Multiple Drives WHS + VSS?

zerogear

Diamond Member
Jun 4, 2000
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I heard this was disabled due to problems having VSS working with multiple drives, was it ever solved with PP2?

I kind of would like VSS being enabled in my WHS, but at the moment, if it causes data corruption, there would be no point. Does anyone know about this issue?
 

bsobel

Moderator Emeritus<br>Elite Member
Dec 9, 2001
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VSS isn't currently supported on WHS. The reason is simple, VSS takes a snapshot of a specific volume and keeps 'previous' copies available. But if you think about how the drive exender works it becomes obvious that VSS is broken.

VSS takes a snapshot of a tombstone which is just a LINK to the file stored on a different drive. VSS on the 'other' drive (which might be on a different schedule) takes a snapshot of the original file. When you 'restore' a previous version in VSS you restore the tombstone. There is no logic to tell the actual drive holding the data to restore the file (or even, at this point, to determine if it exists)
 

RebateMonger

Elite Member
Dec 24, 2005
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Originally posted by: IHAVEAQUESTION
So how does this VSS differ from disc image backup? It seems to me the VSS aims to create continuous backup so we can undo change one at a time. If this is so, it's a great feature and I might want this as well.
VSS (in Vista Business and Ultimate, only) keeps copies of past versions of files on your Vista computer. The number of copies available depends on the space devoted to the Shadow Copies and the sizes and number of changes to the monitored files.

It can be accessed by right-clicking on the relevant file/folder, selecting "Properties", and selecting the "Previous Versions" tab.

It's not a "continuous" copy. It's a "snapshot" of the file state at certain times. I don't know how Vista determines the times. On Server 2003, the snapshots are done on a predetermined schedule (twice a day by default).