Product Description

HP MV2120 Media Vault. Expandable network storage for the customer requiring robust data protection and remote access to their most important files and media. The easy to install and use HP Media Vault can be set for continuous file backup. In addition, it provides remote access to content and robust media and document sharing. The HP Media Vault is best suited for the home, home office or small business that requires a central location for files that devices on the network can share. Multiple computers in your home and home office or small business often means files, documents, photos, music and videos are scattered everywhere and difficult to locate. The HP Media Vault provides a central copy of all your media and files for easy access from any computer in your home, home office or small business network. And, with remote access, your HP Media Vault provides anytime, anywhere access to your most important files from any internet connected computer. Sharing files and photos via the web used to be a time intensive and sometimes scary endeavor. Your HP Media Vault allows you to grant file access to specified people outside your home, home office or small business. Using HP Photo Webshare, you can even create a photo website on your HP Media Vault.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2643 in Consumer Electronics
• Brand: Hewlett-Packard
• Model: MV2120
• Released on: 2008-04-01
• Dimensions: 5.37" h x 9.62" w x 5.47" l, 10.00 pounds
• Hard Disk: 500GB

Features

• 2 Drive Bays/ Accommodates Any 3.5 Inch SATA HDD
• 2 USB 2.0 Ports/ 1 Front/ 1 Rear/ Gigabit Ethernet Port
• 500GB/ 7200 RPM SATA Internal Hard Drive Plus One Available Expansion Bay
• Marvell ARM Processor/ SoC/ 128MB DDR2 DRAM Memory
• Smart Energy Saving Hard Disk Drive Spin Down and Exceptional Power Consumption

Amazon.com Product Description
With the HP Media Vault, you'll be able to quickly create a centralized storage and sharing solution for your home or small business that can handle your most important documents, photos, videos, and music--including the ability to integrate your home's iTunes digital audio libraries. The Linux-powered HP Media Vault MV2120 comes with an integrated 500 GB hard drive (7200 RPM) as well as one expansion bay, enabling you to effortlessly add another Serial ATA (SATA) hard drive with a terabyte (1 TB, or 1024 GB) of additional storage or for RAID 1 mirroring.

But the HP Media Vault isn't bound by the limitations of your wired or wireless network. With its powerful remote access features, you can create a URL that authorized users can access via a Web browser to download files. And with Photo Webshare, you can create your own online photo albums from images stored on the Media Vault.

Add another 1 TB of storage to the HP Media Vault thanks to one SATA expansion bay.

The Media Vault provides access to all your networked PCs as well as to remote users via the Internet.

Media Vault Design
The redesigned Media Vault now shares the same black chassis design and glowing blue hard drive indicators as its bigger HP MediaSmart Server sibling. Measuring 5.5 x 9.6 x 5.4 inches (WxDxH) and weighing 7.1 pounds, the MV2120 is smaller than its predecessor (the MV2000 series Media Vault), and it switches to a horizontal orientation for storing its hard drives.

Opening the front grille reveals a slide-out expansion bay on top, which can be fitted with an optional SATA hard drive. The front of the Media Vault also includes blue backlit icon indicators for power, network connectivity, and health of the integrated and optionally installed hard drives, as well as a USB 2.0 port. The back of the device includes an Ethernet jack (10/100/1000 Gigabit), an additional USB 2.0 port, and the power button. You can connect additional USB hard drives to the Media Vault for additional storage and backup options. Note, however, that printers won't work with the Media Vault as it does not include a print server. The MV2120 is powered by the Linux 2.6 kernel operating system and includes 128 MB of internal RAM memory.

A Central Hub for All Your Files
Great for the home, home office or small business that requires a central location for files that devices on the network can share, setting up and using your HP Media Vault is simple. A few quick steps get you up and running 24/7, and it's ready to work for you no matter how many desktop or notebook PCs are on your home network.

For music lovers, you can centralize your iTunes music library and playlists on the Media Vault for playback on any computer running iTunes on your network. And you can stream media files from the Media Vault to your networked TV and other digital devices for high-quality playback. You can access your media files from Windows-, Mac-, and Linux-based computers.

