Hewlett-Packard began taking preorders today for its MediaSmart Server, the first system from a major manufacturer powered by Microsoft Corp.'s Windows Home Server (WHS) software. MediaSmart, which won't ship until later this month, is priced at $599 with 500GB of storage, or $749 with a terabyte of disk space.

WHS, loosely based on Windows Server 2003, made its debut at last January's Consumer Electronics Show and entered public beta about a month later. It provides automatic backup, data restore, file and printer sharing, and remote Web-based access for up to 10 Windows XP or Vista PCs on an Ethernet or wireless network. Microsoft has hammered hardest on the automatic backup feature.

HP had delayed the expected mid-September rollout of MediaSmart Server after it decided that WHS needed more work, even though Microsoft had handed out release candidate editions back in June and certified the software as ready for duplication in July.