RESTORING A CRASHED COMPUTER WITH WINDOWS HOME SERVER

Windows Home Server deserves more recognition. It had a nasty bug that took too long to cure but that's over now and it's back to being the helpful tool that I described a year ago. It offers safe storage of your files and photos,  easy ways to share your photos and other files, and remote access to your computers from anywhere. The best devices - like the HP MediaSmart EX475 - are attractive and easy to set up.

One of the best tricks for Windows Home Server is the way it backs up computers on your home or small business network. Every night, WHS does a backup of each computer in a technically marvelous way that uses a very small amount of storage space. By default, it keeps 3 months of monthly backups, 3 weeks of weekly and 3 days of daily. That gives you a lot of power to recover a file that is accidentally deleted.

The real magic happens if a hard drive fails on one of the computers backed up by the Windows Home Server. This article explains how a marriage was saved by WHS when the blogger's wife had a laptop failure. Here's what he describes:

• A CD is provided with WHS (or downloaded from Microsoft) that can be used to start the computer after the bad hard drive is replaced with a brand new one.
• The software on the CD starts the networking on the failed computer and locates the Windows Home Server.
• The WHS identifies which computer is connecting (probably by the MAC address) and offers to restore the computer.
• The backup image is able to be copied to the computer very quickly, and the computer is immediately usable when the restore is finished - it is literally identical to its state at the time of the backup.

According to the blogger, his wife's laptop was operational 11 minutes after he gave the command to perform the restore.

That's just cool stuff. Vista Business has a similar process called "Complete PC Backup & Restore" but it can't be automated - almost no one knows it's there. Windows Home Server doesn't ask any questions or require any knowledge - it just does the right thing.

You might want a server for your home. We might talk about it for your small offices. There's some good technology here.

Labels: backup, hardware, Home_Server, remote

posted by bruceb at 9/08/2008 12:05:00 AM | permalink

GLITCHES & ANNOYANCES

Tough week! Here are the kind of things that fill my days. And bear in mind, these are all stories about software and services that I love dearly - this is the good stuff, these are what I recommend because they're better than the rest!

Client with hosted Exchange mailbox at 1and1.com. Mailbox doesn't connect this morning, so no incoming or outgoing mail. Try it from a different computer, try Outlook Web Access - nothing works. Call tech support in India and get through without delay. "Very sorry! That server is down. The experts are working on it." Any idea when it will come back? "No, I'm sorry. But the experts are working on it." It's been down a day and a half now, still no word.

Putting Jungle Disk on a Windows Home Server for online backups. The process to sign up for Amazon's online storage system is not completely straightforward but I've done it before, I know about the "Access Key ID" and the "Secret Access Key," so I'm in business in short order, except the Jungle Disk software delivers an error message, error 403, "NotSignedUp." There are a few dozen lines of gibberish in the detailed error message but it's clear that Amazon doesn't think the service is set up correctly yet. Log in to the Amazon Web Services portal and there's a message about problems with payment for the account - payment that was set up on an Amazon credit card. Hmm. Spent half an hour wrestling with payment options, putting in one good credit card after another and getting more error messages about payment problems, and just about gave up - I was actually drafting the note to the client about the failure when Amazon showed the service was working just fine, thanks, even though I hadn't actually changed anything for a while. Jungle Disk started doing a backup. What was that about?

Setting up Live Mesh to transfer large files between people working in several locations. Installed it on the client's desktop and laptop, created a folder, it started syncing all over the place, everything was automatic and swell, great stuff! Set up Windows Live IDs for three employees, shared a Live Mesh folder with employee number 1, went to that employee's computer and clicked on the invitation to Live Mesh that appeared promptly in the mailbox. Web site pops up inviting me to "Connect," then "Sign In," then displays a message that Live Mesh is only available in the US and they're happy to put me on a waiting list when it's offered in my country. I looked around. It looked a lot like the US where I was standing. I poked around in the Live Mesh forums and found a suggestion that the Windows Live ID account information needed to be updated with the correct country information so I went over there and found it was completely hosed - no matter how many times I picked "United States" and clicked Apply, the front page would stubbornly complain that no country had been chosen. I could change it to the Virgin Islands - that worked fine! It was only the US that it ignored. I dropped it, wrote off the hour that had been spent fussing with it, went back a couple of hours later, and everything worked right away, Live Mesh installed immediately, no issues at all.

Client with a SonicWall firewall/router and a Small Business Server that hadn't been set up to use Remote Web Workplace or the other features that make SBS so lovable. There were a few odd networking settings on the SonicWall but nothing alarming. I set up port forwarding on the ports that make SBS do its tricks (80, 443, 4125) and bang! the network went down, all Internet traffic stopped, the workstations couldn't connect to the server, couldn't browse or ping anywhere. Spent an hour and a half backing out of anything that I might conceivably have touched, nearly gave a credit card number to SonicWall tech support, when it came back up. Two days later I set up port forwarding in what I swear was exactly the same way and it works like a charm. I still don't have any idea what that was about, but it scared the hell out of me.

Tried to buy licenses online for StorageCraft's remarkable backup program, ShadowProtect. Everything went perfectly, right up until the final "Finish" button when I was told that the billing address for the credit card didn't match the information on file at the bank. Just for fun, I tried three different credit cards at two different addresses - all of them plausible choices, not trying to pull anything. Same message each time. (Just for fun, I logged in to my bank's web site and confirmed that there were six or eight "pending" charges showing on the various cards. They went away eventually.) Couple of days later, went back and the transaction went through immediately. (And this story doesn't really count, because after I dropped them a note that night, the company immediately put me in touch with a reseller who would have sold me the licenses, then had one of the company's business manager follow up with a phone call to make sure the problem was resolved. Nice folks, great software, great support.)

Set up Netgear Rangemax USB wireless adapters on three workstations. Windows XP doesn't have any builtin drivers so the CD is required, and the CD doesn't have the drivers stored separately - the Netgear software has to be installed, which of course demands to take over control of the wireless settings from the perfectly adequate Windows XP wireless controls. The next morning, no one can get online, all the networking is mucked up, I have to travel onsite and get the stupid Netgear software to stop popping up with its incomprehensible dials and control panels and graphs. I couldn't find any way to get the Netgear software to hand control back to Windows - that required removing and reinstalling the software to get the startup dialog to appear again so I could check the box telling the Netgear software to get out of the way. Once I did that, the connections were immediately rock solid.

