Review by G. Shaw:

Moderate experience installation. All parts included for installation. Most time spent running red power wire under carpeting to engine compartment. No need to change flasher with or w/o trailer lights plugged in.

Review by MarkD:

This is a splice it yourself kit, you have to know which wires to splice into, so you’ll need to know your wiring harness. Install was easy for me because I was replacing a burned out converter that was plug and play. The wires on the old converter were marked, so I just wired right up to those. The directions suck (hence 4 stars instead of 5) The hardest part is getting a feed up to the battery, as this has it’s own VBATT circuit to prevent burning out your car’s lighting circuits. Just takes some time working your way along the floor trim and finding a hole in the firewall. I’ve had too many problems with shorts on trailers taking out cheapo converters, so I figured it was worth the extra dough. So far, I’m satisfied. Installed on a 2000 Jeep Cherokee.

Review by tm:

I gave this unit 1 star because in the course of a few of months I’ve had two now that have broken. Here’s how it works when it breaks: you call customer support, they give you attitude, grill you as if you’ve done something wrong, they charge you to ship the replacement unit and then you have to ship the broken unit back – so ~ to get a replacement for something under warranty. What breaks? There are 3 main pieces to the unit: the plug-in base, the heating element, and the bowl. The heating element detaches from the base, a very nice feature, but after about a month on the first unit the handles and clip that attach to the base broke. After another couple of months on the replacement the heating element stopped heating.

From a looks and *appearance* of built quality I’d give this unit 5 stars. But I think even with the vents in the top it still retains a little too much moisture. I think this keeps the popcorn from being as light as it could be. This is what I mean by good, but not great popcorn.

I’ve tried a lot of poppers over the years and I’ve learned that good popcorn matters a lot. My favorites are from [...] and Paloma De Colores (sometimes amazon sell this). Also, I’ve made my best popcorn with a whirly pop and just a pot on the stove. Problem with the whirly pop is they’re a pain to clean and gets “icky” after a while, problem with the pot is that it’s “interactive” (you have to shake it).

It’s a nice looking appliance, the 3-piece design is a good idea, you can legitimately put what needs to be cleaned in the dishwasher. But you can easily double the cost of the unit in paying for shipping of replacements and you’ll have to deal with very poor customer support. I’m now searching again…

Review by nismoman:

I have been extremely satisfied with this popcorn popper. It makes some of the best popcorn I have ever made at home. I would urge anyone complaining about chewy or rubbery popcorn to READ THE DIRECTIONS. There is a red lid on the bucket to use after popping, but you must take this off during popping to let steam out.

And as long as you follow the user guide, you should not have any trouble with melting parts, as it is mentioned that you should let the maker cool for just a few minutes between pops.

I have had this popper for about 4 months, with plenty of use, and so far I have not had any problems with the popper breaking in any way what so ever.

In short, use good quality kernels (I prefer Fireworks brand), read the directions, and enjoy!

Review by Jill:

Cuisinart really missed with this one. I don’t think anyone in their Quality Control ever tried popping corn in it. The corn all jams up at the bottom and eventually lifts the lid off the popper as it pops. There are no vents in the top, so the steam starts to moisten the popped corn as well. I wouldn’t use the top as the serving bowl for that reason, plus the narrowness would make it easy to tip.

On the plus side, it’s incredibly easy to clean – I can just pop the lid and the removable bottom portion into the dishwasher.

Review by J. Ramsey:

I bought this popcorn maker for my wife for Christmas. This turned out to be a huge let down. The popcorn comes out chewy and wet. Would not recommend this to anyone. Very disappointed with Cuisinart on this one as we love our Cuisinart pans and mixer.

Review by L. ODonnell:

This product is great in theory only. The promise of getting the taste and crunch of a pan-popped corn was a pipe dream. The design is poor. The lid traps the steam inside during the cooking process and results in tough, rubbery, styrofoam-textured corn. Plus, the popped corn had a weird taste that is indescribable.

We are loyal Cuisinart customers and have used the same model coffee maker for over 10 years. When one wears out, we quickly purchase another of the same. We were very shocked that Cuisinart developed such an under-performing product. And, as popcorn lovers, our disappointment was huge.

Review by Carrera206:

I am a popcorn afficiando (seriously) and was hoping that the Cuisinart would be a bit heavier duty than my well working but not very durable Presto Stir-Crazy. Unfortunately, I do not recommend this popper.

Pros:

1.Removable/dishwashable cooking plate and cover. – It is great to be able to wash all of the cooking surfaces in the dishwasher.

2. Non-stick coasting seems better than most.

Cons:

1. No steam vent holes! – Popcorn loses its crunch and is chewy.

2. Tall and narrow design- Good for storage. Bad for popping corn. Popped corn gets stacked on the top of the unpopped corn however the popper gets a bit bogged down with the taller stack of corn weighing on the stirring rod.

3. Non-stick coating does eventually scratch.

4. Thermal cutoff switch seems to always activate after a batch or two requiring a delay and cool down before popping another batch.

Summary:

The Stir Crazy makes better popcorn (but the non-stick coating wears off fairly quickly). I would not recommend purchasing the Cuisinart popper. Take a peek at the microwave popcorn popping bowls. I have been using them exclusively now and they work great!

Review by J. Branson:

Well, I suppose it could have been worse if the thing had burned down the house, but I would still classify this machine as pure evil. It is especially evil because it bears the Cuisinart brand name, leading one to believe it is a quality machine. For the price, it certainly should be.

I am not inept, generally speaking, but this “Easy-Pop” popcorn maker is far more trouble than it is worth. It is difficult to line up the heating element prongs when you put it together. This would have been an easy design element to fix, just by having slots with wide openings that taper down as the element slides in, properly aligning it. Nope. You have to line it up just right, and the marks on the back–NOT THE FRONT WHERE YOU COULD SEE THEM–are difficult to see and line up.

So, I add the popcorn and oil and turn it on. Fifteen minutes later, it’s still spinning, but I don’t have any popcorn. I turn it off, readjust the handles and make sure it is latched, and turn it on again. Ten minutes later, no popcorn, and I’ve lost all interest by now. Still, I try a third time to see if it will even work. It finally pops the popcorn. When it is done popping, I turn it over, but because the bowl does not attach tightly to the base, I allow a gap to open and popcorn goes everywhere. While trying to get it rightd and back together, I slip and burn my finger on the very hot element. Who thought it was a good idea to have people flipping over a burning-hot burner with just two tiny handles to hold onto?

I just threw all that popcorn away, I was so frustrated. After the first disaster, I’m sure I could use it better the next time, if it will heat up. Why would they call this an “Easy-Pop” popcorn maker? That should be illegal. They should call it the Dangerous-And-Difficult-Popcorn-Maker-That-May-Or-May-Not-Work. After that experience, I just want to take it out to the driveway and run over it with my truck. And I still have to clean the stupid thing.

Worst product ever made.

Review by J Keistler:

I’m on my second one of these, having lost one in a move many years ago. I’ve had a number of popcorn poppers ’cause I’m a true fan, whether unadorned popcorn or ‘fancied up’. When the hot air poppers came out about 20 years ago I bought a couple of them, but they always seem to make chewy popcorn that’ll stick in the back of your throat. I’ve got a mint-condition Mirro aluminum electric popper from the sixties and it’ll burn corn in the bottom before you can turn around. West Bend used to make this same type popper but without the stirrer. I had that one also, and it still left a fair number of kernels at the bottom. The stirring rod is what makes the difference with this popper. Not only will it pop more kernels in ANY brand of popcorn, but it will pop far more with the less expensive brands like Jolly Time. It’s typical to get no more than a tablespoon or less of unpopped kernels. The popcorn turns out perfectly done, from the earliest to the last popped. If you look at the photo, the disc on the top is a removable cover; under there is an indention with multiple holes. You can take butter or margarine and spread it around when you set the machine up. Then, as the machine starts popping, the steam melts the butter and it goes on the corn! Or, if you prefer buttering later, just leave the lid on. When the corn is popped, you simply flip the appliance over and the large dome becomes the serving bowl. The dome and the disc on top have been through my dishwasher dozens of times without any problem. If I hand-wash it, it always feels a little greasy. The bottom, heating part of the appliance is nonstick; you simply wipe it out with a soapy dishrag or paper towel. Couldn’t be easier. This appliance is light in weight and fits fine in one of my overhead cabinets. For only a small amount of oil, it’ll make six quarts of the best popcorn you can find! Plus, its tolerance to less-expensive non-gourmet corns means you’ll spend less money. Highly recommended!

Review by T. Veith:

May 9 2006 – Finally took a big step away from microwave popcorn due to health concerns (cancerous chemicals, dangerous chemicals used to coat the inside of the bag) and began looking for an alternative as I am an avid popcorn lover. I was walking through Walmart a week ago and saw this item on the shelves but decided to read up on it before spending .

So I came to Amazon and read over 300 reviews (I am a glutton for punishment) and it was so interesting reading what everybody said about this popper. First, 80% of the reviews are extremely positive, which was a good sign. Second, those who were not positive generally had the same complaints: turning arm grinds against the non-stick ridge and chips off the non-stick coating.

Today I bought one of these devices and must say I am very impressed, and I also learned a few things after reading 300 reviews that saved me lots of wasted time and gave me terrific results. If you decide to buy one of these for the EXCELLENT tasting popcorn, here are a few tips. 1) plug in the popper before first use to see if the rotating arm grinds against the edges. If it does, as mine did, do two things. First, loosen the centre bold holding down the arm, it is on too tight. Second, bend the arms until they no longer rub/grind the surface. Problem solved. Once I bent the arms, the popper worked terrific, and never once did it get stuck and need to turn the opposite way while cooking the popcorn. 2) Reduce the amount of oil used; I found that 2 tablespoons was more than sufficient for 4 quarts…three tablespoons is overkill. 3) Do not put butter in the top of the lid to melt on the popcorn while it is cooking; it creates WAY TOO MUCH moisture inside the cooker and ruins the popcorn by making it soggy. Instead, melt a few tablespoons of butter on the hot surface with the oil. The butter flavour will cook directly into the popcorn and you then only need to add salt, or a salt substitute. 3) Don’t leave the cooker unattended; the moment the last kernel pops, unplug the popper and flip the popcorn into the lid or you will burn/scorch your popcorn.

If the three steps above are followed, you will have terrific results and this popper will last you for a long time.

I must say, I had one of these years ago and owning one again brings back terrific memories. It is fun to watch the popcorn pop! I plan to try the kettle corn recipe left by another reviewer on my next batch – looking forward to that!

Hope this review helps – this is a terrific product, and although the non-stick coating looks fairly cheap, it should last just fine if you take good care of the cooker. This product is nowhere near as flimsy or cheap as I had expected it to be based upon some other reviewers.

Buy one now! Happy Popping!

Review by Young:

I was skeptical of this mount. Why should this be so cheap compared to other mounting kits? I ordered one (due to the price), and prepared to return it if I did not think the mount could handle the weight of the 52″ LCD TV (Samsung).

Once I got it, I understood the cost. Good low-cost design and built with solid heavy duty steel.

- Two horizontal bars are load-bearing, and for proper VESA spacing, they have to be parallel and relative distance must be in the right tolerances. These are made of solid steel.

