Windows Home Server Code Name Vail Beta Refresh Available Now

Microsoft have today released an updated beta for the next version of Windows Home Server, currently called Windows Home Server Code Name Vail.

You may immediately notice when you run this beta that the blue of the previous beta has been replaced by green – yeah, I’m not sure why either!

It is very important that you read through the release notes, taking great care to read, and understand the Known Issues list.

Two big ones to be aware of:

Issue

Install QFE KB2314472

Description

QFE KB2314472 addresses an issue where saving files to a server shared folder may fail with a time-out or sharing violation error when a large amount of data, typically more than 1TB, is present on the server. After you install the server software, and before you copy any data to the server’s folders, download and install QFE KB2314472.

To install QFE KB2314472

and

Issue

Drive Extender data from earlier Vail beta versions are incompatible with this version.

Description

The low-level data format for Drive Extender has changed with this release and is no longer compatible with data written by Drive Extender in earlier versions of Vail. Drives that were used as part of a server storage pool in an earlier version of Vail will show a status of incompatible version in the Hard Drives tab of the Dashboard. Incompatible hard drives can still be added to the default storage pool, but all data on the hard drive will be lost.

Solution

Before installing this version, copy all server folder data from server storage to an external USB drive or to a client computer. After installing, copy the data back to the server storage folders.

And also remember that this is a beta and as such you should be very careful and not trust your data to it – unless you have a backup copy!

So tell us what you think about Vail.

So run along now to the Microsoft Connect site and get Vail.

And don’t forget, if you want to post your questions you can do at the official Microsoft Vail forum.

And you can remind yourself about some of our earlier Windows Home Server Code Name Vail articles as well.