And so it goes. This is the good guys, the cream of the crop - I've also had battles with spyware and rootkits and the rest. Some weeks are more tiring than others. Back to the news soon, I promise!

Labels: backup, computers, file_sharing, hardware, Home_Server, mail, network, SBS, software, web_services

posted by bruceb at 8/21/2008 01:15:00 AM | permalink

JUNGLE DISK ONLINE BACKUP

Take a look at Jungle Disk, a service for online backups with a good reputation. I'm testing it now and finding a lot of things to like.

The idea is simple - back up folders to a secure place online at regular intervals, and retrieve them any time but especially in the event of a computer crash.

Jungle Disk's backup software is extremely simple to use - pick the interval for backups and put checkmarks by the folders to be backed up. The software can be installed on Windows servers and desktops as well as supporting Linux and Macs.

After a disaster, you'd install the Jungle Disk software on the new computer, then run Restore. By default, Jungle Disk keeps multiple versions of files, so you can also use it to recover earlier versions of individual documents.

The interesting thing about Jungle Disk is that it has almost no investment in this process at all. All of the hard work is done by Amazon. Yup, Amazon.

You see, Amazon has built a simply unbelievable global array of servers, capable of providing nearly unlimited amounts of storage. A tiny fraction of that is used for Amazon's online stores.

Amazon is providing access to that online storage to anyone, at trivially cheap prices. When you install Jungle Disk, the first thing you'll do is set up your personal account with Amazon for storage space in Amazon's S3 service. The cost is fifteen cents per month per gigabyte, plus trivial charges for transferring files to and from the service, billed through your Amazon account. You can store as much or as little as you like - there is a size limit of 5Gb for an individual file but there are otherwise no limits whatsoever.

The Amazon storage space cannot be accessed directly, however. Developers are given the technical tools to build whatever they like for people to use with the service. Jungle Disk built a backup program. There are lots of other backup programs as well as web hosting companies, photo sharing services and many more services built around the Amazon S3 online storage.

The Jungle Disk software costs twenty bucks for a lifetime license. If the company went out of business, chances are somebody else would write software to recover data stored in Jungle Disk's proprietary format. But Jungle Disk was immediately profitable because it just wrote some simple software - it did not try to build a global network of secure servers to go with it.

Jungle Disk is secure and simple. The first backup is slow - it's going through your Internet connection, after all. It might take days for the first backup to complete. After that, only changed files are sent. You wouldn't back up your entire hard drive to Jungle Disk - it can't be used for a bare metal restore.

Personally, for the reasons I wrote up recently, I would use it in addition to another backup method.

I'm going to start using it to store another backup of my files, my Quickbooks & Quicken data, and my family photos. That's about 35Gb of data, so that should be about five bucks a month. Nice! If I have trouble (like I did last year when I had a poor experience with another online backup service), I'll let you know.

Labels: backup, business, Internet, web_services

posted by bruceb at 8/13/2008 12:05:00 AM | permalink

STEP 1 - BACKUP. STEP 2 - BACKUP AGAIN.

Let me tell you a scary story.

When we plan our backups, the idea is to have a duplicate copy of our data on something separate from where it is normally stored and used. In theory, it is unlikely that both sources will fail simultaneously.

Even very small businesses would be devastated by a loss of data or an extended network outage. On Monday I had a simultaneous failure of a server and the primary backup device. We were dealing with the potential loss of a lot of data and a long outage indeed.

The firm will live on because there was a secondary backup device.

The moral of the story is: if your data is business critical, pay attention to your backups and use more than one device to hold them.

Fortunately the call this Monday morning does not happen frequently. The server running Small Business Server 2003 in a small law office was not responding.

• The firm's Internet connection runs through a second network card in the server, so no one had Internet access. (That used to be the preferred way to set up Small Business Server. The proliferation of inexpensive firewall devices has changed that and SBS 2008 will not support that setup; instead it will assume that small businesses have a SonicWall or Snapgear firewall/router or something like it.)
• Firm documents were completely inaccessible. Individual My Documents folders could be opened (they're stored on the server but a local copy is stored on the individual workstations using "Offline Files") but they're rarely used - everything important is in the shared "Company" folder.
• Outlook is running in cached mode so all copies could be opened, but of course no mail could be sent or received.
• Specialized programs run from the server were unavailable - Abacus, Timeslips.

A very bad thing.

The server is aging and a little underpowered, running on a single IDE hard drive. The symptoms made me think that the hard drive had failed. I got a replacement and stood ready to restore the server from the backup image.

I could not open the file folder where the backups were stored.

The primary backup device was a Buffalo Terastation Pro II, less than a year old. I've set up several of them, I use one myself - 1Gb network attached storage, with four 250Gb hard drives running in a RAID5 array, meaning if any one of the hard drives fails, the box continues working with no interruption other than a beep to remind you to change the bad drive.

I hooked up my notebook, set the IP address within the range being used by the Terastation - and I couldn't open the file folder on the Terastation.

I opened Internet Explorer and got a login screen to the Terastation's web interface but it would not finish loading the main screen so I could use any of the Terastation's built-in tools.

The next two hours were spent trying to talk to the Terastation - confirming IP addresses, checking firewall settings, hooking the Terastation up to my office network in case it wanted a working DHCP or WINS server, trying to do soft resets, pulling various combinations of the hard drives, and a lot of other things. At the end of that time it threw up a "Kernel error" message on its little LCD screen and nothing I did gave me any hope that it would recover. Sure, I'll call Buffalo for warranty support tomorrow but that wasn't going to help a law office that was completely down.

We had also been doing backups to external hard drives on Thursday night, and swapping between two external USB hard drives every Friday.

I was able to use the external hard drive to restore the server to life as of Thursday night at midnight. Documents created or edited on Friday are lost but Outlook is completely up to date - all changes on Friday were synced from the offline copies, and Exchange Defender delivered all mail that arrived while the server was down.

Do you appreciate why I was sweating? If we hadn't had that second backup device, we'd have been left staring at each other with nothing to do but sharpen knives - seppuku in my case, murder in my client's case.