- Two vertical bars (in the wall mount) are flimsey, and that’s ok. it should be solid enough make a rectangle box w/ square angles. That’s it.

- Two vertical mounting (to the TV) brackets are of heavy duty metal. Making this in to two parts (not one), reduction of material, but also allows free horizontal adjustment on the TV mount.

- By doing the above, the kit is small, uses less metal (and reduce shipping and material waste).

Positives

———

1. Good solid and heavy duty construction.

2. Good value (low-cost). Paid less than $ 25 including shipping.

3. Easy install. Took 15 min to figure out the instruction (which is not totally clear), and 10~15 min to install and ready to watch.

4. built-in level worked well during marking of mouting holes on the wall –I tested w/ my own, and was consistent.

5. Once the mounted on the wall, and bracket on TV, you could adjust horizontal TV placement on the mount, just by sliding few inches left or right, post install. I expect this to be safe and true if the wall mount is directly screwed into the wall studs. I do not expect dry-wall install without the use of the studs to handle such adjustment.

6. The brackets on TV could also be used to adjust vertical TV placement by a few inches up and down. But for this one, you’ll need to lift TV off the bracket and adjust and pull back .

7. There is a reasonable space (I would say, just right) from the wall to the TV to get cables/connectors through WITHOUT using any expensive 90 degree connectors. Plenty of space between two horizontal bars to put extra power outlet and data HDMI cable outlet to hide all the cables.

8. This supports tilt up/down, and works well. Amazon product description does not make it clear.

Negatives

———

1. Just one. Clearer instruction so that I do not need to spend 15 min figuring things out. One could learn a lot form IKEA .

2. Packing/Packaging — Not necessarily Cheetah Mount issue — mine came w/o missing parts, although I noticed torn cardboard box edges and some parts COULD have been lost during shipping. Either double box, or have Cheetah use heavier box stock.

Helpful Hints & Comments

————————-

1. DO NOT forget to tighten the screws (2) on the bottom horizontal bars AFTER TV is placed on the wall mount — especially if you are in CA w/ quake. This is what prevents TV falling off the mount accidentally. But do not over-tighten (you are NOT securing from left-to-right movement).

2. Very happy w/ my purchase. Will get one more for my other TV.

Review by J. Joliat:

The Cheetah mount is an incredible value. The mount is amazingly sturdy and very well built. It took me about 30 minutes to assemble the parts out of the box. Then another hour to mount the TV to the brick above our fireplace. I used 4 Quicktap blue masonry anchors to attach the mount to the wall, and it is so secure I could probably hang from the TV itself.

I was also pleased to find that the mount included all of the hardware (bolts, washers, spacers) that you would need to mount almost any VESA compatible flat panel. Our TV is a 52 inch Samsung (750 series) and the bolts I needed were included.

Overall, a great buy.

Review by paint:

I am not a handyman. I was a-feared. Can I do it. I paid 1200 dollars for this TV. Am I going to destroy it? Luckly, instillation was easy. I installed two tv’s with this device and the sense of accomplishment still hasn’t left me. I am very proud of this purchase. I give this product three thumbs up. That means I had to borrow a thumb from my neighbor to write this review.

Review by P. Richardson:

Not a bad value, here are some observations:

-Directions are sufficient. It took me about 45 minutes with the help of my roommate.

-You absolutely must use a stud finder. Once you are in the studs it is very stable.

-I hung from the wall plate (I weigh 180) when we were finished mounting it to test. It held me no problem.

-My TV is 40″ you can see the wall mount behind the TV from almost any angle except straight on. So, if that’ll bother you don’t buy it.

-The TV hangs off the wall so you can see the wall mount very obviously from the side.

In summary, this wall mount does its job nicely for the price. It’s not quite as nice and streamlined as my roommate’s mount, but his was over 0.00.

Review by Jonathan C. Huang:

I recently purchased the new VIZIO M220VA 22-inch LED TV, and so far it seems to be a solid performer. Of course, I feel that it is my obligation to point out that this model is NOT meant to be a high-end set. If you purchase this with such an expectation, you will be disappointed. However, if you are looking for a good, affordable LED LCD TV with great picture quality, you would have a difficult time finding a better bang for your buck than this.

Let me start by expressing how very annoyed I get when I read reviews that get so caught up in only pointing out superficial flaws and never even touch upon the most important aspects – picture and sound quality. Yes, this TV does have it’s quirks: the remote is a little stiff and can be a little fickle sometimes. The stand is difficult to put on and literally took me a good 15 minutes to figure it out. However, despite these flaws, this television does deliver where it matters.

Picture quality is quite good, especially for a TV in its price range. Standard definition content looks sub-optimal, but this is due to the nature of how SD video is scaled by HDTVs in general, and nothing to do with this model specifically. High-definition content looks excellent, and I have had good experiences watching 720p/1080p movies from my laptop (through the VGA output). The picture is bright, crisp, and contrast is great. Blacks are rich and solid, without losing the subtle detail in the content. Keep in mind, though, that in order to get the most mileage, you will need to spend some time to calibrate the settings to give you an optimal picture quality. Games look great and there is no ghosting with the TV’s fast 5ms response time.

The screen has a matte finish, which is great if your environment has lots of lighting, as the matte surface will suffer far less from glare than a glossy screen would. There is a never-ending debate over whether one type of screen surface is better than the other, but I’ll leave that for another day.

Sound quality on the other hand is nothing to write home about. The speakers are a bit weak, but this is easily solved by using a set of external speakers. I am currently using an old set of computer speakers hooked up via the headphone jack on the TV, and they sound infinitely better than the TV speakers after turning off the “SRS TruSurround” option (some sort of faux-surround sound simulator).

The VIZIO has a decent number of inputs in the back, with 1x Composite, 1x Component, 2x HDMI, 1x VGA w/ Audio, 1x USB (for photos), and an optical input for a home theater sound system. It is worth noting that HDMI and component inputs are located directly on the back of the model (composite inputs are on the side), so if you are planning on wall-mounting it, it may be difficult to plug in the necessary connections if you don’t leave enough room between the wall and the TV.

Also, it is worth noting that the previous reviewer stated that there is no way to remove unwanted channels individually. This is FALSE. Under the “Master Channels” menu, you have the options to “Mark All”, and “Unmark All” channels. Hitting right on the controller allows you to move up and down on the list to select individual channels to add/remove.

All in all, this is a good TV. It is certainly not perfect, and if you have more money to spend I would encourage you to shoot for a higher-end model. But for what it’s worth, the VIZIO M220VA is a tough beast to beat in its division.

Review by bradcs:

I must say that I am very pleased with this TV. It is a perfect fit for a bedroom. I beg to differ with some of the comments about the sound quality. The speakers are in front of the unit, not in the back as with many HDTV’s. Yes the sound is a bit tinny, but it does not need to be cranked up to deliver sufficient sound for a 12×12 room. The picture quality is suberb for a smaller screen. The HD 1080p is indeed full HDTV and I am impressed with the LED backlighting. It is also a solid energy saver as it is rated at a 4.0 for energy efficiency. Yes, the remote could be improved, but I have to use a cable remote for my box so that is a non-issue for me. All in all I would definitely recommend this TV for the price. I am very satisfied with its performance thus far.

Review by Cory:

This is a GREAT product. At first I thought the price would reflect on the quality, but it definitely does not. Order processing and shipment was very quick.

Review by Annette:

Looks WAY better in person. The post on mine is silver, which didnt bother me. It was very easy to put together as everything is clearly labeled and the TV was easy to mount. I’m SO happy with it. Shows finger prints like crazy though.

Review by Ronald C. Weingart:

First, I was very impressed with every aspect of the stand (design, quality and especially the packaging) but I purchased it for use with a larger 65″ flat screen weighing 105# (less than the 130# product limit). I did not use the shelf and mounted the TV with bottom of the screen only 21″ off the floor so the mid point of the screen was 37″ off the floor which was eye level with our low couches. The lower height increased stability and works for me although the fctory does not recommend use of the stand with anything larger than 50″.

Review by Whaledad:

Working in the computer industry for over 25 years, I’m not easily impressed. Two quad-core processor, 8 GB of RAM and 2.5 TB of storage in a home pc… nice, but just “more of the same”.

Most of the computer innovation of the last couple of years has been “more, faster and bigger”, but nothing revolutionary.

However, the new MediaSmart EX495 is truly amazing: the speed, the capacity, but more importantly: the ease-of-install, and ease-of-use that DON’T “handycap” the “power user”, are fabulous.

I had the server up and running in a few minutes. It’s now supporting 6 users, 1 MediaSmart Connect x280n (why did they stop making that!?), and 1 Roku M500. I added a second 1.5-TB hard drive and have already filled almost half of the total capacity (25,000 songs, 28,000 pictures, 600 videos, and loads of other stuff). This includes doubling almost every directory (I like this feature over Raid 1 as it provides much more flexibility), and backups of all PCs. The most impressive was how it enables external (secure) access by directly interacting with the router to open/forward the right ports. And it was immediately successful.

Still to do: connect a USB cable to my UPS and try to set up graceful shut down.

Review by CaliDuckPhan:

This little guy got delivered by Amazon a few days before it’s original release. I am not much of a directions guy, but was extremely pleased with how easy this was to set up and how intuitive it was when it came to setting it up. I’ve got 1 workstation, 2 netbooks, and 2 laptops that backup wirelessly to this guy. If they are already on the same wireless network, it’s simply a matter of clicking the ‘add computer’ button. There’s no need to fuss with any of the backup settings unless you are particular, as it will do the work automatically for you. You can then either access your files via the console or remotely at your convenience.

I can’t stress enough how nice and convenient it is to be able to centrally access all my files without having to shuffle files back and forth between the local hard drives and having piece of mind knowing it’s being backed up automatically. I previously did this with Time Capsule which while it worked at times, was tempermental and slow. I’m not sure how well this will work on Mac, but I am running various flavors of XP and Vista in 32bit and 64bit configs.

I even decided to add another storage drive (Seagate Barracude 1.5tb 7200rpm)for redundancy. Adding storage was a simple as pulling out an open drive bay, popping in the new drive, then going into the management console to click through the add storage wizard which took less than a minute. Now I’ve got 2.6tb’s of storage, more than I’ll probably ever need and 2 open bays to expand down the road.

Review by Whaledad:

Working in the computer industry for over 25 years, I’m not easily impressed. Two quad-core processor, 8 GB of RAM and 2.5 TB of storage in a home pc… nice, but just “more of the same”.

Most of the computer innovation of the last couple of years has been “more, faster and bigger”, but nothing revolutionary.

However, the new MediaSmart EX495 is truly amazing: the speed, the capacity, but more importantly: the ease-of-install, and ease-of-use that DON’T “handycap” the “power user”, are fabulous.

I had the server up and running in a few minutes. It’s now supporting 6 users, 1 MediaSmart Connect x280n (why did they stop making that!?), and 1 Roku M500. I added a second 1.5-TB hard drive and have already filled almost half of the total capacity (25,000 songs, 28,000 pictures, 600 videos, and loads of other stuff). This includes doubling almost every directory (I like this feature over Raid 1 as it provides much more flexibility), and backups of all PCs. The most impressive was how it enables external (secure) access by directly interacting with the router to open/forward the right ports. And it was immediately successful.

