Back in May I wrote about what I found to be a significant flaw with Windows Home Server, the fact that the Backup Software automatically excludes any folder named “temp” with no way for the user to add these folders back in or to even know that they would be excluded. I felt the pain of this issue just two weeks ago while restoring a co-worker’s PC from the Home Server that we use in my office to back up our development machines. After the restore my co-coworkers IIS web server wouldn’t start, and after some brief investigation we found that the C:\inetpub\temp\apppools directory wasn’t restored which caused the failure. We were able to re-create the folder and everything else was working great.
I’m very pleased to report that with the recent release of Power Pack 3 for Windows Home Server, this issue has been resolved and our beloved temp directories are now being successfully backed up every night.
In my previous article on the subject, I’d created a Windows user named “Temp” on my PC in order to demonstrate the issue and shown that it’s entire home directory was excluded from the WHS backup. Here is an example from a few days prior to installing Power Pack 3. You’ll notice the large size of the excluded “User temporary folders”, and the missing Temp user home directory from the mounted Restore on the Y: drive.
Here is a screenshot of the same system showing last night’s backup after installing Power Pack 3. The size of the excluded “User temporary files” is much smaller, showing that more data is being backed up, and the Temp user’s home directory now exists in the mounted Restore on the X: drive.
I’ve also verified that the C:\inetpub\temp\apppools directory exists in my backups and so we shouldn’t encounter the IIS failure that my co-worker experienced following the restore.
I’ve always been very pleased with the Windows Home Server Backup Software, and am even more so now that the Temp folders are being safely backed up.
Article by Alex Kuretz
I'm Alex Kuretz, and I'm the founder of MediaSmartServer.net. I was the Lead Test and Integration Engineer at HP for the MediaSmart Server until April 2008 when I moved on to other opportunities outside HP. I've kept active in the Windows Home Server community, creating several add-ins and helping users make the most of their Home Servers.
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It’s about time.
I performed the same test as you by creating a user named “Temp” to prove this bug a few months back. I’ve been warning anyone I know with a Windows Home Server (whether it be an HP or home-built) to avoid making folders named “temp” at all costs.
I believe this to be one of the best things offered by PP3.
I would like to be ABLE to back up my temp folders. After a restore, I was unable to uninstall some stupid applications that left their installer/uninstaller in the temp directory.
However, the headline for this blog post is misleading: it is NOT now backing up my temp directories. It is only backing up directories that aren’t user or system temp, that happen to be named “temp”. I’m disappointed, as this was an issue after a restore several months ago. I managed to get past it, but why, WHY, *WHY* make it a not-user-configurable option? Acronis backs up the entire machine so it can safely be flattened and reimaged. Why isn’t my Home Server doing the same? Very bad design decision.