me several frustrating days to get this figured this out on my own!

One unfortunate note that I will add is that if you previously updated the processor in your ex47x (as I did), you may want to revert back to the original Sempron... if you still have it, that is. Since the bios does not recognize higher processors, Server 2008 is not able to identify it and the installation fails. I tried for two days to get it to work with the AMD Athlon LE1640 and couldn't get past the post-reboot install (from the browser) - server would crash at 0%. Put the old processor back in and everything went smooth. Also, note that you will need to have upgraded the server's RAM to more than 1GB to do the install. Avoid the G.Skill 2GB DDR2 module, if possible - it caused frequent system hangs for me (that incidentally would freeze my entire home network!!) I likely would have fared better with Meegie's answer file format... it took me forever to figure out the "Processed=true" caveat. If you find you still have issues with the answer file, another alternative (one which I found preferrable in the end) is to prep the drive on another system (e.g. one with a monitor). This is also helpful if you would rather just install from the CD and avoid the USB / answer file approach altogether; or if you don't want to deal with cleaning the partitions from the hard drive ahead of time. To do this:

nd replace it with the hard disk that you want for your WHS 2011 system drive ( >= 160GB )

or your bios to boot from the install media (or edit the bios boot order prior to install)

New Install" -- You will be warned that the drive is going to be erased.

he usual Windows install actions: Copying Files, Expanding Files, Installing Features, Finalizing Install.

e install does not have a chance to continue)

ding Files" step is complete. It won't take long after that for the rest to complete and for the install to get to the

nd move the prepped drive into the bottom bay of the MediaSmart Server.

he pre-install setup on the ex47x

pen the Internet browser on an active network pc and navigate tohttp://server/connect to complete the install. helper application.

all the information you need to get things comfigured (so the answer file is not necessary).

eboots by the installer, the setup will complete and the server will be accessible on your network. Additional notes:

e a low hard disk space warning from the server shortly after install. This is the internal flash memory drive for mote Desktop to the Server and disable the drive within Device Manager (under Diagnostics in Server USB". Right-click --> Disable

hem into the remaining bays, Remote Desktop to the server (as the Administrator user), and work your way DE\Shares" directory (hidden by default). on the server as an administrator and use the Robocopy commands to move the files.

verFolders\Documents /e /copyall /move

t these commands and throw them into a batch file to avoid having to babysit the process. If anyone hears of a driver solution for the lights on the ex47x, please post! It would definitely tidy things up nicely for me.

Sure you can, I did... for evaluation purposes. Quite similar to a WHS2011 installation, but the MSS has to meet Windows Server 2012 Beta Essentials requirements. Steps to follow: 1. Upgrade your MSS to minimal requirements 2. Create your USB Flash install drive 3. Prepare your MSS for an attended (or unattended) installation 4. Proceed with installation normally 5. Verify your installation Step 1: Upgrade your MSS to minimum requirements (memory 2G, processor X64). There are good tutorials for this in the EX470/475 threads, hereand here. For the installation process, you probably could create a config file for unattended installation (see Step 2), but I prefered an attended one (needs VGA cable, hope they are still available here; monitor; USB keyboard). Step 2: Get an 8 GB USB Flash Drive (the install files are around 4.15 GB). Download WS2012E Beta here. For copying the ISO file you can download the W7 tool here. Create your bootable flash drive and WS2012E install using the Windows 7 USB/DVD Download tool (or other means you prefer). For unattended installation, I suggest you read a walkthrough here and download the autounattend.xml for ws2012e; you may have to edit the file a bit depending on your own parameters. I encountered several problems with my first installation trials. The process would stop after asking for "type of installation" and show an "install drivers" window. My searches failed to find a solution, so I decided to install WSH2011 to check if it would present such an error, and voil, I was stuck with "error 31" which was a known error, and found solutions in this same site. I applied the boot order solution, and everything worked flawlessly up to the end. Step 3 summarizes these solutions and recommendations.

