Windows Home Server Power Pack to enter public beta after a data bug

It's one of Microsoft's most innovative products, creating a new market for consumer level server management. But Windows Home Server has recently suffered a few setbacks -- problems which may very well be addressed by a forthcoming beta.

Among the growing number of customers using Windows Home Server are consumers who aren't afraid to use multiple disk drives. Though Microsoft continues to recommend against the use of RAID redundant storage, WHS does offer a feature that automatically pools multiple physical storage devices into a single logical device, appending the storage space from one onto the end of another.

But that's not redundancy, of course, so users are often left to their own devices to determine how to safely keep backups of their Home Server data. Last week, BetaNews reported on a problem that had recently cropped up among private testers of its Power Pack 1 for WHS: Specifically, a new feature users expected to find enabling backup databases from other networked computers to be backed up themselves, ended up being omitted.

This was on top of a problem that cropped up back in March, which Microsoft advised would be fixed in a later Power Pack 1 beta: A file transfer and balancing issue caused WHS users with multiple hard drives to discover their data had been corrupted. The fix, users were told, would come in June.

June, Microsoft advised this morning, is still coming. The company sent a notification to beta testers advising them to sign up now from this page, to get on the early list for the public beta of Windows Home Server Power Pack 1. BetaNews checked out that page this afternoon, and did not see the application form to which the notice referred, though it will probably emerge soon.

The notice advised testers to properly back up all their data before installing the Power Pack -- a process which may be difficult for those impacted by the data corruption bug. It goes on to advise that after signing up through Microsoft Connect, testers should turn on Automatic Updates in order to receive the Power Pack 1 beta.