Just an update here, maybe it will help someone else. After letting the WHS repari the database, I lost all of my old backups, but I was able to create new backups. The next morning however I found that I had database errors again. This time I found a document at Microsoft.com that talked about how to deal with errors, and one of the things it suggested was to update Windows before doing the repair. I ran Windows update, and sure enough there were a bunch of updates to be done. I was surprised that when all the updates were done and the reboots had finished (there were several) that errors had disappeared and everything seems to be working now except for remote access which I expect is a firewall issues.

I wonder if I had done all the updates before trying to repair the database if I would not have lost my backups. I don't care enough to restore the old database, upgrade, install the updates and spend 2 or 3 days in the process, but I do wonder. If you are getting errors, make sure the system is updated completely before doing the repair.

I got my disks about a week ago, then a few days later got a Fedex of a piece of paper saying the disks were mislabeled. It was confusing, but I figured it out and started the upgrade process last night. I had backed up my server so I wasn't too worried. Late last night it came up, and I installed the clients on a couple of machines but then I got an error on the WHS console saying there were database errors that needed to be corrected.

I got a warning that if I allowed WHS to correct the errors, I might lose data, but I figured I didn't really have a choice. The correction process ran all night and I woke this morning to find that my shared folders seem to be intact, but all of my backups are gone. Since I have a machine that is flaky right now, I decided to go ahead and back it up while I think about whether I would rather have the new software and no backups, or to go through the pain of restoring my WHS and sticking to the old software.

Has anyone recovered their old backups? I'm assuming I'm not the only one to experience this. I appreciate that HP created the update for an older machine, but the execution of it could have been better.

I haven’t used the other comment systems. Since Intense Debate was acquired by the people who make Typepad, I’m guessing I might see even better support in the future. Also a lot of people that I know use Intense Debate since the company was founded here in Boulder, Colorado.

I did an email campain to the representatives (none of which even acknowledged my emails) and I pointed out that the problem with trying to tax software like this is that it would be so easy for companies to just move it out of state. I didn't realize at the time that affiliates would be attacked, or that it would be even easier than I imagined. My point was if they wanted to raise revenue, they should come up with a different plan, because this one wasn't going to work very well and it would hurt Colorad companies and employees in the process.

Nailed it. It is so amazing that any of this works, and yet so frustrating when it doesn't. One of my home routers has been hanging, so I went on line to decide which new one to buy. Every single one has lots of great comments, and then lots of "what a piece of junk, it never even worked." I think a big part of the problem is that the complexity has exceed the ability to test. Or at least the willingness to test to the extent needed to really make all of the parts and systems reliable.

I don't know about everyone else in Boulder, but we're hiring at Gold Systems. We're looking for a support engineer, a Regional Sales Manager, and there will be a new high level engineering management position posted next week. Business is picking up and though we won't go crazy, we are starting to hire again.

Thanks Townsend!

Thanks for the comment Trent - I saw someone at a conference a few weeks ago who was carrying two phones. One was the really cool smart phone with lots of apps, and the other was, I guess a dumb phone. All it did was make phone calls, but he said that it did that fairly well and made it worth carrying two phones. Crazy.

Check out The End of Overeating: Taking Control of the Insatiable American Appetite, by David Kessler, former FDA commissioner. It's available on the Kindle. It's an interesting book about how the brain gets fooled by today's food.

We were paying 11 cents a minute for conferencing just a few months ago, so maybe they were taking advantage of us, but we're not alone if they were. If the customer wants to buy the servers (and these are standard Dell servers with no exotic hardware) and the software, we can get the price down to 3 cents a minute which includes toll-free access for even small users.

Office Communications Server (OCS) with Exchange and Unified Messaging is already becoming disruptive. Our offering makes it easy to pay for the initial deployment of OCS out of an existing conferencing budget. Once the customer sees how easy it is for us to slip this into their operations, we'll show them how to start expanding their use of OCS, adding presence, video, etc., and then move towards dumping their expensive PBXs.

Microsoft is being very clear that they intend to see Exchange users be able to power down their PBX and legacy voice mail systems. I haven't had a PBX phone for six months, and we're very close to just turning off the PBX and having only SIP trunks.

So I agree, that's where the disruption happens. I just think that in the process, conferencing bills are going to get a lot smaller. Mine sure did. :-)