Step 3: Insert only one drive (160 GB or more, unpartitioned) in the MSS (lowest slot); insert flash drive in lowest USB port at the back of the EX470; start MSS; press F12 repeatedly; choose to boot from USB-CDROM; here you go! Step 4: Follow installation steps at TechNet, or pay yourself a nap if you have gone the "unattended" route. Early on in the process, after choosing the installation type ("Custom install Windows only advanced"), you will be asked to choose the install drive (there is only one, if you followed my suggestion), this is the last chance you have to partition your drive to your liking (at least 60 GB for the system partition), if you don't your whole drive will be alloted to the system drive (this is what happened to me). Then the process should go to the end of the installation without any problems. Step 5: After installation you can add other drives (but this time you should partition them first and format if you want them to be visible in Windows Explorer, I couldn't find a way to do it inside the server, yet). Also check the Device manager to see if all drivers were found. In fact, in my case, the eSata controller driver was not installed. Here is the Marvell MV61xx version 1.2.0.8400 for Windows 7 (32 & 64 bits), which I could test with a eSata single disk enclosure. First impressions: most notable benefit is Spaces (kind of an evolved Drive Extender with different implementation choices). Also the server can be backed up (like in WHS2011). The computers are backed up in a similar way as to WHS2011. Oh, and it works on the MSS. But there are some showstoppers: supports only Win 7, Win 8, and Mac OS.X 10.5 to 10.7 (I should experiment with a Mac in the near future to see if it will backup a OS.X Lion!), I also upgraded a laptop to Win 8 Release Preview for testing purposes; the price (425$) but you own a business server that does "home" things; a domain instead of a workgroup (I read somewhere you can disconnect from the domain and step-back in a workgoup, but I have not tested this). VJ http://www.kewney.com/posts/database/installing-windows-home-server-2011-on-hpmediasmart-ex470-or-ex475

This article provides steps to assist you with the installation of Windows Home Server 2011 on an HP MediaSmart EX470 or EX475. Please note that the minimum RAM requirement of this OS is 2GB. There are several useful guides out there explaining how to install Windows Home Server 2011 on an HP MediaSmart using a flash drive; including Sean Daniel's in-depth post here. However, if you have a desktop PC handy, this is an alternative method which lets you to prepare the drive in another system and avoid the USB approach altogether. Since the MediaSmart doesn't have a display, I found this method preferable. What you'll need:

A desktop system with a SATA drive connector Windows Home Server 2011 installation CD How to do it:

Remove the hard disk from your MediaSmart and connect it to your desktop PC's SATA connector. Make sure the drive is greater than 160GB in capacity. Insert your Windows Home Server 2011 DVD and boot the PC Use the appropriate key to enter boot device selection and select the CD/DVD drive Once the installer has loaded, select "New Install" and proceed with the default options. Agree to the EULA and start the installation. Switch off this PC during the first reboot - Very important. Remove this drive from your desktop PC and place it into the MediaSmart server in the bottom bay. Boot the server and wait between 5 and 15 minutes Check your "Network" view on your local PC and the MediaSmart should appear as "SERVER" If you're using Windows 7, right click SERVER and select "Go to administration website", alternatively, navigate your browser to http://server/connect Follow the rest of the installation instructions until your server is ready to use. Additional notes: Make sure your disable the SMI USB Disk in your computer management > diagnostics > devices or else you'll be harassed with "low disk space" warnings. I'm running the 39th BMW Berlin Marathon on 30th September 2012 for the British Lung Foundation, who are currently funding research on the prevention of lung damage in COPD and many other areas related to lung disease. I'm participating with my sister Claire Kewney and, on behalf of the charity, would appreciate even the smallest donation. My own JustGiving page is here, our team page is here. if you're in the UK, you can also donate using your mobile phone by texting NKEW82 5 (or any amount) followed

optionally by your name to 70070. Your donation will be appreciated!

Comments
1. o o 2. o o kren
9/25/2011 6:58:22 PM

Patrick L
9/11/2011 5:00:01 PM

Dude, this worked perfect on my EX470, thank you! I'll spread the word and link here.

It worked as described except for the SERVER - My was named win-S900..... and was found under other devices in my network view in windows 7 3. o o Webdoc
11/18/2011 2:04:54 PM

I am thinking of trying the above install method on my EX470, however I did read on the following link http://forum.wegotserved.com/index.php/topic/18458-hp-ex48x-lights-management-driver-for-whs2011/page__st__40 That non of the front panel lights will work after WHS 2011 is installed. 4. o o Louis
11/20/2011 3:45:16 PM

Thank you very much for putting this article together! I went through this process last night, and have now moved my frankenbox Home Server 2011 back into the small EX470 where it belongs! :) 5. o o Brian
12/27/2011 3:11:08 AM

THIS METHOD WORKED GREAT!!!!! The steps above took no time and I now have WHS 2011 running on my HP LX195, with 2gb of RAM, and a two terabyte hard drive.. I have tech net subscription and downloaded the WHS2011 iso from there and I now have a true itunes/blue ray server.... THANKS SO MUCH!!! That usb headless install looks insane... This is 10x easier... Worked as described. 6. o o Bert
3/12/2012 4:23:05 PM

What about the data that is on the other disks in the EX475, will it still be available or does this work only for a 1 disk system? 7. o o Michael
8/23/2012 4:19:54 AM

Thinking about installing Windows 8 RTM on my 475. Any sense whether this procedure would work as well?

