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The most significant improvement delivered by HP’s third generation MediaSmart Server is extended support for Apple Macs. The EX48x series supported the backup of data on the Mac by using the home server as a Time Machine backup disk – a very cool feature that won the hearts of the Mac press and users alike.
However, to truly protect the Mac, you need to backup both user’s data and the OS itself, and that’s exactly what HP have delivered in the EX49x series.
First off, let’s take a walk through the Mac installation process:
Once installed, you’ll notice a small MediaSmart Server shaped icon at the top of the screen. Clicking it exposes a variety of options, but before you can access them, you’ll need to configure your backup preferences.
To support Mac OS restore (compatible with OSX 10.5 and better), you simply have to prepare a USB key which should be plugged into your Mac before running your System Installation disk.
Best of all, HP have delivered full access to the Windows Home Server Console, courtesy of Microsoft’s Remote Desktop for Mac, allowing full control of the home server from your Mac.
The Mac can also access the HP MediaSmart Server’s remote access features, allowing playback of the music, videos and photos stored on the home server.
So, thanks to the new EX49x series, we can finally and fully welcome Apple Mac users to the Windows Home Server family! If the HP MediaSmart Server won the Best of Show award at Macworld last year for some basic functionality in the EX48x series, it’ll be interesting to see how this new generation goes down with the Mac community.
15. September 2009 at 7:21 am
This is extremely cool – well done, HP! This sort of Mac OSX integration should come as standard with WHS (MS, are you listening?)
Cheers,
teq
15. September 2009 at 4:17 am
Come on Microsoft, buy this stuff from HP and let every Mac user have it.
15. September 2009 at 11:55 am
Yeah, is there any word that this update will be made available to EX475 owners?
15. September 2009 at 12:59 pm
Hi Terry. Looks great for us Mac users out there- any news about UK availability? I was all set to get the EX48x but gave up in the end due to lack of availability to the European market. Looks from the press release like the 49x is coming to Europe- will we get a release concurrent with the US?
15. September 2009 at 2:36 pm
No sure if it'll be concurrent (I think the US can pre-order from today) but the EX49x is coming to a number of European countries – they're announcing availability and pricing next month. I think it'll be here pre-Xmas, but don't quote me at this point.
15. September 2009 at 1:57 pm
Thanks for the first look! I have an EX485 with a mixed Mac/Windows home network. Any news on if HP will make the 3.0 software available to EX485/487 owners?
15. September 2009 at 2:17 pm
Found the answer to my own post in your previous article:
http://www.wegotserved.com/2009/09/14/new-hp-medi...
Sorry, just got too excited about this news!
15. September 2009 at 2:33 pm
15. September 2009 at 1:57 pm
Fantastic news. Do you know if this full Mac backup feature is coming to the EX485 as well?
15. September 2009 at 2:34 pm
HP have confirmed that the 3.0 software will be released for existing users to upgrade, so I'd call this one a yes!
15. September 2009 at 9:09 am
Hello,
I have an EX475 is it compatible?
And it is the address to download for the HP there is nothing
A French reader;)
15. September 2009 at 2:36 pm
Not yet, but HP will be releasing an update in the next couple of months….
15. September 2009 at 2:51 pm
oh yeah and we are still waiting for the 2.5 update software for the ex470-475 series that HP promised….
15. September 2009 at 3:04 pm
You mean the one that was due in the Fall this year? Maybe it's one and the same release, but rather than get 2.5, you'll get 3.0….
15. September 2009 at 3:25 pm
yes the one that HP software update they said would be available 'shortly' after release of the previous generation of ex48x server to update the ex47x now there is a new generation of server?! , so they have skipped a whole generation and the mac time machine backup is mostly useless if you have over 100GB to backup…it smacks of poor planning to underpower 2 generations of servers and all they have really done is add software which only seems to be available upon purchase of the faster hardware…i see a pattern here…designed obsolescence, hp media smart quad core or i7 in the spring…sad and wasteful.
16. September 2009 at 12:17 am
I don't think that's entirely fair. there hasn't been much time since launch for what is likely a very small team at hp to both develop new hardware/software and maintain the old. well actually since home server was hp's idea I take that back. but still the fact remains hp have gone leaps and bounds above the vanilla offering from ms and you can't blame them for moving forward where other manufacturers seem to have stopped and in seemingly such a short space of time. They are striking a balance between power savings and performance to support these new demands – such as video encoding – IMO they should choose AMD for their cool n quiet.
15. September 2009 at 6:45 pm
Terry, could you take a look at that "run" file on the restore volume in a text editor? I suspect it's just a script that somehow sets TMShowUnsupportedNetworkVolumes to 1 and provides further instructions to the user.
15. September 2009 at 6:45 pm
Can you actually set up the EX495 with a Mac? That was one problem I had with my EX485, I had to bring it into work for the initial setup!!
15. September 2009 at 7:27 pm
Unfortunately not – first installation must be on a PC to set up WHS, then you can install the Mac software.
16. September 2009 at 4:09 pm
I have never been able to get the 475 reliably backing up my Macs with time machine. If I create a new sparseimage and do an initial backup all is good, but it only takes a few additional incremental backups before it starts messing up with "unable to write to backup disk" type errors. I get this on both Macs in the house.
Has anyone actually managed to get the previous mac timemachine software to actually consistently work? If so, how?
17. September 2009 at 3:43 am
You should use HP proprietary software for integration with TM instead of that sparse_image_hacky method and all will be alright.
17. September 2009 at 11:20 am
Posibbly apple product of the year 2 years running?
17. September 2009 at 11:25 am
Sounds Excellent stuff! As for people saying MS should have the functionality in as standard, you can bet your last pound/dollar that if they did, the whole antitrust lot would be up in arms (again!).
MS give us the basics, we tailor it to what we want.
20. September 2009 at 5:38 pm
Looks good, very good.
All I need is for this to come to the UK – I'm all set to buy one.