Shared folders

Related Help
» Create New Shared Folder
» Modify Selected Folder
» Delete Selected Folder

Welcome to the HP Media Vault

The HP Media Vault is a powerful network server that allows you to share files, and stream music and video to a Digital Media Adapter. It also allows you to share a printer with more than one computer.

The media vault comes pre-configured with several resources available for use as soon as the device is turned on and connected to the network. In many cases, you may find these resources suitable to your needs, and if so, no additional configuration of the device will be needed.

If the default settings are not exactly what you want or need, use these media vault configuration screens to customize the HP Media Vault’s network resources, and to monitor and maintain the server’s hardware and software.

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Create a new Shared Folder

This screen creates a new Shared Folder on the HP Media Vault. Create new Shared Folders to help organize and secure your information. This screen will display options differently depending on the Network Security Mode Setting (found on the Network Settings screen).

Create new Shared Folder options

Workgroup mode

User-based mode

In this mode, no access-level settings are associated with Shared Folders. Instead, all access rights to Shared Folders are associated with individual usernames. You can specify those rights using these options, which do not appear on the screen in Workgroup Mode.

Shared Folder access settings

The media vault supports two distinct protocols that allow file sharing by using standard operating system commands. These two protocols are Common Internet File System (CIFS), which is sometimes referred to as SMB (or “samba”); and Network File System (NFS). These protocols are both enabled by the Network File Sharing check box. They allow file access from Windows, Mac, or Linux computers.

CIFS is normally used with Windows and Mac computers, and NFS is more commonly used with Linux computers. In addition, the files in an media vault Shared Folder can be accessed using HTTP (Web browser) or FTP (FTP client) protocols. The HTTP and FTP protocols may also be used by computers on and outside the LAN to access files stored on the media vault.

Note: HTTP and FTP protocols are disabled by default. You may enable them but should only make the media vault available external to your home LAN if you understand how computer and router firewalls operate and the intrinsic security risks of intentionally opening holes in a firewall.

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Modify an existing shared folder

This screen modifies an existing Shared Folder on the HP Media Vault. This screen will display options differently depending on the Network Security Mode Setting (found on the Network Settings screen).

Modify Shared Folder options

Workgroup mode

User-based mode

In this mode, no access-level settings are associated with Shared Folders. Instead, all access rights to Shared Folders are associated with individual usernames. You can specify those rights using these options, which do not appear on the screen in Workgroup mode.

Shared folder access settings

The HP Media Vault supports two distinct protocols that allow file sharing using standard operating system commands. Those two protocols are Common Internet File System (CIFS), which is sometimes referred to as SMB (or “samba”) and Network File System (NFS). These protocols are both enabled by the Network File Sharing check box. These two protocols allow file access from Windows, Mac, or Linux computers.

CIFS is normally used with Windows and Mac computers, and NFS is more commonly used with Linux computers. In addition, the files in an media vault Shared Folder can be accessed using HTTP (Web browser) or FTP (FTP client) protocols. The HTTP and FTP protocols may also be used by computers on and outside the LAN to access files stored on the media vault.

Note: HTTP and FTP protocols are disabled by default. You may enable them but should only make the media vault available external to your home LAN if you understand how computer and router firewalls operate and the intrinsic security risks of intentionally opening holes in a firewall.

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Delete an existing shared folder

This screen deletes an existing Shared Folder on the HP Media Vault.

Delete Shared Folder options

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Shared printers

The HP Media Vault automatically detects a printer when it is plugged into a USB port on the media vault. This allows several computers to print to one printer, called a network printer.

Important: You must install printer software (drivers) on each PC that will be using the network printer.

Shared Printer screen

Note: Not all USB printers can be shared over a network. If you find that after following these instructions that you cannot use the printer, consult the user manual for the printer to see if network sharing is a supported feature.

