Restore a Windows Home Server 2011 - Bare Metal Recovery of the Server Itself

The WeGotServed forum has an interesting post on preparing your Windows Home Server 2011 machine for disaster and using the bare metal recovery capability to restore the server itself. The tutorial explains the problem:
One of the more impressive, and somewhat overlooked, features of WHS2011 backup is the ability to perform a Bare Metal Recovery (BMR) of the server itself. In the "old days" in the event of a server crash, the operating system and appropriate hardware drivers had to be

Restore a Windows Home Server 2011 - Bare Metal Recovery of the Server Itself

Having a Backup Strategy and Why It Is Important

[caption id="attachment_2120" align="alignright" width="150" caption="Drobo"][/caption]

Over at thephoblographer.com, there is a new post describing a backup strategy in some detail. What it amounts to is a multi-layered approach with on site and off site backups providing redundancy that should cover just about any reasonable contingency.

The strategy outlined uses a Drobo (not the NAS version, the Drobo FS) as part of the local component of the backup strategy:
In addition, if you

Having a Backup Strategy and Why It Is Important

QNAP TS-459 Pro II Review on PCWorld

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PCworld has a review of of the QNAP TS-459 Pro II NAS. PCWorld's headline pretty much sums it up: "High-Performance, Four-Bay NAS Drive Has a High Price to Match".

QNAP NAS models are usually high performance NAS devices with very full featured software. Their price point generally runs a bit higher than the Synology models at the same capacity. Sometimes the old saying holds true though -

QNAP TS-459 Pro II Review on PCWorld

Synology Has Released Security Fix for Its DSM 4.0 Software

Synology has released a new version of its DSM 4.0 software that runs on its NAS models. The fixes include security enhancements, so upgrading is probably a good idea.
Synology DiskStation DS1512+ Release Notes
Version: DSM 4.0-2219
(2012/04/17)

Change log:

Updated Photo Station, Audio Station, Surveillance Station, Media Server, iTunes Server and Download Station packages to the latest version if they were installed. Please refer to these packages’ release notes for

Synology Releases Security Fix for Its DSM 4.0 Software

Openmediavault Software NAS - Beta .03 Available

Keeping with our theme of free NAS software solutions being updated today, Openmediavault beta .03, the free NAS software solution built on Linux was just released. Only 64 bit image versions are available for the BETA phase.

You can download the new version at Sourceforge.

Unfortunately, it seems that a change list from the last beta release is still not available except that with version .03 support for internationalization is now available and translators are wanted.

More details

Openmediavault Software NAS - Beta .03 Available

FreeNAS Version 8.2.0-BETA3 Released

Version 8.2 Beta 3 of the free NAS operating software (based on BSD) FreeNAS has been released. Changes since Beta 2 are listed below:

Enhancements
GUI

A major refactoring of the plugin structure has been done.

iSCSI

Target reload is now supported for adding and removing (but not changing) targets on the fly. The Logical Unit Controller is used for this, reload wil not function if the LUC is not enabled.

CIFS

Samba has been upgraded to 3.6.4 to address the security issues

FreeNAS Version 8.2.0-BETA3 Released

FlexRAID Up to Version 2 (and No Longer Free)

I am not sure exactly when this happened, but I just noticed that FlexRAID, the pooling storage solution for Windows (including Windows Home Server). and Linux which allows for multiple hard drives of different sizes to be in a protected array and allows for pooling of the storage space is now up to version 2.0 and is no longer free.

FlexRAID according to its website has the following features:
- The best RAID engines in the industry and the only solution to support RAID infinity
- Data

FlexRAID Up to Version 2 (and No Longer Free)

Thecus N4800 and N2800 Hands on Video

[caption id="attachment_1969" align="alignright" width="150" caption="Thecus N4800 NAS"][/caption]

Thecus has released a video of the features of its new "Vision" series NAS models . The video shows the Thecus N4800 4-drive model and the Thecus N2800 2-drive model in action.

The N4800 has a number of pretty unusual features such as:
HDMI Output
Make your NAS into the ultimate multimedia hub! The N4800’s HDMI output allows you to connect your NAS directly to your TV for device

Thecus N4800 and N2800 Hands on Video

Synology Diskstation DS1512+ NAS Review on Techspot

[caption id="attachment_1942" align="alignright" width="150" caption="Synology DS1512+ NAS"][/caption]

Now that the problems with the flash memory on a few of the DS1512+ NAS models from Synology have apparently been solved, I thought it was time to take a look at some of the early reviews of this fast 5-drive NAS. The DS1512+has five bays standard but is upgrade-able to a total of 15 hard drives with the addition of two of the DX-510 expansion boxes. Note that the Techspot review,

Synology Diskstation DS1512+ Review on Techspot

Updated 2012 List of Top Network Attached Storage 1 or 2-Bay Models

[caption id="attachment_1908" align="alignright" width="150" caption="Synology DS712+ 2 Bay NAS"]
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PCWorld has updated its top NAS list that come with one or two bays. The two highest rated NAS models are both two bay devices from Synology.

