You saw when I un-boxed and released the HP MediaVault mv5150 into the wild (aka my home/office) here. It has been playing nicey nicey with the rest of my gear since.
At first I thought the Media Vault was going to be something that only the wife and distant relatives were going to love. Allowing wifey to stream videos throughout the house or having the relatives look at pictures of my daughter online…
The box is so much more than just storage like the Western Digital products I have used before as it allows for revisions of files, automatic backups, serve media via the web, stream media, be a central iTunes repository on your network (updating the main server with ALL the iTunes shares on your network.) All this in a little nix appliance with a super small footprint.
Did I mention it looks good :)
As soon as I got it out of the box and plugged in I was greeted with some geeky blue and purple LEDS (which can be dimmed or deactivated). It grabbed its IP address from my router’s DHCP server and I was loading up the included software.
It went pretty quickly and was painless. Then it offered to configure the Media Vault for me… Oh how nice! I was connected to the Media Vault via IE and proceeded to configure the rest of it. Because you know I love me some options! You can connect a usb printer to this guy and make it a network printer. This thing just keeps getting better and better.
I set up my external domain name so I can share my shared content with people out on the web. And of course I needed to setup my router to forward port 80 and 443 but again the Media Vault was kind enough to do that for me via uPnp… Kind of neat, kind of scary!
Make sure you have completed the setup (READ THE SETUP POSTER!) and have gotten the screen below BEFORE you try to use the web sharing options or you will frustrate yourself in troubleshooting (If that’s where you are at there is a link at the bottom of this post to help you troubleshoot). 
I continued poking around and enabled remote file browsing and of course the Administrator user name and password (Which can be used to gain root on the box – more on this later)
Hmm… A nifty little email features give you even more ways to share your media with friends and family.
The backup options are not only impressive but it is super easy to use. Here are some screen shots of the backup menu so you can see what I am talking about:
I let the software map a drive to the unit for me and began pushing my 100′s of gigz of stuff on over to it.
No – Lets NOT go into detail of what that “STUFF” actually is…
I copied over my website files looking to make use of the revision feature. This means I could save over my file up to 7 times and have 7 different copies available to me.
I was also able to mirror specific folders from one drive to the other meaning I can make use of either two full 750gb drives or mirror one to the other or mirror some and use the rest for more space.
The included software allows you to back up your computers on the set it and forget it mentality.
I give the MediaVault TheAdmiN’s fabled 3 thumbs up… :)
Let me get back to working streaming me some iTunes. Check out the 500gb model for only $292.32 from our Amazon affiliate link. Hey give us a little bit of a kick back for recommending it, wont ya!
Oh and if you are feeling adventurous here is the link to a tutorial on getting root access to the box. Let me know if you get it to play doom!! If you don’t know what the previous sentence means – this article is probably not for you.
The same guys have a great troubleshooting tutorial on websharing if your router does not like uPnp or your ISP is blocking ports here. And a sincere thank you goes to Eric McIntyre from MyHomeServer for allowing me to use your images: MV2120-Webshare-Success-small.png and NTIBackup-small.png – geeky apologies for the snatch and run!
_TheApplianceLovingAdmiN_
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Sounds cool. How is this different from Windows Home Server? It sounds very similar.
Regarding the drive mirroring, partial mirrors is something Intel introduced into chipsets a few years ago. You can actually take 2 drives, make 2 partitions on each of them, and make 1 set of partitions RAID 0 and the other set RAID 1, all with only 2 drives.
It does sound similar but it works out of the box with minimal configuration and runs linux. It is also uber small and looks good for a bunch cheaper. Last I saw WHS it was around $180 plus hardware or 2 250gb drives and a setup for around $300.
It depends on what you need, how easy you want it to be and all that jazz. Have you messed around with WHS? I played with the beta a whiles back but have not gotten heavily into it.
I would love to see a review of it!