To install drivers on a PC (with a Windows operating system) for a network printer, follow these steps:

  1. Select Start from the windows toolbar, usually located on the lower-left side of the screen.
  2. Choose Printers and Faxes from the right side of the menu.
  3. Select Add a Printer on the left-hand side of the screen. This will start the Add Printer Wizard.
  4. Choose Add a Network Printer.
  5. The Specify a Printer screen will ask you which printer you would like to connect. Select a network printer, or a printer attached to another computer, and then click Next.
  6. Select Connect to a printer on the Internet or on a home or office network
  7. In the box, enter the name of your media vault, followed by the name of the printer, in the following format: \\DeviceName\PrinterName
  8. Example: \\HPMediaVault\Deskjet970c1
  9. The name of your media vault can be found under Network Settings, under Device Name.
  10. The name of your printer can be found on the Shared Printers screen, under Shared Printers Name.
  11. You can also Browse for the media vault and printer if you leave the dialog box blank.
  12. Note: By default, the DeviceName is " HPMediaVault" and the PrinterName is the name reported by the printer to the media vault. (If the DeviceName differs from the default, it has been renamed on the Networks Settings screen. If the PrinterName differs from the reported name, it has been renamed on the Shared Printers screen).

Selecting a network printer

After the printer is set up on your network, you can print to it by selecting the name of the printer in the application’s print dialog from which you are printing. You can also set it as your default printer on your PC in which case it will be selected automatically.

No printer attached

When no printers are installed, the Shared Printers screen displays this message: Printer Sharing is Currently Disabled because no printers are connected. To enable printer sharing, plug in a valid USB.

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Media streaming

Media streaming sends media (music, photos, and video files) from one stored location to other devices that can play the media. The HP Media Vault includes software that allows media to stream to a Digital Media Adaptor. A Digital Media Adaptor (DMA) is a network connected device that typically attaches to a television and/or stereo. DMA devices provide a convenient way to enjoy and share your media files.

Note: Supported DMA’s must use the UPnP A/V file streaming method, described below.)

To enable streaming from a Shared Folder to a DMA, follow these steps:

  1. Select a Shared Folder from the Select a Shared Folder drop-down list. A Shared Folder may contain media and non-media files, such as Microsoft Word documents. Only media files will be accessible on the DMA.
  2. Click Enable Media Streaming for Selected Folder. This will enable media to stream to the DMA.
  3. Yes will appear next to the selected Shared Folders table located in the upper-left corner.

To disable streaming from a Shared Folder, follow these steps:

  1. Select the Shared Folder from the Select a Shared Folder drop-down list.
  2. Click Disable Media Streaming for Selected Folder. This will disable streaming to a DMA.
  3. No will appear next to the selected folder in the Shared Folders table located in the upper-left corner.

Note: When a Shared Folder is made available or unavailable for streaming, all of its sub-folders are similarly enabled or disabled.

UPnP A/V streaming

Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) is a networking protocol design that allows many different types of devices to interact with one another. The UPnP A/V streaming method currently supports only the streaming of unprotected media files. Some files may be protected by a Digital Rights Management system, which may prevent the streaming of those files. Media files purchased and downloaded from online Internet stores are most likely protected.

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Disk settings

This screen allows the HP Media Vault administrator to manually monitor and control attached physical disks (internal and external USB) and any logical volumes that exist on those disks.

Physical disks

The top of the screen contains status information and settings for disks connected to the media vault.

Each horizontal bar graph represents a hard disk, and the disk graphs illustrate the space used by logical volumes, as well as space not currently allocated to any logical volume. The volumes are color-coded to match entries in the volume table (found on the bottom of the screen). Within each color-coded volume, the used space is shown as a cross-hatched area, and free space is shown as an area of solid color.

Free space can be used to create new logical volumes, or to expand the total space (or maximum capacity) of existing volumes.

Adding disks

The media vault’s primary system disk uses the Serial ATA (SATA) interface.

Note: The internal expansion tray will accommodate a second SATA disk.

Note: The media vault does not support adding IDE disks using the expansion slot.

