Slashdot Mirror
Windows Home Server Corrupts Files
crustymonkey points out a ComputerWorld article which says that "Microsoft Corp. has warned Windows Home Server users not to edit files stored on their backup systems with several of its programs, including Vista Photo Gallery and Office's OneNote and Outlook, as well as files generated by popular finance software such as Quicken and QuickBooks."
Crustymonkey asks Don't back up your files to Windows Home Server, as recommended by Microsoft themselves? I'm not exactly sure what the point is in having a home server if you can't back up files on it."
I would suggest a good DVD writer. There is lots of room, you can schedule backups, and all the people need to do is to remember to put in a new DVD every week or on whatever schedule you/they set up.
As to Microsoft screwing up yet again, it's just funny. Very funny.
Think Allen has rubber chairs to throw around now?
The link from the summary leads to... damn it's so bad I can hardly say it. Worse than tubgirl and goatse combined.
As the blank screen fails to load, an ad pops up. Then a "greeting page" appears on the blank page ("greetings from our advertisers")
Then I notice the "click here to ignore this greetings page and enter ComputerWorld, the world's worst IT magazine".
Of course I quickly hit the "back" button so I wouldn't be assaulted with a million ads and a paragreph of content-free lead-in text before "click here for next page".
Honestly, guys, can't you find a better link? Oh shit, the only two that Google News shows is ComputerWorld and PC World.
Why is it that the very WORST sites on the internet are IT sites? It's embarrassing! And people wonder why, if you RTFM, "ewe muss bee knew hear". We KNOW BETTER! We know what is ready to assault us if we dare click a link to an IT site!
mcgrew's razor: Never attribute to stupidity that which can be explained by greedy self-interest
From what I understand from the article is that if you save certain file types to a Home Server for backup purposes from a workstation, you can corrupt them if you edit the original files and try to back them up onto the server again. Well that defeats the whole purpose of having a backup system. Like photos for example. If I backup all my photos onto the Home Server, then I decide to change the contrast on a few of them on my everyday PC, I can corrupt the ones I've saved on the Home Server if I save over the original backups. Then if I decide I need space on my PC and delete the ones saved there, my edited photos are inaccessible if I didn't save them anywhere else.
Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
Similar setup here, too.
In fact, running a Linux + Samba + SSH/SFTP/SCP + RAID ( + Optionally NFS ) seems the best solution available.
You can't suggest them to install and configure Debian all by themselves.
BUT
There are virtually hundred of "network enclosure" : Small empty external cases, with a 1Gbps ethernet and a small ARM chip running Linux+Samba+Apache, almost ready to use, you only need to buy disks and mount them in (several computer part shop even propose you to sell a pre-assembled such solution).
Linksys, D-Link and Netgear are a few of the constructor whose name jump to my mind right now, but there are virtually hundreds of them.
The best part is :
- These box have Linux pre-installed on their flash memory. So no difficult configuration is required for the average users. Maybe just help them to configure secure access and configure the router if they also want to have access to the files from outside home. The computer part shop often can do the hard-drive mounting and deliver a ready-to-use product.
- Almost any of those box runs Linux, so their firmware is modifiable and you can find several guides explaining how to run external software or even installing additional software into the firmware. MLDonkey is such an open source eD2K / Bittorrent / etc. client which is also precompiled for embed Linux.
Not only the enclosure is useful for average user, it may be useful for lazy power-users who don't want to assemble their own server or prefer silent and energy efficient servers.
- A lot of those boxes have USB2 "Host" connectors, so you can connect additional HDD to the server. But as it is Linux, a lot of different and interesting usage can be found be power users like plugins webcams, or use the box as a print server in addition to a file server.
So yes, you can't easily tell your friends to *install* Debian all by themselves, but you can get them to buy an enclosure with Linux pre-installed. (And if they upgrade their box to a newer one, you can recycle the old one into some fun project thanks to Linux' openness and available USB2 connectors).
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
Yeah, most NAS units don't corrupt your backups if you change the working versions. Clearly Microsoft is the leader in adding valuable features to its products.
This could potentially be the "my dog ate my homework" for the 21st century. "I did my homework, but the power went out before I could save it, and my backups were all corrupt!"
Never underestimate the power of stupid people in large groups.
Well since the article NEVER mentions backup I'm trying to figure out why the blurb and everyone is going on about backups being corrupted. What is actually happening is that there is a bug in WHS folder sharing. If you edit files with particular programs that exist on a WHS share the files will be corrupted.
