Paul Thurrott takes a look at Windows Home Server 2011

When Microsoft announced its plans to kill off Drive Extender in the next version of Windows Home Server, I was left in kind of a bind. The thing is, I was using the Beta version of Windows Home Server 2011, then still known as "Vail," for my real-world data. And with Vail not shipping in late 2010 as expected, there were a number of questions, both around what a Drive Extender-less WHS 2011 would be like, and the migration path.

Those questions have since been resolved: I've decided to continue ahead with Windows Home Server 2011 despite the absence of Drive Extender. And there is no migration path: Whether you're coming from the original Windows Home Server version, or from any pre-release version of WHS 2011, you're going to need to copy all the data off of the system and reformat (if you intend to use the same hardware, as I do). It's just a manual process.

  Migrating To Windows Home Server 2011, Part 1: From Beta To RC