Note: An expansion SATA disk cannot be added to the system while the system is running (this is called “hot-plugging”). To add a SATA disk into the expansion slot, follow these steps:

  1. Power down the media vault by pressing the power button on the front of the unit and wait until it is completely shut down.
  2. Insert the expansion tray fully until the handle locks down.
  3. Turn the expansion bay security knob to secure the drive tray into place and prevent it from mistakenly being removed.
  4. Power up the system. You are can now use the additional drive.

External USB disks can also be added by attaching the disk to any of the media vault’s three USB ports (two on the back and one on the front). Small USB disks, such as key disks and jump disks, can be attached. Other portable devices such as cameras and phones can also be attached providing those devices can be seen as USB storage devices. If you have any questions, check with the manufacture of your device to verify if it is classified as a USB storage device.

Note: The addition of multiple USB disks through an external USB hub is neither recommended nor supported.

The total amount of storage space connected to the media vault, for all disks, cannot exceed 1.2 terabytes.

Removing disks

To remove an external USB disk, follow these steps:

  1. From the Select A Disk drop-down list, select the disk you wish to remove.
  2. Click Safely Disconnect Disk.

To remove an internal expansion drive please do the following:

  1. Power down the media vault by pressing the power button on the front of the unit and wait for the system to completely shut off.
  2. Open the drive bay door and turn the drive bay security knob to allow the drive to be removed.
  3. Pull on the drive tray handle and remove the drive tray completely from the system.
  4. Power the system back up to use the single internal drive.
  5. Removing attached disks may cause unexpected and undesirable behaviors. Remove disks only when you know it is safe to do so! If the media vault has volumes that span across multiple disks, removing any one of the disks will make the whole volume unusable (at least until the disk is reconnected).

The primary system disk is not designed to be removed and the media vault cannot operate without it. If the system disk ever needs replacing, a series of recovery steps will be required to restore the media vault to normal operation. For more information, see the HP Media Vault Users Guide.

Disk options

To configure or change the settings on a physical disk, first select the disk in the drop-down list, then click one of the following options.

Note: If an option is disabled, that particular operation is not available for the selected disk.

Logical volumes

Storage space on the media vault’s hard disks cannot be accessed from the network until it has been assigned to a logical volume. The bottom half of the Disk Settings screen contains monitoring and control settings of logical volumes available to the administrator.

The table shows all volumes currently defined on the media vault, along with the color-coding legend that associates each volume with a physical disk in the disk graph section of the screen.

Volume options

To modify or delete existing volumes, or to create a mirror of an existing volume, select the volume you wish to modify (or delete) in the drop-down list, and then click one of the following options.

Note: If an option is disabled, that particular operation is not available for the selected volume.

RAID on the HP Media Vault

The media vault makes it easy for home users to enjoy many of the benefits of RAID without requiring expert knowledge.

Redundant Array of Independent Disks (RAID) systems are advanced storage disk units previously only available in expensive servers. There are several types of RAID, but three types are used most frequently:

Note: The media vault supports both mirroring and disk concatenation. However, RAID-5 is not supported.

Mirroring (RAID-1)

In RAID-1, the device simultaneously copies all information being written to a volume to an identical copy of the volume on a separate physical disk. The storage capacity of a mirrored volume is half the combined capacity of the two host disks.

To create a mirror of an existing volume on the media vault:

  1. Connect a new disk (with adequate capacity) into the internal SATA expansion slot.
  2. Select the volume you wish to mirror and click Create Mirror, specifying the expansion disk as the host for the mirror.
  3. Note: If the expansion disk has already been formatted in any file structure other than ReiserFS, the Create Mirror button is dimmed. To enable this button, you need to erase and reformat the expansion disk.
  4. It is important to back up the contents of a mirrored volume as it is still possible to lose data on both the mirrored volume and the mirror host volume if the entire media vault is destroyed.

Disk concatenation (JBOD)

The device combines space from multiple disks into one large, logical volume.

