I know this has nothing to do with Appraisals or even the Real Estate industry for that matter.  But it does have to do with your Business. 

I’m sure there are a lot of you who have small 1 or 2 man shops that you run your appraisal company with.  I’m sure one of your biggest fears would be…  losing all of your data.

Well I have a solution that I think is one of Microsoft’s best kept secret for the Small or Home-Based Businesses.  It’s called “Windows Home Server.” IMHO it has got to be the best product they have ever made for anyone that is concerned about their data or even someone who just wants to be able to backup those precious family photos and not have to worry about a tape drive or an external hard-drive.

Here are their “Features at a Glance” from Microsoft’s Website.

The Server comes with 2 additional pieces of software.  One is the “Connector”, that is used to install on whatever machine you want to have connected to the Home Server.  The other is a “Restore CD”, this is used in the event you need to restore a computer.

I recently had to use the Restore CD on one of my machines after I had tried to install a version of Linux that went terribly wrong.  Being the first time I ever used this I wasn’t sure how it was going to work.  I stuck the Restore CD in and rebooted the machine.  As a precaution I deleted all partition that were on the system (I don’t recommend this,  But I know what I’m doing, really I do   ).  I proceeded to follow the onscreen instruction to restore my machine.  Within about 5 hrs I had my machine right back where i left it.  All of my documents, pictures, programs… Everything.  It was like I never messed it up to begin with.  It was great.

I now use the home server to backup ALL of my computers (4 in all).  I’m not sure why Microsoft does not advertise this more, but I can tell you it’s well worth the money spent.

Check it out over at Microsoft, “Windows Home Server“