Still to do: connect a USB cable to my UPS and try to set up graceful shut down.

Review by CaliDuckPhan:

This little guy got delivered by Amazon a few days before it’s original release. I am not much of a directions guy, but was extremely pleased with how easy this was to set up and how intuitive it was when it came to setting it up. I’ve got 1 workstation, 2 netbooks, and 2 laptops that backup wirelessly to this guy. If they are already on the same wireless network, it’s simply a matter of clicking the ‘add computer’ button. There’s no need to fuss with any of the backup settings unless you are particular, as it will do the work automatically for you. You can then either access your files via the console or remotely at your convenience.

I can’t stress enough how nice and convenient it is to be able to centrally access all my files without having to shuffle files back and forth between the local hard drives and having piece of mind knowing it’s being backed up automatically. I previously did this with Time Capsule which while it worked at times, was tempermental and slow. I’m not sure how well this will work on Mac, but I am running various flavors of XP and Vista in 32bit and 64bit configs.

I even decided to add another storage drive (Seagate Barracude 1.5tb 7200rpm)for redundancy. Adding storage was a simple as pulling out an open drive bay, popping in the new drive, then going into the management console to click through the add storage wizard which took less than a minute. Now I’ve got 2.6tb’s of storage, more than I’ll probably ever need and 2 open bays to expand down the road.

Review by Honest Guy:

NEVER SHOULD HAVE HAPPENED:

I’ve watched the issue with these drives carefully for about 2 months. It looks like Seagate solved the problem and that a vocal few were ever really affected. By few I mean relative to the thousands sold. And I am not defending Seagate. This whole fiasco was unacceptable.

MY SYSTEM:

I picked up 8 of these drives. I’m running them in 4 separate DLink DNS-321 RAID boxes. I’ve copied about 4TB of data back and forth across them for days. My only firmware update needed was for the DLink so that it could properly handle the new 1.5TB drives.

In the end I believe all is well with both the drives and the DLink DNS-321. I will of course update this review immediately if I see any problems.

PERFORMANCE:

We are able to watch movies from this drive arrangement on 3 computers simultaneously across a 100mb network from the same drive while adding new files to the drive from a 4th computer.

This means I can be adding movies unattended to the system while watching an Epic Man movie on the plasma in the living room… while the kids are watching Monsters Inc in the bedroom… and the wife is off watching some chic flick in the Den.

The combination of DLink and these 1.5TB drives is fantastic and seems as stable as the WD 1TBs I was using previously.

PROPER DIAGNOSIS:

Don’t confuse your drive DIEING after a week with the previous firmware problems of this particular drive. Blame the vendor that shipped the drive like it could bounce !

ON A SIDE NOTE:

I will say I am sick of Amazon, Tiger and other vendors shipping hard drives like they are indestructible ROCKS. Even if they arrive working, this inadequate packaging is certainly taking years off the life of our drives. One of my 8 arrived DEAD as a brick thanks to this nonsense. I am furious about this issue !

Will it take a class action to stop this behavior of guaranteeing future drive sales by damaging todays drives through deliberate mishandling of our purchases ?! Wake up AMAZON ! Wake up TIGER !

UPDATE: Dec 14 2009

One year later, I own 22 of these drives now. 12 are running daily in DNS-321 Raid boxes. The other 10 are used as back up drives in a drop in SATA adapter. No failures since 2 in the first few weeks, I believe due to poor packaging. About 6 of my drives came with the BAD firmware. I never had issues with that either. Call me blessed. I just think the DNS-321 and these drives work very well together.

Review by John Smiley:

Update: I wrote this review before a firmware update was made available and my comments reflect the situation at the time. When the updates were made available, I flashed my 5 drives and they’ve been working fine ever since. I’d change the rating to a 4 star if the editor allowed.

I and many others have been experiencing serious problems with these drives including:

* dropping out of RAID configurations for no apparent reason

* being ejected from a RAID configuration due to read / write errors

* freezing for up to 30 seconds

These problems have been reported on Linux, Vista, XP, and OS X and appear to be related to how the drives flush their write cache. In many cases, the drives work fine for days or weeks before problems appear. In my case, I bought five of these for my Qnap TS-509 Pro and they worked great for about two weeks under various read / write loads. Since then, I’ve had all three of the problems mentioned above on different drives and they are growing progressively worse. The latest problem was three of the five drives disappearing from the RAID5 volume while I was attempting to copy the files to a different NAS.

A work-around that has been successful for some is to disable the disk write cache. Other than the obvious performance penalty and reduced lifespan this causes, some systems do not provide a means of disabling disk write cache (such as the Qnap).

References to these problems can be found on many forum threads:

Qnap: http://forum.qnap.com/viewtopic.php?f=142&t=8826

Netgear: http://www.readynas.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=20&t=20435&start=60&st=0&sk=t&sd=a

Synology: http://www.synology.com/enu/forum/viewtopic.php?f=26&p=47101

AVSForum: http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1080005

macrumors: http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=571843

Ubuntu: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=933053

Slashdot: http://hardware.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=1003109&cid=25458241

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/review/product/B00066IJPQ/ref=dp_top_cm_cr_acr_txt?_encoding=UTF8&showViewpoints=1

The most informative thread may be found on Seagate’s own support forum, where it appears Seagate is blaming everyone but themselves for the problem:

http://forums.seagate.com/stx/board/message?board.id=ata_drives&thread.id=2390&view=by_date_ascending&page=1

Review by William W. Davis:

QUICK SUMMARY: Acer’s server, when configured correctly, provides home users and small offices a powerful solution for automated backups, restores, remote access and media server capability. However, configuring this server can be challenging, and Acer makes little effort to help its customers. Microsoft’s Windows Home Server is a terrific — and stable! — operating system. Add a 2nd hard drive, too, and you’ve got redundant data storage. Cautiously recommended.

*** SPECIAL NOTE as of February 6, 2010: McAfee Antivirus automatically updated their software to Version 5, which totally screwed up my server! STAY AWAY from McAfee!! If you buy this server, immediately use Remote Desktop to open the server’s Control Panel, choose Add or Remove Programs, and uninstall McAfee from your server! McAfee cannot be trusted! Read the end of this review to learn more.

What follows is my review of the Acer Aspire AH340-UA230N Home Server, based upon my personal experience with it since purchasing one in late June 2009. For 2010, Acer has refreshed their Windows Home Server lineup using faster RAM and the Intel Atom D410 and D510 CPUs which have a slight bump in processor speed and, for the D510, more L2 cache. Other than this, the AH341 and AH342 servers are *exactly* the same as the older AH340 server.

****** ACER HOME SERVER PRODUCT CONFIGURATION CHART ******

Acer Aspire easyStore AH340-U2T1H Windows® Home Server, Intel® Atom(tm) Processor 230 (512KB L2 cache, 1.60GHz, 533MHz FSB), 2GB (2/0) DDR2 667 SDRAM, 256MB flash ROM, 2TB SATA hard drive, Intel® Graphics Media Accelerator 950, gigabit LAN

Acer Aspire AH340-UA230N Windows® Home Server, Intel® Atom(tm) Processor 230 (512KB L2 cache, 1.60GHz, 533MHz FSB), 2GB (2/0) DDR2 667 SDRAM, 256MB flash ROM, 1TB SATA hard drive, Intel® Graphics Media Accelerator 950, gigabit LAN

Acer Aspire easyStore AH341-U1T2H Windows® Home Server, Intel® Atom(tm) Processor D410 (512KB L2 cache, 1.66GHz), 2GB (2) DDR2 800 SDRAM, 256MB flash ROM, 1TB SATA hard drive, gigabit LAN

Acer Aspire easyStore AH342-U2T2H Home Server (Black), Intel® Atom(tm) Processor D510 (1MB L2 cache, 1.66GHz), 2GB (2) DDR2 800 SDRAM, 256MB flash ROM, 2TB SATA hard drive, gigabit LAN

*********************************************************

What follows is my review of this Acer home server, based upon my personal experience with it since purchasing one in late June 2009. If you read this very long review, you’ll learn quite a bit about this Acer server and the Windows Home Server operating system. You’ll also read about some minor issues I’ve run into, and how to workaround those issues. I’ve owned this server for six months now, and it’s been a good experience overall. If you buy this Acer server, you’re not going to get much help from Acer. So for any problems, your own technical know-how and the Internet community are your best sources of help.

In short, I bought this Acer server and successfully installed it on my home network. In very large part, it’s doing what it’s supposed to be doing, that is, it automatically backs up my four-computer home network, and it gives me remote access to my data, too. Thus far, I have only one small, re-occurring issue which I’ll share in a moment.

The out-of-box experience is pretty good, but don’t expect much by way of documentation. You’ll need to look elsewhere to understand all the ins-and-outs of using Windows Home Server (WHS). Although the “Quick Start” booklet seems very thick, it’s actually got the instructions in about five or six languages, and so when you read the English section (if you read English), you’ll only see how to set-up the server with a little narrative and black-and-white screenshots that are difficult to read. Fortunately, the setup is pretty easy, and they do include a larger poster with just the absolute essentials (which is what I used), and the poster was good enough. In short, plug-in the ethernet cable from the server to your wireless router, and you’re in business. The server is heavier than I expected, and *quieter* than I expected (much less noisy than my desktop computer).

Then, you install a CD in one of your available networked computers to install the Server Console on the installed-from computer, and to begin configuring your new server. One things stands out in my mind here…the instructions say turn-on your server and wait until the blue LED light is glowing steady. Trouble is, there are about seven or eight lights glowing at this point (one light for each of the four disk drive bays, a power-on light, a network light, an “information” light, and possibly a disk activity light), and some of the lights glow purple, not blue. Suffice it to say that you should wait a few minutes just to make sure everything is settled before you start server configuring.

The server configuration went pretty well, I thought. Do a Google search for “Acer Windows Home Server Review” and you’ll find a website where someone has very helpfully documented the entire install process using color screenshots of each step. The installed server console program (running on one of your networked computers) is not resizeable and won’t maximize, which is annoying. You can use Remote Desktop Connection to actually login to your new server (if you’re not familiar with Remote Desktop Connection, it lets you connect to another computer from the computer you’re using).

In a very short time, my old, quirky Gateway desktop computer (circa 2003, XP Pro, 2Ghz CPU, 512MB RAM, 80GB HD) was recognized by the new Acer server, and I was creating user accounts on the server that match my desktop computer (you should use a password on your user accounts, and be sure to specify the same password on the server as what you use for the desktop/laptop account).

At this point, I had my first problem — the Gateway’s connection to the server would get lost inexplicably during the first attempt at a manual backup. Long story short, I completely reinstalled Windows XP Pro SP-3 on the Gateway desktop, reinstalled the Windows Home Server Console, and was able to begin getting successful backups until I got to the point where I restored all my digital media files (using Acronis and an external hard drive — not using the new Acer server) and then tried a WHS backup, which fails inexplicably. Could be my aging and quirky Gateway hardware, but it’s a fresh install of XP and the error messaging is vague and unhelpful.