To create a concatenated volume on the media vault, disk space must be allocated from more than one physical disk to a single volume.

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Erase disk

This feature allows you to erase a disk currently connected to the HP Media Vault.

Options

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Format disk

This feature allows you to do all of the following in a single step:

Do not format a new disk if you wish to concatenate the new disk’s capacity with an existing volume. Use the Erase Disk option to erase the contents from the new disk, and then use the Modify Volume option to resize an existing volume.

Options

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Rename disk

Overview

This feature allows you to rename a disk. Disk names are not critical to system use, but having unique names for attached disks can be helpful when troubleshooting, and especially when using several different external USB disks.

Options

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Create new volume

This feature creates a new volume from the unused space on one or more disks. A volume is a portion of the drive(s) that can be configured to store data on the HP Media Vault. You set the size of a volume.

Creating a new volume

To create a new volume, follow these steps:

  1. In New Volume Name, enter a name for your new volume.
  2. If the disk has not been formatted, two options are available:
  3. Note: The format options will not be active if the disk(s) being selected for a new volume have already been formatted.
  4. Assign space for volume:
    1. To choose all available space to the new volume, click Assign all Available Space. If unused space is available on more than one disk, a concatenated volume (linked together volumes) will automatically be created.
    2. Linked together volumes are an elevated risk due to disk failure. If one disk fails that is part of a concatenated volume, all volumes on the disk become unusable. Back up all linked concatenated volumes.
    3. To provide space for the volume from the selected disks, click the check boxes for the disks. A slider control and number box will appear for each disk selected.
    4. Assign Space using one of the following methods:
      • Use the slider control to choose the amount of space.
      • Enter a number in the size box.
  5. Click Accept.

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Modify an existing volume

This feature modifies the name and/or size of the existing volume. A volume is a portion of one or more drives that can be configured to store data on the HP Media Vault. You choose the size given to a volume.

To modify the volume name, follow these steps:

  1. In New Volume Name, enter the new volume name. Changing the volume name does not alter any of the Shared Folders in an existing volume.
  2. Click Accept.

Options for designating the amount of space on a volume:

  1. Select the Assign All Available Space check box to choose all available space to the new volume. If non-allocated space is available on more than one disk, a concatenated volume is automatically created.
  2. You can choose the amount of space to allocate to a volume. Two options are available to complete this task:
  3. Click Accept.

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Delete an existing volume

This feature deletes an entire volume. A volume is a portion of one or more drives that can be configured to store data on the HP Media Vault. Volumes can be a defined as part of a disk or an entire disk. Deleting a volume on a disk will not harm the format, even if it is the only volume present on the disk.

To delete a Volume, follow these steps:

  1. In Volume Name Confirmation, enter the name of the volume to be deleted.
  2. Click Accept. Deleting may take several minutes. Do not close the web browser until the operation completes.

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Create a mirror

This feature creates a mirror of an existing volume on the HP media vault. A volume is a portion of one or more drives that can be configured to store data on the media vault. A mirror is a duplicate copy of an entire volume. When a volume is mirrored, your files are copied to both hard drives. The end result is that half the total amount space is available to store your files. For example, two 200GB drives mirrored together result in a mirrored volume of 200GB, not 400GB.

Note: Data on a mirror volume is safe unless both disks fail at the same time. If one hard disk fails, the media vault will administer a warning. The failed hard disk should be replaced immediately.

To create a mirror, follow these steps:

  1. On the Disk Settings screen, located at the bottom of the screen underneath Logical Volumes, click Select a Volume.
  2. Select the volume you want to mirror.
  3. Click Create a Mirror.
  4. The Create Mirror screen display the volume you have chosen. For example: You have chosen Volume 1 to mirror.
  5. Under Disk Assignment, select the disk that you would like that volume to make a mirror of.
  6. Click Accept. This process may take several hours before the volume is completely mirrored.

