I'm new here, and while I'm sure the answers to my questions have already been discussed and with some research I could find them, I've been without any backups for over a week and I'm getting nervous -- I really need to find a solution soon so I'm taking a shortcut. I apologize for that.
I've been using an Acer EasyStore H340 with the original version of Windows Home Server for a few years now. It quit working recently and though I have made many attempts to revive it I have had no success at all. The system drive has no errors on it (I mounted it on another system to check) but given the fact that I can't even get the thing into recovery mode, I think something in the hardware is just kaput.
So, I am looking at replacing it. Ebay seems to have a number of used units available (at slightly less than extortionate prices) but given that the software is obsolete and the hardware wasn't so great to begin with, I'm thinking I should be looking forward. Apparently my two main choices, if I stick to my original needs in choosing WHS, are to go with the now-defunct WHS 2011 or with Windows Server Essentials 2012. I've done a little looking around on this site and a couple others but haven't gotten a particularly good feel for what is available in each or what the advantages of one over the other might be. So, can anyone please give me some quick bullet points or a bit of a discussion of why I might want to choose one over the other?
A few points which would be useful to know:
1. With either one would I be able to just add my data drives from my Acer and have it use them or do I have to get new drives and copy data over manually?
2. Would the backups of my network machines on my current server be of any use on the new one?
3. I know that drive extender only existed in WHS original (but I always just had four identical drives anyway). Is there any other major functionality I would be missing with either choice?
4. I have LInux machines on my network. Is there anything about one of the choices which would make it more useful than the other with respect to those machines?
Thanks so much for any help you can offer.
- Les