Windows Home Server

With your WHS server up and running, you need to install the Windows Home Server Connector software on all the XP and Vista computers you want to use with it. You can use the supplied disk or install the Connector software from the Software shared folder on the WHS server. The installation searches your network for the WHS server and, after you enter the password, it automatically configures a daily backup of your computer's data between 12:00am and 6:00am. It can only back up data from partitions formatted in NTFS, which should be the default setting for XP and Vista computers.

With the software installed on a PC, you can now log into the WHS for further configuration. You're confronted by the WHS console - a simplified interface offering five key options - Computers & Backup, User Accounts, Shared Folders, Server Storage and Network Status.

The first step is to click on User Accounts and create an account for each person who needs to access the shared folders on the WHS server. The server assumes that each user also has their own user account on at least one computer on the network, because when you create a new user on the WHS server it wants you to use the same login and password as their Windows user account on your PC.

Problems arise from the fact that by default WHS server demands stronger passwords than XP or Vista does, with WHS server insisting on a password of at least seven characters and containing three of the following - upper case letters, lower case letters, numbers and symbols. You'll now be forced to change your Windows user account password to match. If all your computers use the same login and password then just one WHS user account should suffice.

The next step is to customise the pre-configured backups for each computer on your network. Click the "Computers & Backup" icon in the WHS console, select the computer you want to configure and then click "Configure backup". First choose the partitions you want to back up (remember you can only select those formatted with NTFS) and then add folders you want to exclude (the Recycling Bin is already selected by default). You can only select one folder to exclude at a time, which makes it a long process if you only want to back up a few folders. Ensure the partition containing your operating system is selected if you want the option of restoring the entire operating system as well as individual files.

To further configure backups, you need to click the settings icon on the WHS console. Here you can configure the backup start and end times along with how long to keep daily, weekly and monthly backups. The software can wake a computer from a sleep or hibernation to initiate a backup of that PC to the home server. WHS can only back up one computer at a time, so other computers will have to wait in line.

Your initial backup could take a long time but, after this, only changed files will be backed up each night - with daily backups consolidated into weekly and then monthly backups.

If you need to restore individual files or folders, launch the WHS console, click the "Computers & Backup" icon, select the computer on which the files were stored and then click "View backups". After selecting the date to restore from, you can open this backup as a mapped local drive to access the files within, and then drag the files you want to restore back onto your PC. To do a complete system restore you need to boot the PC in question from the Home Computer Restore CD supplied with WHS whilst connected to your network via Ethernet, not WiFi. After logging onto the WHS server you can browse through your backups and choose a date to restore the operating system to - remembering that any documents stored on the same partition will also revert to their earlier version.

Now you've got your backup regime in place, next month we'll set up remote access so you can get to your important files from any internet-enabled computer.

Note: Adam Turner © Permission to copy or quote extracts from this article may only be done with the written permission of the author.

Reprinted from the September 2008 issue of PC Update, the magazine of Melbourne PC User Group, Australia

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