RebateMonger
Elite Member
- Dec 24, 2005
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The CLIENT computers that are being backed up by WHS have daily versions of all their files.
WHS itself originally had VSS Previous Versions turned on. By default, this gave twice-a-day versioning of the Shared Data folders on the WHS server. However, it was found that VSS didn't quite work as expected when multiple disks were put on WHS and the Drive Extender was managing them. Because the availability of VSS files was considered "unreliable", Microsoft recommends that the Previous Versions functionality be turned off. Most WHS servers now have it disabled, although it can be easily re-enabled.
Wegotserved.com discussion:
http://forum.wegotserved.com/index.php?showtopic=7629&hl=
I haven't played with this, but my impression is that it causes no damage to enable Previous Versions. Also, Previous Versions may well WORK if the WHS server hasn't been rebooted between the time the copy was made and when you ask for the copy.
Diskeeper had planned on releasing an "Undelete Homeserver" product nearly a year ago. It's not clear why it hasn't been released yet. Perhaps because they were going to include ten desktop licenses, and Diskeeper's Undelete 2009 desktop version didn't yet support Windows 7 clients nor 64-bit OSes. Or perhaps they couldn't get it to work reliably with WHS, although they claim their full Undelete product works fine with WHS.
Even when it's fully functional, it's always a bit risky to count on Previous Versions functionality. Unless you allow it large amounts of disk space, you may find that the file you want has already been overwritten by later versions or other files. That said, it would be nice if it worked reliably. There's no indication that this flaw will be fixed in the current version of WHS.
As always, the best way to prevent loss of data is with backups. If your data is on a client PC, then you have very good backups with WHS. If there's data that's only on the WHS server (or any other file server), then periodic backups should be made of data you can't afford to lose. This is true whether you have disk redundancy or Shadow Copies enabled or not.
WHS itself originally had VSS Previous Versions turned on. By default, this gave twice-a-day versioning of the Shared Data folders on the WHS server. However, it was found that VSS didn't quite work as expected when multiple disks were put on WHS and the Drive Extender was managing them. Because the availability of VSS files was considered "unreliable", Microsoft recommends that the Previous Versions functionality be turned off. Most WHS servers now have it disabled, although it can be easily re-enabled.
Wegotserved.com discussion:
http://forum.wegotserved.com/index.php?showtopic=7629&hl=
I haven't played with this, but my impression is that it causes no damage to enable Previous Versions. Also, Previous Versions may well WORK if the WHS server hasn't been rebooted between the time the copy was made and when you ask for the copy.
Diskeeper had planned on releasing an "Undelete Homeserver" product nearly a year ago. It's not clear why it hasn't been released yet. Perhaps because they were going to include ten desktop licenses, and Diskeeper's Undelete 2009 desktop version didn't yet support Windows 7 clients nor 64-bit OSes. Or perhaps they couldn't get it to work reliably with WHS, although they claim their full Undelete product works fine with WHS.
Even when it's fully functional, it's always a bit risky to count on Previous Versions functionality. Unless you allow it large amounts of disk space, you may find that the file you want has already been overwritten by later versions or other files. That said, it would be nice if it worked reliably. There's no indication that this flaw will be fixed in the current version of WHS.
As always, the best way to prevent loss of data is with backups. If your data is on a client PC, then you have very good backups with WHS. If there's data that's only on the WHS server (or any other file server), then periodic backups should be made of data you can't afford to lose. This is true whether you have disk redundancy or Shadow Copies enabled or not.
Last edited:
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