On the subject of file backup, sharing and storage …
Online backup is becoming common these days. It is estimated that 70-75% of all PC's will be connected to online backup services with in the next decade.
Thousands of online backup companies exist, from one guy operating in his apartment to fortune 500 companies.
Choosing the best online backup company will be very confusing and difficult. One website I find very helpful in making a decision to pick an online backup company is:
http://www.BackupReview.info “>http://www.BackupReview.info
Have a look here, too:
http://www.backupreview.info/index.php?pid=read_a…“>
http://www.backupreview.info/index.php?pid=read_a…
/>
This site lists more than 400 online backup companies in its directory and ranks the top 25 on a monthly basis.
On the subject of file backup, sharing and storage …
Online backup is becoming common these days. It is estimated that 70-75% of all PC's will be connected to online backup services with in the next decade.
Thousands of online backup companies exist, from one guy operating in his apartment to fortune 500 companies.
Choosing the best online backup company will be very confusing and difficult. One website I find very helpful in making a decision to pick an online backup company is:
http://www.BackupReview.info “>http://www.BackupReview.info
Have a look here, too:
http://www.backupreview.info/index.php?pid=read_a…“>
http://www.backupreview.info/index.php?pid=read_a…
/>
This site lists more than 400 online backup companies in its directory and ranks the top 25 on a monthly basis.
This thing looks really cool. I might just have to get me one admins!
how quiet is it? the fans in NAS machines are often annoying
it is pretty quiet surprisingly.
I love this. I just got it on your recommendation and after getting it going it is wonderful and fits in great with my living room equipment..
I purchased one of these for myselff at home…LOVE it.
Am just now getting to the fun stuff.
Liked it so much I purchased a couple for our office as well.
I would love to hear more about what you like about it! Any interest in sharing with the AtA readers jeff?
I just bought one of these based on your review, and its awesome! Above you mentioned
“I was also able to mirror specific folders from one drive to the other meaning I can make use of either two full 750gb drives or mirror one to the other or mirror some and use the rest for more space.”
How did you do the last option, where you mirrored some? My understanding is that if there are 2 identical 750gb drives, you have to create a full mirror 750gb mirror. Thank you again!
Within the control panel you can choose what folders you want mirrored. Let me check when I get home and let you know exactly.
We would love for you to share your experiences with your new baby!
Thanks for the quick reply. I will certainly provide a full report on how I use it, since I plan to do some interesting things. Do you recall if you created the drives (750gb) in Non-Mirrored? I think once you pick RAID you can’t undo without a full OS reload. Should I be managing it through the GUI or load the SW?
BTW Great Web Site!
If the full drive is mirrored you can not be selective. If it is not mirrored you can select what folders are important and to mirror them.
I did this via the GUI. The drives were created in non-mirrored.
Let me know how it goes! I don’t think you have to reload whs to blow away the mirror.
But I could be wrong!
Weel not my experience both of my computers one xp and one vista with a dlink 524 and Norton 360 won’t let me access the Media Vault 5140. If I take it to the ethernet port directly it see’s the media vault when I go through the router it won let me map the drive or have IE access. I nade sure discovery is working on the vista and allowed Norton settngs for HP Programs listed n the tech manual. I think the Dlink is DHCP is suspect?
Has it worked in the past or is this the first time you are trying to get it going?
This is so cool. I have been looking for one place to store all my data- this just might be what I need, especially since it makes backup simple, is a good looking piece of technology, and has so many options!
I got so sick and tired of lugging around bulky, expensive “laptop cases” the other day, so I got on Amazon looking for a more manageable solution. Amazon recommended this, and I love it! It snuggly cradles my Dell Inspiron 6000, and has plenty of padding.
Thorbjorn,I have reviewed the FAQ at HDRSoft and could only find once bug – re:Export not working. I’ll put the link here so you can look for yourself. Perhaps you can try to locate where the exported files are “supposed” to be to try to narrow down the problem.
Dear Brett, thanks for your as informative as always post.