Killed it for me

Ok. I have an EX470 and DE is a very convenient feature. I agree, RAID is more complex. But even without DE, WHS has such great features that make consolidating data and backing up individual machines around the house so easy. I redirected all of my docs, media and pics to the server, and then I have Carbonite running on it – backing up a ton of stuff. TV shows that I record on a workstation are automatically copied to WHS so I can watch anywhere in the house.

What other product does all of this as seemlessly?

The bigger issue here is HP's getting out of this market. Will WHS2011 be solely the domain of the DIY? Or will a new manufacturer come up with a $500 box with sufficiently raided drives and WHS2011 preinstalled to pick up the slack?

Linux here i come ! there is still some drive extender in it

This is a "downgrade" of an excellent product. Without drive extender WHS is a dead duck. It’s hard to believe the stupidity & arrogance of MS at times. I will be sticking with V1 for as long as I can.

I plan to leave my WHS box running for backups, but all other uses I plan to migrate to a linux box (Amahi being the primary candidate so far) with Greyhole, linux's version of drive-extender. I see no viable reason to upgrade now or in the future.

I will stay with version 1 until it dies and then move to Amahi which just announced they have the Linux version of Drive Extender and have made leaps and bounds on improvement and apps. They offer a great alternative to WHS and without DE it's simply a no brainer. Their install is very user friendly and you can easily install, manage, and upgrade without knowing any Linux. Talk about someone listening to their customers they do it very well.

Whats the real reason that they are pulling Drive Extender? Is it really technical in the sense that it somehow messes up their strategy to merge Code with SBS 2008 sometime in the future? Is that really it? I heard that explanation a while ago. However if that is it, than why not have future versions of Windows Server 2008 or Small Business Server eventually evolve to the drive extender technology?

Think about it.

We have automated so many things in our lives. Computers now a days are easily powerful enough and intelligent enough to handle all sorts of mundane and technical tasks that make our lives easier. Therefore why isn't the goal at MS evolving to an automated drive system that can also self heal itself?

In my opinion that was what drive extender attempted to do, and in my opinion did very well – right off the bat. Sure, it probably needed improvements behind the scenes with the problem of drive letters for 3rd party applications but is this or any other technical problem worthy of throwing the baby out with the bath water?

Am I missing something when virtually all consumers for this products target market is demanding this evolution? When even small business and larger IT servers in the future possibly evolving to this higher level of self awareness whether MS does it or not?

One logical reason that MS is not "co-operating" with the needs of the market is that WHS was probably cutting into its lucrative software server business market that needs expensive fees and services and licenses, and has a higher turnover of Hard-Drives since everything needs to be matched up perfectly in a Raid system.

In otherwords the license fees it collected, and server software costs of anywhere from $1000-$4000 compared to WHS of $200 just did not make them much money as this product was not crossing into the small business market because it could be used in place of there more expensive and complicated products. Also I do feel that it served to take the wind out of competitors like Linux and NAS servers from getting a foot hold into the market as WHS ver 1 was more suited to first time server consumers. Now that we are trained in the benefits and the art of client server structures, MS is going to eventually try to migrate us away from these cheap solutions that served the market so well and start getting us to fork over more money.

Thus in removing DE is MS yielding to the industry's interests to increase revenues by making it more difficult to re-use older technologies and drives. I ask this because it would seem beneficial and have a positive spin off effect as removing DE increases the profits of third party developers, Hard Drive& Controller Manufactures and expensive Consultants & IT departments.

In other words re-usability is out. Recycling your older drives is a sin and since you are not going out to purchase TWO Tera byte drives instead of just adding ONE and keeping your older smaller drives when you need to increase storage space!

While this might be considered good for business it is NOT good for the state of evolution in computer hardware, our Environment, peoples extreme time constraints in trying to run a business and ultimately MS reputation. But it IS good for there bank accounts!

OK for everyone who keeps wondering WHY they are doing this I hope I have at least given some logical conclusions, because removing drive extender just does NOT add up from a USERS perspective – BUt it makes a lot of $ense when you think of the cost of KEEPING it to MS.

I was looking forward to veil until they killed DE, WHS won me over from NAS devices because of DE and all its streaming features no theres absolutely no reason to upgrade especially as theres no MC in veil.
I think i will stick with my V1 until i find something more appropriate, use a mac mini server for plex on the tv which will also back-up as time machine and have a remote account which will make my home folder work/sync with the server allot like those cloud services like box.net does.
This will also have the benefit of offering me vpn and all the other services i can use for development.
The only hope is because of the popularity of the mini/mini server whs and the problems with veil is that apple will make the new lion server more home server friendly and allow it to work as their mobileme does but without using their services and store everything on your server, this would then work with computers and iphones/ipad which would be a bonus.
The only problem then is finding a storage sollution after whs1 kicks the bucket.

I can't really see myself updating to the new version DE was the main point of WHS as far as I was concerned.

I've moved over to Linux now for site hosting as I've found that to be more stable. The only thing I use WHS for now was media streaming and backups. Media streaming can easily be handled by my desktop pc and backups in the future I will look at moving online.

Living in Australia and with all of the floods and hurricanes, etc. onsite does not look so good anymore.