I've got some Small Business Server clients that are not currently using two different backup devices. I'll be contacting them to urge them to buy more external hard drives or an NAS or whatever will provide extra redundancy.

If you've got a single external hard drive for your computer, get another one and rotate them.

If you're backing up onto CDs, buy an external hard drive and start using it for backups - and occasionally keep backing up onto the CDs!

Look into online backups, but also use a local device.

Backup backup backup! I hate losing data!

My guess is that the hard drives in the Terastation are just fine and the failure is deeper in the hardware. (The Terastation was working at least until Friday night. There was no indication of a power surge or something else that took out both the server and the Terastation. This is a very weird coincidence.) A Google search turns up lots of complaints about the Terastation. I take that with a grain of salt because every device has generated a score of complaints that could be turned up in a Google search.

There is a part of this story that is full of magic and light and goodness. The software used by this client is StorageCraft ShadowProtect, and it is just swell. I'll tell you about it someday.

Labels: backup, computers, hardware, network, SBS

posted by bruceb at 8/05/2008 01:40:00 AM | permalink

WHAT I USE

On the assumption that my choices are endlessly fascinating to an ever-growing number of people - really, really bored people - I've added a page with details about the hardware and software that I use here at the high-tech headquarters of bruceb consulting. I'll try to keep it up to date. Heck, my computers are happy - you could do worse than follow my example in precise detail.

Click here for all the prurient details!

Labels: audio, backup, broadband, bruceb, computers, file_sharing, hardware, mobile, phone, photos, printers, SBS, security, software, video, web_services

posted by bruceb at 7/30/2008 01:02:00 AM | permalink

PRIMER ON NETWORK ATTACHED STORAGE

Network Attached Storage devices ("NAS") are starting to appear regularly at small businesses. An NAS device is a small box with one or more hard drives and a simple operating system that can add huge amounts of storage space on a network just by plugging them in. They're frequently designed with multiple hard drives that can use RAID drive management to hold data very safely, but without the expense or maintenance required for a Windows-based server.

This article is a useful primer on network attached storage. Every computer user should start to become familiar with this technology!

"As the name indicates, NAS devices connect directly to a computer network, rather than to an individual PC. Therefore, the files they contain can be made available to anyone on the network that needs them. Unlike a PC, NAS devices don?t use monitors or keyboards. Instead, you configure a NAS device using a Web browser such as Internet Explorer. From there you can do things like set up folders for employees to store files in, as well as create user names and passwords to control who is allowed to have access to those files.

"NAS devices can be an option for any size business because they come in a variety of sizes, prices and storage capacities. Depending on the features and amount of storage provided, the cost of a NAS device can be quite inexpensive--as little as $200--or as much as several thousand dollars. Although some NAS devices can be physically large, models designed for small businesses can be easily tucked away almost anywhere. Most are smaller than an average PC and many take up barely more space than a hardcover novel."

More expensive NAS devices will have four or more hard drives in a RAID 5 array, which allows the device to be completely functional and keep the data safe even if an individual hard drive fails. Some of them integrate with Active Directory running in a Windows domain (including a domain run by Small Business Server) so that the NAS device knows the names of users and can enforce different levels of access to shared folders.

They have quirks, of course. I've gotten several Buffalo Terastation Pro II devices to store backup archives for my SBS clients; on Sunday all of them refused to allow the backup program to store files, with an "access denied" message. Headscratching, memories of the setup process - ah! This weekend was the original date for Daylight Savings Time to go into effect; the Terastations mistakenly set their clocks forward one hour. When the time on the Terastations doesn't match the rest of the network, the Terastations won't recognize the credentials of domain users. Why? I've stopped asking that question. None of the quirks we face with our computers make any sense. When I set the Terastations' time correctly, everything went back to normal.

Labels: backup, computers, domains, hardware, network, SBS

posted by bruceb at 4/09/2008 11:38:00 AM | permalink

WINDOWS HOME SERVER DATA CORRUPTION

The products developed using Microsoft's Windows Home Server software do a number of extremely useful things - backups, remote access, file and photo sharing, and file storage - using a very smart mixture of new and old technology.  Here are some notes about Windows Home Server from last year.

Unfortunately, a bug has been identified the causes data on the server to be corrupted in rare circumstances.  It affects a very small number of people and only occurs under very specific conditions, and it has been very difficult for the Windows Home Server team to track down.  But the effect is potentially devastating - especially to WHS' reputation - because a server that cannot be trusted to save files is useless. Here's an FAQ about the bug, and here's Microsoft's Knowledge Base article about it.

More details are emerging about the data corruption bug.  Apparently the fix will require a significant retooling of one of Home Server's core components, so the team predicts that the fix will not be available until June.  AnandTech just wrote a detailed explanation based on the available information and some informed guesswork, sympathizing with the difficult problem faced by the team but also noting the sad reality of the effect on WHS' reputation:

"The media will eat this up (and we?re just as guilty) and this will tarnish the product?s name for the rest of its life; customers don?t need to understand an issue to understand that a product is imperfect and that they should stay away from it. Yet data corruption is a serious issue that isn?t acceptable and can?t be ignored.

"Perhaps the worst bit however is that as an OEM-only product, Microsoft is not exerting any real control over what the OEMs do about the issue until the corruption problem is fixed. As of right now retailers are still selling OEM servers with 2+ drives (making them susceptible to the bug) and computer enthusiast retailers are still selling the OS itself, all with no notice about this bug. WHS is a good product where plenty of functionality can still be used even with the presence of the bug (e.g. backups) but we have serious problems with it still being offered for sale given these problems. WHS is already heavily tarnished due to this bug, there?s no (okay, some) shame in cutting one's losses and halting all sales of the OS until the bug is fixed, even if it won?t affect most users.

"Ultimately it?s a damn shame to see something like this happen, no one is going to be a winner. Windows Home Server will be fixed, but only after a lot of grief for the developers and a lot of concern for server owners. Thankfully current server owners can take steps to prevent the corruption issue entirely, but at a cost of functionality, and we don?t doubt some people will still feel insecure about their data even after taking those steps. For the time being WHS is dead in the water. It?s a promising product that is not suitable for further sale given the potential severity of the bug. It also undermines a great deal of confidence in Microsoft that will take some time to recover."