The HP Media Vault also enables direct remote access to your files when you're away from home, or to others connecting from far-flung locales. You can create an online connection to your Media Vault from any computer with access to the Internet. Use it to access your media files while on vacation, a multimedia presentation from a client site, or to share your media with others. You can also authorize visitors to access your Media Vault remotely so they can view the file folders you have designated for sharing. And you can grant permission for visitors to add their own files to designated folders on your Media Vault.

With HP Photo Webshare, it's easy to set up groups for sharing different photo albums. For instance, set up a photo Webshare so friends can view an album of your latest vacation; or allow family from near and far to add photos from your family reunion to create one blockbuster album.

Protect Your Data
The HP Media Vault keeps your digital life organized, accessible and most importantly, more protected. With its 500 GB installed capacity, it stores and protects important media and files on computers throughout your home or small office. And with customizable backup options your files can be automatically protected weekly, daily or continuously. In addition, for ultimate protection, attach a USB hard drive to your Media Vault and backup the most important Media Vault files to take to a separate, secure location.

The innovative new design lets you easily increase your storage as your needs evolve. Use the expansion bay on the HP Media Vault to add an extra hard drive for greater storage or the additional protection of a second mirrored copy of your data (RAID 1). For enhanced data security, use the expansion drive for creating a full backup copy of your most important files to store in a separate location.

The HP Media Vault Control Center provides easy management and configuration.

Easy Set-up and Management
The HP Media Vault Control Center software allows you to access shared folders, backup settings, and configuration tools. (The Control Center software requires Windows XP or Vista.) Shared Folders are the primary way of organizing files, music, photos, or videos and sharing them with other people. By default there are the five public preconfigured folders: Backup, Documents, Music, Photos, and Videos. These shared folders are accessible by anyone on the local network, and if password protected, can also be accessed remotely.

User accounts can be created on the HP Media Vault for enhanced security and to provide remote file access. Security is increased on shared folders by requiring passwords and setting read/write permissions for each user.

The HP Media Vault can also be utilized as an iTunes Music server, which will aggregate iTunes libraries from the systems on the local network and make one complete library with all music and playlists available to all iTunes clients. When enabled on a PC, the iTunes library on the PC is periodically polled to discover newly added music or videos. When new media is discovered, the files are copied to the iTunes library on the HP Media Vault where they are added to the aggregated iTunes library. (Note that only music files that are not DRM-protected can be streamed from the Media Vault.)

What's in the Box
HP Media Vault, power cable/AC adapter, Ethernet cable, software installation disc, printed setup poster

Customer Reviews

An Excellent Network Storage and Backup Solution!
The Media Vault has made it very easy (finally) for me to put all my files in one place that everyone on my home network can access. Here's what's great about it:

1. It's very easy to install. Just plug in the power supply, plug the included ethernet cable into your router, turn it on, and it's ready to go. The Media Vault is one of the more attractive techno doo-dads out there, so you're not forced to hide it when entertaining guests. If you do want to get it out of the way, its small enclosure allows it to fit nicely in a closet or cabinet.

2. It's easy to configure. The interface is simple, even for regular folks who are new to administering a home server or shared storage device (technically, the Media Vault is a NAS, which stands for Network Attached Storage). The included software, which is PC-only, works as advertised, giving you control over user accounts, backup schedules, sharing, and other functions.

Fortunately, if you're not on a PC, or if you don't want to install yet another piece of software on your computer, you can easily control the router via your Web browser. Just type in the Media Vault's address on your network and configure to your heart's content. As far as I could tell, most of the features of the PC software are available via the Web interface. Mac users will need to opt for this method.

3. Sharing is easy. The Media Vault is set up to share videos, music, photos, and documents right out of the box. You can open, edit, and save files that live on the Media Vault just as you would with a file that lives on your computer. Another plus: the Media Vault is immediately recognized by streaming media devices such as an xbox 360 or other network-connected media players. That means you can enjoy videos and photos from the comfort of your TV room. The Media Vault also comes with a built-in iTunes server. It's great having all my music ready to play in iTunes, no matter which computer I'm using.

