Should Microsoft Release Windows Home Server PP1 Now?

By on March 10, 2008 in Windows Home Server

Todd Headrick (who is the Product Planner over on the Windows Home Server team) is seeking some feedback from the community on a question. Earlier today, Microsoft revealed that the Data Corruption bug fix was currently scheduled for June 2008 – previously, we’ve been advised that Power Pack 1 would be held back until the bug fix was ready – here’s Todd’s question:

Knowing that the home server team has a current estimate of June, 2008 for the fix for the data corruption issue, do people believe that the team should “dust off” the Power Pack 1 code and release prior to a fix for the data corruption issue?

Head on over to the Microsoft Forums and let the team know your thoughts – if you want it, who knows, they may do it.

Find out more about Power Pack 1:

Power Pack 1: Coming Your Way

Power Pack 1 In Depth – Remote Access

Power Pack 1 In Depth – External Backup

Power Pack 1 In Depth – WHS Connector Walkthrough


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About Terry Walsh

Terry Walsh is the founding editor and owner of We Got Served. Since February 2007, the site has provided detailed coverage and analysis of the emerging home server category, and has subsequently grown into a trusted outlet for digital home news and reviews.
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  • Mark

    If WHS was the car with defect brakes (data corruption bug) and Microsoft the mechanic:
    What if he told you, he cannot repair the brakes the next months.
    Instead he is willing to pimp up the seats the time you are waiting to make your ride more enjoyable…

  • https://technocore.homeserver.com/ Christopher Courtney (Drashna)

    If we are going to have to wait for the corruption bug fix, we might as well get PP1 now.

  • Lee

    Why don’t they just scrap v1 and give everyone a free upgrade to WHS v2008 ???

    LOL

  • Mark

    Why don’t they release it without asking if there is now down side?
    Sounds to me as if the whole thing about releasing PP1 sooner was about to buy some time and give the angry crowd something else to talk about.

    But, to be more constructive: The project leader should play the escalation card and ask for help. Preferably for the engineers who have designed and implemented all the NTFS features. About three months for the patch to come, especially if the test case is ready, seems to me as if they still have little idea about the whole thing.

    In the meanwhile, a dirty (i.e., performance hitting?) workaround at filesystem level should be released.
    Or an explanation on how I should tell my daughter why she had to lose her music (which cannot be copied freely due to DRM) and how she shall now utilize XCOPY.

  • Sean

    “About three months for the patch to come, especially if the test case is ready, seems to me as if they still have little idea about the whole thing.”

    Valid point, but we can’t assume this is all they’re working on. They could be time-sliced to oblivion and back for all we know.
    Granted I think that it should be a Sev-A/1 situation for the WHS Team and Devs assigned to the bug to get the bits tested/released ASAP, but I’m sure they’re needing time and cycles to regression test it with the various OEM platforms that WHS ships with. For all we know, the months of delay could be built in flex time that MS will spend waiting on the OEMs to get the bits tested in their environment and signed off on.

    *shrug*

    Personally I say release the PP, and then offer the corruption fix as a critical update when the bits are done. However, I think I can take that position because I’m not affected by the issue. Someone in the opposite shoes I’m sure would want the fix before a feature pack.

  • Skandy

    Well.. If WHS (a supposed stable server software) is so dramatically buggy.. what would it be with a “quick-released-anti-customer-angry-power-pack”. I’d rather prefer to wait for the fix, then for a MATURE NON BUGGY Power Pack.

    Thank you Microchiottes (dedicace to french-speaking angry WHS users).

  • Karel

    Lee: I bet current builds of WHS 2008 would have the same data corruption bug. When they’ll fix it for WHS v1 they fix it for v2008, and vice versa.

  • Paul Leighton

    if the release of PP1 doesnt hold up the corruption fix, I say get on with it and release it! at least some of us will get the vista x64 connector working!

  • John

    I want PP1 so I can at least use the backup option to safeguard my data from what I now consider to be an unreliable server. PP1 has lots of nice things (x64 connector please?) in it but I really just want to cover my ass if the bug comes to bite it!

    And no, I would rather not wait around until June!

  • rouza

    YES

  • Evan

    MS is going to get sued when some smart lawyer gets a bunch of corruption bug people together and proves they lost $$ when their servers corupted files. IE buisnesses.

    Get the PP out now, force feed it to everyone, and include with it a new EULA that expressley protects the company from liability.

  • WinstonSmith

    The answer is obvious; if the PP doesn’t cause more problems then release it, let people backup and lessen the worry over data corruption. Then make sure that June is the worst case release date for a fix for what is really a very serious flaw in an otherwise excellent piece of software.