Do not buy a Windows Home Server device until this is resolved. When it's resolved, go back to Windows Home Server with enthusiasm; this should not detract from its features or diminish its potential.

If you own a Windows Home Server device:

1. This does not affect backups.
2. This does not affect remote access or file/photo sharing.
3. This does not affect single-drive devices.
4. This does not affect word processing files stored on the server.

If, however, you are streaming media from the server or routinely moving very large files on and off it while other file operations are in progress, you should look very closely at the support bulletins about this problem.

Labels: backup, computers, hardware, Home_Server, Microsoft, network, remote

posted by bruceb at 3/17/2008 12:28:00 AM | permalink

HP MEDIASMART SERVER

I've been involved in the setup of two HP MediaSmart EX475 Windows Home Servers recently. The Windows Home Server software is simply elegant, and HP has enhanced it to make setup go remarkably smoothly.

At a couple of points I marveled at the technology that made some steps seem easy during setup. In a few clicks, I had a web site name assigned to a server and registered with a dynamic DNS service so it will turn up online regardless of what kind of broadband service is available. It's free, included in the price of the server, and could not have been simpler. People will be dazzled when they explore the options for sharing files and photos from these servers!

There are steps where you might want some handholding. I did a few mildly tricky things in the process of configuring computers for backup and remote access. User login names and passwords have to be assigned consistently on each computer; help is offered but that will be a bit daunting for some people. The server does a valiant job trying to configure the router so it can be reached online but that will frequently require manual work to forward ports on the router.

The HP MediaSmart server immediately goes to work doing full backups of each computer in the network, every day. If a hard drive dies, you can install a new hard drive and boot the computer from a provided CD; the computer will connect to the server and immediately restore the computer to its last-backed-up state. It's called a "bare metal restore" and by all accounts WHS does it brilliantly.

If computers in the network are running Windows XP Professional or Windows Vista Business, the web access to the server sets up Remote Desktop connections to those computers with a single click.

Those features alone are almost worth the price of the server, but of course it also excels at storing shared files and displaying photos on a pretty web page for the grandparents and a lot of other tricks. Here's where I hyped Windows Home Server a few months ago. Maybe you should go read the book. Why haven't you bought one yet?

Labels: backup, Home_Server, photos

posted by bruceb at 1/24/2008 12:38:00 AM | permalink

WINDOWS LIVE ONECARE 2.0

At some point next week, computers running Windows Live OneCare will automatically be upgraded to OneCare 2.0. Apparently the intent is to make the update automatic and invisible; it's free to existing subscribers.

New features are integrated into the familiar OneCare layout, so little will change for many of you. The most significant new feature permits creation of a "circle" of computers running OneCare on the same home or office network, allowing some OneCare features to be centralized. A single computer can monitor the health of all the computers in the circle, and backups can be centrally configured and monitored. OneCare also takes over printer sharing, making sure any computer in the circle can print to any printer.

"StartupCleaner" is a nicely designed display of the computer's startup programs and processes. OneCare will watch the computer's operation for a week or so, then begin to offer advice on which startup programs might not be necessary. That's a big part of the housekeeping I do regularly for friends and clients, and I'm glad to have some help with it.

OneCare will offer to check the security on your wireless network, and Microsoft is planning to integrate an online backup service for photos (at extra cost).

It's hard to predict whether the rollout of the new version will go smoothly. OneCare has gotten periodic minor updates in the last year without causing too much fuss. Cross your fingers and be prepared to restart your computer at some point during the next week or two!

Labels: backup, network, OneCare, security

posted by bruceb at 11/15/2007 12:05:00 AM | permalink

WINDOWS HOME SERVER DEBUTS

Microsoft's Windows Home Server just arrived on the market - and it's what you want for Xmas.

I'll give you a short overview and some links for you to click on, but let's do some superlatives first. Windows Home Server is the coolest technology to arrive in years! It's innovative, it's beautifully designed, it does a lot of exceptionally useful things in elegant ways, and it's open for third parties to extend it in the future. This is seriously good stuff.

Let's get oriented. Microsoft has created software named "Windows Home Server," but you won't buy the software separately. You'll buy a device made by HP or Iomega or Intel or a host of others that runs the Windows Home Server software.

Look at that image above and shrink it in your mind. The device you pull out of the box will look more like an oversized toaster than a computer. The HP MediaSmart in the picture is less than ten inches tall.

And that's all there is. No keyboard. No mouse. No monitor. You'll attach it to your router with a network cable and plug it into electricity. You're done setting up the hardware!

You'll install some software on your computer that will take care of the actual setup. In a series of easy-to-understand screens, you'll make a few choices that get the Windows Home Server started. Sooner than you realize, it will be doing its tricks.

What does it do? A lot, more than I can convey in a few words. The categories are backup, file storage, computer monitoring, and remote access.

BACKUP

Every computer on the network is backed up automatically, every night.

The backups can be used to restore individual files or to restore an entire computer after a hard drive fails. There's technical magic to make the backups take an amazingly small amount of storage space, and there's design magic to make this easy to use.

FILE STORAGE

Your computers will have easy access to folders on the Windows Home Server for documents, photos and video. You'll be able to get to those folders as easily as you get to your My Documents folder now - no complicated trips through Network Neighborhood.

Most Windows Home Server devices will have two or more hard drives. You won't know anything about that - you'll just see a single place to store things without having to look for an F: or a G: drive. Windows Home Server will be using technical magic to store duplicate copies of your stuff - if a hard drive fails on the Windows Home Server, your files will still be there.

If you plug in more drives (internally or by plugging in external USB drives), Windows Home Server will absorb them and you'll have more storage space. If you unplug them, you'll have less storage space. Your files won't change either way.

COMPUTER MONITORING

Windows Home Server will be checking all the computers in the house to see if they have security issues, if their hard drives are running out of space, if there are any backup problems. You can have a single icon by the clock on your computer to give you feedback - if it's green, all the computers are in good shape; if it's yellow or red, something needs attention. If your computers are running Windows Live OneCare, it will be integrated soon so the single icon will alert you to any computer in the house that is dealing with viruses or spyware or needs updates installed.

REMOTE ACCESS

You'll be able to access your Windows Home Server from anywhere, using a web browser and a name that you choose during setup (e.g., "http://bruceb.HomeServer.com/Home"). You'll be able to download files, display photos, and do searches. You'll also be able to send links to other people to photo galleries and folders on the Windows Home Server - no need to upload photos to an online service. You might need help configuring the router, but other parts of remote access are as easy to set up and use as everything else.

