Microsoft Cuts Backup From Home Server Update

Microsoft Cuts Backup From Home Server Update

Microsoft (NSDQ:MSFT) has quietly removed a key backup feature from an upcoming update for Windows Home Server, much to the frustration of channel partners who've been touting this particular feature of the product to customers.

In January at CES, Microsoft announced Home Server Power Pack 1 and said it would not only fix a number of minor issues in the software, but also give users the ability to perform full Home Server data backups on external storage devices, including the backup database. PP1 is due for release in the second half of the year.

Last week, Todd Headrick, marketing director for Windows Home Server, said the ability to back up the backup database has been dropped from Power Pack 1.

"The feature had to be cut due to the interplay with the connector install and the fact that consumers may hork their backup database by doing an incomplete backup or interrupting the restore process. The team will look to add this functionality in a future release after Power Pack 1," Headrick wrote in a post on Microsoft's Windows Home Server forums.

In an email to ChannelWeb, Joel Sider, senior product manager for the Windows Server Solutions Group, said Power Pack 1 will provide a server backup and restore feature that will allow users to offload and protect their pictures, music, documents stored in Home Server's Shared Folders.

Until recently, information about Power Pack 1 was cloaked under a Microsoft NDA, which is why the cutting of the database backup feature came as an unpleasant surprise to many Home Server partners and users, some of whom vented their spleen to the rest of the Home Server community.

"Are you serious? It's ok for Microsoft and the MVPs to talk about Power Pack 1 and it's features since January, but it's not ok to mention the fact that 'Oh yeah, by the way, one piece of the community's most-wanted (not to mention previously-announced) features got scrapped some time ago due to low quality issues'?" wrote poster Kariya21.

In a recent post on Microsoft's Windows Home Server community forum, Microsoft MVP Ken Warren said it's still possible for users to back up the backup database manually.

"As I've been saying for some time, Power Pack 1 will not provide a tool to back up your backup database. It was an announced feature, but it has been removed because it doesn't meet the quality bar. I know of at least half a dozen bugs submitted around that feature that left end users in a bad place with no obvious way back," Warren wrote.

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