Notably, my three laptops (running XP Media Edition w/1GB RAM, Vista Ultimate w/2GB, and Windows 7 Ultimate w/4GB of RAM) backed up their contents perfectly — no troubles at all, even backing up a very large VMWare virtual hard drive (which is a single, physical, 20GB file on my Vista laptop).

Very cool feature: This Acer will wake-up either a sleeping or hibernating computer to do the backup in the middle of the night! So, don’t turn-off your computers, just put them in sleep/hibernate mode so they don’t use much power, but will still get backed-up. (Note: WHS does *not* use Wake On LAN technology, which doesn’t work reliably in all environments – the WHS technical strategy for waking sleeping/hibernating computers works much better than WOL). The WHS backups are incremental, so you can return to any previous point in time during a restore — you aren’t limited just to what was done last night. This is handy if you want to restore your computer to the way it worked one month ago, when it was working reliably (you’d probably do a 2nd restore, then, to load all your most recent data following the system restore).

To get remote access to work correctly, you need to modify your ISP’s modem setups (your ISP’s modem most likely has a built-in router, too). Choose “Bridged over Ethernet” protocol in the modem setups, and then configure your wireless router that’s attached to the modem so it is a PPPoE connection (you’ll need your ISP’s account name and password for the router configuration). Once I got through this headache, I was able to gain remote access to my server — very cool feature!! (BTW, don’t count on any technical help by AT&T/Bellsouth – you won’t get any that’s helpful to you). You may also have trouble if your ISP blocks certain ports, like ports 80 and 443. One Amazon customer reported that Verizon blocks those two ports which are necessary to get remote access to your server. (ISPs generally don’t like the idea of you running a server from a residential high-speed connection).

I did a successful restore of my quirky Gateway computer, just to see what that’s like. Very simple. Install a Restore CD in the computer (which must be connected by ethernet, not wirelessly), and choose a backup on the server you’ll use for the restore. I did this twice, and it worked perfectly and easily. A computer with XP SP-3, Office Pro and maybe 5GB of personal data was restored in about 20 minutes!

In short, it’s a 4-star product because I can’t backup my digital media files on my Gateway. My Gateway desktop hardware *is* quirky, so that very well might be the problem root cause, but even still, the WHS backup is unhelpful in diagnosing the exact issue for me. (The Windows Event Viewer alludes to a buffer space issue with a socket, but that’s beyond the home consumer’s ability to understand).

**** July 2, 2009 UPDATE

I’ve had this for just a few days now, and things are working nicely. I’ve got all my personal data on a shared folder, making all my data accessible anywhere on the Internet (by design – I could turn off remote access if I wanted). Everything is working very well. Using Offline Files and Folders (on XP Pro or Vista Pro/Ultimate), I’ve now got a great solution to carrying my data with me on my laptop. Note, though, that for the auto-backup function to work, your laptop should be plugged in, and I noticed this morning that the kids’ laptop didn’t go back to sleep after getting awakened for backup. That’s only been a problem with one of my four computers, so it’s probably computer-specific, and not a problem with WHS.

I added another 1TB hard drive: Western Digital 1 TB Caviar Green SATA Intellipower 32 MB Cache Bulk/OEM Desktop Hard Drive WD10EADS. There’s no instruction on how to actually do that, but here’s the key: slide the orange knob on the front of the empty drive bay to take the cage out — swinging that cage door fully open will disengage a hard drive from the server (but at the moment, the cage is empty, so it really doesn’t do anything). One side of the mostly-plastic cage is meant to be gently bent so you an insert the new hard drive and fit it into the four button-pins (it’s not screwed into the cage). When you slide the cage back into the server, shut the cage’s “door” halfway until the cage is slid back as far as it can go. Then, fully close the cage’s “door” to make a snug fit between the hard drive and the server’s pin receptacle. I bumbled my way around to figure this out, as there are no instructions to explain this.

When you power-on your server, it’ll recognize the new drive. You need to add it to the server’s storage space (whether you want to use it as additional storage or whether you want to enable data redundancy so your data is stored on two drives, not just one).

By adding a 2nd hard drive, I can ask WHS to automatically make a copy of all my shared folders onto the 2nd hard drive, giving me data redundancy. Note: The WHS database that keeps track of all your backups is *not* redundantly stored, though. There is a free add-in to the server console (called WHSBDBB) which can make a backup of the backup database, but that’s a manual process. This is a limitation of WHS, not specifically with this Acer server.

I bought a one-year McAfee license for the antivirus (by default, the server runs Windows Firewall and not McAfee’s firewall). The process was klutzy and confusing after I clicked “Buy Now” on the server console (under the McAfee tab). Although others appear to have gotten a six-month introductory license, my Acer server came with only 45-days, and when I renewed, it didn’t begin the year after the 45-day period, it began immediately, so I essentially lost out on a free 45-day window to use McAfee. (Update 8/29/09: I suspect that McAfee is the reason I get the “WHS Console blue screen” — keep reading).

I bought a new APC-branded UPS for the server. By plugging in the data cable running from the UPS to the USB port on the server, the server immediately recognized the UPS. I easily configured my shutdown wishes by remoting into the server (Control Panel > Power Options > Alarms).

*** July 17, 2009 UPDATE

I took a 2-week vacation and had the server running while away — it ran just fine, and although there was nothing to backup, I did have remote access to my files and I could remotely use the server console to control the server. However, shortly before I returned home, I did notice one small glitch: the server console apparently hangs and becomes unresponsive when trying to sign-on to the server (from another, connected computer) after a period of time goes by, or after certain tasks are performed on the server.

Today, for instance, I installed then uninstalled the AutoExit 2008 add-in program, and after uninstalling, I couldn’t use the server console any longer. This is not an infrequent problem with WHS. Trying to logon just creates an empty console window after I give it my authentication credentials. Rebooting the server appears to be the only way to get the server console to work properly once more. (August 7, 2009 Update: I reported this issue to Acer. Here’s what they said: “Unfortunately, we are unable to offer support for this type of issue…”). I’ve done plenty of Google searches, and this is not a widely-reported problem, but it *may* be caused by McAfee. (August 9, 2009 Update: After a few days of console unresponsiveness from a networked computer, yesterday the server console connected once more, even without a server reboot!)

For me, that’s not a big problem because I can still reliably use Remote Desktop Connection to access the server. Get familiar with Remote Desktop Connection on your operating system. Windows XP, Vista and 7 all have Remote Desktop Connection which allows you to connect to another computer (though WHICH computer you can connect to depends — for instance, you can connect to a Windows XP Professional or Windows Home Server computer, but not a computer running Windows XP Home Edition). If you can’t remotely connect to your server, you’ll wind up rebooting the server using the power on/off button — very inadvisable for the place you’re storing backups and shareable data! Also, if you plan on using remote access via the Internet to get to the server console, then look at the HP servers, not this Acer!

All other functions are working just fine: automatic backups, data redundancy, remote access to files & folders, remote control (of my other networked computers — getting control of the server itself remotely is dicey due to the bug I’ve mentioned). I like this Acer-branded Windows Home Server, and would certainly recommend it to others with at least a hobbyist’s interest in computers and/or networks. The installation was easy (except for the issue with the Bellsouth modem/router, which I had to resolve to get remote access to my server and data). It’s not for grandma, though, unless you’re providing grandma with IT support.

One thing more: it is very easy to remove the Acer default home page from your server’s personal website. Do a Google search “change the default Acer homepage” to learn how.

*** July 21, 2009 UPDATE

Last night I used this Acer to create a media server. I just moved folders from the My Music (XP) or Music (Vista) folder into the Music folder of the Acer Windows Home Server. When the server console is first installed on any networked computer, it also makes ready for installation the Windows Media Center Connector, which allows Windows Media Center to easily find all those pictures, videos and music on the home server. After installing and rebooting the Connector software on each networked computer, Media Center finds (slowly — you’ll see new albums added and appear while you’re browsing your media library) everything on the server. Streaming from the server to the networked computer was flawless. Album art somehow makes its way to the server, too! Now I’m search of a solution that lets my old stereo tap into that digital storehouse on the server (without spending nearly 0 on a Squeezebox).

One last thing: When downloading data from the server using the Internet, if your download is large (say, 100mb or more), the download will finish but your web session seems to time-out, and you have to close the browser and reconnect. Short downloads of either files or folders didn’t have this problem. My DSL upload speed is 512/Kbps (that’s in ‘kilobits’), so the download is no faster than about 52/KBps (that’s in ‘kilobytes’). For me, that translates to about 3MB/minute in download speed. Eg, you won’t be streaming video over the Internet, but music streaming is fine.

*** July 25, 2009 UPDATE

I played with video streaming recently. I’ve got lots of AVI files taken with a Canon digital camera. The AVI’s do not stream well at all, but that appears to be an issue either with the AVIs themselves or with the codecs I’m using (I have plain vanilla Microsoft Media Center or Media Player). Interestingly, I tried streaming a 720p, HD video clip in WMV format (across my home network, not the Internet), and the streaming was perfect! Note: both the CPU and network bandwidth (on a g-network) had plenty of headroom left to do other tasks while streaming the HD video clip. To stream my AVIs, though, I have to use a video converter to create WMV files.

Today, the server console icon glowed yellow (warning). Apparently the server monitors the Internet connection of its own website, and it was telling me that the website wasn’t available to Internet connections. Seems as if Bellsouth was doing something to my DSL line, but I thought it was cool that the server would warn me that my website wasn’t available! Soon after, when the DSL was up, the server console icon went from yellow back to green. The same icon glows yellow for other reasons, too, like if a computer hasn’t been recently backed-up, or if you add a new hard drive but don’t configure it for backups. Very nice features.

***** JULY 29, 2009 UPDATE

One last word. Yesterday I tried restoring one of my laptops (I figured, “No problem” because I’d restored two other computers just fine). However, the Restore CD failed to load a Windows default network driver that worked with my laptops network adapter! I learned two things: 1) Once you install your server, take the steps necessary to do a restore (even if you abort it at the last step) to ensure you *can* restore. 2) If the default network driver won’t work with your computer’s network adapter, download the right driver, unzip it, and put the (*.sys, *.inf) files on a USB drive’s root directory, as you’ll need to perform an extra step of loading the network driver during the restore. Once I did that, the Restore program found/loaded the right network adapter driver, and I was on my way once more.

***** AUGUST 4, 2009 UPDATE

Thought I’d mention to everyone that the Windows Home Server backups do **NOT** backup the Recycle Bin, temp folders, shadow copies, or the client-side cache (if you use Offline Files & Folders, those copied folders are stored in the Windows\CSC folder). This is important to know because if you restore your computer BEFORE you have synch’ed all your files and folders (using the Sync Center in Vista), you’ll lose those changes after the restore is complete. The backups aren’t image-based like Acronis (which saved my hide because I was able to get to the client-side cache in an Acronis image backup). Also, the nightly backups do **NOT** backup the shared folders on the server (Photos, Videos, Music, and all user shared folders). If you have 2+ hard drives in your server, you can turn-on duplication so the shared folders are copied onto a second hard drive (for data redundancy), but you won’t gain the benefit of incremental backups that keep track of the changes to those shared folders. You can use an external hard drive to make a backup of the shared folders (to have an offsite backup of your data), but that method doesn’t give you automatic, nightly backup of any changes to the shared folders. Lastly, shadow copies aren’t supported in Windows Home Server. So, if you want to keep track of all your incremental changes to your files, store them on the local hard drive, not the server, so they’re backed-up every night. If you don’t care about incremental changes, store them on the server so they’re shareable and accessible via your WHS website.

