Filed under: Hardware, Peripherals, iTunes
HP's MediaSmart works with Time Machine, iTunes
Earlier this week, HP announced the availability of two new home servers, the MediaSmart ex485 and ex487. It's true that both are based on Microsoft's Windows Home Server platform, but the interesting thing for Mac users is that they're recognized by Time Machine as backup targets, and they can act as an iTunes server. At $599US for the ex485 (750GB of storage) or $749US for the ex487 (1.5TB), that's not a bad deal.Other specs include a 2GHz Celeron CPU, 2GB of DDR2 RAM, gigabit Ethernet, four USB 2.0 ports, one eSATA jack and four internal HDD bays. Note that total storage on these units can be scaled up to 9TB.
HP will begin taking pre-orders in January for shipment in February.
For now, I've got a G4 iMac in my basement acting as a home media server, as it were, to the Apple TV. Two external drives are attached -- one for Time Machine and one for a SuperDuper! clone, scheduled to update weekly.
A third, pocket-sized drive is updated via SuperDuper! weekly and lives off-site (read: my wife's desk in her classroom, don't tell!). Do you have a home-spun backup and streaming solution?
[Via Engadget]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
John said 2:13PM on 12-29-2008
Unfortunately these home servers still require a PC with Microsoft Windows installed to manage them, if you have an household with all-macs you need to buy an additional Windows license and install it using bootcamp or a virtual machine.
Personally I would much prefer a similar concept for home storage running a more UNIX-like operating system.
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Hobbes said 3:00PM on 12-29-2008
I use unRAID as my Media Server. It can be expanded to up 16 drives and it's Linux based. Works well with all my Macs, though support for AFP and NFS is still not there. It works in a similar fashion to the Drobo product, where I can mix different drive types (IDE and SATA) and also different sizes. I'm very happy with it and hopefully they will add stronger support for NFS and eventually AFP to make it work with Time Machine (though I honestly don't like Time Machine and use Chrono Sync for my backup needs).
If interested check their web site at http://www.lime-technology.com. They offer a free product that supports 3 drives and then two version of paid products, one for up to 6 drives and the Pro version for up to 16 drives.
Adam said 2:30PM on 12-29-2008
Mac Mini + Drobo + screenshare meets all of my needs.
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LD said 3:09PM on 12-29-2008
Mine is identical :)
Brennan said 2:37PM on 12-29-2008
John,
While you can manage the Windows Home Server via a console application on a Windows based PC, you can still manage them via the Microsoft Remote Desktop Client. I have one of the current MediaSmart servers and I routinely use RDC to maintain it.
I'm hoping they add the Time Machine capability to existing models.
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timeshifter said 4:26PM on 12-30-2008
http://www.hp.com/united-states/campaigns/mediasmart-server/#/HomeServerComparison/
Yes! According to that link they are going to add Time Machine capability for existing users (like me). I currently have both the HP server and a Time Capsule and have been having trouble deciding which one to get rid of.
Reg said 5:19PM on 12-29-2008
iMac + Drobo + Apple TV = All I need
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Elie said 2:53PM on 12-29-2008
As far as streaming goes, I have a terabyte of storage plugged into my time capsules USB port (I put a USB hub in the port) and I have the time capsule configured to share the drives over the internet so I can use them to stream to my apple tv, plus I can access the media wherever I go as long as I have an internet connection. The only problem is that I have time warner in NYC and their upload speed sucks...
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Axriel said 9:20PM on 12-29-2008
I currently have a 1tb external that I have partitioned, half for TM backups, and the other have for CCC backups of my media. I have an external 500gb drive i use to store media on, and it streams just fine from my iMac to the Apple TV. My internal harddrive has no media on it at all.
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Dr. Doom said 3:09PM on 12-29-2008
i use a g4 cube (tiger server) with 2 500gb firewire harddrives through an airport extreme "n" 5ghz. The cube also broadcasts a "b" network for everything else, plus i have a 1tb drive on the AEBS for time machine.
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The Chad said 3:38PM on 12-29-2008
FreeNAS, with a 1 TB drive. I'll be testing Time Machine with it as soon as I get it back up and running.
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ericdano said 3:44PM on 12-29-2008
ReadyNAS by Infrant/Netgear. The latest firmware makes using it with Time Machine simple and painless. It is RAID5, and expandable. It is small, uses hardly any energy, and runs Linux.
I've been using one for 2 years now. It is rock solid as a place to store my iTunes, movies, backups, etc.
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Greg said 4:49PM on 12-29-2008
I've had a ReadyNAS NV+ for about 18 months. It's been nothing but trouble. In the 1.5 years I've had it, I've had three drive failures and one (apparent) power supply failure. Of those four fail conditions, only one (drive failure) went as expected. The rest were "huh - my raid's not working. I wonder what's going on." I'm a sysadmin, so I eventually figured it out, but the ReadyNAS was NO added value.
To Summarize - "Avoid ReadyNAS."
Shunnabunich said 4:25PM on 12-29-2008
Er...isn't the trash icon in the Dock a much easier and cheaper way of causing your files to go up in smoke?
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Elie said 4:41PM on 12-29-2008
Not sure what you mean by that...
Shunnabunich said 4:45PM on 12-29-2008
Was in reference to the prospect of using Windows, of all things, to "safeguard" one's files. Just me being snarky, don't mind me. :)
Simon Arch said 5:29PM on 12-29-2008
I'm sure you mean that because Windows is more prone to viruses its users' data are less secure, but the only time I've seen an actual virus in action was on a PC I built myself. Never in something like thirty years of being a computer user have I actually SEEN a Windows virus in action.
Besides, most viruses these days exist to try and turn users' machines into botnet zombies. The days of viruses wiping hard drives are gone.
moo083 said 4:57PM on 12-29-2008
I use my old Powerbook G4/1Ghz Titanium with OS X Server for printer/scanner sharing/media sharing. Its got a 500 GB drive attached, and this is probably going to be upgraded soon. My Airport Base Station is my backup location with a attached 750 gb drive, just because I never got it working in OS X Server and I've been too lazy to figure out why since my current setup works fine. Now I only wish Time Machine would back up small files over the internet. So if I'm on a trip, my updated word doc or 1 MB photo will be backed up, but that new version of Photoshop will wait until I get home.
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brian said 5:00PM on 12-29-2008
I think the cheapest way to get lots of expandable, Mac-friendly networked storage is to buy the cheapest external hard drive(s) you can find in whatever size you want (newegg.com has 750 GB FireWire Seagates for $123; I like Seagate because of their five-year warranty) and hook them into a used Mac mini (craigslist has plenty of G4 Mac minis for ~$300).
This arrangement is good for many reasons:
- a single G4 is plenty of CPU for just sharing files and 256 MB is enough RAM (though you'll need 512 if you want to run 10.5)
- FireWire is better than USB for various reasons
- future-proof: you can add or swap drives as new drives get bigger and cheaper
- a Mini draws little power
- runs fine "headless" (no monitor, keyboard, or mouse)
- you can also share to Windows clients
I love Minis. I've had a G4 Mini acting as a server 24/7/365 since March 2005. For the price of a single Time Capsule, you can get more storage, more flexibility, and backup capabilities. For easy backup, get two FireWire drives, install 10.5 onto one of them, boot to that drive, and set Time Machine to back up to the other.
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my89z24 said 5:00PM on 12-29-2008
So anyone know how they are convincing Time Machine it is a supported drive? I have AFP setup on my Linux machine but Time Machine doesn't think it is supported, despite any tricks I've tried so far.
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