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Network settings

The Network Security Mode, located in the top half portion of the screen, allows a media vault administrator to change the HP Media Vault ’s name and security mode. The Network Protocol Settings, located in the bottom half portion of the screen, contains the network IP protocol settings.

Network Settings

Network Security Mode

The media vault allows you to have two types of security modes: Workgroup and User-based Mode.

Workgroup mode

Workgroup mode is the simplest way of managing security on the media vault. However, it is also the least secure. In Workgroup mode, all network users have the same level of access to shared resources, unless you protect specific folders with a password. By remembering which network users are given passwords, you can manage access to specific folders you want to protect.

To Change the name of a default Workgroup Name, follow these steps:

  1. In Workgroup Name, enter in the new name of your work group.
  2. Click Accept.

User-Based mode

User-based mode allows the administrator of the media vault to manage Shared Folder access, based on individual names and passwords. In this mode, the administrator must manually define a username and password for every person needing access.

Note: The task of maintaining user-based security is more difficult. Do not choose this mode if you are not prepared to properly manage usernames and passwords, as those without usernames and passwords will not have access.

Selecting the User-based mode changes the behaviors of the following:

For assistance in these areas, see Modify Shared Folders, Create a New Shared Folder, and User Settings.

Network protocol settings

Use the settings on the bottom portion of the Network Settings screen to configure IP protocol settings for the media vault. In most cases, the default network settings will work without change.

Protocol Settings Options

Note: If you are entering in a static IP address, you will need to provide a DNS (Domain Name Suffix) server address in manually. Depending on the configuration, You may not need to add in a WINS server address. Having two DNS servers is recommended for stability.

Other network security considerations

Network security depends not only on the security setting of the Media Vault, but on the settings and capabilities of all hardware and software on your LAN (Local Area Network). A NAS device like the HP Media Vault can offer convenience and tremendous storage capabilities for your home LAN.

However, since it can also be used to combine content, much of your family’s sensitive data could eventually be stored in a single place, making any breach of your home network’s security potentially much more serious. If an outsider can get to your LAN, they might also be able to get to the data on your media vault.

Exercising all of the security steps listed below gives you the maximum protection against would-be hackers and other invaders of your home network.

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User settings

The top section of the User Settings screen controls Administrator preferences. These settings allow an HP Media Vault administrator to change the administrator username and password. The bottom section of the screen controls user accounts, with options for adding, modifying, and deleting individual accounts. These options are hidden when the device is not set to User-Based Security mode. (You select the security mode on the Network Settings screen).

Administrator settings options

Defined Users

This section lists all defined-user accounts in a table with the username and the user’s default privilege-level.

User account options

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System settings

Related Help
» Clock Settings

This screen allows the media vault administrator to configure various settings for the HP Media Vault, including power savings mode; internal clock, time zone, and other time and date preferences; firmware updates; event log, and more.

Enable Power Saving Mode

The Power Saving Mode saves energy while the unit is powered on. In this mode, the internal hard disk drives are spun down, or put to sleep. The feature is enabled by default. You can set the time the media vault remains inactive before the drives are spun down.

Note: Your media vault will still be on, only the drives will be asleep.

To enable the Power Saving Mode, follow these steps:

  1. Select the Enable Power Saving check box.
  2. Use the Hours and Minutes drop-down list to specify the amount of time for the internal drives to remain inactive before powering down.

Resetting the device

The following options are available to reset the media vault.

Display System Events Log

Use this option to display a log of media vault events, including possible errors, as follows:

  1. Click Display System Events Log.
  2. Select one of the following two options:
  3. The log will appear on the bottom of the same screen.

Firmware

To update the Firmware, follow these steps:

  1. Perform one of the following:
  2. Click Apply Firmware Update.

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Clock settings

This screen allows the media vault administrator to configure various settings for the HP Media Vault, including power savings mode; internal clock, time zone, and other time and date preferences; firmware updates; event log, and more.

Clock settings options

The following three options are available to set the HP Media Vault Clock:

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