A Look at the WHS Console with LaCie
As well as all the usual features you would expect to see in the Windows Home Server Console, there are specific LaCie features. These include printer management for ease of adding a printer and sharing it.
Final Thoughts
The LaCie 5big Backup Server looks very cool with its glowing blue “eye” watching over you and your data.
It is heavy though – very heavy, so make sure you put it somewhere stable!
I liked some of the additional components – the printer management function was a really good idea as a lot of people want to share their printers on the network, and this makes it very easy to do so.
Cost wise, it isn’t cheap. The 5TB version will set you back around $1000 and the 10TB version will cost you $1500. You cannot buy the 5big Backup Server without disks in it, so you are paying $500 extra for 5TB of disk space, which given the current low cost of storage this is not a very tempting offer! Although if you have a small business and have need for a Windows Home Server appliance then this is one of the best on the market.
There have been a lot of comments in the community from users saying that it is too expensive for the home. That is a fair comment, but LaCie will be the first to point out that even though its Windows Home Server, they are aiming the 5big Backup Server squarely at small businesses, not home users.
It is a really good bit of kit though, and if you can afford the premium over other Windows Home Servers then you should certainly look closer at the 5big Backup Server.
Check out our Store for the some of the current deals.
There is currently no official word from LaCie about their Vail plans, so watch this space.
You can learn more about the LaCie 5big Backup Server from the LaCie website.
As they have pushed the Backups and the protection against drive failure, it will be interesting to see what they have done (if anything) to protect the backups as standard WHS doesn't do cover this.
I dont think they have done anything – I think its just a marketing spin – if you look at their webpage for the 5big Backup Server its says powered by Windows Embedded (which it isnt!)
Hi Dave,
WHS features the drive extender functionality, which allows shared folder to be duplicated across several drives.
Within the add-in community, there's also a piece of software available called Windows Home Server Backup Database-Backup to ensure that PC backups are duplicated as well.
We push for backups because WHS does a perfect job at backing up 10 PCs, and we added Time Machine support for up to 25 macs.
Thanks Julien
The add-in Julien is referring to is BDBB by our friend Alex Kuretz.