If you have a computer running Windows XP Pro or Vista Business, you'll also be able to access it remotely through the Windows Home Server web page, controlling it with Remote Desktop from anywhere.

It's worth reiterating that the design for all these controls is gorgeous and intuitive. Here's the remote access portal, for example:



Go read about Windows Home Server!

Start with Microsoft's web site for Windows Home Server - click the links, read the hype, watch the cheesy demo.

Go through Paul Thurrott's review, or Gizmodo's review and screen shots.

HP worked hard to add cool features to the HP MediaSmart Server, which has a much better demo. HP's Reviewer's Guide is one of the best introductions to Windows Home Server features, as well as highlighting the work done by HP to enhance its photo sharing and other features. Here are screen shots of some HP features. Amazon is taking pre-orders for the HP MediaSmart servers, which will be shipping within a week or two.

There's a flood of hardware and software heading for the market built around Windows Home Server. (Here's a blog that's keeping track of it all.) But avert your eyes - most of you will never add anything to what comes out of the box, and I don't want you to get the impression this is complicated.

Despite the name, I fully expect this to be an essential tool for small businesses. It even has the community of Small Business Server consultants buzzing - although it duplicates some of the functions of SBS, Windows Home Server also offers such dazzling technology for file storage and workstation backups that it may have a role in networks based on SBS.

You trust me, right? Trust me. This is fun, it does things with technology that you couldn't do before, and you'll be able to make people say, "Ooohhhhh." You want one of these!

Labels: backup, computers, hardware, Home_Server, Microsoft, network, photos, remote

posted by bruceb at 11/08/2007 12:05:00 AM | permalink

REDUNDANCY IS OUR FRIEND, AND SO IS REDUNDANCY
Very small businesses frequently depend on computer systems with several potential failure points, where a single failure can cause the network to go down for an uncomfortable length of time.

• Many small businesses - many of my clients - depend on a single server to hold files and run the company e-mail system. There are backups available if the server goes down, but those backups have to be restored onto working hardware - and it's not possible to run down to Office Depot and buy a replacement server. Ordering a server, waiting for it to be delivered, and doing the work involved in disaster recovery is time consuming, and few businesses can withstand a week or two without computers and e-mail.
• Almost everyone relies on a single broadband connection, a DSL line or cable broadband connection. If that line goes down, e-mail goes dead - and for many businesses, that's the same as shutting the doors. There's almost never an affordable alternative - few businesses are in a location where both cable and DSL connections are available, T-1 lines are expensive, and it takes expensive equipment to handle two Internet connections and switch from one to the other in the event of an outage. (Having two DSL lines kind of misses the point - if one is down, the other one almost certainly also would be.)

There was a dramatic example in the news of what happens when a network is not redundant. The outage at LAX that left 17,000 international passengers stranded on airplanes for hours was caused by a single malfunctioning network card on a single desktop computer. Here's the LA Times article that brought this to light. Isn't that remarkable?

As the cost of a potential outage grows, even a small business will have to start investing in redundant systems. It goes along with our dependence on these interesting machines.

Labels: backup, broadband, hardware, network

posted by bruceb at 8/16/2007 12:05:00 AM | permalink

ONLINE FILE HOSTING & SHARING
Slowly but surely the world is migrating away from software running on your computer to services hosted online. The only divisions at Microsoft that are profitable rely on sales of software - Windows, Office, and Windows Server - but even Microsoft has begun to acknowledge that the future belongs to web-based services. Here's an article about some recent vague announcements about "cloud computing" that will power future Microsoft services, according to CEO Steve Ballmer.

There are two problems commonly faced by small businesses today: moving large files from place to place, and making files accessible online for collaboration. E-mail is inefficient for large files; many of the online portals for large companies are only practical with expensive hardware and full-time tech support staff.

There is no shortage of companies to fill these needs! Here's a list of eighty web-based companies offering online backup services, sending services for large files, and online storage and file sharing. Many are free or have basic free services; prices are typically low on the rest. I haven't sampled more than a handful but so far I haven't found services that have the right combination of features, ease of use, security, and longevity. Things to consider:

• Does it work? When I tried Mozy's online backup, it did not work. How much time do we have for testing?
• Is it so easy that busy people can figure it out intuitively? Services for sending large files typically put a copy of your file online, then send a link by e-mail for a specific recipient to download the file. Will the recipient know what to do when that message arrives, in an age where we trust nothing that arrives by e-mail? There are a lot of businesspeople and lawyers whose lives revolve around their e-mail but have only a rudimentary knowledge of what to do with anything more complicated than a file attachment.
• How can security be arranged for the online file so only approved people can get to the file? Services that facilitate setting up little areas with password-protected access quickly become too complicated for small businesses without an onsite tech person.
• And last, an intangible but important consideration: how long will the online service be in business? Using any of these services regularly requires an investment of time and emotion to learn them and trust them. When one of them disappears, it feels like a betrayal.

All of the eighty services in that article are worth looking into, but I haven't found any that I'm actively recommending yet. My guess is that a few of them will rise to the top in the next few years.

Labels: backup, file_sharing, mail, network, remote, web_services

posted by bruceb at 7/31/2007 12:30:00 AM | permalink

WINDOWS HOME SERVER FEATURES
I've mentioned Microsoft's upcoming Windows Home Server appliance before, but it bears repeating - this has the potential to define a new category of home appliance that will be more interesting than you expect. It's hard for you to imagine why a product with "server" in the name will enter your house, but it addresses some common problems in imaginative ways.

If you haven't looked at the feature list for Windows Home Server yet, browse through this overview. Imagine something compact, inexpensive, and reasonably easy to use that accomplishes these things (and more):

"The backup service backs up every every computer on the network, automatically, using a clever storage system that makes efficient use of disk space on the server. You can recover individual files from a backup or restore an entire system from scratch on a bare hard drive by booting from a restore CD and connecting to the network.

"Shared Folders offer a common location for storing and sharing files, especially disk-hogging digital media files, which can then be played on any connected PC or Windows Media Connect device.

"It allows remote access to shared files and to computers on the home network via a web browser, with policies that require strong passwords for access.

