In-depth Review of the Acer Aspire easyStore H340 Windows Home Server
24. May, 2009 | by Andrew Edney |
244 Comments
Up until now, there have only been a few really big players in the Windows Home Server hardware market – probably the biggest being HP.
Now, Acer steps onto the playing field with their Aspire easyStore H340 Windows Home Server.
At first glance this looks a lot like the HP MediaSmart Server, only shorter and fatter. It has a polished black finish and a front drive bay door that opens to allow access to the drive bays.
SPECIFICATION
The actual specification of the H340 is as follows:
PROCESSOR
Intel Atom 230 processor
MEMORY
2GB of DDR2 DRAM
NETWORK SUPPORT
Built in 10/100/1000 RJ45 Ethernet
INTERFACES
4 USB 2.0 ports on the back
1 USB 2.0 port on the front
1 eSATA port (on the back)
INTERNAL HARD DRIVES
2 SATA 7200 RPM 640 GB drives
or
3 SATA 7200 RPM 1 TB drives
SIZE
20 cm (W) x 18 cm (H) x 12.2 cm (D)
Adding additional storage is a breeze thanks to the way Acer have designed the E340. You just open the front door, press the orange button the drive tray, slide it out, pop the new drive in, and slide it back. Simple. This is a very similar approach to that of the HP MediaSmart Servers, and one that I know a lot of people, myself included, love.
UNPACKING AND CONNECTING
The box itself is quite small with everything coming very well packaged inside.
The contents of the box include the H340 itself, the power cable, an Ethernet cable, some software CDs (the PC software disk, the server recovery disk, and a PC recovery disk), a warranty book, a user’s guide (a more complete guide is included on the CD) and a just for starters guide.
Plugging it in all shouldn’t take more than a few moments, now it’s time to switch it on and get it working.
INSTALLING AND CONFIGURING
The first thing that needs to be done after you have connected up the H340 to both the power and your home network, and switched it on, is to install the Client software on one of your computers. This performs two functions, the first of which is install the Windows Home Server Connector software on your computer but also to enable you to configure your new Windows Home Server, with details such as the server name and admin password (but more on that in a moment).
After you pop the Software Installation CD in the drive, you then follow the usual steps to install the Windows Home Server Connector software. I won’t walk through all those steps again in this article, but I have included the screenshots for those of you who might be interested.
So once you have go to this stage, then its time to configure the Windows Home Server itself. You have to do it via this method because there is no facilities available on the H340 for you to plug in a mouse, monitor and keyboard.
Again, I won’t bother with going through each and every step, although again I have included the screenshots for those of you who might be interested 
Once you have completed these steps then you can log in to the Windows Home Server Console as normal.
The very first time you log into your Windows Home Server, you will see that the Hardware Health and Performance Monitor Service is not running. This is because it needs you to type in the password you created for the administrator account. Just type this in and then click OK to continue.
USING THE H340
The first screen you will be presented with in the WHS Console is Computers and Backups view.
You can also see what storage you have available on the Storage tab.
As the H340 comes preinstalled with Windows Home Server Power Pack 1, you will need to update to Power Pack 2 before doing much else.
Just go to the Settings tab, and click on Update Now to retrieve that, and any other updates that are available.
Depending on how many updates might be needed, this could take a little while.
There are a few additions to the H340 that are worthy of mention.
SYSTEM INFORMATION
This tab provides an all around monitoring mechanism to help you keep an eye
on the home server’s health and performance details.
You can easily monitor elements such as the version of the software, the current performance, fan speed and system temperature and change settings such as the brightness of the front panel LEDs and whether to remote awaken the WHS.
HARDWARE HEALTH AND PERFORMANCE MONITOR
You can use the Hardware Health and Performance Monitor settings page to set a refresh interval for monitoring data, configure performance threshold settings, specify email destinations to which alerts should be sent when temperature, voltage, and fan speed abnormality is detected or the pre-configured threshold is exceeded.
IP CONFIGURATION
The IP Configuration settings page allows you to view the home server’s current IP configuration settings or change the IP configuration manually. This is a nice feature that saves you from having to use Remote Desktop to get access to these kind of changes.