Not suprisingly, the top two bay NAS listed is the Synology DiskStation DS712+. The DS712+ is the top of the line two bay Synology NAS with a speedy Intel Atom D425 1.8GHz CPU on board as well as 1GB of DDR3 RAM.

PCWorld summarizes the

Updated 2012 List Top Network Attached Storage 1 and 2 Bay Models

Synology Issues Press Release on Blue Blink of Death Problem Affecting Some 2012 NAS Devices

If you have read my earlier posts about the problems rebooting some recent Synology NAS devices, specifically, the DS1512+, DS1812+ and the DS212j (Asian shipments only), (see posts here and here), you may remember that there were hints that the problem was a hardware issue that Synology was near to tracking down.

Synology today issues a press release indicating that they had tracked the issue down to bad flash memory chips:

Synology® Fixes Vulnerability in a Small Batch of

Synology fixes the blue blink of death issue affecting the DS1512+ and DS1812+ models.

Best Storage Devices - CNET

[caption id="attachment_1699" align="alignright" width="150" caption="Synology DS1511+ NAS"]
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CNET has just updated its list of the best 5 storage devices. While I might argue with some of its recommendations, I can't quibble with their picking the Synology DS1511+. The Synology NAS is the only NAS listed among the five.

CNET states in its summary:
The DiskStation DS1511+ is arguably the best five-bay NAS server on the market for both home and office environments. Novice and

Read more ...

Update on Synology DS1512+ and DS1812+ Problems Reported

Last week I posted about problems some users are having with their new DS1512+ and DS1812+ NAS devices from Synology. See that post here. This will be just a quick update of what I have learned since then. Apparently, the problem occurs after using the NAS for a week or more and rebooting or restarting the device. The NAS does not boot properly, and ends up with a blue blinking light on the front - hence the name "blue blink of death". This page on the Synology forum is the start of 17 pages

Update on Synology DS1512+ and DS1812+ Problems Reported

DS211 Synology

[caption id="attachment_1826" align="alignright" width="140" caption="DS211 Synology"][/caption]

The DS211 Synology NAS device is a two bay NAS that preceeded the DS212 NAS that is the 2012 model. The DS 211 was a very popular NAS because of its performance and capability balance. It is still widely available (see link on right for an Ebay listing), and it is still available both as a brand new device and as a used NAS on Ebay (and elsewhere).

Synology has updated the software for both

DS211 Synology

D-Link DNS-343 4-Bay Network Attached Storage Enclosure User Review

[caption id="attachment_1774" align="alignright" width="150" caption="D-Link DNS-343"][/caption]

I came across a user review of the DNS-343 4 bay D-link NAS. This is a low price four bay nas that is quite hackable as are all the D-link NAS devices due to the fun_plug.

Fun_plug is described as:
Fun_plug is essentially a technique to stepwise turn a NAS with fixed out-of-the-box functionality into an open Linux machine on which you can install additional software packages and, if you want,

D-Link DNS-343 4-Bay Network Attached Storage Enclosure User Review

Synology DS1512+ Problems Reported

[caption id="attachment_1442" align="alignright" width="150" caption="Synology ds1512+ NAS"][/caption]

I am a big fan of the Synology NAS's - for a long time a Synology NAS has been my number 1 recommendation for a home or small business NAS device. The combination of price, performance and features makes them pretty much ideal if you are willing to pay the premium for a pre-built NAS. I've especially liked the DS1010+ and its successors because of the size and expandability plus the

Synology DS1512+ Problems Reported

Pogoplug Series 4 Review Up on theverge.com

Over at theverge.com, there is a new review of the Pogoplug Series 4. Pogoplug offers 5 GB of free cloud storage, software to create your own storage that is available anywhere (Pogoplug PC), and hardware to turn any external hard drive into a NAS. Theverge.com finds the Pogoplug version 4 easy to setup:
I'm used to network devices being quite a pain to set up — getting a NAS up and running is not something I'd recommend to most people — but I was pleasantly surprised to find that it's

Pogoplug Series 4 Review

4 TB Hard Drive for a NAS

[caption id="attachment_1728" align="alignright" width="150" caption="Seagate 4 TB Hard Drive"][/caption]

With the coming of 4 terabyte hard drives, it was only a matter of time before they were certified by NAS manufacturers, such as Synology, for use in their NAS devices. As of this writing the 4 TB Seagate Hard Drive (ST4000DX000) is listed on the Synology Hard Drive Compatibility list for just about all the modern Synology NAS boxes.

The only problem is that the Seagate 4 TB drive,

Read more ...