Not to be left out of the action Drobo have come up with an offer for Windows Home Server users.
On a page entitled "Drobo to the Rescue", they state "Drobo FS is the perfect upgrade for Windows Home Server users" and are offering $100 (or currency equivalent) to those in the US, Canada, UK and the rest of Europe"
More details here.
Small Business Server MVP Tim Barrett came up with the following, which brings a bit of humor to the Drive Extender removal fiasco:
Courtesy of NoGeekLeftBehind.com.
Windows writer Paul Thurrott shared some additional information on his blog on why the Drive Extender technology was removed from Windows Home Server Vail:
In a briefing last month, I was told that Microsoft and its partners discovered problems with Drive Extender once they began typical server loads (i.e. server applications) on the system. This came about because Drive Extender was being moved from a simple system, WHS, to a more complex, server-like OS )(SBS "Aurora") that would in fact be used to run true server applications. And these applications were causing problems.
"Drive Extender was a neat feature, but the implementation was off, and we discovered some application compatibility and disk tool problems related to its ability to correct data errors on the fly," Microsoft general manager Kevin Kean told me. "We don’t want to give customers problems; we want to give them solutions. So ultimately, we decided that we needed to cut out Drive Extender. Removing Drive Extender will make file shares easy, and it’s possible to accomplish most of its features otherwise. For example, you use the server’s centralized backup or even RAID as an alternative to data duplication."
The full details are available here.
Episode 114 of "The Home Server Show" podcast is up and unsurprisingly this episode is all about Microsoft’s decision to remove Drive Extender (DE) from WHS Vail.
Dave and the guys are this week joined by Alex Kuretz, Timothy Daleo and Michael Martis to give their thoughts on this decision.
This DE focused episode, which lasts for 75 minutes is available from here.
After yesterdays announced from Microsoft regarding dropping Drive Extender from Windows Home Server Vail, the community responded. On that post over 150 comments were left with the majority asking why?, with comments such as “You know it is not April 1st, right?”. Headlines appeared on websites around the web such as this one: "Microsoft sh**s on Windows Home Server users..". Even Windows Home Server MVP Alex Kuretz asked the question "..Is Windows Home Server Dead?".
Facebook had an MVP write "Windows Home Server Codename Vail without Drive Extender? More like Codename Fail”, whilst Twitter got a new hash tag of #VailFail.
Angry Windows Home Server users have now started to sign a petition on the Windows Home Server “Vail” beta site on Microsoft Connect to bring back Drive Extender which already has over 1000 votes at the time of writing.
Microsoft responded to the outrage by publishing another blog post explaining in more detail why this decision was made, basically stating that support for hardware RAID solutions, application compatibility and data portability was needed in SBS 2011 Essentials and Windows Storage Server 2008 R2 Essentials which naturally meant Vail as well, so DE was pulled.
Lots of the community are saying that they are sticking with v1 for as long as possible and that they will not recommend anyone to purchase Vail – Will You?
Microsoft have today announced that Windows Home Server Vail will no longer have the Drive Extender (DE) technology within it which is currently in the Vail beta as well as WHS Version 1.
DE was the technology with the reliability and benefits of RAID which provided the following three capabilities:
Microsoft have come to this decision due to the fact that larger hard drives have become available (2, 3 and 4TB) and that smaller hard drives are becoming less common.
Looking forward without DE, hard drives will now be able to be copied onto another computer, if the need arises due to a Home Server failure etc (ability to read DE drives in non-DE machines). Drive letters will be back in "My Computer" and application compatibility is increased with Drive Extender’s removal. BUT what about drive duplication?
Microsoft are hoping that disk duplicating methods will be developed by third party’s and that cloud based add-ins will be utilized. And off course users can use FlexRaid or similar tools for their data protection needs.
This announcement also applies to the other products within the Colorado family:
What do you think of the decision of Microsoft to remove the Drive Extender technology from future versions?
Have a question or problem?
I can’t guarantee an answer, but I’ll try. Click “ask a question” above!
I am getting these questions on a daily basis at the moment, the truth is I don’t truly know what’s happening, things have gone very quiet of late and the Windows Home Server team blog hasn’t been updated since May.