DIGITAL MEDIA SERVER
Digital Media Server is an application compatible with DLNA 1.5 and runs on Windows Home Server to provide with content directory service which auto starts upon booting of the server system. With Digital Media Server enabled, other Digital Media Controllers and Digital Media Players based on UPnP structure can co-work with the application to help you browse, access and play media contents on Windows Home Server. Besides, it also makes possible for iPod, iTunes and Xbox360 users to share media files on Windows Home Server of their respective self-supporting formats.
Digital Media Server uses a database to manage media contents on Windows Home Server. It avails of the album, artist, genre and playlist information to sort music files. As for photos and videos, it uses folder mode to collect them.
The Settings for DMS (Digital Media Server) page allows you to enable or disable digital media server function and customise the sorting method of photos and videos.
With DMS enabled, digital media controllers and digital media players using UPnP (Universal Plug’n Play) protocol, will automatically discover, access, and play media files on the home server. It also makes possible for iTunes, PS3, or Xbox 360 users to share media files on Windows Home Server.
The home server supports the following digital media files:
• Music: MP3, WMA, WAV, AAC, AC3, FLAC, APE, OGG, VOC, AIFF, AU, MID
• Video: WMV, ASF, MOV, AVI, MPEG, 3GP, SWF, FLV, RMVB, RM, RA, RAM, MP4, MPG, MPE, M2V, TP, TS, MLV, MKV, DIVX
• Photos: GIF, PNG, BMP, JPG, JEPG, ICO, TIFF, DXF, WMF, EMF, PICT, EPS, CDR
iTUNES SERVER
iTunes Server allows iPod and iTunes users to share and play music on Windows Home Server. To achieve this, the application creates a virtual music library on the local device and treats it as an iTunes repository, which makes it possible for music files to stream from Windows Home Server to Windows or Mac computers running iTunes.
The H340 also comes with some WHS specific applications already installed for you. Both of these applications are available as Add-ins for non-H340 owners and it is interesting to see that Acer have opted to included them as built-in applications rather than Add-ins, so you cannot remove them from the WHS Console if you don’t want to use them. Lets take a look at both of them, shall we.
LIGHTS OUT
Lights Out is an application that was developed by a fellow WHS MVP, Martin Rothschink that allows you to set the home server into suspend mode or wake the system at a chosen time with the aid of a calendar event.
The default Uptime screen displays a chart showing recorded uptimes in the home server, such as when a backup took place, which home computer was active, or when the home server woke up from
sleep mode.
The Calender view displays the calendar window and allows you to add, edit, delete a calendar entry.
You can also change the default settings that are used.
In order to control the Lights Out functionality on your WHS, you need to install the client software that comes on the CD.
McAfee TOTAL PROTECTION
McAfee Total Protection provides virus protection to your Windows Home Server and its files.
You are given a free 6 month subscription to anti-virus updates, after which time you will need to pay for them or stop using it. If you want to remove it completely, unlike other Windows Home Servers that have it as an add-in that can be removed via the WHS Console, you will need to use Remote Desktop to connect to the server, then manually remove it using the Add/Remove Programs tool.
You can easily set up an scan schedule if you wish as well.
ONE-TOUCH USB BACKUP
This feature is unique to the H430.
The USB backup button on the front panel allows you to backup data from a USB storage device to the home server. Windows Home Server copies all files into the Publics shared folder first then classifies the files according to media type into their corresponding shared folders, namely Music, Videos, Photos. When Windows Home Server cannot determine file type, the file is automatically stored into the Others folder.
So all you have to do is plug in a USB hard drive and press the USB backup button on the front of the H340 to begin (it will now be glowing blue). If you have a lot of hard drives that are not external USB drives you should consider buying an adaptor, they can be very useful.
I did a little test and was very impressed with the results, and it was quite quick. This is much easier that plugging in a drive to your WHS, and then having to map drives and manually copy files over.
CONCLUSION
This is a very good piece of Windows Home Server hardware. It is relatively cheap, easily expandable and simple to use and set up.
My only real negatives are that it is not the quietest Home Server I have ever heard, but equally it is not the loudest either, and also that there is no easy way for the average user to remove the McAfee service without having to Remote Desktop onto the server, go to Add/Remove programs and manually remove it. Also, while there is an application to update various things on the H340, such as the BIOS, you need to install it on a client PC, already have downloaded the updates, and then point the application to the updates. I would have preferred to see something seamless from within the WHS Console that just required a click of a “check for update” button. Maybe that will come later with an update?
