Windows Home Server 2011 Ships to Testers, Sans Beloved Disk Extender

From DailyTech: Released in 2007, Windows Home Server tried to invite home users into the world of IT by creating a user-friendly backup storage-geared operating system. And that effort was largely a success -- despite early data corruption issues, Windows Home Server products from companies like HP drew a cult following.

One feature that made Windows Home Server particularly appealing was the Driver Extender functionality. Drive extender took all of your external and internal hard drives and lumped them into a storage space accessible by a single letter drive name. The audience for Home Server products tended to have high storage needs (e.g. A Blu-Ray collection spanning tens of TBs, or more) so this feature saved them from a nightmare of drive letter names.

Well prepare to go scouring for what letter you stored Watchmen: Director's Cut in, because Microsoft has now made it official -- the next version of Home Server has ditched Drive Extender.

Originally dubbed Vail, the OS has been in beta testing for a while now, but Microsoft had yet to make good on its promise to scrap the Drive Extender. Now it has at last, in the latest version shipped to testers.

In the place of Drive Extender is a new "Move Folder Wizard", which detects when hard drives are connected, and guides users through the drive installation process. Every new drive comes complete with a new disc letter, for your alphabetical enjoyment.

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