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I received the HP Media Vault on time and it was extremely easy to set up right out of the box. I have not set up the web address for external users yet. But the Vault is backing up all of my computer files daily, I feel so much more confident about the preservation of my information. I am truely happy with this purchase and would reccommend the product to anyone in the market for this type of storage.
totally didn't work. This was a deal-breaker for me, and is the reason this server only gets one star: all of the features included in a product should actually work. For now, my old mediavault is gonna be sold to the highest bidder (and hopefully they will have no desire for access permissions).Transfer speeds are OK, about 2.5megs wirelessly on a G-only router and between 10 and 20 megs wired Ethernet transfers. I set my videos folder to Read-Only for my Guest user name and Full Access for my user name: even after rebooting the server and the computers I'm accessing the server from, I still have problems creating new folders in the videos folder, even though my user name should have full access. I'm looking at the HP MediaSmart 490. Its running windows home server and has much more powerful specs. I wanted to have my own user name with full access to all folders and a guest username password abc123 for when friends came over and wanted to watch my movies on their computers. HP doesn't make this server anymore, so don't expect any amazing firmware fixes.
You can stream music, movies and photos to your PS3 or Xbox 360 and watch them on your TV, which is an invaluable capability. As of typing this message, I am using the most up-to-date firmware and the problem is still here. One thing I haven't figured out yet is how to stream pictures and videos to my HP DreamScreen digital wireless picture frame. 1 expansion bay is alright, but if you're looking to mirror your data for redundancy, you're pretty much limited to the 500gb drive that's inside the device. i got locked out of my files almost completely and now have copied them all over to my external where they will remain until i get a new (hopefully much better) server. I've even tried clearing my user name credentials from windows 7 through the control panel but this did not help.
the powersupply being outside of the box creates a smaller form factor but of course creates a flimsy connection in the back and a power brick somewhere on the ground below it (i prefer internal power supplies like in the hp mediasmart and the playstation 3 for example). if you're going for pure space, you could buy a 2TB drive for relatively cheap and end up with a 2.5TB server.Finally, I can't stress this enough: if you want consistent user-restricted privileges on your files/folders, do not buy this server. The permissions got so randomly screwed up that even the computer I logged into with guest was able to rename and even delete files in the videos folder (even though it was only supposed to have read-only access to that folder).If you need a simple media hub and don't have to worry about anyone who might be on your network deleting your files, I'd say this server is okay for you. HP should definitely support its own ecosystem of products - it would be nice.
However, I still haven't figured out how to get my laptop to connect to the Vault. After owning this Media Vault for 4 months, so far so good. I installed the software and all my connections are good. Nothing bad happen yet. The drive is still working.cross my fingers. But just can't get the network to work together. Oh yes, I can share files thru the web alright but again, it can't connect with my laptop.
I come from an IT background and I have to say the support guys running the show for this group are top notch. I've been able to get through to HP support without waiting.
I have 2 500GB Seagate drives and a 500GB WD Green Caviar as USB backup. I used to have an older MSS plus that didn't have the redundancy I needed which is why I went with the HP.
The 2120 box is pretty good. I was really impressed by the tech support that is available for these devices.
It has gig ethernet which allows the box to support sustained 17MB/sec transmission to the storage system. I had to crack it open to swap out drives and taking a look on the inside I think design is nicely done.
The best part about it is that I talked with very knowledgeable folks that helped me resolve all of my issues. I would buy this product just because support is really that good.
The good:Back up software can back up all your key files automatically and even keep a few revisions. Postive is having much more flexibility and not running out of drive space when 1 drive is full. It really does require plans to add redundancy to ensure all your photos are safe. With HDDs being so cheap nowadays, its concievable that the drive quality is lesser and life expectancy is lowered. Make sure when you are backing up to the USB, you are using FAT, otherwise, Windows will not recognize the data. Easy to set up and having running quickly.
You can back up to any USB external HDD for redundancy. Bad:No easy way to restore from the backup. The HP MV 2120 is a good NAS that falls short of being great. I won't take that chance a second time. That is a positive and a negative. Bad part is when 1 drive fails, your whole system fails and you need to depend on your USB back up. If you want more then 2 bays, I would get the server version of this.
NTFS is so much more reliable and faster and more efficient then FAT. It supports gigabit ethernet, so the transfer rates are really limited to the OS and the Hard Drive speeds. I have copies here on the MV2120, on my PC and also in a copy in a back up USB drive. No support for NTFS on the US back up drive. Surely HP could have found a wayWhen using 2 drives, they are imaged into one drive. I have lost thousands of pictures once when my PC HDD failed. Its worth the price to get more bays.
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