4. Remote sharing is surprisingly simple. The Media Vault sets you up with your own custom Web address, which people outside your network can visit to browse your files. Don't worry, they have to be authorized to do this! It's a great way to share photos and files with friends and family far away. There's even a function called "Photo Webshare" that organizes and displays photos stored on the Media Vault via the Web.

5. Backups are a snap. I configured the Media Vault to automatically back up the contents of the user folders on my PCs (My Documents, My Photos, My Music, etc.) This way, my most important files are always getting backed up to the Media Vault and I don't have to think about it. Another great feature of the Media Vault that I plan to take advantage of is the hard drive expansion bay. I can easily add another internal hard drive, allowing me to make automatic backups of the Media Vault itself. You can also back up the Media Vault by hooking up an external USB drive and copying your data to it.

And what about negatives? It would be nice if the device were a bit quieter when in use. The internal fan is a little distracting. That's why I would recommend placing the Media Vault in an out-of-the-way part of your home, or in a closet or cabinet with good ventilation. That's my only nit-pick for now, but I'll see how it goes as I use it more!

This Little Linux Box Packs a LOT
I haven't had much experience with the Windows Home Server version of HP's MediaSmart servers, but the HP MediaVault seems to offer a good deal of its functionality at HALF the cost.

True, you can't stuff as many hard drives in this unit as a MediaSmart server but the typical home, the environment that this product was designed for, 1 extra HD bay for upgrades is plenty. The greatest feature of the upgradeable HD bay is the easy, pull out tray.

The Linux system on the MediaVault is very user friendly unlike a lot of hardcore Linux environments and is very reminiscent of Windows. The best part is that you can use macs with this product to use as a basic backup drive and to browse files. Something Windows Home Server cannot do (surprise).

Another list of pros and cons that helped me a LOT when deciding on this product is the following from Gizmodo:

What's not as good as MediaSmart Windows Home Server:
* Won't do multiple streams of video like WHS
* Only two drive bays (a fixed and a spare) instead of four
* Lets you backup multiple PCs, but only one at at time from the PC itself, not through a WHS-style master control

What's the same as MediaSmart Windows Home Server:
* iTunes music aggregation
* Photo webshare
* Remote access and web-based file browsing (1-year free)
* Connect via Mac for basic use as a shared drive

What's better than MediaSmart Windows Home Server:
* Web-based remote controls work great on Macs
* Quieter, with less drive noise on a regular basis
* Easy to back-up the server itself to a USB drive
* Easier to access Windows backups, especially from a Mac
* Probably does not share the same data corruption bug as WHS

HP got it really right with this product
This is a surprisingly good product. The device itself seems to me to be a great value. The software is easy to install (i.e., no install failures) and at least for me, easy and intuitive to use (i.e., no need to read the manual). The cool features, like the built-in iTunes server works without any configuration, and with a small amount of configuration, the ability to make it into a secure, on-the-internet server for photo and file sharing was equally impressive. I opted to buy an additional WD 500gb drive (for about $110 here on Amazon) and run them in RAID mode, so I have a terrabyte of physical storage available as one fault-tolerant 500gb drive. Adding the 2nd drive was also effortless. Just drop the drive in the enclosure, go to the configuration panel and select "use for RAID" and then the device automatically configures the drive.

I've attached it to my Netgear wireless router and file transfers and music streaming work fine on my network.

One undocumented feature is that it works perfectly with my Mac as well as my Windows box. I just mount the drives via SMB and also the iTunes streaming works without configuration.

One significant missing feature in my view is that the available USB ports on the device are only for backing up the drives (i.e., output of the unit) not for uploading. This means that my first backups were much slower than needed, as I had to mount my external USB drive to my computer and then transfer my 100gb of lossless music via Ethernet, which was a lot slower. When I first backed up my Mac (using SuperDuper, which is better than Apple's TimeMachine in my view), it took 11 hours to back up 200gb. Doing the transfer via USB would have taken maybe 4-7 hours.

I liked this product so much that I bought a second one for use at my office. I think this is a terrific value.