Microsoft decided to remove Drive Extender from the upcoming Windows Home Server 2011, much to the dismay of many users of which several stated that they would not switch to Windows Home Server 2011 if it would not include Drive Extender.

If Microsoft cannot deliver other companies can. Drive Bender was recently announced which is “inspired by Microsoft’s Windows Home Server Drive Extender technology. Drive Bender will provide “the same level of functionality, and more, for all versions of the Microsoft Windows”.

The homepage does not contain more information than that currently. A first beta release is scheduled for February 21.

A second Drive Extender alternative is StableBit’s DrivePool, an add-in for the Windows Home Server 2011.

This add-in will let you add multiple hard drives into one combined storage pool on the Windows Home Server. You can create folder shares on this storage pool, and each folder on the pool can either be duplicated or not duplicated. Files placed in duplicated folders will be protected against single drive failure by being placed onto two separate hard drives

Features of DrivePool are:

• Combine all your hard drives into one big storage pool (except the system drive with the OS).
• Add and remove drives from the pool at any time without re-partitioning or manually moving folders.
• Create duplicated folders on the storage drive pool that are protected against single drive failure. If a drive fails on which a duplicated file was stored, the contents of that file will remain readable even without the drive

DrivePool supports mixing different hard drives and sites together. Basically, any non-removable NTFS formatted drive will be compatible. A technical preview has been announced for the coming weeks.

It is likely that both products will not be free. The ballpark figure given by the developer of DrivePool is $20. Those two programs could provide the missing functionality for Windows Home Server users who are actively using Drive Extender currently.

Do you know of other Drive Extender alternatives? Or are you considering different home servers? Let us know in the comments. (via)

This WHS RC is the first public release to include changes in the storage features, so let’s look at some of the changes you can expect. All existing technologies such as server and client backup, health monitoring, remote web access, streaming media, and simplified dashboard management are still included.

The release candidate comes with a new Move Folder Wizard which can be used to move date from one hard drive or partition to another.

You can see the Move Folder Wizard in action in the video below:

Additional features mentioned in the release candidate availability posting:

As Hard Drives are added to the Home Server, your health alerts will notify you that a new Hard Drive is available. From here, you can automatically format and configure the new drive for additional storage.

Data protection also includes daily Server and PC backup, Previous Versions via Shadow copy which lets you return prior versions of existing files (without needing to restore from backup), and a protection feature for pre-defined folders (such as Recorded TV, Videos, Photos) in case these are accidently deleted.

Drive Extender, a feature that has been available before, is not included in the release candidate release of Windows Home Server 2011 and will not be included in the final release of the product. The move has been very controversial.

Drive Extender basically allowed a user to combine hard drives to a storage pool which offered several benefits over comparable RAID solutions. This included for instance the option to combine hard drives of different sizes and that not special hardware or RAID controller was needed to set it up.

Users who want to download the Windows Home Server 2011 Release Candidate need to sign up for the Windows Home Server Connect program which requires a Windows Live ID. (via)

Dave Berkowitz, a Microsoft senior communication manager revealed that Vail has been improved in the four key areas “Extending media streaming outside the home or office”, “Multi-PC backup and restore”, “Simplified setup and user experience” and “Expanded development and customization tools for partners”.

Microsoft’s goal is to receive as much user feedback as possible about the Windows Home Server release

Berkowitz explained that Windows Home Server has been moved to “a new underlying server platform that will only run as a 64-bit OS” indicating that it is not recommended to run the server “on a 32-bit PC or existing Windows Home Server systems (even 64-bit Home Server systems) because there may be compatibility issues with some OEM drivers”.

He urged users to install the Home Server beta on a secondary computer as they might be experiencing a number of problems otherwise including “the inability to run WHS v1 add-in applications”. Berkowitz added that the “installation of the Vail OS on a PC will [..] require users to wipe all data from that PC or device.”

Windows Home Server Vail has relatively modest hardware requirements. A 1.4 Ghz 64-bit cpu, 1 Gigabyte of computer memory and at least a 160 Gigabyte hard drive are the minimum requirements to install and use Vail.

A Windows Home Server software development kit is available which can be downloaded from Microsoft Connect as well.

“We’re not ready to discuss delivery dates yet”, Berkowitz added

“So after you check out all of the great features in this public beta, you’ll probably want to know when the final version of Vail is going to ship. We’re not ready to discuss delivery dates yet. We want to ship the best possible product, and as that old commercial went (sort of), ‘we will ship no Windows Home Server before it’s time’,” Berkowitz added.