Obviously the H340 doesn’t have the same level of additional software that say the HP MediaSmart Servers have, but this may not be an issue for you. If you just want a WHS to backup your computers and share you files then you cannot go wrong here. If you want lots of additional built in features then you should compare it with the HP MediaSmart EX485 and EX487 servers and decide if the extra money for those machines is worth the additional features.
For anyone who is interested, here is a comparison shot of the H340 and the HP MediaSmart LX195 Server (both the same price). But you should remember that the LX195 only has, and can only have, one single internal hard drive. To read the full review of the LX195, click here.
For me, the killer feature on the H340 is the one-touch backup. It is very simple to just plug in your USB hard drive and press the button to start copying your data over.
I also really liked the fact that this is one of the only Windows Home Server’s I have seen that has come with an actual manual with simple step by step instructions for the average user to be able to get up and running quickly. Thanks Acer, but that also means that H340 owners probably wont need my book
Acer Aspire easyStore H340 Windows Home Server is available now in the US (around $399) and also in Germany and Holland. The price in Europe is €399 for 2×640GB model and €499 for 3×1TB model. Certainly the better bargain is the 3×1TB model.
No firm release date or pricing for the UK, but expect this information shortly.
Author Info
Hi Andrew,
Just wanted to check with you about other Antivirus Protection softwares that could be installed on the Acer H340 after removing McAfee. Any suggestions?. Thanks.
Hi JD
The choice is yours really you just need to make sure that you use something that is WHS aware, for example Avast.
Andrew
You need the small business edition of most virus programs. These generally cast more than the retail version of AV.
INSTALLING AND CONFIGURING
Hi Andrew, while initial installation my new H340 I received an error “Server initialization failed” after first step in configuring the Windows Home Server. After this I have Server icon it the tray but I can’t reach «Server console”. It asks my password, but I was not able and I didn’t put it!!! Could you advise what I have to do? “Password update” is also inaccessible.
Thanks in advance!
Hi Valerii
I would suggest running the installation again – check the instructions that came with the machine to perform a clean server installation.
I dont see any other option to be honest.
Sorry!
Andrew
Hi Andrew, I’m thinking between HP EX490 & Acer H340. The key issue for me is 2TB HD support. I’m planning to use 4x 2TB HDDs, and the H340 is not support 2TB. Some people said, the H340 work with 2TB HDDs, had you tried?
Thanks
Tony
Hi Tony
I havent yet tried a 2TB drive in either, but I will do soon.
What do you want to do with the WHS? For example, if you are planning to do a lot of media related “stuff”, I would recommend going with the EX490.
If not, then either are good machines.
Andrew
Tony, did you test any of the 1.5TB drives, I was looking at WD WD15EADS Caviar Green Hard Drive, and wondered if it was compatible with the Acer H340 Home Server. In the documentation on-line it has a limited list of drives with a maximum of 1TB and mostly 500G. Then in this forum I noticed that someone posted that the reason for the limited selection is at the time that was all the drives that were available and people have tested up to 1TB and have not had any issues. PLease let me know what your experience has been, Thanks, DM
Dany
I just tried one of the new Western Digital 2.0TB Caviar Black drives in the Aspire H340 and it worked fine. Only gave me 1.82TB of available space but Im getting used to that!
Andrew
I installed three (3) 2TB HITACHI Deskstar HD32000. Now just trying to figure how to configure all of the drives: increase storage vs. backup. The Console Help suggests having the backup on an external drive to be separate from server – which seems logical. How have others been setting up their additional drives?
This NAS looks great.
Is there a way to rip one’s BluRay and feed them to the PS3 ?
I’m interested in the 2To HDD support too.
Why not post this question in our forum?
Andrew
Andrew,
Thank you so much for taking the time to create such a great review of this product, it is very much aprieciated.!
My one question is this:
Can this product handle a 5 bay HDD encloser that uses esata replication? (I think I asked that correctly) The model I’m using is the Rosewill RSV-S5?
Thanks Again!!
Hi Robert
Thank you
I believe it can, but I dont have one to test with the Aspire unfortunately.
Why not post this question in our forums and Im sure you will get a more accurate answer!
Andrew
It is unclear to me whether all the drives need to be instyalled at the same time, or if not, is there any data lost due to the server redefining the drive???
The reason I ask is that I could get away with adding a 1.5 TB to the standard 1 TB drives that come with the unit for now as long as I know that there will be a seemless transition when I do choose to add 1 or 2 additional HDD in the future.