What was the name of the new downgrade? Oh yeah… Windows Home Server “FAIL”. No upgrade in my future…

http://www.amahi.org/ – Yes its Linux – Yes Its Easy

Microsoft just couldn't stand having a good product everybody liked right from the start. So, they broke it. Now they feel much better. Order has been restored to the Universe.

As a user and reseller, I and my customers will not be upgrading.

I'm starting to crack some books on Apache and Linux.

Add me to the list. No DE. No Vail upgrade. I will stay with V1 until I need to transition to something else

Stupid decision in my mind. I’m more than upset
Will be running v.1 unless DE is returned back to the code name “Fail”

Retarded. Now what do I do? Maybe troll eBay for another EX470 box for when this one eventually dies?

Like most people here, I used WHS as my home server, and also like most people I was very disappointed to see drive extender dropped.

About a month ago I switched to Amahi (runs on top of Fedora) and it has proved to be terrific experience. Anyone moving from WHS will have a bit of a learning curve if you're not used to Linux, but it's well worth persevering over a weekend to set it up. It's free, out performs WHS and has GreyHole included in the install which gives you the same sort of functionality as drive extender had (and that's just for starters when it comes to features).

I forgot to add what happened with Windows ME, lots of hype, but as soon as the "techie" dealt with it a bit and realized just how bad it was, everyone (that I knew at least) was rolling back to W98, similar but on a lesser scale going back from Vista to XP. This is such an obvious non starter I really don't think it will ever get released.

A mystery and a regret.

A mystery as I don't understand to which audience this version of Windows Server (Vail) is targeted to ?

A regret that neither the documented opinion of Terry (among others) nor the wishes of hundreds of WHS users were considered with anything more than contempt.

It's a shame, and a BIG failure for Microsoft.

I've been waiting for over a YEAR to upgrade to Vail, and finalize my WHS server build. Hearing this "news" COMPLETELY turns me off to purchasing this new software from M$. I guess it doesn't surprise me tho, as M$ has been slowly losing it's handle on the software needs of the world, and this is just one more example of their 1970's intelligence and business savy.

OK, Google! Your turn.

Step up to the plate. It's time for YOU to step in; FIRE the existing coach, and hit one of your typical, no brainer… Winning Home runs!

And M$ wonders why so many people pirate their software… Come ON M$!! Are you REALLY that stupid??

NO one wants to pay $$$ for products that don't meet their needs.

BING that!… Ooops, I meant, GOOGLE it…

difficult to think of anything to say that hasn't been said but a linux solution will be my choice when V1 dies. The real value of WHS for me was its ability to be set up and leave running with no intervention for months. Its hard enough having multiple PC's and laptops around the house with family members seemingly doing there upmost to kill them without having a server to administer too. Run out of drive space? no problem add a drive tell whs about it and go back to whatever you were doing before.

The real reason they pulled DE was only because they wanted to sell a clone of WHS into small businesses as it had some awesome features for them too, and they then found that some business software didn't work with DE. So it's no more and no less of a reason.
Well blow me down if the business users get what they want, there is no way they could have two different products was there, and well the home user, whom I am more than 100% certain out-number every business in the world 10 fold, get screwed, again. Shows where their sales goals lie doesn't it. Consumer? What is a consumer????

I tried to get my friends to get their own server. I'm now sorry that I did that since this is an utter fail. There is currently no affordable solution to support my currents usage of DE. I won't be upgrading nor will I be recommending vail to anyone.

No DE=No Vail. I will stick with WHS until it dies and then move to something else, smooth move Microslop, lazy bastards. Vail=Vista, what a flop!

Just read up on Amahi and that is the way i will be going, to hell with Microsoft. Amahi supports everything i use WHS for and then some. I have been a Windows user since 3.1, and with this move M$ is making me go elsewhere….Real smooth MicroDope.

I currently use WHS v1 with over 20TB of data stored and can find no alternative under $10000 to do what I am doing. I, like many other people, where really hoping for an 11th hour rescue of the DE, however disappointment was what we recieved.

I guess Steve Bahlmer looking into it consisted of …nothingness.

I like the rest here on this comments i will not upgrade until the very last …

Implementing a Raid solution in software (most home use motherboards) is not any type of solution as moving to a Raid solution requires dedicated hardware when utilising many hard drives, and conformity. WHS 1 solved that problem but of course now they have to backtrack as it is going to hit their bottom line big-time.

MS has shot themselves in the foot, another vendor will pick up the torch which will from MS point of view be even more disastrous as their very own “high end” server products will be decimated at the back end.

Good thinking MS… I feel a change at the top is needed, and soon.

I too am disappointed but I'm not surprised. Think about it.

M$ = Enterprise
Apple = Consumer

And NEVER the two should meet. There will be folks who say "What about XBOX360?" I say that is an aboration. M$ has never done well in the consumer market and won't. WHS is a consumer focused product. A potential 150M market for providing backup in homes isn't something they are really after. Who knows why? It's just frustrating.

I've been wanting to re-build my WHS and it looks like I'll just do it with WHS1. I don't want to go through the hassle of RAID.

Please refrain from using the word idiot in this thread. That is actually a complement to whomever made the decision.

Buy a couple of supertrak TX8650 and problem solved.