The Microsoft knowledge base article about the data corruption bug that has hit Windows Home Server has been updated. It looks like a fix is being worked on with a delivery June 2008.

This issue can now be reliably reproduced, and a fix is in development. Microsoft intends to release beta test versions of a fix over the next few months, with a final version currently planned for June 2008. That date could change as testing progresses. Thorough testing of the fix is critical and will take time

CAUSE – TECHNICAL DETAILS

Windows Home Server uses a file system mini-filter driver in addition to the NTFS file system to implement Shared Folders storage technology. File system mini-filter drivers are an extensibility mechanism that is provided by Windows to enable storage scenarios. For distributing data across the different hard drives that are managed by Windows Home Server, the Windows Home Server mini-filter driver redirects I/O between files that are stored on the main hard drive and files that are stored on other hard drives. This redirection mechanism is enabled only when Windows Home Server is managing the Shared Folder storage of multiple physical hard drives. A bug has been discovered in the redirection mechanism which, in certain cases, depending on application use patterns, timing, and workload, may cause interactions between NTFS, the Memory Manager, and the Cache Manager to get out of sync. This causes corrupted data to be written to files. More information about the storage technology can be found in the following technical brief:

http://download.microsoft.com/download/2/F/C/2FC09C20-587F-4F16-AA33-C6C4C75FB3DD/Windows_Home_Server_Drive_Extender.pdf (http://download.microsoft.com/download/2/f/c/2fc09c20-587f-4f16-aa33-c6c4c75fb3dd/windows_home_server_drive_extender.pdf)

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