Thanks
Toshu
If you are just adding drives to the server you can add them whenever you want.
If you are replacing existing drives you will need to do them one at a time and follow the wizards for removing drives and then adding drives.
If you want to replace the main system drive you will need to do a server reinstallion once you have changed the drives. All your data should be in tact you will just need to create all the users and reinstall any add-ins.
Andrew
Using RDC I brought in all the updates, removed McAfee, installed Comodo Firewall and Anti-Virus and rebooted per Comodo instructions. BIG MISTAKE!! Though WHS was configured for RDC, the firewall configured itself to refuse RDC. Apparently I should have configured firewall to accept RDC before rebooting. Now I am reformatting H340 and reinstalling it all because it will not respond to my RDC connection request.
Andrew,
I sure hope you can help because I got stopped right at the beginning.
I have 6 computers, all of which have Internet connection through the Acer server. However, when I tried to install the software I keep getting the message that the server cannot be found. I have been using the Norton virus protection and firewall. I thought if I disabled the firewall that it might help but frankly I really don’t know how to disable the software or even if I should. Any ideas?
Thanks in advance,
Len
Len,
Where is the Norton software installed? If its on the server then that is your problem – its not meant to be installing on a WHS and I guess it has changed settings. You will probably have to reinstall your WHS now to fix it.
If its on your computers then you will probably have to set exceptions to the firewall.
I suggest contacting Norton for assistance on doing this if you are not sure.
Andrew
Andrew,
This is a quick follow-up to my previous question. I have tried install the software using 2 different notebook computers. Has the Vista operating system and the other XP. Both computers will not recognize or find the Acer server.
Thanks again.
Len
I again Andrew,
it appears that Norton’s not the problem. I have tried installing software from 3 different computers only 2 of which have Norton’s on them. I completely disables Norton’s on my main computer and it still could not find the server. I can access the Internet with no problem on all the computers. Is it possible I got a defective server? Thanks for your help; I don’t know where else to go without spending a ton of money and having no confidence in the “experts”
Len
Hi Len
Was your WHS working previously? If so, what changed, any ideas?
Can you ping the server? Go to a command prompt on any computer, and type ping servername where the servername is the name you gave your server. If it doesnt respond then its a network problem.
Andrew
Andrew,
The WHS never worked properly because it has never been installed. The little black box just sits there doing the same thing as my router. How can I ping the unit when I cannot even name the server. When I start the instalation I get the message that the server cannot be found.
I am thinking of returning the server.
Len
Hi Len
Ok, thats interesting.
Are you connecting the WHS directly into your router? Can you also connect a computer directly into your router?
if you have done that and it still doesnt work, then it might be a faulty unit I suppose.
I would suggest contact Acer to see if they can provide you with any additional troubleshooting steps prior to returning it.
Let me know how you get on.
Andrew
Hi Andrew,
I am new to WHS
If my OS drive fails,I can reinstall the my WHS to a new HDD. What about all the data on the other three HDDs ?
please advise Thanks
zoonby
Zoonby
As long as you perform a SERVER REINSTALLATION rather than a NEW INSTALLATION after the OS has installed youu data should be fine. You will have to reinstall any add-ins and recrete any users you have but the data should be intact.
If you have any additional questions, please post them in our forums.
Andrew
Hello Andrew
How can I have video stream with Acer EasyStore H340
Thanks
n
Nirandon
Go into the settings area, and enable media streaming then just point your media player at the share.
Andrew
Hi Andrew,
I’m receiving many WHS e-mail warning messages “The memory utilization has exceeded 90 % for more than 5 minute” and wondering if a RAM upgrade would help? (Are you aware if there is room for additional RAM? and if so, once installed is it recognized, or is further configuration required? (it came installed with 2GB (2/0) DDR2 800 SDRAM)
Hi Lou
Upgrading the RAM always makes an improvement.
You may have to remove the existing ram and replace it with larger ones. There should be no configuration required.
What else are you doing on your box that has only started recently? Any new add-ins or software installed?
Andrew
I think it may have been a result of moving larger folders of files to the server. FYI, i opened the box and it appears there is only the one slot for ram, so you’re correct i will likely have to replace the one shipped if i choose to upgrade.
Thanks for your response.
L.
Andrew,
I started getting email warnings as soon as I started doing backups.
I filled the box with 3 x 1TB caviar green drives from external WD Elements cases that were not compatible with Vista or W7.
