Windows Home Server 'Vail' sees new beta release, adds OS X support
By Darren Murph 
posted August 17th 2010 11:20AM
posted August 17th 2010 11:20AM
It's not the biggest of releases, but progress is progress at this point. Since launching in late April, Microsoft has been rather mum on the future of its latest Windows Home Server build. This week, however, the second major beta release has been let loose into the wilds, with Vail's most recent build now available to download there in the source link. The Big M doesn't go into great detail on what all has been added and / or changed, only saying that this new version has "plenty of enhancements and improvements over the original." The so-called "Preview" also adds support for Mac OS X backups, though users should know that storage check and repair (among other things, most likely) aren't exactly working seamlessly. But hey, that's what you get for living on the beta, right?
Can't wait to see this in action.
@larciel This is really the only Windows product I would purchase simply because it wins hands down compared to every other solution, for the task that it's designed to do.
@Khris
if you aren't pairing this with windows computers in your home network, then you are missing half of the goodness of it.
@TheRealMikeyG - I'd say you're missing almost all of the goodness. Any server can handle file storage and media streaming. The real goodness is automatic image backups and easy bare metal restores.
Just be aware that Vail does not use standard disk formatting. So if your WHS fails you CAN'T pull the drives and install them in another machine to get access to the data. That's a dealbreaker for me. I'll stick with the current version, which is awesome.
@larciel
Cant wait either, hopefully ill be able to install it on my HP EX470
@larciel me too, but i want to know if it has cablecard support for extenders like windows 7
Screw OS X. Windows, baby.
@ICWiener
Easy bare metal restores are more dependent on how modular and the transparent the OS is in general. Special purpose software to deal with this is just a bandaid kludge to deal with underlying engineering faults in the core OS.
@ICWiener You hit the nail on the head. With the current version, even if the worst happens, you can still pull the drives and recover your data manually on another machine. Moving away from this low-tech safety net is a huge mistake, along with all the others they're making with this new version. I think I'll keep right on using WHS SP2 + flexraid for the indefinite future.
Shouldn't they be releasing the final version of this by now? I don't really care too much about WHS2 because it doesn't offer much over WHS1 that I care about, but I'm pretty sure HP is holding back their next version of their home servers waiting for this (hopefully core i3/5 powered ones).
I wish there would be more Windows Home Server low cost green PCs around :( I wanted to buy one, but i could only find some very expansive things (600-700 for a file server is wayyy too much!).
@smover
You can build one yourself for that much, with the advantage of being easily expandable in the future. It's well worth the cash if you look at what it offers
@smover
You can get an HP LX server for ~$200
@smover
I purchased the Acer Aspire WHS last Black Friday on Amazon for $299. The current price is $349.
@desinerd
That HP is a good deal, but if you can build your own you have so much more flexibility with your storage and OS upgrade ability.
Fail...
@VorteXLP
Don't you mean . . . VAIL
@Smart People Play Tuba Of course.. typo.
aurora is also released if anyone is interested.
http://www.neowin.net/news/windows-home-server-vail-and-aurora-beta-available
I have moved from WHS (HP MS Server) to Synology in late march. Best move ever.
@xDRAN0x
can you use their software on a home made box?
was unable to find anything about this on their hp
@FnuGk
WHS is a MS product, pretty sure you can put it on a normal PC
@xDRAN0x Think he was talking about Synology.
@barry99705
yeah was asking about the synology thing as it seems nice.
another thing is is this new beta of 64bit only? i cant find a 32bit to install on my atom machine :/
They still need to integrate Windows Home Server and Windows Media Center together so they could run on the same box. But that would require different groups at Microsoft to collaborate so it will never happen.
@wyldtek I wish that I could have a home server run all of my TV recording/distributing needs. You'd think it wouldn't be all that hard to implement. Oh well.
@wyldtek
It is possible, just not very clean unfortunately.
@wyldtek: Plus being able to use the WHS as a hard drive extender for an Xbox 360. I'd love to backup all of my disks onto it's hard drives. It makes me frustrated to know I have a ton of extra space on my WHS, but have filled up my dinky 120 gig xbox drive - yet the two boxes sit next to eachother.
If you really wanted a server with OSX support, you'd get a mac mini and put Snow Leopard Server on it, right?
@lcchoops That would be another machine running all the time though. It's also pretty hard to put 6Tb of drive space in a Mac Mini.
@barry99705
Want 6TB of disk space on a Mini? Then just buy a NAS box and point your mini to it.
Using a Windows box to backup Linux or Macs seems just silly. If anything, it should be the other way around.
It is a nice offering but I'd prefer just push my data into the cloud...
A 25GB skydrive is not enough.
Looking foward to the full release.
WHS has been the most reliable version of windows for me. My HP Mediasmart has also been the best tech iv purchased in years.
Having 3Tbs of data stored in a nice clean looking box for users to access locally and outside the house is great.now i just need to replace a dead WD OS drive and bring my baby back to life.
What is this exactly? I'm not sure.
@R94N Its a server for home and small business users. Think of a NAS device but one that runs on windows server; you can do some pretty awesome things on it.
Looks like they listened to feedback; the best thing any company can do. Look forward to hearing of other improvements. Media centre integration would push me to upgrade.
Fist WHS doesn't work well with the 64 bit version of Win 7, hope the new one makes restores easier.
@sundaybiker that shouldn't happen, I have Win7 Pro x64 and it works fine.
@williewillus Can you completely restore from image (not just a few folders,but on a blank HDD) without having to find a 64 bit network driver?
I'll get it when it gets Linux support.
@williewillus That would make me want it even more.
When they say "OS X backups" do they mean native Time Machine support?
@JerkyChew And, if so, is there a tiny chance it could work with Macs running 10.5 (including PPC Macs)?
I switched to Unraid. I couldn't stand the random file corruption anymore on WHS.
This is the worst MS "upgrade" since ME. It resolves none of the limitations of the current version of WHS (no parity backup options, no proper WMC integration) and adds several new ones (10 drive limit, no upgrade path from the current version, drives no longer externally readable). You have to wonder if the people on the dev team actually have any experience with these setups, or have bothered to even once check out any of the user forums. I've been a happy WHS+flexraid user for over two years, and I do not foresee taking a giant step backward with vail.