"It constantly monitors the health of the network, alerting you if a PC is running with out-of-date antivirus software or if a nightly backup failed to complete."

There is some very clever technology going on - but remember, the clever bits are designed to be unobtrusive. This is literally an appliance, a small box that plugs into an outlet and into your router, with no keyboard, mouse, or monitor.

Want an example? Let's single out just one of the smart things it does automatically with the PCs on your home network.

"Basic backup settings are configured by default when you run the connector software. By default, every volume on every PC is backed up in the wee hours of the morning, between midnight and 6AM. Files that aren't essential - page files, hibernation files, temp files, and so on - are excluded from backups, and the process is shockingly quick. The server software uses a clever algorithm that avoids storing duplicate files. The first backup set takes up the most space, using moderate compression to save every backed-up file. When you back up a second or third or fourth computer, the backup service detects common files, such as those used by Windows, by installed programs, and by data files that are duplicates of those on the first computer. Instead of making a second copy of those files, the server just notes the location of the original backup and adds a simple entry to its index. The result is that the backup for an entire PC with 20GB of files in use can take less than 4GB of additional space on the server.

"I tested the restore process the hard way, by deliberately wiping out a perfectly good portable PC. I started by backing up my primary notebook PC (an Acer Tablet PC running Windows Vista Business), making extensive changes over a one-week period and allowing the nightly backups to run. After verifying that the backups were on the server, I wiped the hard drive clean, inserted the Windows Home Server Restore CD, plugged in a network cable, and held my breath. Roughly 25 minutes later, my system was completely restored, with all applications and data working as if nothing had happened."

That's good stuff! I'm looking forward to testing one.

Labels: backup, computers, hardware, Home_Server, Microsoft, network

posted by bruceb at 4/27/2007 12:29:00 AM | permalink

LOGMEIN BACKUP
LogMeIn was one of the first remote control services, and continues to be one of the best. Like GoToMyPC and others, it relies on a small program running on a desktop computer, maintaining a connection with an online server. From any other computer, you can go to the service's website, log in with a name and password, and launch a session controlling the desktop computer, seeing its screen as if you were sitting in front of it. No special software is required at the remote end - the sessions begin in Internet Explorer and a small viewer program is automatically installed on demand. The architecture allows the service to bypass any problems with firewalls, the bane of programs like PCAnywhere and Windows XP's built-in Remote Desktop. Most of the services charge a monthly subscription fee, but LogMeIn continues to offer a free service with slightly limited features.

LogMeIn has developed some other fascinating products, and LogMeIn Backup is a new service with an interesting twist. Online backup services are developing fast, where software on your computer backs up your files to servers run by some online service. My reaction so far is a low level of fear about privacy, a higher level of fear about whether the company will stay in business, and a bit of frustration that the last time I tried one of those services the software just didn't work. (Symantec just announced that it will be entering the online backup business soon.)

LogMeIn Backup avoids privacy issues by backing up your files to another computer under your control at a different location. A small program is run on your office computer, say, for backing up client files. The same LogMeIn Backup program is then run on your home computer, directing the backed up files to be stored on an external hard drive at home. The software puts the two computers in touch with each other and a copy of the office files flows onto the home computer. The backed up files are not directly readable, but they can be restored to the original computer or to another computer.

There's a modest monthly charge per computer, and the software is as easy to configure as possible. Theoretically it can even back up open files, using Windows Volume Shadow Copy service - Outlook .PST files while Outlook is running, Quickbooks data files while the program is open, or databases, for example - but that hasn't worked for me during my tests.

Nonetheless, I like the idea; it's cheap additional insurance against catastrophe. This is not a complete disaster plan and it's not designed to back up everything on a computer; I'd only use it to back up important files, in addition to other backup protection. But it can get important data offsite (in case, say, the lightning strike fries both the computer AND the external hard drive that does your primary backup chores), and at the least it gives you peace of mind knowing that the world holds a redundant copy of your documents/spreadsheets/photos. Redundancy is your friend!

In my testing, it's been beautifully functional, but slow. Backups from two different offices have proceeded at about 2Gb/day. After the files are backed up once, subsequent backups only transfer changed files, so it's only the first one where the speed matters. It means that if I ever had to restore a big chunk of the backed up files, I'd have to carry the external hard drive onsite so it could be directly connected to the network, where files could be restored at a reasonable speed. In a crisis, you wouldn't want to wait four days to restore your 8Gb of files. Maybe I'll find some workaround but at this speed the software wouldn't work on big collections of files - music or video libraries, for example. (If a computer restarts during a backup, the backup job is aborted and no data is saved - it has to be started from scratch. Twice now I've had a backup fail in the middle of Day 5. Aargh!)

As you consider your options, don't forget FolderShare, which covers some of the same ground as LogMeIn Backup. That's the Microsoft technology to create folders on two computers that are kept in sync automatically over the Internet. It's a bit hard to get started with until the underlying concept snaps into focus and it all makes sense. Here's my best attempt to explain FolderShare.

Labels: backup, software, web_services

posted by bruceb at 4/25/2007 12:05:00 AM | permalink

MOZYPRO ONLINE BACKUP
Online backup has been a tempting possibility for years. Your files are automatically copied to safe online storage and kept up to date automatically at a reasonable price. Cool!

Until now the companies offering online backup services have looked a little flaky. I kept running into the name Mozy, though, which just introduced MozyPro as a business-level backup solution.

The idea is appealing. A small service runs on a Windows XP or Server 2003 computer; every two hours, new or changed files are copied to the Mozy online servers. The service relies on Microsoft's Volume Shadow Copy service and can successfully back up files that are open; you'll get a good backup of Quickbooks data while the program is running, for example. Files are archived so a deleted file or an older version of a file can be recovered for up to thirty days.

Pricing is reasonable - $3.95/month plus fifty cents per gigabyte.

The web interface is streamlined. What's not to like?

Well, I found it a little troubling that it didn't work, despite my best efforts. Dropped connections, a period of several days where it simply did nothing, and "success" reports where no files appeared to have been transferred.

Anecdotes are a dime a dozen. It might work brilliantly for you. I didn't spend any time with tech support to figure out what was going on, and I'll probably try it again in a few months. I was kind of hoping to have a wonderful success story to tell you about but - maybe next time.