Here is the KB article http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/946676/en-us?spid=12624
It too doesn't mention using WHS to backup but does say that you should backup the possible affected files before storing them on WHS.
I've seen this before in AD groups. Windows will do a 'delayed write' of a file, then let you know later on if the write failed. Great if you're copying files up, terrible if you're saving a document while quitting the application and you get told 30 seconds later that your data was lost.
Example: http://cdslash.net/temp/images/datalost.png
Quite frustrating. I've yet to lose serious amounts of data so far, but I'm sure it'll happen.
Except in reality you are twice as likely to shoot a friend or family member than defend your home with your home defense gun.
Actually, this is not true.
This comes from a highly dishonest "study" by Kellermann. The only "use" counted in the study was to kill someone, so (for example) holding an attacker at gun point until the police show up was not counted as a "use" of a gun. There were other major flaws too.
http://www.guncite.com/gun_control_gcdgaga.html
A better study is the Kleck study.
http://www.guncite.com/gun_control_gcdgeff.html
It is no more true to say that owning a gun makes you likely to shoot your family, than to say that owning kitchen knives makes you more likely to stab your family.
>>> Except in reality you are twice as likely to shoot a friend or family member than defend your home with your home defense gun.
False conclusion based on faulty data sampling.
A statistic does not get created unless there is a report. Cases where someone gets shot almost always generate a report. Cases where the homeowner's possession of a gun thwarts the crime and nobody gets shot are less likely to be reported.
Guns in the home are not high on the list of dangerous objects for average Americans. Check it out. The fact that drug dealers, thieves, and gang members often shoot their family members and 'friends' is used to make it sound like average people are not capable of defending themselves without endangering their families. It is a false impression intentionally created by lumping repeat criminal offenders in with the general population's statistics in these cases.
If 'the people' in Amendment 2 are 'the state' then Amendments 1, 2, 4, 9, and 10 benefit the state, not you.
The problem isn't actually anything to do with backups.
The problems is probably due to Windows Home Server file shares not catering for NTFS streams (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/941914).
Your question is based on a flawed predicate.
The purpose of WHS is not ONLY to be file server. That's one purpose, and as long as you don't edit the file on the server, you're ok.
Another purpose is to create automated remote backup of all computers on the network, basically in such a way that you can create a new image via a restore CD, but also in a way that doesn't duplicate files between images. You can also access individual files in the backup. It's like a hybrid image/file backup with duplicate file consolidation. It's pretty efficient.
Another purpose is a remote access gateway to allow you to log in via terminal services to any computer in your network.
Another purpose is to provide a web based remote access to your files.
WHS is a very useful product, and this is an unfortunate bug, but it doesn't mitigate its entire existence.
If you need web hosting, you could do worse than here
At least Outlook files (.pst) are unsupported on Network Shares, for various reasons:
Read
http://blogs.technet.com/askperf/archive/2007/01/21/network-stored-pst-files-don-t-do-it.aspx
I'll agree that a normal home user does not know this, but any IT professional that's working with Outlook should know this.
You are editing a file that is saved directly to a shared folder on WHS, which WHS accepts and gives the A-OK signal to your software, then later has a problem writing the file, and tells you about it, with no chance of recovering the file at that time. Since this can happen after you have exited your software, you have no way of recovering the file.
The problem is not:
The third one is the trickiest. See, if you go to the current WHS Discover site (click Help and How-To's) you will see that the big thing is Remote Access, Media Sharing, and Computer Backup. This would lead people to believe that any other use, is not what it was meant for, and when something goes wrong, you should have known better.
But, one only needs to look back at previous pages for WHS to see that Sharing was a central feature. Yes, full sharing, not just Media Sharing. Even the Overview of that page focuses on sharing first, and backup (protection) was third. The first overview item was Sharing, and that is simply what this problem is about, shared folders. Either for your own use as a networked server, or to share with other users.
Now, if you go to Eric Bott's blog, you will see the explanation that the largest factor is "a home server is under extreme load." Well, I'm sorry, but if the touted role, even at the beginning and not right now, was acting as a share folder to save your stuff to, then by damn it better do that. If the server gets loaded down, it should not pretend it got the file and tell you later that it didn't, it should just either not respond (and your software would have to let you know it couldn't do it) or it should give an error response (your software's problem now).
Honestly, this product was marketed as a home server for storing and sharing your files, with acting as a backup server making 3rd on the list of features. Now, they want to change that and say that it is for backup first, file sharing from special locations and under special conditions, and not really for file storage.
Cause you can't get a tan from an amber monitor. If you do, there is something horribly wrong.