*** AUGUST 30, 2009

Thought I’d share the good stability I’m having with my Acer server. It’s been running 24/7 for the last 18 days (18 days ago it performed an automatic update of the operating system and rebooted). I’ve had no further trouble with the server console not responding/connecting — until today! This morning, McAfee ran a once-a-week virus scan, after which the Acer red information light began glowing (meaning “Critical” network problem — apparently, McAfee real-time protection stopped working either during or after the weekly scan), and the WHS Console application got a blue screen when trying to logon. I don’t know for certain that McAfee is the cause of the WHS Console blue screen (which, btw, is different than the Windows BSOD…the WHS Console blue screen just means that after entering a password, the console application won’t appear…you can still reliably use the console by using Remote Desktop and launching the console directly from the server Desktop). However, I see others have had this same problem running WHS on an *HP* server that also was running McAfee. After waiting a few hours, the red light turned to blue and the McAfee service apparently starting running again on its own. The WHS console still doesn’t connect from a networked PC, though. Throughout this, though, the server still was accessible. To get the WHS Console to respond, use Remote Desktop Connection to your server, open Task Manager (CTRL+ALT+END), click the Users tab and look for any connections (besides the one you just established) and logoff any hung-up connections. That’s what cleared up the problem for me. I don’t know why I had a hanging Administrator connection, but I did, and logging-off that connection caused the WHS Console to respond normally once more — without rebooting the server, which also would have worked.

After 18 days, remote access from the Internet works flawlessly, streaming music over the Internet works fine. Backups happen every night (as long as my laptops are plugged-in to the wall socket). I was reading about Verizon’s 4G network where upload/download speeds are fast enough to support streaming video. The future looks bright with Windows Home Server and this Acer!

Oh, if you want to remove the built-in McAfee software, you’ll need to do so using the server’s Control Panel (so you have to use Remote Desktop to get to the server). You can’t remove McAfee using the console’s function of installing/uninstalling server “add-in” programs because the McAfee add-in program isn’t listed. Acer has somehow baked in the McAfee product in its implementation of the WHS operating system.

Let me reiterate one point I made earlier: If you buy this Acer, don’t expect *any* help from Acer’s technical support. Either you’ll have to figure out your own problems yourself, or you’ll engage the Internet community for help. If you’re not comfortable doing this, buying a server — especially from Acer — isn’t for you.

**** SEPTEMBER 10, 2009 UPDATE

My Acer server rebooted itself last night when it automatically installed the Windows updates from Microsoft. Unbelievably, I didn’t ever have to manually reboot the server in the last 30 days! It quietly ran and did its automatic, nightly backups of my 4 PCs, and the server reliably streamed music for me every day at work over the Internet. The server’s last reboot was after the August install of Windows updates. I never had a Windows-based computer that was this reliable.

**** OCTOBER 26, 2009 UPDATE

Still running like a charm! Backups are done every night, as long as the laptops are plugged in. BTW, the server does backup Windows 7 machines with Power Pack 2 (Power Pack 2 is a major software service release from Microsoft; it includes bug fixes and often some new functionality. This is a free download, and you should install it when you’re first setting up your server.) The only time this server reboots is to install the once-a-month Microsoft updates. The server is simply rock-solid. (Note: As of November 24, 2009, Microsoft made available Power Pack 3 which adds some additional enhancements, especially for Windows 7 users. You should update WHS to Power Pack 3 to get the latest bug fixes and enhancements. If you already have a Windows Home Server and have automatic updates turned-on, then Power Pack 3 will automatically install itself).

*** NOVEMBER 17, 2009 UPDATE

My quirky Gateway desktop’s hard drive crashed! I’ve never had a hard drive crash before! The Gateway had two 80GB hard drives, so I yanked the master drive which crashed, and made the slave drive the new master. Popped in the Acer PC Restore CD and the original C drive contents was restored in less than half an hour. Because automatic backups occur nightly, I lost nothing. Although I don’t have the 2nd hard drive anymore, all that data is accessible from one of the backups on the Acer server. The whole ordeal was just a minor inconvenience, rather than a disaster. Very, very cool.

*** JANUARY 15, 2010

Weirdly, after a monthly update, my Acer server wasn’t seen by Windows Explorer as one of the networked computers in my workgroup. It was still addressable by its IP address, though, and I could still see data in Explorer via the mapped drives I added earlier. I just couldn’t see my server as one of the computers in my Windows workgroup. What’s up? Long story short, this can happen with Windows workgroups. You can do web searches to learn all the gory details, but here’s what you need to do if this happens. Power-off all computers (I also powered off my router and modem, too). Then, power-up just the Acer server, firstly (or the modem, router, then the Acer server). Wait 10 minutes or more so the server goes through all it’s start-up tasks. After that, power-on all the other computers on your network. This seems the best way to make the Acer server the “master” recordkeeper for all the computers in a Windows workgroup. I tried this, and it worked for me.

*** FEBRUARY 6, 2010

My Acer server went on “Critical” status today. Why? McAfee’s antivirus files are out-of-date. They haven’t been updated in two weeks. Why not? I tried manually updating them via the console; no dice. I tried other measures, too, all unsuccessful. Finally, I had to uninstall/reinstall McAfee using McAfee’s horrible web interface. But why did I have any problem at all? Here’s why: McAfee’s just automatically updated their software on my server from version 4.9 to 5.0. However in the process, my “McAfee Total Protection” stopped working correctly, and I’ve spent most of a day trying to uninstall/reinstall McAfee all without success! Lesson learned: Don’t buy a license to use McAfee antivirus! Try another antivirus made for Windows Home Server. I’m trying Avast’s antivirus right now — 60 day free trial.

*** APRIL 7, 2010

Avast WHS edition is a winner! I bought the 3-year license. The service works well, updates regularly, scans weekly, all without bothering or pestering me, or fouling up the Acer server. And, the WHS console has not ever been unresponsive or given me the problematic blue screen since I switched. Recommended!

Questions? Try commenting and I’ll do my best to answer back.

Review by Eriocaulon:

I’ve been disappointed with a couple of inexpensive network storage devices in the recent past and when this product was available, I jumped at the chance. When you consider that the 1TB hard drive is worth about 0 and the Windows Home Server is worth a little over 0, that means the hardware itself costs you about 0. That is a deal if you ask me. Here is what I like about it.

1. compact size. just a little nondescript box that you place anywhere you have an ethernet port. I put mine in the basement because it is cool down there year round and humidity is controlled.

2. 4 drive bays for plenty of storage. The trays are simple but effective. You have the option of hotswapping the drives although I probably would never use that feature. I do like that the drives are easily accessible. My main desktop has IcyHot trays and it cost me a small fortune for 4. Also, the home server software manages your data almost like RAID. You can configure which folders you want duplicated and it will put the data on different HDs for maximum protection.

3. low energy. I think idle energy consumption is about 50Watts. I leave this thing on all the time (how it was intended). You do not need a mondo processor for file serving.

4. internet access. Microsoft allows you to register your home server free of charge with an address of (name).homeserver.com. I can access my home server at work or out and about using the internet.

5. WHS. This OS is based on Windows Server 2003, a mature product. You control it via a console that you install on any computer you want. You can also control it via remote desktop. As WHS becomes more popular, you will see a load of aftermarket support for it. Right now, there is enough to get by. I even have my Squeezebox server software (beta) running on it and serving up my MP3 collection which resides on the WHS–I have 3 squeezebox unit so this was an unexpected blessing! You can also serve media to your PS3 or XBox360.

6. Quiet. This unit has a small fan and relies heavily on passive cooling. That is good and bad. Compared to a desktop, it is much quieter. My CPU temp is currently 152*F, my system temp 104*F.

Bottom line: a whole lot more than just a simple network storage device! I think the home server concept is sure to take off.

Review by Tarun Chachra:

UPDATED at Bottom on 05/05/2009

Hi All,

I have been using different types of NAS solutions, including a Drobo, for a while now and wanted to give the Windows Home Server solution a shot for my home. I am an IT person by trait. I know that it is fairly easy to build a small home server but I had heard so much about the HP interface that I wanted to give this a shot. Unfortunately I did not buy from AMAZON and had to use a third party to get the item….but that’s neither here or there. My review is about the product itself.

The box includes the server, the rescue cd, the restore cd, and a cd for both mac/pc workstations. Remove the item from the box, plug in the power and a ethernet cord to your router/switch and you are ready to roll. The first setup of the client software MUST be done on a PC so that you can set the server up. Very easy and very well made software that will guide you through the entire process.

(A Side Note – HP Recommends that you use a router that has UPNP on it so that the remote capabilities of this server can be used without issues. A list of some routers is below. I was unfortunately using Apple Airport Extreme Base Stations but had a handy dandy D-Link DIR-655 at home…which I switched to immediately and permanently so I can use this server. Product Link for DIR-655: D-Link DIR-655 Extreme N Wireless Router

Once the setup process is concluded (5-10 minutes) you are able to start using the server at once and create user accounts, media syncing, iTunes servers, etc. Very Very simplistic approach. One of the reasons I give it a 5/5. One feature that I want to mention, which puts this device over the others, is that it has a built in plug-in that allows me to use an Amazon s3 account to backup the entire server…normally you would have to use a 3rd party software (jungle disk, which i own) to do this but having it built into the server and having the server manage the backup to the cloud is amazing.

MAC Specific: I wanted to see how this server would work on a MAC and what the ramifications would be of using time machine over the network without having to buy Apple’s time capsule. Again, very easy. I installed the software on my macbook pro. It has a section where you define the amount of space you want to use on the server for your time machine backup…10-20-30-40-etc gb…. Set the space, it creates the area on the server, hit the start button, go to time machine preferences and use this new hard drive which shows up in the list as HP Mediasmart Server and VOILA….you are time machining away at gigabit speeds. Did I mention the ethernet on this is Gigabit.

Dynamic DNS: We all have some sort of broadband if we consider devices like this and most of us do not opt to pay the exorbitant costs for static ip addresses….instead we just use DHCP from Cable or DSL. Those addresses change..maybe not often..but they do change. One of the features of WHS is to allow you remote access from where ever you may be…and or for a family member to get in and take a look at some files you have stored for them…pictures, music, etc… The server has a built in feature to allow you to use two or three services….TZO (if I remember correctly is one that is included free for one year–allows custom domain names), Microsoft offers a free domain if you have a FREE Microsoft Live ID. I opted for the free service as it allows me to use a simple name like tarun . homeserver . com. You simply pick a name for your server (tarun) and it goes and checks if it is available…if it is you are all set. This is when a UPNP router comes into play so that media smart can set the router up to allow incoming connections to the proper ports for the server….VOILA…works like a charm. I can get to the server from work and upload files, download, etc….very very nice and very easy.

I can get in to much broader detail about the setup but then that would defeat the purpose of this review. I think I have already typed to my hearts content. I really love this device…it is worth its price. I am sure we can all build it cheaper and smaller…but hey…for me I don’t want to tinker with hardware since it is time consuming and I would much rather hang out with the kids.

