By Philip Churchill on June 03rd, 2008
Modifying Windows home Server
Marzouq from Kuwait takes us through the modifications to his home made Windows Home Server. Using one thin screw driver, a pair of pliers and two WHS add-ins, you can read the details here.
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So it takes Microsoft searching the planet to find someone willing to afford the highest cost home server. Should anyone be surprised it’s a rich Kuwait who just spent only more money?
And by adding all those additional hard drives (12), with a proven data corrupting design flaw that still haven’t been fixed, Microsoft KB 946676, is just stupid. No wonder his WHS management console reflects all his additional hard drives to be empty free space memory! No PC backups and the never ending balancing storage still was displaying even in his screen shot.
Kamezawa:
1. Data Corruption: The data corruption bug is only affected by certain programs/scenarios … since we are well aware of the cause, we can safely avoid corruption by following the guidelines listed by the WHS team.
2. Empty Space: The drives will be filled in due time, we are building this server as a remote unit for our other home server (which serves media files)
(If it helps you sleep better at night, here is a picture of the main unit with filled drives and backups:
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3064/2551504690_9c90e0995c_o.gif)
3.Cost:
All in all, the 10TB+ setup cost less than 2600$, any comparable options for serving that amount of content (to several units) would cost several times more.
Kamezawa, there are other different server solutions out there but nothing as simple as WHS. You might have more experience with other OSes and find them to be better then thats your choice. As mentioned by K, this bug can be averted by following a certain protocol, its a major problem that will be fixed in due time, I have faith in that. The fix has been in the pipeline for some time.
In regards to space I am setting up the machine to fill it up with all the content that I have spread out throughout the network.
I wasn’t aware that it took a rich Kuwaiti to afford $2600 over a period of five months. Well if you can put together a better solution with more space and cheaper price, then please go ahead. For now I am enjoying filling up my space with all the media content that I have and centralizing it in one location.
WHS for $2600 dollars! Sure call it whatever you want, but that’s most definitely expensive for anyone but the rich.
KAMEZAWA also brings up another important point, such as how Microsoft in over a year has not provided any resolution for their proven data corruption design flaw.
If the above only took the time to read what Microsoft posted, KB 946676, it clearly states, “A bug has been discovered in the way that Windows Home Server manages file transfer and balancing across multiple hard drives.” should clue you all in to the FACT that there’s this huge big serious problem with WHS!
http://www.support.microsoft.com/kb/946676
Microsoft goes on to state, until your calling Microsoft a lier too, that Microsoft posted “Do not use applications to directly edit or change files that are stored on the Windows Home Server-based computer.” and “…avoid using media management programs, such as Windows Media Player”, etc…
Data corruption on 1TB or 10TB is still data corruption folks!
Heaven forbid if Marzouq from Kuwait needs to reinstall WHS. That’s because the reinstall itself takes almost an 2 days on a 10TB system, right? Plus any required drivers. Plus Windows updates. Plus any needed reboots. Plus restarting the console after every add-in. And then you have any non-standard applications.
WHS can’t backup to an eternal drive, it treats it as more storage, and there is NO backup program despite having a major problem that has taken forever to fix. That’s in addition of being required to be all Microsoft to really use it to its full ability.
If you just unplug WHS it will flip out as well.
So what’s the point of paying $2600 dollars, unless you just got money to burn here?
Wouldn’t it make a whole lot more sense for Marzouq from Kuwait to have used the open source code solutions that are totally free so that his own fellow Kuwait citizens back home whom are NOT wealthy and rich would NOT be left out?
I can understand that the Microsoft bug is a major issue, but it has been clearly stated as to how to avoid it. I have been using for a few months now. No editing takes place on the machine itself, either I am moving files over or deleting so it makes things a lot easier in my case.
Amend I have to say that the easiest part of the WHS is how fast and simply it integrates into your network. I have yet to see an opensource server application that does something like this. There probably is something out there but I haven’t really looked into it. Why would someone in Kuwait or any other country be left out if I am using WHS or any other source? that doesn’t make sense.
I have been switching off and on so many times, I don’t leave it running all the times. Duplication is on and I am moving files over without an issue. I have yet to see a major issue with WHS, overall I think that Microsoft came up with a good idea even though I’m not a fan of Microsoft.