Labels: backup, web_services

posted by bruceb at 3/05/2007 12:05:00 AM | permalink

DELETING ONECARE BACKUP FILES
Windows Live OneCare makes it simple to back up your files to an external hard drive. The new version of OneCare allows backups to be updated automatically, every day or every week. If those backup files outgrow the external hard drive, you'll need these tips to help start the backup process over.

Here's some background. Behind the scenes, OneCare creates a series of .ZIP files with copies of your data. You're not meant to use those files directly; if you need to restore a file that was accidentally deleted, open OneCare and use its Restore feature.

The backup files grow in size continually. After you've done a full backup, subsequent backups only copy files that have changed, but it appears there are two exceptions.

• If you delete a file from your hard drive and then do a OneCare backup, OneCare does not remove that file from the backup store; you could still restore it later.
• If you change a file, OneCare adds the changed version to the backup store but it does not remove the earlier version; when you use OneCare to restore the file, you can choose from multiple versions of the file.

As a result, it's possible for the OneCare backup files to fill up an external hard drive. OneCare does not help you manage those files, although it's an issue that will probably be addressed in an update eventually. The files are protected against erasure - if you open My Computer and try to delete them, you'll get an "access denied" message - so it's not obvious how to clear the drive and start over again.

There are two options. The first one usually works: sharing the backup folder resets the permissions so the folder can be deleted.

• Open My Computer and click on the external hard drive.
• Right-click on the folder named Windows OneCare Backup and click on Properties.
• Your goal is to share the folder and give network users the ability to change the files in the folder. Look for a Sharing tab or a checkbox.
• Close the Properties window. You should now be able to delete the backup folder manually.

The second one will work, but requires more care: reformat the external hard drive.

• Open Control Panel / Administrative Tools / Computer Management.
• Click on Storage / Disk Management.
• Right-click on the external hard drive and click on Format. (Double-check to make sure you're clicking on the correct drive!) Check the box for a quick format and wait for the display to show you that the format is complete.

In each case, immediately start OneCare and do a full backup. It will remember your previous settings for additional folders and backup frequency.

OBLIGATORY WARNING: If anything is stored on the external hard drive besides OneCare backup files, do not format the drive. Let's not have any silly mistakes.

Labels: backup, OneCare

posted by bruceb at 2/20/2007 12:05:00 AM | permalink

VISTA & SHADOW COPY
Windows Vista Business edition has one of those features that you might not need right away - but if you ever do need it, it will be a lifesaver.

Vista Business (and Vista Ultimate) uses Microsoft's "shadow copy" technology to make a copy of your files while you work - automatically, in the background - and tuck that copy away in case you need it later.

When you accidentally delete a file or make changes you want to undo, right-clicking on a file or folder and clicking on Properties will display a new tab named Previous Versions. You'll find snapshots of the file or folder as it existed at several earlier points in time - usually twice a day or so, for several days back. (There's a screen shot of the Previous Versions tab and more details on this page.) It doesn't need to be set up, you don't need to do anything to configure it - Vista Business just does this for you, quietly and effectively. You can restore an earlier version of the file or folder (to its original location or an alternate location) with a couple of clicks.

This is very powerful stuff. It's not the same as a backup - if your hard drive fails, your shadow copies are gone too. But there's never been an easier way to recover from a slip of the finger on the delete key.

The same technology is used in the Complete PC Backup And Restore feature in Vista Business and Ultimate. Complete PC Backup takes a snapshot of your entire hard drive and allows you to drop it onto a replacement hard drive in the blink of an eye. It's separate from the day-to-day backup tasks (also enhanced in all versions of Vista), which are better suited to being refreshed every day with updated versions of changed files but which require a longer procedure for disaster recovery.

There's fewer excuses these days to work without a backup plan. If you're not doing backups, get an external hard drive and get safe! There's some information about how to get started on this page.

Labels: backup, Vista

posted by bruceb at 2/12/2007 12:05:00 AM | permalink

E-MAIL RETENTION AND THE NEW FEDERAL RULES
Changes in the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure have imposed new requirements for retention and production of electronic records in federal court litigation, especially e-mail. Here's my notes when the changes first came to my attention.

A quick reading of some of the articles about the new FRCP revisions gives the impression that businesses should drastically change their practices to ensure long-term retention of e-mail and backup tapes, but that's not quite correct. Here's some quick thoughts on a more nuanced reading of the new rules:

"As long as in the normal course of your business you routinely make backups over the top of the same data, routinely delete emails, routinely... etc etc..... there are no issues whatsoever and no changes you need to make. Once you are involved in a federal court case, that's when you need to reevaluate your process. But for now, it's business as usual."

Labels: backup, law, mail

posted by bruceb at 12/12/2006 10:24:00 AM | permalink

MICROSOFT SYNCTOY
Microsoft has released version 1.4 of its wildly useful utility SyncToy, a free program for copying, moving, renaming and deleting files between folders and computers. Here's the page for downloading the new version. If you've already been using SyncToy, uninstall the previous version before installing this update.

SyncToy automates a variety of tasks involving synchronization of folders in two different places. If you're building up a library of digital photos or music files, for example, SyncToy can automatically keep a second copy of those files up to date on an external hard drive for backup. Here's a link to a white paper about how SyncToy can be used.

Labels: backup, software

posted by bruceb at 11/03/2006 11:45:00 AM | permalink

WINDOWS LIVE ONECARE BETA 1.5
Microsoft has given an early look at an upgrade to Windows Live OneCare. It's in open beta testing but I don't recommend that you install it yet.

For the most part there are only modest changes, but there are two important improvements in the backup system.

• Backups can be scheduled more frequently than once a week - a big step forward in protecting your files automatically.
• Backups can be stored on a local networked computer, in addition to an external hard drive.

There's better integration of the antivirus and antispyware protection and a few other modest enhancements. No details yet but my guess is that it will be rolled out automatically to OneCare subscribers when it is finalized.

Labels: backup, OneCare, security

posted by bruceb at 10/10/2006 10:10:00 PM | permalink

FOLDERSHARE
Let's talk about syncing files. I've got a new program you ought to know about.

Imagine that you have a folder full of files and you want to have a copy of that folder on another computer. There's a lot of reasons to do that: to take your work files or photos with you on a laptop; to have a backup of a folder with important files; or to share files with a friend.

