Windows 7 Home Theater PC (HTPC)
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Advantages
- Can watch any online media source because users have access to the the latest browsers
- Can playback almost any video source
- Expandable storage by adding a hard drive or setting up home media server
- Capable of Blu-Ray playback with a Blu-Ray drive, decent video card and some third party software
- If the user has a tuner card Windows Media Center can be configured to be used as a DVR
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Disadvantages
- Can be complex to setup and use
- A windows license can be expensive
- Third party Blu-Ray software can be expensive
- Not the easiest interface to use from the couch
Windows XP Pro NAS
With a few tweaks Windows XP Pro can make the perfect Network Attached Storage (NAS) unit. The first step is to install Windows XP Pro. Once you have that done you can setup a RAID array, configure network sharing and setup a system to notify you if any of your hard drives are about to fail.
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Software RAID 0, 1, 5 or JBOD Using Windows XP Pro SP3
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Pick the type of RAID
The first step is to decide what type of RAID will be needed. This can be done by looking at my article describing the different types of RAID that are available in Windows XP Pro. Note, if RAID 1 or 5 is chosen there will need to be some modified files installed. Once the type of RAID is decided upon, it’s time to move onto the hardware.
