This post is off topic but I thought it would be interesting to a large audience. I have had a HP MediaSmart 470 home server for about a year. I have enjoyed it was a file server for my home network and have been able to stream music and video to my PS3 seamlessly from it. It also serves as a nice print sharing server as well. I have been able to easily upgrade the RAM on the system from 512MB to 2GB and easily add a few TB's to its storage capacity. I have not used the other features of it such as photo sharing or page hosting. One feature I had not used at all was the system back up feature. Most of my home systems are Apples so I never had the need for a windows backup feature. About six months after I bought my HP MediaSmart, HP announced the feature on their new MediaSmarts would support Apple Time Machine backups. I was excited but disappointed with this new feature because I just bought mine and wondered if I should go get a new one just to have the Time Machine back up feature. I could not justify this purchase so I searched the forums and web for the support of a MediaSmart backward compatibility for about three months with no avail. About a week ago I stumbled across the MediaSmart support page and noticed a link to the download of the MediaSmart client support for OS X. The software for the client can be downloaded below followed by the installation instruction link.
OS X ClientInstallation IntructionsInstalling this client is pretty straight forward. By default with the older HP MediaSmart server the Time Machine backup feature won't work. It will complain about not having a "MAC" folder on the server. This is easily fixed by creating a "MAC" folder in the root share folder of the MediaSmart server. The folder layout should look like the figure below:
Once this folder is created you can open up the Time Machine preferences on your Mac and backup to the HP MediaSmart Server. I have two Mac systems backing up to the MediaSmart and it has worked well so far. I would recommend the HP MediaSmart to anyone looking for a fileshare, printshare, or backup solution for their home network.