  • EH

    First and formost is the 64 bit compatiability! I have three 64 bit systems aching to be backed up! Release it! Release it! Release it!

  • ViRGE

    I concur with the requests to release it. It has some useful features, and at this point it can’t really make things any worse. It doesn’t seem to make a lot of sense to hold back PP1 for unrelated problems.

  • Fred

    I vote to release PP1 now – the added safety of backing up the server would be very welcome considering the data corruption bug.

  • Exploited

    I agree with most of the replies here that it would be better to release the PP1 ahead of the corruption-bug if that will take that long to complete. I’ve been running WHS now for a while and am not using the software that is in the list. The benifits of the extra functionality, promised in the PP1 would greatly improve the WHS-experience.

    Pushing the release of PP1 back would mean the users are punished twice.

  • John Shelton

    Why don’t they go ahead and release PP1 now and let the using public find all the bugs in the Power Pack and then fix all those additional new bugs with the release of the data corruption bug?

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  • Miles

    The facility to back up WHS shares (which I am reading and writing to, although I won’t trust my photos there) can’t come soon enough so let’s have PP1. So far a daily Synctoy copy of my shares has enabled me to rescue any corrupted files.

  • raidz

    I think they should release it. I say Microsoft gives us something to play around with till the June 2008 bug fix. I have 11 hard drives and just added another two in my server machine and can’t do much till the bug fix is released. At least they can release some neat tools I can play with and get set up so when the June ’08 bug fix is released I am set and ready to go!

  • bill sanderson

    Tough question: The existing customers, who are largely the enthusiasts who we (speaking as both an enthusiast and a MS stockholder) want to spread the word of mouth and enthusiasm–would love to see this now–and would benefit from easier backup of the server itself–and whatever else is in PP1.

    OTOH, it doesn’t make sense to do a big media splash rev of the marketing until the bug fix is rolled out.

    I’d vote for a low-key release of PP1, with publicity via blogs, WU, or whatever else doesn’t create either a large $ cost or a large “why are you doing this when you haven’t fixed the big bug?” outcry–you are going to have to counter that anyway, though–witness the responses here.

    Then, when the fix IS available, some form of splashier reintroduction of the product, “Now, with PP1!” might be appropriate.

    You need to be sure that folks aren’t confused–don’t get the idea that PP1 eliminates the bug–and that whatever you do now does not create another storm of bad publicity around the bug, I don’t know the best way to accomplish that. I believe every current customer will be pleased to have PP1 sooner, rather than later, though.,

  • https://technocore.homeserver.com/ Christopher Courtney (Drashna)

    @bill sanderson: Good points. Only problem is that normal people hear about the possibility of their data become corrupt, don’t read about it at all and fly into a blind panic returning hundreds, thousands or hundreds of thousands of dollars of merchandise. Which more or less means that MS screwed the pooch, so to speak. Not intentionally, but still. Which means that probably until v2 “Vail”, WHS is only going to be really promoted by enthusiasts. So, I believe it is MS’s best interest to keep us interested in WHS until such a time that the bug is fixed.

    I personally haven’t experienced the bug (that I’m aware of), except in controlled circumstances when I tried to trigger it. But then again, all the music, videos, software, and photos are read only to everyone but me, so that has probably helped a great deal.

    I think MS should quietly release PP1 through sites such as this one, and wait to send it via Windows Update until they have a bugfix for DE, and then make a big deal about it. Lord knows pp1 would have saved me about 12 hours last night :P

  • Stephen

    Yes, Yes, YES, YES! if it is only for the x64 connector !!!! but it should not delay the bug fix at any costs. The bug fix is critical to the success of WHS. Come on Microsoft get all hands to the pumps and get this data corruption thing sorted once and for all!!!!

  • Michel

    If that mean streaming music, no they should not as this will just exacerbate the existing problems of data corruption i.e. WMP metadata if this won’t create more problems of course release it why not but mark my world it is a time bomb if this thing don’t get under control soon. A lot of people have already invested time and money and sensitive data i.e. I am sure like Terry did by having jump in the WHS bandwagon.

    WHS was the answer to my need but until it is fixing it could be also the nightmare that I fear also.

  • ivarp

    Release it! At least it presents (some of) us with the opportunity to reconfigure our servers into single driver servers and rely on the server-backup-functionality to provide redundancy.

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  • joe m.

    Yes, definetly release PP1. I’m very very interested in the external backup and especially the x64 connector support. I am tired of waiting to get my main workstation (vista-x64) backed up like the rest of the machines in the house! =)