In recent weeks Microsoft has announced the release dates Windows Small Business Server 2011 Essentials (previously codenamed “Aurora”) and Windows Storage Server 2011 Essentials (previously codenamed “Breckenridge”). There is no fixed date set for these but they have said in the first half of 2011, I can only presume that this is the same for Windows Home Server Vail also.
Frank Asks:
When I go to another site, I can easily connect to my Windows Home Server, but if I try using my iPod touch running Safari, after I enter my username & password it thinks for a while and then comes back to the username & password screen.
The desktop is hardwired and the iPod is on Wi-Fi connected to the same router. This is supposed to be do-able.
If I am honest at first this one got me a little stumped, I certainly know that you are able to access WHS via the iPod touch. The one thing I do want to point out is to make sure you are not trying to login using the administrator username and password, as this is restricted to local use only.
I have spoken to a couple of people about this and they have also experienced this as well, they reliably inform me that clearing the History, Cookies and Cache in the Safari settings should resolve this problem, follow the tutorial below to clear these.
Clear iPod Touch Safari Cache
Click to enlarge
Per Asks:
I cannot connect to the Windows Home Server Console any more, the icon say’s ”Network health on risk”
This problem started some days ago and it doesn’t occur at a particular time of day; it isn’t possible to connect the WHS Console any time.
Now I have tried to uninstall & reinstall the Windows Home Server console on my computer and I now get an error message saying “This operation cannot be completed at this time. Please try again later”.
I can still see and use all the files I have saved on my Windows Home Server from my computer.
Any help would be much appreciated.
This does seem a little unusual, as from the email Pers sent, I know this has suddenly stopped working, first of all the simplest thing to try is restarting your Windows Home Server.
If that hasn’t worked, when you open the Windows Home Server console but before entering your password, try clicking “Options” underneath the password box >> then click “Reset the Windows Home Server Console”.
Re-install the connector software making sure to uninstall and then restart your PC afterwards, once you are ready to install the software again make sure you do this by either going to http://yourservername:55000 or \\yourservername\software\Home Server Connector Software, there has been many cases of these problems, generally originating from people installing the incorrect version of the WHS connector software, to make sure you are using the correct version you can download the latest connector software from Microsoft’s website here.
If it is still not working, I would be inclined to think that something new has been installed on the machine such as internet security, McAffee has been known to cause these sorts of issues with the WHS console.
The WHS console runs inside the Remote Desktop Connection software installed on all PC’s, it may be that your anti-virus program could be stopping the RDC protocol, try disabling any anti-virus on the PC and also add an exception in the program, then try accessing the Windows Home Server console, I am pretty sure this will resolve the problem.
Have a question or problem?
I can’t guarantee an answer, but I’ll try. Click “ask a question” above!
Written by
Matthew Glover
www.matthewglover.co.uk
www.lpower.co.uk | Quality Laptop Batteries, 30 Day Money Back Guarantee, 12 Month Warranty.
If you are the owner of an Acer easyStore Home Server and have all 4 hard drive bays full then the temperature inside the case could be a little hot. One way of making things a little cooler is to replace the Acer’s case fan with a more efficient model which "Saxamo" from HomeServerLand did, resulting in a 10 degree drop in temperature.
Saxamo’s guide has all the details on how to swop the Acer’s case fan, which you can find here.
WHSClamAV has been updated to version 0.1.9 to work with the latest ClamWin 0.96.4, which was updated to to prevent some cases where system files were being detected a viruses and then being quarantined.
NOTE: If you already have the add-in installed then you are strongly advised to read the upgrading instructions as simply installing the new version will result in a incorrect configuration.
More information is available from here.
Houston, Texas is the place to be on Tuesday, November 30th 2010 for HoustonWinMeet: A Windows Entertainment and Connected Home Meet-up.
Sponsored by Microsoft, the meet-up is being organized by Windows Entertainment and Connected Home MVP Michael “Mikinho” Welter, who is also a Senior Editor for MissingRemote.com.
Of particular interest in the schedule is:
Backing it up: Windows Media Center and Windows Home Server
We’ll talk about backup solutions for a Windows connected home entertainment network, focusing in on the interaction between Windows Media Center and Windows Home Server: what features and benefits the two products collectively provide, and have an overview Windows Home Server – Vail product.
If you plan to attend, please make sure that you RSVP, which you can do here.
Additional information on the event including the planned schedule is available from here.