The Windows Home Server Power Pack 1 finally patches data corruption issue that was plaguing so many Home Server users for a long time. Computers running Windows Vista 64-bit are supported now after installing the Power Pack which was another point of criticism.

Add to that the ability to backup folder shares, improvements to remote access, performance gains and more efficient power consumption and you got a must have pack for Windows Home Server.

Users who want to read up on it can point their browser to the Knowledge Base article. (via Neowin) Everyone else can head straight to the download page to download the surprisingly (22 Megabytes, that’s half the six word dictionary update from a few days ago) small Power Pack.

The issue is caused by security changed to the Terminal Service ActiveX control in Internet Explorer which is now disabled by default. Thankfully a workaround was posted already, here are the steps to fix the problem and enable Windows Home Server Remote Access again.

Open Internet Explorer and click on Tools > Manage Add-ons > Enable or Disable Add-ons to enable the Terminal Services ActiveX control again. If you see the Terminal Services control and are able to enable it you are done. If you cannot see it or cannot enable it you need to delete two keys in the Windows Registry instead which will also enable the Terminal Services ActiveX control again.

HKCU \Software \Microsoft \Windows \CurrentVersion \Ext \Settings \{7390f3d8-0439-4c05-91e3-cf5cb290c3d0}
HKCU\ Software\ Microsoft\ Windows\ CurrentVersion\ Ext\ Settings\ {4eb89ff4-7f78-4a0f-8b8d-2bf02e94e4b2)

Once you have deleted those two keys the activeX control should be enabled again in Internet Explorer.

Microsoft is currently trying to reproduce the error to program a fix that gets rid of this problem. Users have reported that the they experienced corrupted files using the following programs: Windows Vista Photo Gallery, Windows Live Photo Gallery, Microsoft Office OneNote 2007, Microsoft Office OneNote 2003, Microsoft Office Outlook 2007, Microsoft Money 2007, SyncToy 2.0 Beta but also customers who reported problems with non Microsoft products such as Quicken or Bittorrent applications.

The investigating team found three possible issues that might cause the corrupted files. They are the following:

• A home server is under an extreme load. For example, lots of files are being copied to the home server.
• At the same time, a user is editing files that are already saved in a shared folder on the home server.
• The program that the user is using to edit these files is one of the programs that are listed in this article.

No real fix has been published yet which means that you should take precautions that those three issues will not corrupt your files. A workaround would be to save the files on your normal system first and then move them to the Home Server. That is, if I understood the problem correctly.

Some of the key features are simplicity of use, backup capabilities, a single store pool that works without drive letters and content that can be shared with other computers and devices including the Xbox. This can be useful but I personally don’t need a Home Server to do most of these things.

But that is me and others might think different. A good way to see if Windows Home Server is useful for you would be to order a 120 day fully functional trial version from Microsoft. The only catch is that you have to pay money for it. Europeans pay around €7 which means that users from the United States will probably pay $10 for the package that will be send to your location.

It’s not a bad bargain especially if you think this could be useful for you. One DVD and two CDs will be shipped actually:

Windows Home Server Installation DVD
Windows Home Server Connector CD
Home Computer Restore CD

The requirements for installing Windows Home Server are:

Computer with 1 GHz Pentium III (or equivalent) or faster processor
512 MB of RAM or more
70 GB or larger ATA, SATA, or SCSI hard drive as the primary hard drive and any number of additional hard drives of any size
DVD drive—your home server must be capable of booting from this drive
VGA or higher-resolution monitor for software installation
Keyboard and Microsoft Mouse or compatible pointing device (needed only during initial home server software installation)
100 Mbps or faster Ethernet network interface card

And finally the requirements to run it:

Internet broadband router/firewall device with a 100 Mbps or faster wired Ethernet connection for your home server
Windows Home Server assumes that your home computers get their IP address from the router/firewall device on your home network
Broadband connection (fees may apply)

What I like is the option to schedule regular backups from all computers connected to the network. All of this can be done with each computer manually as well but it sure eases the burden to do all of this from one central computer.

The more difficulty task is to find the hardware to run the homeserver. You could use an old computer that meets the requirements for this, but if you do not have an old one you might have to buy one. Several manufacturers already announced home servers especially for Windows Home server.

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Windows Home Server 120 days trial