News - Ballmer will ‘look into’ removal of Windows Home Server drive extender

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The big boss is on the case after decision generates uproar.

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Read more.

Glad to hear it. But obviously it means squat if they still withdraw Drive Extender. However if they reinsert it into 'Vail' my respect for Microsoft will rise ever so slightly.

Reading this http://arstechnica.com/microsoft/new...ome-server.ars is interesting - could this be the real reason it's gone?

One of the nice things about Microsoft is that they do actually try and listen to their users, unlike Apple who just tend to proclaim and stonewall.

If they reintroduce it a lot of people's respect for them will increase. While it might be a low volume seller in comparison to many of their products, you can't put a price on positive PR, and that's what this will generate if they listen to their customers and actually implement changes (or reinstate features) they want.

I don't see how they had any choice. WHS is a niche product, and it depends on niche users.

If the niche users turn around and say "We don't want your product anymore", then who the hell is meant to be appealing to?

Let's hope someone sees sense.

It's about time they saw sense and removed DE. It was a brilliant but very flawed idea and it's removal leaves the way open for multiple ways to protect user data.

Would you care to expand what you have said rather than a blank statement?

And also, if WHS doesn't have DE then what exactly would anyone want with a copy of WHS?

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Originally Posted by CWH

It's about time they saw sense and removed DE. It was a brilliant but very flawed idea and it's removal leaves the way open for multiple ways to protect user data.

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:laugh:

Its removal leaves no way open, it closes the only door it opened. Without DE, WHS is nothing. Yet somehow this stuff keeps doing the rounds... I don't get it.

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Originally Posted by snootyjim

Without DE, WHS is nothing. Yet somehow this stuff keeps doing the rounds... I don't get it.

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It keeps doing the rounds because DE is fundamentally flawed. If WHS without DE is nothing, then WHS with DE is a broken nothing.

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Originally Posted by aidanjt

It keeps doing the rounds because DE is fundamentally flawed. If WHS without DE is nothing, then WHS with DE is a broken nothing.

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If DE is fundamentally flawed then why have almost 4,000 people now complained about it on Microsoft Connect. To be fair one or two people have said it is a good thing but it cannot be more than about 1%. It was not perfect but it worked very well for the majority of people, particularly those who are not particularly technically literate and who don't understand RAID or similar.

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Originally Posted by asm495

If DE is fundamentally flawed then why have almost 4,000 people now complained about it on Microsoft Connect. To be fair one or two people have said it is a good thing but it cannot be more than about 1%. It was not perfect but it worked very well for the majority of people, particularly those who are not particularly technically literate and who don't understand RAID or similar.

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Because almost (or more likely, a lot more than) 4,000 people are not particularly technically literal and don't understand RAID or similar?

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Originally Posted by aidanjt

Because almost (or more likely, a lot more than) 4,000 people are not particularly technically literal and don't understand RAID or similar?

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Arent you missing the point of WHS though? It was built to be run by technically less abled people. If everyone knew everything there was to know about raid then they wouldnt need WHS?

Which is why people are complaining and saying that without DE, WHS is obsolete and superceded by many other currently available products.

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Originally Posted by aidanjt

Because almost (or more likely, a lot more than) 4,000 people are not particularly technically literal and don't understand RAID or similar?

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Read the thread on Connect and you'll find that there are a lot of people who do understand RAID (including me) and yet found DE worked very well: https://connect.microsoft.com/Window...?wa=wsignin1.0

Since I started using WHS (having previous used a Win Server 2003 with AD, Exchange and RAID) I have moved from using a mix of 500GB and 750GB drives to 1TB, 1.5TB and 2TB drives with the minimum of fuss. All the while the data I wanted to be duplicated has been. Would the average home user to whom Windows HOME Server is targetted be able to do such a thing with RAID? That is why removing DE from this home product is such a bad call.

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Originally Posted by aidanjt

It keeps doing the rounds because DE is fundamentally flawed. If WHS without DE is nothing, then WHS with DE is a broken nothing.

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It just isn't. I hate RAID, and I do not want RAID.

I don't want drives all the same size. I don't want to rebuild every time I want to make a configuration change. I don't want to have to buy 4 new hard drives every time I want to get more size. I don't want to sit there, when a drive fails, waiting to see if I get an unrecoverable error during recovery. You'll note if there's an error on a sole-remaining DE drive, you'll lose one file.

It's a completely different solution, for a completely different problem. In some cases their possible uses overlap, but not always.

If DE is canned, then I will stay with WHS for as long as possible, and then ultimately I will shift to a virtualised Server 2008 R2 on RAID 5. It's not a great solution for me though, I am far happier with DE. I understand RAID, and I'm comfortable with using it, it's just nowhere near as neat a solution.

Your inability to perceive the flaw does not change the fact that it exists. Microsoft has admitted that it's flawed. If you want to span volumes then use logical volume management, the proper tool for that job.