This is a great device which, backed by HP, will only get better with time.

5/5

ps. If you have any questions…please feel free to comment and I will answer them as best as I can.

Quick Note 02-28-2009: If you are a PC user then the WHS agent will pull all of your music and pictures to the server and make them available…this includes iTunes music and playlists. If you are a MAC user…u are out of luck for automation…but you can copy your entire iTunes music folder over to the WHS Manually. WHS will make the iTunes library and playlists available to all network users. I moved my iTunes from my mac to the WHS and then simply told iTunes the new location…so if I add new music, podcasts, etc…I dont have to sync directories…iTunes will just add them to the WHS Music Folder…which is mounted on the mac as a volume. Hope that helps a bit.

ps.. Firefly is what WHS/HP use for iTunes….something which I believe can be installed on a drobo with droboshare.

UPDATE 03-06-09 – If you are a opendns user then there may be some issues in regard to pinging and browsing to your whs using the connector on pc’s. There is a simple fix…add an exception at [...] for your server. Example: server.local where server is your server name and .local is your home. I did it today and my pc was able to find the server without issue. Some routers may not experience this problem…but I had it with both the apple airport extreme and the d-link. A simple fix….

UPDATE 03-10-09 – Compatible Routers:

The Good:

* D-Link DGL-4100 GamerLounge Broadband Gigabit

* D-Link DGL-4300 GamerLounge Broadband Gigabit

* D-Link DIR-655 Wireless Xtreme N Gigabit

* D-Link EBR-2310 Ethernet Broadband

* D-Link WBR-1310 Wireless-G

* Linksys WRT150N Wireless N Broadband

* Linksys WRT54G3G-ST Wireless G for Mobile Broadband

* Linksys WRT54GC Compact Wireless-G Broadband

* Netgear WPN824NA RangeMax Wireless Router

* Trendnet TEW-631BRP Wireless N Draft

The BAD:

* Linksys WRT330N Wireless-N Gigabit Gaming

* Microsoft MN-500 Broadband Networking Wireless Base

* Apple Airport Extreme Base Station

* Linksys WRT55AG Wireless 4 Port

* Qwest Actiontec m1000DSL

* US Robotics USR8001 DSL/Cable with Print Server

Quick Update 03/13/2009 – Friday the 13th:

1. The server is backing up to Amazon S3 perfectly almost every day and I have not had one issue yet.

2. A FUN Project to try is to download the ps3 media server which is freeware that can be installed on WHS to automatically stream your music, videos, pictures, etc on to your PS3…if you have one. I will post a link in the comments section.

3. Last but not least for today – If you want to remove that annoying reminder to install Mcafee…..you can check the ignore button but that item remains in the list forever…. How to remove it? There is a share from the mediasmart called SOFTWARE which houses certain files. One of the files is a rather large file….larger then 50mb if I am not wrong….I wish I could remember the name. That is the McAfee add-in installer…once it is removed from the software share and the server is restarted..u will never see it mentioned again and dont have to worry about checking off ignore.

I know this review is getting LONG…but I want anyone that owns and or is considering buying one of these units to have as much information as possible. Its not easy to drop 0 these days and end up with something you may never use. I sincerely hope my review helps you make the right decision.

Quick NOTE: 03/24/09 – Microsoft has released powerpack two for WHS. I have also configured, manually, my new dual band Apple Airport Extreme to work with WHS. You simply need to forward 3 ports to your WHS box from within the Airport Utility Software. I believe somone has posted a link in the comments section also…..

Update 03/26/09 – This was pointed out to me in the comments section as I was unaware. You are able to completely image a Windows PC and recover it via a CD that is provided by HP. The initial backup takes a while depending on how much space you are using but once its done you feel better knowing your machine can be fully recovered if the hard drive dies, etc..

Update 05/05/09 – (happy cinco de Mayo) – I just wanted to chime in and let everyone know that a new version of the WHS software is available from HP. Make sure you update your units so that they have the latest and greatest. The new features allow for automatic video conversion for any videos you drop in designated folders. Also, HP has a iPhone and iPod touch software which connects to the server to allow for music streaming and photo viewing. AWESOME features that keep making this an AWESOME addition to anyone’s home network.

Review by mateo52:

**UPDATE 4-24-09: I gave in before, now I capitulate. With the latest software update, via remote access it is now possible to stream videos in H.264 (MP4) format. This unit just gets better and better.**

If I was just entering the market for an aggregate storage device for my home network, the EX487 would be my top choice. However, as a current user of the Netgear RND2150 ReadyNAS Duo 500 GB Desktop Network Attached Storage, a couple of features (integration with Logitech Squeezebox and Bittorrent management) I now find essential are not as readily available with the HP unit. Where features overlap and there are many, in each instance the EX487 seems easier to set up and use. While there are alternative paths that allow this device to support each of the applications noted above, the comparative conveniences of this server do not, in my opinion, cost justify replacement of an existing NAS with corresponding capabilities.

Set up

After powering up and Ethernet connection to a router (UPnP recommended), the included software CD is mounted on a Client PC and the easy to follow installation process guides you through each required step. I would suggest disabling any firewalls beforehand as in my case Norton security may have slowed the process considerably. After disabling the firewall for a short period, the procedure flowed smoothly, although my experiences with the HP updates portion seemed to take substantially longer than other users have indicated.

At this point you are prompted to create user accounts (up to 10 user accounts, passwords should match existing accounts on client PCs), create a website, set up remote access and install add-ons like TwonkyMedia and McAfee server security. I’m not real confident of the compatibility of McAfee with my present security software so this step was by-passed as although it is not as secure, the server is still behind the router’s firewall. In addition, McAfee is provided free for seven months and then becomes a fee based service. As of this date, I do not see a way to use another security suite, but I will keep looking. One ongoing annoyance is with each reboot of a client PC, I receive notification that the PC’s security software is out of date or non-existent so it may be necessary to define application startup order to that the activation of each PC’s security suite precedes activation of Window Home Server.

After I was confident the installation was successfully completed I decided to move the unit to another location and instead of direct connection to a router, I hooked it up by Ethernet to the NETGEAR HD/Gaming 5 GHz Wireless-N Networking Kit (WNHDEB111) in another location in my house because I found the dual fans which seem incumbent for such a compact enclosure with potentially four drives, are noticeably louder than my NAS and a little distracting to me.

Scalability

The server comes with two 750GB HDDs and has two bays for expansion. Installation of addition drives simply requires mounting on a tray and insertion in the CPU. Unlike most competitively priced NAS units where RAID redundancy is the only option, the user can opt to use full storage capacity or specify file duplication over multiple drives. This functionality is RAID0 comparable. The server also has four USB ports and an eSata port for attachment of additional external drives, or (and this is not highlighted in the documentation) attachment of printers for accessibility from any networked PC.

Backup/Restore

Up to 10 PCs can be defined for individual backup, either automatic or manually. If you have an application to enable shadow copying, continuous back-up of modified files will work as well. Only one instance of common files is stored (or two if duplication has been activated). The server itself can be backed up to an external hard drive or to Amazon’s S3 fee based service, which I investigated and at the cost of $.15 per GB for the first 50 TB is much too expensive for my tastes. HP has also provided operating system restoration/recovery disks for both PCs and the server. Curiously, however, there doesn’t seem to be a facility for creation of a recycle bin on the server.

Remote Access

After creation of your personal website through one of several alternative sources, and establishment of user accounts at the server, you have a link to the following functions: HPPhoto Publisher where photos can be published to: Snapfish , Flicker, FaceBook, Picasa or to albums in the HPPhoto viewer; Media streaming of music or photos to PCs or mobile devices; access to server shared files or remote desktop to client PCs, or; Browse files/folders on server. Files can be uploaded to or, downloaded from the server. There are some security risks associated with remote access feature, but they can be limited, to an extent, by adjustment of settings on one’s router. Another plus for the HP MediaSmart over many NAS units is although similar services are available via the NAS, this server handles dynamic IP addresses very efficiently so the potential expenses associated with obtaining a static address from some ISPs is avoided. And, if there isn’t any activity on the remote link after about 15 minutes, you are automatically logged off. Presently (March, 09) remote access to enabled PCs will only work from iexplorer browser. Other remote access features can be reached from any browser.

Media Streaming

Music/Video files can be streamed to a variety of devices, including gaming units and other media receivers. Most devices are recognized through UPnP or in many instances, can be manually defined. The server has Windows Media Player connect, TwonkyMedia and employs Firefly for collection and streaming of iTunes files. As I mentioned at the outset, two features I find deficient are the absence of vendor partnerships with Logitech for the squeezebox or a bittorrent client manager from any provider. In the case of Logitech’s squeezecenter, the application can be installed on client PCs and access music files on the server but that requires both devices remain active whereas a server resident version like Netgear’s NAS would cut down on electrical usage. Similarly, for bittorrent clients which typically run 24 hours for seeding, two devices are now required to remain active.

Conclusion

For anyone looking for a first time network storage solution or replacement of an NAS with minimal flexibility, regardless of the user’s level of technical experience, this device appears to be a great choice. It has the sophistication to meet advance user requirements yet remains easily understandable by those with modest demands or needs. Equally as important, capacity can be expanded to meet future growth in one’s home network.

Review by A. Dent:

The Microsoft Home Server-based HP LX195 MediaSmart was designed to offer the home user ‘out of the box’ centralized backups of many connected devices as well as central storage facilities for the home’s data: music, photos, movies and so on. Its media collector can be set to periodically check the connected computers and copy newly found media files to the server. The built in media servers would allow devices not specifically connected to the MediaSmart such as a PS3 or Xbox 360 to access and play the server’s Music, Photo and Movie stores. The iTunes server will stream music and playlists to computers that are running iTunes or to compatible devices. In addition, there is an interface to allow for publishing one’s photos to sites such as Google’s Picassa or one’s flickr page or Facebook account. The Windows Media Center connector allows clients with Windows Media Center installed to play music, videos and recorded TV stored on the home server. When properly setup, backups are possible externally on Amazon’s S3 cloud (a paid service) and, with proper setup, the server could be managed and server’s media files could be set to be accessible from the Net.

After the initial setup, the backup and media streaming services can be made available to Mac clients.

The MediaSmart’s initial one-disk, 640GB storage capacity can be expanded by attaching up to 4 additional disk drives via USB ports. Once more than one disk is available, the media folders can be ‘duplicated’ to allow for data redundancy in the event of an accident.

BRIEF EVALUATION:

In my view, this specific model, while attempting to strike a balance between features and ease of operation/simplicity, it comes short of expectations, to various degrees, on both ends – the end product may not appear to be easy to setup to ‘the average user’ and it’s not always easy to use while most of the services offered don’t have sufficient flexibility in fine-tuning via the simple interfaces provided.

But, here are the goods and the bads:

(good)

+ Backups, once the setup is complete do work

+ Easy maintenance

+ Server appears to recover nicely from minor incidents and outages

+ Disk expansion via USB ports is as easy as plugging the disk in

+ Once one or more disks are added, folder duplication does protect the data

+ No bloatware. The only ‘free trial’ third party is the McAffee Total Protection service but it’s an optional install and it does not pop up every time the home server is accessed

+ Automatic Windows update for the Home Server operating system is easy to set up

+ Expandable functionality through Additional add-ons installations

+ Both the Windows Home Server online Help facility/manual and the MediaSmart manual are very well written

(bad)

- somewhat underpowered with an Atom one-core CPU and 1GB RAM.

