R.I.P. Buffalo TeraStation

INTRO

So after 4 years of service, my Buffalo TeraStation finally died. It served me reasonably well, although at the end, I really would have like to have a really expensive RAID array provide me a more "graceful" recovery for my data other than "Sorry, I'm dead, I don't want to come back, and although your data is intact, good luck finding a machine with 4 individual IDE/PATA connectors that's not another Buffalo TeraStation"! So with my data now pretty much inaccessible, I decided to look into newer solutions.

AT A GLANCE

So my requirements were pretty basic as I only stored my MP3 library, my digital pictures, and a handful of ISO images for installation which meant that the only real requirement was lots of storage accessible from all my computers!

I liked the idea of the Synology line of NAS devices which was that instead of using a RAID solution, provide an automated backup of the device to an external USB device. After hearing a number of horror stories of folks that used a RAID solution to provide fault-tolerance only to find that although RAID protects from hardware failure, it doesn't protect from software data failure. In other words, if someone (like a loved one) accidentally hits delete, it propogates that deletion across the entire array! Besides that, for home use, I really didn't need fault-tolerance and during the 4 years that my Buffalo Terastation provided, it only went down 3 times, one of which required rebuilding of the array, once to update the firmware after a power failure, and this last time. My point being that RAID'ing the device provided no real advantage for my needs since I didn't need always up! The Synology line also provided "nice to haves" like a built-in iTunes server, torrent client, FTP access, and even a web server!

The unfortunate problem with the Synology line is that they aren't readily available here in Wilmington, NC. After doing a little more research, I ran across the HP MediaSmart line of "Windows Home Servers" that Newegg had on sale. After giving it careful consideration, I decided against these as the model that was on sale only had 640GB of storage and the larger sized boxes cost significantly more. Then it hit me, "These little babies run Windows Home Server and I'm still a registered Microsoft Partner, why don't I build my own Windows Home Server!"

COMPONENTS

Since I wasn't sure how this would turn out and didn't want to spend another $800 on another NAS device, I looked at buying the cheapest possible components and building the system myself. I decided on the following:

(1) Foxconn R20-S4 Barebones kit with Intel Atom 330 Dual-Core CPU

(1) Kingston 2GB DDR2 Module

(1) Western Digital Caviar Green 1TB SATA-II Hard Drive

(1) Western Digital MyBook 1TB External USB Drive

(1) Windows Home Server OEM License

The truth behind this all is that the only decision factor was price, not quality, not performance, but because all these items were either on sale, or I had lying around the house from some other aborted project.

THE BUILD PROCESS

Installing all the components into the Foxconn R20-S4 chassis was relatively easy. The Atom 330 CPU already comes mounted to the motherboard, so the only things that needed to be added were the memory module (which only required securing via the usual SDRAM clips) and the hard drive which was a little more tricky. The instructions were clear, but contained an odd mounting procedure for the hard drive which required the removal of the front panel and the drive cage, but as a whole went smoothly. Being a small form factor ITX chassis, the Foxconn R20-S4 feels like it takes up less space than my old Buffalo Terastation, although having only a single 1TB drive as opposed to (4) 250GB drives probably helps.

Windows Home Server is based off the same code as Windows 2003 Small Business Server so the installation process itself was pretty much a standard Windows server installation. The only kink I threw in was to load it from a USB stick since I didn't want to spring extra money for a CD-ROM drive and I figured it would install faster from USB anyway. (The truth is that I really was just too lazy to look for my portable external USB CD-ROM drive!).
A great article on installing WHS can be found here.

FINAL THOUGHTS

The downside of building your own Windows Home Server as opposed to buying one from HP, Acer, Asus, or the rest is that you don't get some of the bundled software. The plus side though is that you can build a better product with better quality components (although I'm not saying that the quality of my "on sale" components are better!).

Out of the box, you get a standard SMB based file server, a UPNP/DLNA compatible server, and automated backup for all your Windows PCs. Also, there's a pretty large Windows Home Server community that has produced some great add-ins including an iTunes server, FTP server, IIS server, Bittorrent client, PHP server, MySQL server, and even a TiVo publisher!

With this new setup, I was able to replace my development web server which was an old laptop that I had lying around running SUSE in a LAMP configuration, the aforementioned Buffalo Terastation, and now I could access all my MP3's and digital pictures from my all my computers, XBOX 360, TiVo, and even my iPod Touch (through a UPNP client)! In all, a good deal for around $300!

Editor's Note: Automated backup only works for Windows PCs and requires installation of a client software CD, but since all my home computers are Macs w/Time Machine, I didn't really play around too much with this feature although there are some hacks to enable Time Machine backups on Windows Home Server. Also, automated backup only works for clients, not the server itself, so I'll save those hacks for another time!