Posted 10/12/2009 at 12:06:37pm

I've had some issues with the restore process in the past (one as recent as this weekend). There should be a way for you to test the restore process before you need it on each individual machine. As I was hunting drivers yesterday, I finally noticed that the WHS folks are now building a RESTORE DRIVER directory where you can copy your dirvers to a memory stick so you don't have to hunt them down. I could NOT, however, get around a problem connecting to the WHS machine for the restore process. I'm not sure it it was a Windows 7 issue, a connectivity issue, or what. It kept saying it couldn't find the server. I finally hooked up my laptop and watched the DHCP table while connecting and figured out it wasn't loading my LAN drivers correctly. I finally found them, put them on a memory stick, loaded the drivers and finally got to the WHS login page. BUT, once I entered the password, all I can get is an error message saying it was having problems communicating with the WHS machine. I'm trying a work-around now, but I wish there were a way to 100% positively ASSURE connectivity and restore capability BEFORE you need it!!

Posted 10/12/2009 at 11:52:57am

I started with WHS before it was commercially released as a Beta tester and progressed over the years from the initial public release, the Power Packs 1 and 2 and am now beta testing the Power Pack 3.

The idea of WHS is just great. I have seven PCs hooked into it and backups are routine and unmonitored. It does nag you a bit if one gets missed (which you can turn off, but that would defeat the purpose). I have a medium-grade processor and 2 terabytes of data among about six drives.

There are two or three things that bug me. First, they built it on Windows Business Server 2003 and I've not seen any upgrade to 2008 come yet, nor does it appear they will do that upgrade. They really really really lock down your WHS for security which means you have to add trusted sites for almost any website you visit. Again, I somewhat agree with making this pretty tough to get around for novice users, but it's somewhat annoying when, for example, trying to troubleshoot DSL problems with my vendor. Third, for some reason, they partition only 20 Gigs to the C drive and then take all the rest of the drive space and make that the start of the data partition. I wanted to put SQLServer on my WHS machine because it's a server, it's connected to the internet, and it has lots of storage. I tell you, SQLServer ate through all of the empty space on the drive and then caused problems with backups because the drive had no room. My print queue went down and it took me forever to uninstall SQLServer. I tried my best to reinstall it on one of the D drives, but it (so far) has been impossible). Something glitched and I'm in no-install hell until I get it figured out. To make matters worse, they won't let you expand the C partition (at least through normal means), they won't let you do a roll-back (ala XP or Vista) where you can revert to a previous (pre-SQL in my case) setup. And, if you want to replace drives, you can mark any drive EXCEPT THE FIRST D PARTITION as 'don't use' and it will carefully move all of your data off that drive so you can do a swap. I upgraded from two 500 gig drives to two 1,000 gig drives with absolutely no problem. Just make sure your main drive never gets old because, so far, I can't figure out how to move data off that first partition. It SHOULD BE part of the WHS capabilities. I shouldn't have to image drives and restore complete drives. Plus, I'm very afraid to use a partition manager on there because WHS completely fills up that first D partition.

Enough on that. I do appreciate the suggestions on the add-ins. Last time I checked, there weren't many. The several you mention seem to be great additions. I've always thought the way you logged in and transferred files was pretty lame, but that's not why I purchased WHS.

One more thing... I use Carbonite to backup my WHS to the cloud. I store all our documents, videos, pictures, etc. and having an automatic off-site backup is somewhat reassuring. Carbonite, however, just cannot keep up.  It's never been current and there are files that have been on there for three years it hasn't gotten to yet. Not making me feel 100% secure, but most of my important data is already backuped on DVD and stored off-site (family pictures, etc). I have asked Carbonite to give me a better level of service, but they haven't heard me yet. They are very reasonably priced, but if you can't get current, betteer hope you don't crash-and-burn.

Altogether, nice article, guys! Thanks. MaximumPC is still a destination for me, both in print and on the web!!

Posted 09/21/2009 at 10:18:37am

Was a user of the old Zune since it came out and received my new ZuneHD in the mail Friday. I spent a good bit of time using it over the weekend.

I was in awe of the graphics -- the screen is absolutely beautiful.

Frustrated that you can't drag and drop AVI files, nor is there ANYWHERE on the internet that tells you how. ZuneHD relies on you converting your AVI library to WMV format, a time waster if ever there was one (not to mention wasting duplicate disk space). I was confused because it appeared that it would support AVI and if anyone can tell me how to drag and drop my avi files into the Video folder, please do!

The music playback is great -- good fidelity, good ease of use.

