds in (which you can hotswap'n'put).

there is no use for a 64bit version actually. it's mostly a fileserver and webserver and such for up to 10 clients. 2-4gb ram will be more than enough for that system for a long long time.

my personal one was an atom 330 with 2gb ram, i'm now building a new one as that one get to my dad.

you haven't used a home server really, yet, did you? you have "Home Server" in your sig, but that's no windows home server, is it?

 

but it shouldn't. it first of all isn't licenced for direct work on it, only for the console access, and secondly it's a specialiced windows 2003 server, and as such really not configured for desktop use. f.e. ie is locked down by default to make webbrowsing hell. no one really needs much webbrowsing on a server anyways, better be secured

 

for all the ones that don't really understand how a homeserver should be used:

here is how it should be placed in your net: as an additional device


and that's how the console then looks trough which you access it normally to manage it all:



and this is a possible home server how it looks:


or



but of course one can build and configure the hw on it's own. maybe one has good older hw that could get re-configured to a home server (including old hdds that could still get use again).

 

Ok, well I will have to rethink things a bit. I use my Shuttle box as a home server running Vista Business x64. It's got two 1TB HDD's and just bought an external dual eSATA dock to hot swap other drives as needed (640GB, 500GB, 320GB, 250GB)

But I also use it for basic PC tasks. Maybe I can set up my laptop for that stuff, but I'd really rather keep my personal stuff on my desktop so it's not at risk of getting lost, stolen, etc.

Would Home Server run fine as a Virtual PC then? What virtual software would work best with this?

I would use my older Shuttle box, but I just replaced it with the newer one because it was giving me all sorts of BSOD's and random restarts. It looked like a combination of things that would have cost about as much to replace parts to troubleshoot and fix as it would to just go with a newer machine. USB ports were also freaking out. I don't really have room to put another machine at the moment, nor the money, but may investigate that down the road here.

 

no, don't do as virtual pc. i have done that before.

btw, your data can get stored on the homeserver. which all my data is, and then accessed from pc and notebook trough \\server\Music \\server\Videos etc.

i do it that way mostly. i have all the data i have at work locally, and all the data for read access on the home server. there it gets stored twice thanks to its special filesystem.

but don't do it in a virtual system, except for try out. you want it on an own hw, so you can rely on it. else, if your shuttle fails, both your pc and your homeserver will be dead..

 

Well, if I can find a cheap motherboard and case that will accept my trusty old Athlon64 (939 pin NOT AM2 940 pin) and regular DDR, then I'm set. I would like to get one with onboard eSATA if they even exist. Would an Athlon 64 4400+ and 2GB DDR be sufficient?

 

hehe. just check that it has enough sata/ide ports for tons of hdds. i got a mainboard now with 6 sata ports. that means up to 12tb storage, enough for the future

 

Just to add the non-Home-Server viewpoint, you can run a basic home server using almost any OS that's available to you. I've got one running on a headless _Dell GX270 I picked up for about $75 on eBay with a legit copy of XP Pro. With that setup, I simply share the extra drives I've crammed into the box on the network.

You could also drop in just about any linux variant that otherwise floated your boat, although you would then need to install Samba to permit the Win-boxes to properly access the files stored on the linux-based server.

If simply setting up file sharing doesn't do what you want it to, you can also set up a basic http-based webfile server on a headless desktop, for example, using HTTP File Server which is open-source freeware for Win-based systems (although the website states that it's also been successfully run on a linux system using wine).

From there, you could go to a full-blown installation of Apache or some other full-service webserver.

The options are almost endless, and what solution you go with will largely be dictated by what you need the thing to do, and how much time you want to spend setting it up and getting it working.

 

that's not the same. windows home server is a special automatic backup solution, and takes care that all data is reduntant in case of a hdd failure.

this is what home server is about. it's a very simple, yet flexible and scalable solution to enhance your home environment in ways that are just not that easy and automatic in any other form.

i've run non-home-server servers at home for years. they're NOTHING in comparison to the home-server. but you have to experience it for a while.

suddenly, all your pc's are just unimportant, like virtual machines (if you played with virtual machines before). something wrong? restore. new os? install and restore your old system later. wanna test 64bit? install, restore later. reaccess older data of your pcs data? no problem.

the backup solution of the home server is very powerful and dead simple at the same time. the data-redundant file shares are one-of-a-kind so far in the windows world (but will be expanded to full corporate servers in the future).

yes, there are tons of other ways. but for a automated data-savety solution at your home, it's an awesome box that cares about all of it.

 

I don't recall saying anything to the contrary - it all depends on exactly what you need, and what you're willing to put into it (in terms of time and money, and the balance between the two). MS Home Server is quite clearly a very solid out-of-the-box server/network backup solution; however, it will not be to the liking (or the budget) of everyone, and as the old saying goes - there is more than one way to skin a cat.

 

that's true. but there is no other server solution based on an xp server or so, that is ment for backups. you can host iis on in yes, you can share files with it, yes, you can raid-around for datasavety of your shares. but it's all just fiddling around with something that got solved with homeserver in a much nicer and easy to handle way.

and still, on the home server, you can remotedesktop in and have a full win2003 server. my server runs apache on it, which does an svn client for programmering. you can have vmware server on it for hosting other servers/os'es on it.

but nothing comes close to the backup solution that whs provides. that simple, that automatic, that fast, that flexible. even my mom can do it..

there are tons of ways to skin a cat, means you can skin a home server in tons of ways (at our club, the home server has a full sql database, and clickonce deployment for the club-apps i've developed) to fit your needs.

but you can't skin a dog into a cat. it's still a dog. so is xp/vista not a home-server. means it doesn't do simple good backups.

if you have an old pc, and one or more (bigger) hdd's around (most have some external disks, 1tb or so), then all you have to pay for is one licence. on newegg i see its 98$. that's worth it for the backup solution you get.

newegg has some of the hp mediasmart servers, one is actually quite cheap: 375$.

but of course, if you don't WANT a good backup/dataredundancy savety solution for up to 10 pc's, then home server is not really that useful for you. but most want that (or don't know yet how much they want it unless they lose suddenly all or some of their data on some hdd crash).

 

If we're going to get into what I need, nope, I don't need that sort of a backup solution - certainly not to the point where I'm willing to pay $100 for it.

But that's neither here nor there, and simply demonstrates that what works best for someone is that which efficiently addresses that person's needs. Live and let live - backup and let backup (or not), I suppose.