- 640GB is insufficient storage for a machine that’s supposed to back up ‘everything’

- the out-of-the-box one-disk architecture puts data at risk

- the only officially documented server expansion is additional disks but memory expansion, while not documented, should be possible

- some difficulties can be encountered during the initial installation and setup

- installation and setup does not allow for a lot of flexibility

- a little awkward access to media files from registered clients – require a separate account setup even when ‘read only’ data is accessed

- direct access to the Microsoft Home Server OS is labeled as risky – warning states that the OS COULD break if the native interface is used

To be fair, once the initial setup completes, the server will operate more or less trouble-free for as long as the home network does not change in any dramatic fashion. The lack of flexibility can be addressed to some extent if one is willing to access and ‘play’ with each of the client machines configurations and access and tweak the Windows Home Server operating system directly but then the ‘ease of setup’ claim would have to be abandoned.

MY EXPERIENCE:

My own server installation, setup, operation and use can be summarized as follows:

- Initial setup required significant changes at the server’s own TCP/IP configuration and each of the client PC’s. All was well documented in the 250-page manual but I did have to set up a static IP for the server, modify the HOSTS file on each PC, register several installed apps with the Windows Firewall.

- Centralized backups were easy to configure but the options are few. The software decides by itself which folders should be excluded and there is no way to take them off the list. The only option is to add some more folders. The schedule can be configured for the server to retain the desired number of monthly, weekly and daily backups. The daily backups are incremental and they complete within minutes. The initial backup, depending on what network you are, can take many hours. It took hours for my computers in a 56Mps (about 6MB per second) wireless setting. Interestingly, the backup utility has the ability to ‘wake up’ a computer that’s put to ‘sleep’ or ‘hibernate’ and, more often than not, it was able to put the machine back to sleep once the backup was finished.

- The lack of flexibility makes the media collector, even when it works, not worth using. As far as data collection it has only 2 options: either a specific and preset collection of folders for the various type of media where the files are more likely to be found – like ‘My Music’ for music – or ‘all folders’. After testing the collection on 3 machines I found that on one it found a lot of ‘stuff’ that I didn’t want found – little picture files associated with some software installations – while on another it found nothing even when I selected ‘all folders’. I suspect something having to do with my setup but I decided to give up and I manually copied the media that I wanted on the server.

- Surprisingly, one device that benefits the most seems to be our PS3 which picked up and was able to take advantage of the Media Server even before I was finished with the server setup. Even more surprisingly, no authentication was requested from the PS3 even though it was playing the same files that required an account and a password if I wanted to access them from my own computer.

- Central stores for media files is a useful feature, especially when the folder duplication is activated.

- The ability to publish photos to sites such as Picasa, flickr or Facebook works but, in the case of Picasa, which I tested, the task can be accomplished better with Picasa’s own interface which provides a lot more flexibility.

- Storage expansion is easy but, again, not sufficient flexibility. The first disk I plugged in had a FAT32 partition and a larger NTFS partition. My expectation was for the server to ignore the FAT32 and use the NTFS but, to my surprise, not only it reformatted the disk but it actually re-partitioned it and produced an NTFS-only, one-partition drive. Just to make it clear, it did tell me that it was going to reformat and repartition my disk before it proceeded to do so.

- Self diagnostic and recovery seem to be satisfactory for minor glitches but, not sufficient information is available for more difficult troubleshooting unless one goes to the operating system. Unplugging the server did not damage it. Unplugging the attached disk created a number of errors and suggestions on how to fix them but, once the disk was plugged back in, the server became healthy again within minutes and, to my surprise, all the notifications simply disappeared as if there was never a problem.

- With a Wireless-G router, providing 56Mbs, music streaming went well on the PS3. The PS3 immediately recognized the media server and it played the music.

- Photo viewing was so-so on the internal network. Could see individual pictures but playing slide-shows with 3-5MB individual picture files was a little slow and choppy.

- Video streaming was not acceptable at all but I suspect it would have been okay if I had a ‘wired’ home network.

- I decided not to try remote access at this time because I had no compelling reasons to do so.

RATING:

- 3.5 Stars for INSTALLATION AND SETUP. The server does not normally install itself but a lot of the complication is attributable to the complexities of a home’s network environment. I expect for real users to report anything from “it installed within minutes and I didn’t have to do a thing” to “I spent many hours with the HP Help Support and now I’m returning it because they couldn’t help me.” It would have be nice if the printed version of the 200+ page manual was included in the box.

- 2.0 Stars for DESIGN AND ARCHITECTURE. I understand cost constraints issues but to sell a home SERVER with only one disk and a rather small one at that was not a wise decision. This is supposed to be sold to the ‘average’ home users and this makes it worse because it’s the average users who do not understand that their data is NOT fully protected this way.

- 3.0 Stars for PERFORMANCE. One Atom processor, one small disk (for a server) and only 1GB of memory do not assure me that the server will continue to perform adequately if and when more add-ons are installed. It gets 3 stars because it performs well at this time.

- 4.0 Stars for EASE OF USE, once configured. The server administration is easy for as long as one doesn’t forget the server’s password. Most quirks are minor and, once configured, the server pretty much runs itself.

- 3.0 Stars for CONFIGURABILITY. This has to do with the frustrating scarcity of options on services such as backups or media collection. I agree that most of the bases are covered on day one but a user’s demands and sophistication tends to grow with use.

- 4.0 Stars for FUNCTIONALITY. Backups and folder duplication are good for as long as a second disk is added. Media streaming works as well as the network bandwidth would allow it. Some of the services such as photo publishing or photo viewing are not likely to be used much. The same for over-the-Internet access which implies a level of user skills and sophistication at which one would probably not purchase this entry-level box. Same is true for the Amazon S3 backup service.

- 3.0 Stars for EXPANDABILITY. USB disks are easy to add and users with some level of sophistication should be able to install add-ons without much difficulty – the process is well documented in the manual. However, there are no internal drive bays and I suspect that memory expansion or CPU upgrades are a pain, if possible at all without voiding the warranty.

OVERALL RATING – 3 STARS

While I can live with this server and I WILL be using it for worry-free backups and some media streaming and central storage, I would hesitate recommending it to a first-time user while knowing that superior products are currently available for not significantly more.

__________________________________________

Update:

While I’m not compelled to change the ‘star rating’, I must note of another feature that I don’t believe is documented but it’s a really nice one: the Home Server seems to be monitoring and issuing certain security alerts concerning connected clients. It told me, for example, that there was an issue with my son’s laptop spyware protection and, because of that, it marked the ‘network state’ as ‘critical’. It turns out, that was indeed the case. His ‘pay’ virus/software protection had expired and it was a good opportunity to remove it and replace it with a free alternative.

Review by J. Finkel:

Most people will take a look at the HP LX195 MediaSmart Home Server and be a little confused as to what exactly you’re getting for your money. PC’s are becoming popular as media centers and this MediaSmart Server takes it one step further. For families who share one main computer where all of their music, movies and pictures are held, this is not going to be much help; you’d be better off with an external hard drive. However, for families living in the 21st century with multiple computers and a need to get data both back and forth and backed up, this could be the perfect addition to your home network.

Of course, the LX195 offers a lot more than just a hub and safe for your data. It has a thoughtfully designed operating system that will keep track of your antivirus protection and windows updates in case you forget. It provides automatic backups. And best of all, it plays well with ps3 and xbox 360 so you can stream video to your tv, which is where you probably want it.

Now for the shortcomings – there are a few big ones for this bottom-of-the-line system. Due to it’s price point, you’ll be getting an adequate, but modest processor. Also, despite how cheap RAM is, you’ll only get 1GB. Furthermore, the 640GB HDD may be more than enough space for most families, but is definitely a major thing to consider before you buy. Despite having 4 USB 2.0 ports, the expandability is meager. Unlike the more costly EX line of MediaSmart Servers, the LX195 has no extra internal bays. USB connections are slower than internal and an external drive will cost more than an internal one. Also, many USB drives require their own power outlet. At this price, it’s hard to expect too much more, but a 1TB HDD and 2GB RAM would have bumped this Server up a notch (and a star).

Overall, I recommend this Server to homes with multiple computers and definitely to those with a video game system or computer capable of streaming network content to their tv. If you are in the bad habit of not backing up your data, then this was definitely designed for you. Those looking for the ultimate tech toy for streaming HD movies and backing up multiple 1TB discs should look on to the EX line or elsewhere.

Review by C. R. Brown:

Lorie Marrero is no stranger to clutter. I know this because her blogs and website have helped me sort through four storage units (saving me hundreds of dollars each month!) and most of my condo. Comparing the clutter of our lives with diet makes a lot of sense. Diet…we don’t gain weight overnight and we can’t lose it overnight. Same goes for clutter. All we need is a plan. Lorie provides us a plan to release this clutter.

There are many excellent books on Clutter and organization. This is one of them. Lorie helps you understand how the clutter is aquired and how to get it out of your life forever. It’s not an easy task but this book helps you each step of the way.

The book is broken down in to four main sections, Getting Motivated, Clutter Prevention, Clutter Reduction, and Maintenance. Prevention helped me as much as the actual decluttering sessions. I learned to see “what enough looks like” – sounds simple but I did not know. So my “homes” for my items were overflowing. I am now learning what enough looks like.

The final section in the book breaks it down to suggestions on a room by room basis. She suggest products to help you along the way but you don’t need to buy anything (other than the book) to implement Lorie’s system.

This book is very easy to read and well organized.

Review by Eric Wentworth:

Lorie Marrero makes the cogent point that a cluttered life is a reflection of a cluttered mind. Using the metaphor of a food diet for the process she recommends to organize your life is inspired since the two have much in common—eating junk food is the nutritional equivalent of a home cluttered with junk.

First, I really liked the graphic design of this book. It’s paperback format is oversized and the pages have a spacious, inviting feel. The lines are spaced with extra leading so large sections of copy don’t feel ponderous and overwhelming. Generous amounts of white space enhance the approachability of this 260 page book. In short, it’s an easy read.

Another intelligent element of this book is the author’s knowledge that any form of habit-breaking program needs outside support in order to succeed. Unless there are others providing some oversight to our efforts, it’s human nature to back-slide. She accurately points out that 95% of people will likely achieve a goal if they have specific accountability with a person to whom they are committed (think Alcoholics Anonymous here). A website www.clutterdiet.com provides support and tools, including a free downloadabale companion workbook, to help keep your decluttering efforts on the straight and narrow.

Marrero spends a considerable portion of the book devoted to the psychological aspects of cluttering. Procrastination is, she says, the major reason why people clutter. Procrastination robs you of your energy (it’s called the karm of incompletions). Specific exercises are provided to overcome the various mental barriers to leading an organized life.

Besides the obvious clutter—Beanie Baby collections, stacks of magazines, clothes you haven’t fit in since college, that junky crap that you get for free—Marrero addresses other forms of “clutter” in our lives. Time clutter is a subject that could (and has) been the subject of a book all on its own. The author provides a 12-Step Program called Overdoers Anonymous to tackle the time clutter problem.