What happened to the SHUFFLE function? I like to play random songs. All I was able to do was play specific artists' songs (alphabetical order which will get old soon), or complete albums. Why no SHUFFLE??

I was amazed at the size of this unit for having 32 gigs of memory. 

The dock unit, which I could never find for the old Zune, has an HDMI interface with digital audio out. Not sure why anyone would go to the trouble of converting a video to WMV and then use a ZuneHD to watch movies, but apparently you can. Maybe they're going for the entire entertainment center thing. The dock does have a remote wireless controller. I just don't see it.

The FM radio has HD built in!! This was really cool. Pretty nicely implemented and easy to save your station list. 

I actually had to read about the picture resizer -- the finger movements on the screen. Wasn't expecting that. Was nice and the zoom is good.

You can browse the internet. I wish it would allow me to stream from my home server directly since it connects to my wireless router. I could not find a way to do that. I like that it pulls in info on what you're playing and you can read Bio's of the group, see pictures, etc. The display screen is very cool. I tried the browser but, in my opinion, another 'so what'. Other than getting info on music, or possibly streaming from Rhapsody or Pandora, eh... Screen is too small, typing is too difficult to make it a computer substitute. I guess if you're in a jam and you're within WiFi range and you have to get on the internet, well, you can. But why?

Games - I played Sudoku and poker while listening to my tunes. Both were cute and entertaining. Not a big selection yet. But it has promise for a diversion as you wait in line, say, at the DMV...

Finally, the Zune Marketplace. Big push for a subscription to stream unlimited songs for about $15 per month (and you get to keep 10 songs FREE!). So I signed up for the trial and it just wasn't easy to use. And, they hit you for 'points' if you want to watch any videos, like a TV show. WTF? I need to continue to explore to see exactly what content is available, but with 32 gigs of music on my device, I doubt if I'll be able to stream a whole lot that I don't already own (that I actually will listen to).

Nice job, overall Microsoft. I hope this is a great success for you.  I've appreciated your support of the old Zune. Every time there was a software update, they provided it to you for free and the support was very good.

 ps... those headphones. I was diappointed in the standard ear-bud type phones included. I rather the cushioned in-the-ear type like the Creative Zen. Don't know why, for the big price, they don't give you decent earphones. But, that's minor.

Posted 09/21/2009 at 10:16:44am

I agree. The more complicated a device, the more things don't work right. It's kind of like those massive security suites you buy for your computer. When they put a zillion functions, many just don't work right. I'd prefer to keep the tunes separate from the phone too.

Posted 09/21/2009 at 10:16:38am

I agree. The more complicated a device, the more things don't work right. It's kind of like those massive security suites you buy for your computer. When they put a zillion functions, many just don't work right. I'd prefer to keep the tunes separate from the phone too.

Posted 05/29/2009 at 12:14:39pm

When I purchased my new Blu-Ray drive, I was excited to play movies on my home theater (which I later found out to be not worth the extra money for any small difference in picture quality!!). I did everything by-the-book. I purchased compatible video cards, regulation cables, approved software. YEA! Couldn't wait to fire it up. The picture came up very choppy and looked like crap. I went through an upgrade process reminiscent of the dark-ages... After everything was brought up to current day, it wouldn't play AT ALL! WTF? I started to get messages about components not being approved, or software not being enabled. I called the company that made the player and they had me call the company who made the drm who had me call the company who made the video card. Well, after about a week of this baloney, I just broke down and purchased a cracking program. It sits idly in the task bar until a disk is inserted. When it sees protected content, it removes it. Now I get what I paid for... pretty decent quality playback of disks I purchased.

 Had it happen to another game program as well. Little did they tell you when they sold you their DRM protected crap, but you only got five installs. I change configurations like some people change shoes. I've done three MoBo upgrades this year alone. I'm always tinkering with my setup. I've reloaded Windows about a half-dozen times, either upgrades, or different flavors of the o/s. However, they didn't tell you when you installed that you have to officially uninstall the program before you do an upgrade. So, the last time I did an upgrade to my system, I tried to reinstall the game and got the 'too many installs' garbage. I called them and they scolded me for not uninstalling (although, NOWHERE in the setup process does it show an install count, nor does it warn you about their crappy count system!!). Well, after some creative researching, I now do not have that problem any more. They forced me to go to a place where I could download a patch which gets around their sh$tty DRM. 

Given a choice, I will NEVER buy a DRM protected product again. I will support DRM free producers. I'm also on a mission to ask people WHY they spend extra money on the biggest marketing fraud ever perpetrated on consumers, to wit, BluRay.