David Gardiner - Windows Home Server

Renaming date-named folders using PowerShell

2011-04-09T16:53:00.001+09:30

Since I've been using the Windows 7 Import Pictures and Videos wizard to upload photos from our digital camera, we've used the directory naming scheme of YYYY-MM-DD. Prior to this, I'd written my own custom photo importer in C++ as I didn't like the naming schemes that Windows XP offered. Unfortunately I'd chosen YYYYMMDD instead.

I'm now consolidating all our digital photos onto our Windows Home Server. This makes them easier to browse on the big screen using Windows Media Center, and has the added benefit that they also get backed up to the cloud via a subscription to CrashPlan.

I discovered the downside to having the different naming schemes when you go to view the photos in Media Center – it displays the folders out of order because they don't all follow the same format.

PowerShell to the rescue:

cd \\\\homeserver\\photos
dir | Where-Object {$\_.Name -match "^\\d{8}$" } | Rename-Item -NewName { $\_.Name -replace "^(\\d{4})(\\d{2})(\\d{2})(.\*)", "\`$1-\`$2-\`$3\`$4" }

This finds directories matching the old naming scheme and renames them to conform to the new one.

My C++ importer imported all photos into a single folder, so to avoid overwriting the same folder if you imported twice on the same day, I would add a .0 (or .1 etc) to the end of the folder to ensure it was unique. There weren't too many of these though, so I dealt with them manually.

Working with the cloud

2010-05-21T18:08:00.001+09:30

So as mentioned yesterday, my laptop is sitting next to me, looking very shiny and pretty, but completely silent. I spoke to Dell support this morning and after managing to exhaust the call centre guy's script of variations on "Have you tried turning it off and on again?", he eventually logged a case for me, and I'm now waiting for a phone call from (presumably the local) support engineer.

One thing I'm not too worried about is the data sitting on the laptop. I know it's there – just a matter of getting a new BIOS (and/or possibly motherboard) and it will be fine. I also know I have a full backup on my Windows Home Server, which is reassuring.

One of the first things I did when I joined LobsterPot was to create a Live Mesh folder to store business-related documents. So that means I've still got access to those documents via the web or my other machine at home – handy as after experimenting with various online solutions, I ended up reverting to using an Excel spreadsheet to track my work hours too!

I've also recently been making use of some of the training content at Microsoft Learning. I download the content to the laptop and have been working my way through it on the bus to and from work (must be riveting for the lucky people who get to sit next to me!). There is an offline reader just for this purpose, though it does have its annoyances (eg. no keyboard shortcuts, doesn't allow text to be enlarged) but one nice thing is that it synchronises your progress. So I can still log into the Microsoft E-Learning site and am able to pick up where I left off, using the "online" mode instead.

Then there's email, IM etc, which all work fine from where ever you are. So, while having a dead laptop is a huge pain, it isn't the end of the world.

Good news.. I just had a call from Dell and they're coming out on Monday. Hope they can fix it quickly.

More WHS Backup options

2010-04-01T15:44:00.002+10:30

Some updates on options for online backup of Windows Home Server:

For a brief period it looked like Mozy would be releasing a WHS client but that turns out not to be the case. I'd let my free trial with KeepVault lapse in anticipation of the Mozy product being released. Oh well :-(
Found Backblaze - ($US5/month unlimited) but doubt they work with WHS. Casey from the Backblaze team responded to an email query saying "..don't have any plans for supporting Server OS like Windows Home Server"
Others have recommended CrashPlan, and certainly their prices are competitive with Mozy and Carbonite. Whilst it isn't officially supported with WHS, at least it gets a mention on their support site. Poster "Scott" goes into more detail on how he got it working with WHS.

Backup for Windows Home Server

2010-03-09T21:45:00.001+10:30

Now that my WHS installation is running properly I'm a bit happier because it means I now have a current backup of all of our other computers. That's a good start, but it doesn't solve the problem of having an off-site backup.

One option is to buy one (or more) external drives – backup the WHS data to the external drive and then transport that drive to a trusted external location. That's fine, but it would rely on me being disciplined enough to update it at regular intervals – and I'm not sure that I trust myself to remember to do that frequently enough!

The other option is to use the 'cloud' - subscribe to an online backup solution. Googling "WHS Backup" doesn't list that many useful results. The top result is a relevant question on SuperUser. Scanning the answers reveals two products that apparently DO work with WHS, and a number of products to avoid because they don't.

KeepVault

KeepVault provide online backup for Windows desktops and Windows Home Server. Their WHS product also includes a 'client connector' so you can also backup files from client PC's too.

Pricing starts at $US48/year for 40GB. A range of larger amounts are also available including 80, 130, 200, 300-900, 1TB-5TB. They also offer a 15% discount if you pay via PayPal.

humyo

Humyo don't specifically mention WHS, but the SuperUser comment indicates it installs and functions correctly.

Their pricing starts at $US8.21/month or $US82.24/year for 100GB. Additional amounts of 100GB can be added for $US11.74/month

Comparison

So how do the numbers stack up? The comparison is simpler once you get to 200GB and beyond. To simplify things, I've used US dollars and excluded KeepVault's PayPal discount.

Provider (GB)	40	80	100	130	200	500	1000
Humyo			82.24		223.12	645.76	1350.16
KeepVault	48	89		139	199	480	930

Throwing the numbers into a graph illustrates this nicely. For amounts of data below 200GB, Humyo looks ok, but once you pass that mark KeepVault appears to be the best value.

I can only see our backup requirements increasing, so at this stage I'm planning to sign up with KeepVault.