There’s also the exponentially increasing problem of modern life she calls Communication Clutter—emails, junk mail, spam, telemarketers, and all that other inconsequential and unimportant online and telecommunications “stuff” that eats away at the time we have here on earth.

The back of the book includes room by room “recipes” with the “ingredients” for successful decluttering. There’s a lot of meat here (to use the author’s food analogies) and also requires the most actual physical work. So it’s not an easy section to get through.

There’s a lot of take-away in this book that more than justifies its price. I’ve read two other highly recommended books about getting rid of clutter in your life and learned a lot. But this is the best book on the subject by far, in my opinion. Start here before you look anywhere else.

Review by Cup of Joe:

I bought this for a 15yo girl’s bedroom. It took just a few minutes to put together, with an allen wrench and a phillips screwdriver, and it is surprisingly sturdy and has a great look. Perfect for smaller bedroom.

Review by Todd Aron:

this is a stylish way for us to keep our baby’s gear in an orderly fashion.

building it was easy.

its not huge, but not tiny either.

good buy.

Review by Naomi Young:

I find it hard to believe I read the same book these other folks did. Perhaps when they saw “Organizing Magic,” they thought it meant “Instant, Easy Organizing.” It doesn’t.

But if, like me, you have read stacks and stacks of household hints books, and organizing books, and you are still fearful about letting others into your home, this book WILL make a difference, IF you actually follow the directions.

This book isn’t meant to be read in an afternoon or two, even if the generous use of checklists, white space and text boxes makes it look like a quick read. It requires a daily commitment to reading, notetaking, and analyzing YOUR situation and YOUR attitudes. It doesn’t assume that the same answers will work for everyone; maybe that’s what frustrates some readers. Instead, working through the book a chapter at a time helps instill new attitudes and new habits in dealing with a cluttered home, with solutions tailored to YOU. New attitudes and habits are what people with a serious cleaning and organizing problem need — not tips and tricks, although those have their place, and there are some in this book.

After you can open the door all the way when a friend comes by, THEN you can read all the Heloise, Martha Stewart, and Cheryl Mendelson you want to. Because THEN it will really stick.

This isn’t a fast-food approach to making a better life; it’s from scratch — takes patience and time, but ultimately more nourishing, healing, and helpful.

Review by Christian Book Previews.com:

The Organizer Lady, Sandra Felton, is back with Organizing Magic: 40 Days to a Well-Ordered Home and Life. Actually, Felton explains at the beginning that these are not forty consecutive days because some of the projects require a change of thinking, such as finally feeling that you can invite someone into your home. It’s more accurately described as forty projects than forty days.

Felton offers ideas as varied as dealing with the paper crunch, saving time, e-mail, organizing closets, efficient movements, developing a visitor-friendly attitude, and upgrading your home. (No, she doesn’t mean blowing it up and starting from scratch as my mom has suggested!) She gives the reader permission to reject whatever projects don’t work for you while developing a new style of thinking.

Felton is an engaging writer with a practical, friendly style. She lets readers struggling with clutter not feel guilty. Angry yes, guilty no. Most chapters include several helpful pointers and boxed quotations to encourage you such as, “If you can’t move the mountain, move a few stones. If there is a better solution…find it,” by Thomas Edison. The book ends with a resource bibliography.

One of the good things about the book is that she provides options for you to consider and suggests you choose one that you feel comfortable with. For instance, in her chapter on making bold judgment calls, she gives you eleven project choices which range from dropping out of a club, giving up addressing Christmas cards by hand, throwing out all mail with a bulk postmark unopened, rotating your visible knickknack collections, using paper plates for quick clean up, and more.

Some of her suggestions sound familiar to me because I’ve read one or two of her books over the years, so those who have read some of her other books may want to look this one over before purchasing it. Those who are new to the struggle to organize their lives will find her ideas helpful and her writing engaging. – Debbie W. Wilson, Christian Book Previews.com

Review by CactusJack:

I bought 2 of these systems for our master bedroom closet about a year ago and I must say they have really made a big diffence. Several different categories of satisfaction so I’ll list them to make it easy as possible:

Aesthetics: The wood,finish and hardware are of considerable quality and look great. I chose the Red Mahogany finish and it truly makes a difference in our closet (we had those regular white wire organizing systems). The edges are soft yet masculine enough to appeal to any husband/significant other and the shelves are reminiscent of a spa-type atmosphere.

Options: The kits include design ideas for numerous closet sizes and configurations and have everything you need. Hardware, drywall reinforcements, touch-up stain, diagrams.

Ease of installation: Although capable of being a 1-person installation – the job would be much simpler with 2. Simple enough for the novice handyman, tools required are limted and basic – if you have a hammer, power drill/screwdriver and a saw of some type, you’re in business. Obviously, the right tool for the right job makes any task easier, but if your toolchest is limited, the above mentioned items will easily get you thru this project. Instructions are easy to follow and installation time isn’t long and drawn out; it took me working by myself to completely install one kit approx. 2.5hrs (for our closet, 1 kit outfits one side with some remaining pieces). Be sure to install into as many studs as possible for strength. I hit 90% of the studs in our closet and the shelving is strong enough to hold the weight of my 3-year-old who decided to sit on one of the lower shelves (shoe shelf/rack) to help daddy work:-)

Modifications: If you’re really handy and like a challenge, take any remaining pieces to really go all out. Since i needed 2 kits for our closet, the pieces remaining from both kits gave me enough shelving and hardware to place a shelf above the entrance to our walk-in, plus 2 extra stringers and 1 shelf to outfit the back wall of our closet (I then matched the wood and built cabinet doors, drawers and 2 more shelves to give my wife a built-in jewelry drawer).

Pricing/Cost: For the price of the 2 kits (and the extra work/modifications I added) I saved literally thousands of dollars doing the job myself and we got exactly want we wanted in our closet!!

Delivery: I opted for standard delivery and the kits arrived well packaged and by UPS. Each kit weighed approx. 80Lbs. And surprisingly, delivery only took about 10 days

Review by CactusJack:

I purchased this system a few months back to upgrade our average “rubbermaid” type closet shelving. The kit is very simple to follow and even possible for a 1-man installation; although two would make it easier. The finish is top-notch and the flexibility of the install is very accommodating. I would suggest wherever possible attach the supports to pre-existing studs for strength and durability. My wife and I are extremely happy with the results and we are now purchasing our second kit to finish the remainder of the closet. I dabble in carpentry so I’ve added our own touches like a jewelry drawer for my wife, some elegant doors to conceal two of the shelves and even with the modifications, both kits are still well under the estimates we received from closet-specialist type companies. If u have the time, patience and a little experience with a hammer and saw – this is definitely worth the price and I’m sure you’ll be extremely happy with the results.

Review by Dr Cathy Goodwin:

I’m famous for my clutter and every so often I pick up a book on organizing…and give up, frustrated.

Leist’s book is different because she offers totally practical solutions that even organizing-challenged people like me can appreciate. She foregoes the simplistic solutions in favor of getting into the big reasons why we have so much clutter. Inspired by this book, I’ve actually taken a few steps already: I keepp noticing things I’ll probably never use again and I’ve put together a collection for donation.

Highly recommended.

Review by Make it Funny:

This is a great book, one of the better ones that outlines the CONCISE steps of organizing each part of the house. Because the book is short,you don’t get bored. The STEPS she explain are critical because you’ll see that most of your time should be spent weeding out things, figuring out what belongs in the room, and little time is spent BUYING organizational tools. Most people just immediately run out to BUY organizational tools thinking that’ll do the magic, but this book really shows you that this is the last step, not the first. Also, her stories about her clients are fun to read.

Now, when I watch talk shows on ‘closet makeovers’, I laugh when I see them look at someone’s closet and immediately install a customized system BEFORE they do the weeding out and counting of items!!! What’s the point of customizing before you know what you really will be keeping?

I wish there were MORE before and after photos. The photos in the book were tiny and hard to see, and very few.

I also wish she would show pics of more org. tools.

Review by pm444:

I have purchased several books about organizing and getting rid of clutter, and they have all had some good suggestions. However, I never managed to apply the principles in anything except a half-hearted and short-term manner. Thus, I ended up with spaces that had been partially cleared and organized, only to revert to their former clutter and chaos after a few months. This was no one’s fault but my own, of course, but with Smallin’s book, it didn’t happen that way. She is able to present information and ideas that make sense, but she manages to do it in a way that builds your motivation to actually try it and to stick with it. I guess the best way of putting it is that I never felt overwhelmed, even when things looked very chaotic (as they always do at some point in a re-organization project).The book is extremely well-suited to reading short sections that will allow you to get started right away. Then, if you need a break from the work itself, or need more suggestions, you can go back to it. Smallin also includes multiple suggestions from other professional organizers, which is very helpful because it gives you more options. I’m almost finished with a two-week de-cluttering and organization project. In the past, I never could have gone that long without giving up and throwing it all back where it came from. But this time, I kept going back to Smallin’s book, and she helped keep me on track. I was even able to use suggestions from books I had read before, such as not buying new storage cases until you have actually done the organizing and know what you need to store. A major re-organization project is something like a weight-loss regime. You can try to do it the fast and easy way, but it won’t last. Or, you can do it slowly and patiently, refining and modifying your plan as you see how it evolves. That’s my goal, and with Smallin’s book as my guide, I’m confident that it will be possible.

Review by Pravin Wagh:

Sometimes the problem with clutter and disorganization isn’t simply to buy storage and other items at an office supplies store. You could do that endlessly, and end up with lots of RUBBERMAID and STERILITE containers piled up in your garage or closet, and still not make any progress on stopping bad habits that lead to clutter. Smallin touches upon various areas of one’s life that all lead to disorganization. In my case, and one that a friend related to for herself, Smallin hit the mark by stating that perfectionists can be the messiest because they keep waiting for the perfect organization plan; it’s not that they like the mess, but they don’t get started because they haven’t come up with the ultimate strategy.The book is laid out like a magazine and has lots of side-bars to keep you interested. Unlike many self-help books, Smallin isn’t selling herself and claiming to make up her own new science. She quotes various other organizing experts in those sidebars, and provides a pretty extensive set of references and links that the reader can follow up with to continue their newly organized ways.

Review by B. R.:

I was a little disappointed when I received this product. First of all, by the description, it seemed like the drawers would be big enough to store 12″ x 12″ scrapbook paper but it is not. The actual drawers only measure 10″ x 13 1/4″ so I am a little disappointed about that but I figured I could find other things to store in it so I put it together anyway and when I did, it does not stand level and rocks back and forth. For the price, I am very disappointed. The drawer knobs are nice though.

The other issue I have come across since I’ve owned this (well over a year) the drawers do not fit properly on the little rails they are meant to. They fall off easily and you have to really concentrate on pushing them in just so. Definitely not for kids to use or you will have a mess. . . I also noticed that they added the drawer dimensions. . . yippeee for them, maybe they actually do read feedback!

Review by M. Brown:

I was very happy with how easy the unit was to put together and how easy the drawers slide. This is perfect for storing my jewelry making supplies.