Windows Home Server NTFS Compression Backup Corruption Issues

Microsoft has released an update for a NTFS backup corruption bug affecting Windows Home Server. This is an entirely new problem impacting Microsoft's server operating system aimed at household environments, and the KB950190 update is already available for download, resolving the issue. However, the fix is not defined to address an older data corruption issue associated with editing Windows Vista Photo Gallery, Live Photo Gallery, Microsoft Office OneNote 2007, OneNote 2003, Office Outlook 2007, Microsoft Money 2007, SyncToy 2.0 Beta, Intuit QuickBooks, and uTorrent files that are stored on Windows Home Server. KB950190 instead deals with files compressed via NTFS compression and backed up on Windows Home Server.

"The Windows Home Server team has solved a software bug that may affect files that are compressed using Advanced Attributes (NTFS compression). NTFS compression can be enabled on an individual file, folder or at the hard drive level and is sometimes enabled by users to save disk space on a home computer," revealed a member of the Windows Home Server team.

Windows Home Server update KB950190 has been released in advance of the first public beta for Power Pack 1, planned to drop by the end of May 2008. At the beginning of April, Microsoft promised that the original data corruption bug would be fixed concomitantly with the release of Beta 1 for Windows Home Server Power Pack 1. The role of KB950190 is to ensure that NTFS compressed files will be backed up correctly by Windows Home Server.

"Under certain circumstances, a compressed file may consume more disk space than the original file size. Some sections of a file may use less disk space after NTFS compression. However, other sections of a file may use more disk space after NTFS compression. If the compressed file uses more disk space than the original file, a small amount of data at the end of the file may be lost during the backup process. This data loss results in a corrupted file or a partially-corrupted file, depending on the corresponding file types. The file types that may be affected by this issue include, but are not limited to, CAB, ZIP, JPG, and PNG," Microsoft explained.

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