Windows Home Server and Mac Time Machine ;)
"How dare you Steve! You’ve ruined all that’s sacred between Mac and PC users."
Yes, it’s a sacrilegious maneuver as many zealots have said. However, the fact is I think Windows makes some good products, especially after using Mac OS Leopard; what a piece of… work.
So here’s the deal: I needed a reliable storage device to store my Mac and PC files, while creating a place to access them on the web. Additionally, I wanted to be able to download AND upload critical files easily and securely over the web. The solution was Windows Home Server. It’s turned out to be a great product for $120 and I was able to use some old PC parts to get the bad boy up and running. I purchased two 500GB hard drives and my server was complete.
Once installed, Microsoft gives you a free subdomain to their homeserver.com domain. With this account set up, you can easily log into your home server from any location to manage files. Slick!
However, my poor Mac sat anxiously awaiting to talk with WHS, and moreover, it wanted to backup it’s entire contents to the server. Through the straight-forward tutorial of multimedia-pcs.com, I was able to set up a back-up disk for Time Machine in minutes using iTimeMachine. Still awaiting Time Machine to start backing up. We’ll see what happens.
I’ll be interested to see how it works out long term for you. My laptops have been a little flaky using this lately. My Mac Mini has been going through with no problems though. I would think it’s more of an issue with leopard and iTimeMachine then Windows Home Server.
Comment by Jeremy Jones — April 17, 2008 @ 10:48 am
Gotcha, you know I did run into issues with backing up on my Macbook Pro. I just haven’t pursued it further. Will make an update when I have time to figure it out. However, just being able to backup my file on my MBP to Home Server is very cool.
Comment by Steve — April 27, 2008 @ 5:58 pm