In other words, you want to sync the copy with the original - have the copy mirror the original, periodically or all the time.

There are many ways to accomplish that. Here's two ways for files located on computers that are physically connected to each other or connected to the same network, for example.

• On a network with shared files, Windows XP Professional can do that using Offline Files. Instead of working directly on the files in a shared folder on the server, your workstation invisibly makes a copy of those files. The copy is always identical with the server files while the computer is connected to the server. If the workstation becomes disconnected from the network, you can continue working on the copies of the files; when you reconnect, new or changed files are copied each direction. Many people never realize the syncing is going on - there's no sign except a flash of a "synchronizing" dialog when the computer starts or shuts down.
• Microsoft developed a free program named SyncToy that can create copies of folders between two devices in a number of ways. I use it to copy all the folders with family photos to an external hard drive. SyncToy runs on one computer and copies files anywhere - to another computer on a network, to an external hard drive, to a USB drive.

Now FolderShare offers a way to sync folders full of files across the Internet. The service was originally developed by a small company but it was purchased by Microsoft last year. Microsoft removed any charges for the service - it's completely free now - and says it will continue to have it available for both PCs and Macs. It is fascinating, powerful technology.

After you install a small bit of software, Foldershare does three things:

• It allows you to set up folders on your own computers that are kept in sync with each other across the Internet, whenever both computers are online. For example, you can make your entire office document folders appear in a folder on your laptop; if you create or edit documents on your laptop, those changes immediately show up in the synced folder on the office computer.
• It allows you to set up folders that are shared with your friends. Anything you put in those folders shows up in a folder on your friends' computers - automatically, quickly. There are pretty trivial restrictions (effectively there's no restrictions on file size, and not much of a restriction on the number of files - you can't share folders with more than 10,000 files).
• It allows you to log into your computer from anywhere, using a web browser, and download any file from your computer.

Now read that list again! Think about it. When this software is running on your computer, you can retrieve any file from it, any time, from anywhere. You can share files that are too big for e-mail. You can send a hundred photos to mom, and update them the following week.

(There is a restriction that will affect some people - files cannot be shared from a network drive; the software must be running on the computer holding the files to be shared.)

Many people report that the service works flawlessly. It has in my experience. The problem is that it is conceptually hard to grasp. There are only a few vocabulary words to learn (a synced folder is called a "library," for example) and the interface is very streamlined on the web site and the software, but I still found it difficult to get started with it and explain it. When you set up a library with FolderShare and you sync it between two computers or you share it with a friend, it looks just like any other folder on your computer. It takes a while to understand that there are two folders, two complete sets of the files, one on each computer - but changes at one end are immediately reflected on the other end.

It's weird. It's confusing at first. But this may have the power to open up important new ways to work from outside the office, to share photos or music or videos, or more.

Think about it. Check it out. Here's a review and here's a blog entry to get you started. This is big stuff.

Labels: backup, file_sharing, remote, web_services

posted by bruceb at 10/02/2006 10:53:00 PM | permalink

ONLINE FILE STORAGE
Altexa provides an online backup service - a small program copying designated files to an online storage space in a simple, secure way.

I have no idea whether Altexa is a good service! They may be great, they may have awful software, they may be out of business in a month. I have no knowledge, I don't make any recommendation.

What interests me is that the storage space that Altexa will use for your files is purchased from Amazon. There's a whole Amazon division ("Amazon AWS") devoted to making space available to developers for storage and services. Here's info from Amazon about what they're doing to make their platform available to third parties. Our files are going to move away from our individual computers and into online storage spaces, I'm just sure of it; this is the kind of trustworthy infrastructure that will convince us to make that leap.

Labels: backup, remote, web_services

posted by bruceb at 9/08/2006 10:11:00 AM | permalink

EXTERNAL HARD DRIVES AND BACKUPS WITH WINDOWS ONECARE LIVE
If you're not backing up your computer, you're not alone - but the backup utility in Windows OneCare Live should be on your mind. The price is low, the software is easy to use, and losing data when a hard drive fails is awful, whether it's business data, Outlook folders, financial data, family photos, or a big music collection.

Here's a sample page of external USB hard drives from Buy.com. Some things to know:

• These are commodities. There's little to distinguish one brand from another. With that in mind, I usually buy Maxtor or Western Digital because they've been making hard drives for the longest.
• The sweet spot for prices right now is between 160Gb and 250Gb.
• The 160Gb external drive from Lacie on sale tonight for a hundred bucks is a great deal.
• Plug the drive into a Windows XP computer and you're done. Don't install the software that comes with the drive - it's not necessary. The new drive should show up in My Computer in 30-60 seconds.
• If you get a balloon that says you've plugged a high-speed device into a low-speed USB port, your computer may not have USB 2.0 - a high-speed version of USB developed in the last three years. The drive will work, but very slowly. You can install a card for USB 2.0 easily and cheaply. Example: an Adaptec 2-port USB 2.0 PCI card for twenty-two dollars. Open the case, put in the card, and you're done - again, no software necessary.
• After you install the external drive, open Windows OneCare Live and click on Back Up Files to get started.

Labels: backup, hardware, OneCare

posted by bruceb at 12/01/2005 11:38:00 PM | permalink

MICROSOFT SYNCTOY
Microsoft has released an interesting new utility named SyncToy - the "toy" part is because it's part of the PowerToy series of utilities, not because it's playful.

SyncToy is an easy to use, highly customizable program that helps keep multiple copies of files organized. It was designed by photographers who wanted to keep an extra copy of their photos on an external hard drive. I'll use it to keep an extra copy of my music library on a separate drive. It can be used as a simple backup program, to make an extra copy of your documents and Outlook PST file. The program can handle many different ways to copy, move, and synchronize folders.

SyncToy is not for novices! It's easy to understand if you're already familiar with moving files from place to place, but a bit daunting if you don't already understand the basics. It can be scheduled to run automatically, but that requres a manual addition to the Windows Scheduled Tasks - again, not for the faint at heart.

If you're curious, read the white paper outlining the goals for the program and how one photographer used it to keep track of thousands of photos on vacation.

Labels: backup, software

posted by bruceb at 8/03/2005 11:21:00 PM | permalink