How can I turn off these warnings before rogers accuses me of spamming?
Xmariner
Xmariner
What exactly is sending you the email warnings?
And what do those warnings say?
Andrew
xmariner,
In the console go to settings.
Select hardware health and performance.
Uncheck all of the warning “Performance Settings” that will stop the emails.
Alternatively you couuld click the SMTP setup button and remove your mail account, then the server would not be able to send the emails.
Something I noticed about the email alerts and gmail.
Gmail is considering all notification emails to be a single conversation, and each new email gets quoted out do to its similarity to the previous one (75% full, 85% full, cleaned up some files, then 75% full again)
Gmail works great for me as a source address, but I think I will point it to send the alerts somewhere else, where they won’t get quoted out.
hello, you may help me,
I cannot succeed H340 sending email alerts, using a gmail account.
I tried multiple settings with pop, smtp port 587 SSl, .. with no success.
1- can you let me know how to enter correctly parameters
2- is it possible the issue comes from elsewhere (knowing that distant awccess works & that IP config seems OK)
Thank you in advance
Bernard
I thought the Atom processor was maxed at 2 gig of ram, have you actually found a memory upgrade for the Acer?
Brian
I havent upgraded the ram on the Acer, so I cant comment. Has anyone else tried this?
Let us, and Brian know please…
Andrew
I tried the one touch backup today and my server nearly filled itself.
I have just the preinstalled 1tb drive (looking at getting an extra 2tb drive soon) and it was at about 75%. I plugged a usb hard drive enclosure in the front port and pressed the usb backup button.
The drive had about 110gb of videos on it.
First the files were all copied from the usb drive to the public folder. THEN the files were COPIED (not moved) from public to the videos folder. I watched as my free space continued to decrease even after all the files were already present in the public fodler.
Can anyone who has run usb backup to completion tell me if the files in the public folder get removed after it pushes them into the media folders (like video, music and photo), or do you end up with 2 copies of every file?
HOW CAN I MAKE PLAYLISTS IN ITUNES? THE ACER SERVER DOESNT LET ME MOVE MY SONGS EITHER ONTO THE ITUNES LIBRARY OR INTO PLAYLISTS.
someone can help ?
hello, you may help me,
I cannot succeed H340 sending email alerts, using a gmail account.
I tried multiple settings with pop, smtp port 587 SSl, .. with no success.
1- can you let me know how to enter correctly parameters
2- is it possible the issue comes from elsewhere (knowing that distant awccess works & that IP config seems OK)
Thank you in advance
Bernard
Andrew,
I am pulling my hair out–I hope you will help me with my HP . I have 3 computers hooked up. My 2 Vista computers seem to be working ok but my XP notebook shows me files that are “read only” and this is the computer I need to share folders with. Any ideas?
Len
hi andrew,
.
great info/website! i would lik to ask you some questions about my new acer WHS.
first: the back up button on the front side: in some reviews its says you use it to back up the server; you say its to back up the hd contents you conect to the front.. before i overwrite my hd-data i would like t clear this up
the second question is that i have 3 computers connected to the WHS and backed up two of them so far, but there is no data in my photo/music folders so far..
did i misunderstand the concept? is the only way t get it there to manually copy-paste the pics and music into the folders. i was under theassumption that it sorted these out like you explained in your review like when connecting a drive.
If i have to copy it manually: how does it restore the contents of a crashed pc, or does it just put the basics like OS back?
And second; if i copy photos from 2 pc’s to the server, what happens with duplicate folder names (with possible different contents)?? (that last comment is the case in my home a lot..)
I hope this doesnt sound to stupid, but i’m new to this stuff, thanx for your help!
Rob
Hi Rob
1st question – the button is used to bring data OFF a USB drive onto your WHS. It saves a few clicks of the mouse.
2nd question – yes, the only way photos or music will appear in the shared folders is if you put it in there. Backing up your computer only backs up the computer, it doesnt sort your data (although that would be a very cool feature, I know it would save hours and hours of sorting)!
If you need to restore a pc, you use the restore cd on that computer, which connects to your WHS and you select which backup to recover. WHS then does the rest for you in a very short time.
As for the duplicate name thing, well thats just the same as any folder, you cant have two items with the same name in the same folder.
Feel free to ask any more questions
Although you might get a quick response posting them in our Forum.
Andrew