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Set up Windows 8 as a home server |
January 30, 2013
If you have multiple PCs in your home or small office, you can save time and look professional by storing your documents and media on one PC and using network sharing to access them across all your computers and devices. This prevents you from having to store duplicate copies of files and reduces confusion when trying to find which PC a file is stored on. Additionally, you only really need to worry about backing up one PC (though for safety's sake you should always back up everything on a regular basis.)
Setting up your own Windows server is pretty simple: Microsoft actually created a Windows edition designed specifically for centralized storage and backup called Windows Home Server, but it was discontinued in 2011. Thankfully, Windows 8 sports new storage and backup features that make it uniquely suitable as an impromptu file server, and I'll walk you through the setup process in this article. Along the way we'll learn about the new Storage Spaces feature, file sharing with HomeGroups, streaming media via the network, backing up your files, and remotely accessing your storage when you’re away.
Creating Storage Spaces
Windows 8 includes a new file storage feature called Storage Spaces, and it's designed to protect against hard drive failures by making copies of your data and spreading it across multiple drives. It's a more cost effective, user-friendly solution than RAID drives and works much like the beloved Drive Extender feature in early editions of Windows Home Server.
You create and manage Storage Spaces via the Control Panel.
To get started, you should attach one or more internal or external drives to your Windows 8 PC and run Storage Spaces (the simplest way is to access your Start screen and type storage spaces). From there, create a storage pool and divide it up into one or more Storage Spaces, which will then appear and work just like any other drives in Windows. If you have two or more physical drives in the pool, you won’t lose your data if one (or even two) drives fail. You can also add more drives to the pool to expand its size at any time, making this a great way make use of any old storage drives you have laying around. If you need further help or step-by-step directions, refer to a past article on Storage Spaces.
To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Link: http://www.pcworld.com/article/2026643/set-up-windows-8-as-a-home-server.html
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