Windows Home Server was aggressively
marketed as an attractive consumer storage solution for
everyday users, as
part of Microsoft's next generation of Windows products. With
a retail
price of $189 and hardware
setups such as the HP
500GB EX470 retailing with the OS for as
little as $599,
the price certainly seems to be right.
Unfortunately, Windows Home Server is still experiencing teething
problems.
DailyTech previously reported that users'
files were being corrupted by Windows Home Server when simply
trying to
access and save files. Microsoft responded to the data
corruption by
stating, "When you use certain programs to edit files on a home
computer
that uses Windows Home Server, the files may become corrupted when you
save
them to the home server."
Originally the issue seemed relatively germane as the list of programs
afflicted was relatively small -- photo editors, Office Outlook '07,
Office
OneNote '03/'07, Quicken, QuickBooks, and torrents. A
Microsoft employee
during Christmas break, soon after the issue cropped up, wrote
in an anonymous blog posting that Microsoft staff were
working full time
over the holidays and the issue would be resolved very soon.
Two months have passed and the issue has not been resolved.
Instead,
Microsoft conceded
that the scope of the problem is much bigger than initially estimated.
Microsoft acknowledged numerous customer reports of corruption in the
following
programs, though it says it has thus far been unable to replicate them:
- Apple iTunes
- Zune Software
- Photoshop Elements
- WinAmp
- Microsoft Office Excel
- Mozilla Thunderbird
- Visual Dataflex
The
expanded list greatly increases the number of users who
may eventually experience the problem. Between the
iPod and Zune
player populations alone, many may now be wary of Windows
Home Server use
until Microsoft can get to the root of the data corruption.