We understand the need for multiple versions of windows and even the requirement to try and streamline coding and releases by having a small amount of builds for release, but isn’t it clear that a Home Product like this should not be included in this Server suite?

You have done wonders with this product. In fact its become so much of a hit, I have non windows fans and users using it. You managed to bring people from the dark side over to the functionality and features of WHS. That’s one hell of a serious win! No other product Im aware of has achieved that.

Currently WHS is the LEADER by FAR in the Home Server Market.
Why would you want to lose that? You WILL lose that position if such a flexible service like DE is lost. And you know what happens when you lose Microsoft users? It becomes almost impossible to get them back. Once they lose faith they will not continue to use that product (and probably many others) anymore.

I recommend a lot of users to WHS. I’m a huge fan of it. I install WHS systems for a lot of people and very rarely have issues to worry about. If The DE service is removed there is no way I can do this anymore.
I can’t install or recommend a product I’ve lost faith in. I will be sure to have to look into alternate products for myself and my users.

I don’t believe an add-in will fix this issue either.
No offence to all those amazing developers out there, but there is NO WAY that I’m trusting my WHS 30TB of data duplication and migration to any add-in. I don’t care who it’s developed by. If such an important feature is not native, I won’t be sold or convinced.

Microsoft you really need to listen to users here.
If DE gets removed, one of the major features will no longer exist and you will lose not just a lot of customers, but a lot of believers in the product and that’s worse because it effects not just future MS purchases but also harms you in the way of word of mouth.

I applaud sites like mswhs.com for saying things like ‘onward and upward’ regardless of the outcome, I however have a lot more of a realistic view on this and firmly believe if DE gets removed WHS will be dead.

You Must Reconsider

I really do believe that this WHS thing was a project done by ms just for the fun of it and we’ll kill it eventually.

I have put up with WHS since launch as it is just easier to use and expand (even with the data corruption issues in version 1). I was really hopeful about Vail and the strong community support (this site and others) for WHS.

All of that no longer matters. If DE and replication is not included in Vail, Vail should not even be released. Just kill it off entirely. Perhaps that is what MS really wants anyway.

Also, they are removing the data replication too. Wow, another biggie. I have it on for all important files. I’ve found it has issues at times on individual files going bad but in case of a complete drive failure, I’d sure want it there.

They are basically saying they are getting out of this part of server management…but that was the idea behind WHS. Without it, I would have gone elsewhere from the start. WHS made doing these things easy…WHS was to be an end user friendly product. I love version 1. Version 2 isn’t even showing up to compete…it is crippled and won’t meet my needs.

I really think this is something as a community we can achieve.

All the best,
Al

I agree with others… I am using old hardware that was useless otherwise. It is not in my plans EVER to buy the off the shelf versions.

I’ll stick with V1.

https://connect.microsoft.com/WindowsHomeServer/feedback/details/624029/add-drive-extender-back-to-vail?wa=wsignin1.0

It’s dead. The only question is if Microsoft will admit it was their own stupidity and failing decision-making that led them here, or whether they’ll blame piracy/Linux for the failure. My money is on the latter.

1. Almost no one on any of the forums thinks this is a good idea.
2. Did anyone see the slightest hint this action was a possibility?
3. Microsoft is working with it “OEM partners”? What, all 3 (HP, Acer, ASUS) of them? Do any of those 3 really try to promote WHS?
4. I always found it strange you could never get a full retail version of WHS. Either buy it on a new unit or fool with the OEM nonsense. A good way to insulate yourself from the users.

I see no reason to even consider an upgrade. I still have XP on 2 of my computers. I guess I’ll keep the current version as long as possible.

There is probably something else going on. I’d just like to know what.

And you have the potential to lose 6 days of updates due to a drive failure. The rest of using DE won’t lose any.

http://blogs.technet.com/b/homeserver/archive/2008/08/11/why-raid-is-not-a-consumer-technology.aspx

Back at you, Microsoft.

DE was the _one_ feature that makes WHS the product I have been using and recommend to friends and colleagues. Now it’s reduced to a dumb file server with integrated backup software.

Philip Churchill might as well pack up shop and hand back his MVP status in disgust.

That makes me sad.

I agree with most everyone else, what’s the use of WHS without DE?

Wait till it dies…then get something better.

way to FAIL M$

Anyway, I also think it is a boneheaded move to remove it, but with the recent announcements of Windows Server products, I feel Microsoft may be trying to align their server family more-so. I feel in the past WHS was more segregated from their other Server products (other than using Server 2003 as the underlying code).

No doubt they ran into problems and don’t want to have to support it for all their different servers so they are killing it off. I agree with everyone else that this is a bone-headed move for WHS. As a home consumer I want to be able to put different size drives in my WHS and want duplication across drives. And I want it to be easy! If I now have to refer to things with different letters and buy drives that are all the same size with a vendor’s version of RAID, I’m not going to be happy.

We already know that WHS v2 will require a complete resetting of everything with a manual transfer of data, so there is no straight forward upgrade path. If I’m going to have to do that, there’s no way I’m going to switch to an inferior product. Apart from server back, I don’t see any “must have” features in Vail. I’d want MCE/WHS integration anyway before moving so Vail is no longer an option.

Vail is Dead! I just hope WHS isn’t dead too.

This is a really poor decision. DE is the primary reason I use WHS, along with the backup functionality and removing it removes any reason to upgrade for me.

If I can’t have something that “just works” like DE does, there’s really no incentive to not just build my own solution. I deal with computers all day at work and the biggest draw to WHS for me was just turning the thing on and it working. I’m not going to invest the time and energy into getting my storage to “work” with Vail when there are so many alternatives.

The rationale seems to indicate that business-class users wished for a more direct access to the underlying storage media. No problem – differentiate other offerings from WHS by using the prosaic disk-at-a-time model.

But keep DE for the home-class user. It eliminates complexity for them while providing a measure of safety.

I truly hope they rethink this decision.