Known Issue: When you use certain programs to edit files on a home computer that uses Windows Home Server, the files (KB 946676)

Thu, 10 Jan 2008 19:22:02 Z

March 14th, 2008

Steps to complete when contacting the Windows Home Server Team to report an issue:

To invite you into our Connect program, we need to ensure you have a Connect account. These steps should be helpful in getting through this process.

Creating A Connect Account

1.       Go to http://connect.microsoft.com > from the upper right corner, click ‘Sign In’

2.       Sign in with Live ID (this can be any email account that is associated with Windows Live Messenger (formerly MSN Messenger) ex. Hotmail.com email account)

a.       If user has no Live ID, click the Sign In button > click ‘Sign Up Now’

3.       From the lower left corner of the page (after you have signed in), click ‘Manage Your Connect Profile’ or click here https://connect.microsoft.com/profile.aspx > after you have read the information, click ‘Continue’

4.       Terms of Use: Please read the terms of use agreement fully before clicking ‘I Agree’ > Once you click ‘I Agree’ to the TOS, please click ‘Manage Your Profile’ again to enter your registration information

a.       Required information

                                                               i.      First and Last name

                                                             ii.      Country

                                                            iii.      Email

                                                           iv.      Email format preferences

                                                             v.      “I would like to be contacted about participating in other Microsoft Connect programs” must be selected as ‘Yes’

b.      Communication Preferences

                                                               i.      The “I would like to hear from Microsoft” checkbox must be checked to allow Microsoft to contact you regarding any submitted feedback

5.       Click Continue > Welcome to Connect! Message is displayed

6.       Specify a handle (nickname) to be used in lieu of your real name (required) > click Continue

7.       Reply to whsforum@microsoft.com indicating that you have completed your connect registration

Thank you for participating in the community forums!

-Marc

January 21st, 2008

Help the Windows Home Server Team with this issue:

Presently we have numerous forum users participating in ongoing investigations into this issue, however any additional information will help us as we work toward a fix. The integrity of our users data is paramount to us, and working toward a fix is our highest priority. If you have experienced data corruption we invite you to contact us as soon as possible at whsforum at microsoft dot com to join the investigation.

Prior to contacting us, please sign up at http://connect.microsoft.com - be sure that during signup you choose Yes to allowing Microsoft to contact you.

Please only contact us at this alias if you have experienced data corruption - continue to use the community forums for technical support and questions.

Note: Home servers using a single drive are not susceptible to the data corruption issue.

Thank you for your continued patience and support!

_______________________________________________________________

January 10th, 2008

What cannot be apparent from the December 28th KB update is that on December 25th at 1:20am we had isolated how to reproduce the issue in a consistent manner. Being able to do so grants us the opportunity to closely observe the issue as it occurs to discover why the problem occurs from beginning to end. Once the problem is identified (stage 1), a fix must be coded(stage 2) and tested, tested, tested (stage 3). These stages will take time and considerable effort, and the Drive Extender team as a whole is fully committed to this issue until it is resolved.

I can say with confidence that when used as currently advised, Windows Home Server is still one of the most solid Version 1 products we have released to date. File corruption only occurs if certain conditions are met, using specific applications; it does not occur randomly or rampantly. Until a fix for this issue is released: Edit files locally on your home computer only; store, stream and backup your stuff on your Windows Home Server.

KB946676 reads:

When you use certain programs to edit files on a home computer that uses Windows Home Server, the files may become corrupted when you save them to the home server

View products that this article applies to.

Article ID	:	946676
Last Review	:	January 11, 2008
Revision	:	3.0

TECHNICAL REVISIONS

The following table lists significant technical revisions to this article.

Date	Revisions
December 20, 2007	Original publication date
December 28, 2007	Updated the article to document more information about the scenario in which this issue occurs
January 9, 2008	Updated the article to indicate that Microsoft can reproduce the issue and is currently working on a fix

The third-party products that this article discusses are manufactured by companies that are independent of Microsoft. Microsoft makes no warranty, implied or otherwise, about the performance or reliability of these products.

SYMPTOMS

When you use certain programs to edit files on a home computer that uses Windows Home Server, the files may become corrupted when you save them to the home server. This issue occurs if the following conditions are true:

•

You edit files that are located in a shared folder on the home server.

You use one of the following programs to edit the files or to save the files to the home server:

•	Windows Vista Photo Gallery
•	Windows Live Photo Gallery
•	Microsoft Office OneNote 2007
•	Microsoft Office OneNote 2003
•	Microsoft Office Outlook 2007
•	Microsoft Money 2007
•	SyncToy 2.0 Beta

Note: You may also experience this issue when you use other programs.

Note: This issue affects only Windows Home Server. This issue does not affect any other versions of Windows Server or of Windows Small Business Server.

CAUSE

This issue may occur because of a recently discovered problem with Windows Home Server shared folders and with certain programs.

STATUS

Microsoft is researching this problem and will post more information in this article when the information becomes available. This issue can now be reproduced by using an automated test harness. This process will help Microsoft develop a fix.

Until an update for Windows Home Server is available, we recommend that you do not use the programs that are listed in the "Symptoms" section to save or to edit program-specific files that are stored on a Windows Home Server-based system.

MORE INFORMATION

Before you store files on a system that is running Windows Home Server, make sure that you have a backup copy of any important data files. You can still use the Windows Home Server home computer backup process to back up and to restore files on your home computers.

Known Issue: When you use certain programs to edit files on a home computer that uses Windows Home Server, the files (KB 946676)

Thu, 21 Feb 2008 19:19:34 Z

Microsoft has just updated this KB article with an expanded list of potentially affected software. Please review the article to see if any software you regularly use may be on the list, and bear in mind that the recommendation for the time being is that you not edit files directly on your server.

Known Issue: When you use certain programs to edit files on a home computer that uses Windows Home Server, the files (KB 946676)

Tue, 11 Mar 2008 00:57:41 Z

The Windows Home Server updated the KB article and issued a blog post to provide an update today. A link to both can be found in this forum post:

http://forums.microsoft.com/WindowsHomeServer/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=2979617&SiteID=50