I have had a Windows Home Server for several years and after reading many reviews decided to take the plunge and migrate my original server (an HP MediaSmart EX470) to WHS 2011. Now a simple task you might think. There are a number of things to consider: - The MediaSmart EX470/475 servers come with an AMD 1.8Ghz Sempron 3400+processor which is 64 bit capable. Which means that the servers are capable (from a CPU stand point) of running Server 2008, which is the base OS for WHS 2011.

- The MediaSmart EX470/475 servers come with 512Mb of RAM which is not enough to run Server 2008. You will need to upgrade your memory to 2Gb at least. There is a good guide on doing so here on HomeServerHacks.com. - Windows Home Server v1 is based on Server 2003 (x86) and so there is no upgrade path to WHS 2011 (Server 2008 x64). I.e. this is a clean install and unless you use different drives, you will not be able to go to your previous configuration easily. - The MediaSmart EX470/475 servers do not have a graphics card so upgrading can be a little tricky if you read on, I will tell you the easy way to do this. By the way, in case you were not sure, the only difference between the two models is that the EX 470 came with a single 500Gb hard drive and the EX 475 came with two 500Gb hard drives. Other than that they are the same. All this means to say that you can run WHS 2011 in a MediaSmart EX470/475. The question is then why? The answer to this was simple for me because I can and I wanted some of the extra functionality offered by the WHS 2011, including transcoding to DNLA devices built in and connectivity to my Windows Phone 7 device (this is covered in a future blog post). You do lose one piece of functionality in that WHS 2011 does not come with the Drive Extender technology that came with the original version. Drive Extender allowed you to pool drives so that adding more capacity was a simple as adding the drive to server, and following the wizard in the Windows Home Server Console. Easy and no messing about. There are however alternatives from 3rd parties. I will cover these and my experiences in a follow up post. So, here goes having decided it was possible to upgrade and that it was worth while, this is what I did by the way, I am not connected with the WHS server team and so these are my experiences only. I can also offer no guarantees as to your experiences and you should make up your own mind if migrating to WHS 2011 is something you really want to do I got many of my pointers from the following post on the DBA Resources Site, but my experiences were not as straight forward as suggested in the article. For media, you can use either the DVD that comes in the box, or a Bootable USB key, each has its pros and cons: - DVD Rom (though it will have dawned on you that the HP MediaSmart EX470/475 dont come with a DVD drive and so you will need an external DVD drive if you take this path). - Bootable USB Key, preferably with an answer (cfg.ini) file. I will describe how to do this shortly as it was my preferred method given that the USB install is much faster and the answer file takes away much of the guess work.

Step 1: Back Up Your Data: I cannot emphasize this enough.. If you do not, or are not in a position to, you should not attempt this. I spent the 2 days prior to doing the migration backing all of my data up on to two separate systems just in case and believe me, I needed it! Step 2: Creating a USB boot key: I have seen lots of people post this description over the years, but here is the short version: Open CMD and run diskpart (this may cause UAC to prompt you as it requires elevated privileges) 1. list disk (this will show you the disks on your system. You will want to make sure you know which is your USB key - I typically look for drive size) 2. select disk x (Where x is the disk # of your USB key) 3. clean 4. create partition primary 5. select partition 1 6. active 7. format fs=fat32 8. assign 9. exit Now copy the contents of your WHS 2011 ISO or DVD to your new Bootable USB key. There is a really cool tool (Windows 7 USB/DVD download tool) on the MS Store site, but for some reason it did not work with my WHS 2011 ISO Image. If need be, you can extract your ISO file using a range of tools such as WinRAR or 7-Zip. Step 3: Creating your answer file (cgf.ini): This step is optional if you are not installing WHS 2011 in a headless environment (see step 4). If you are using a bootable USB key, you can use an answer file to remove all of the prompts you normally get when installing a new operating system, which is especially useful when you dont have a screen From the article I mentioned earlier, I used the following cfg.ini configuration:
[WinPE] InstallSKU=SERVERHOMEPREMIUM WindowsPartitionSize=61440 CheckReqs=0 ConfigDisk=1 [InitialConfiguration] AcceptEula=true ServerName=MyHomeServer PlainTextPassword=HomeServer2011 PasswordHint=What am I installing Settings=All

Note that I just used Notepad to create a new text document called cfg.ini and saved this to the root of the USB key.

Step 4: Installing Windows Home Server 2011 on my HP MediaSmart EX470: Here is where I spent a few hours trying to follow the instructions from the article I mentioned earlier and gave up. The instructions may work for you, but not me. I found that the install process halted repeatedly and because I didnt have a monitor on the server, I had no idea why, so here is what I did Take a spare machine (could be a spare laptop or desktop as long as you have either a SATA or eSATA connector). Remove the existing hard drive(s) from the spare machine if you dont, the WHS installation process will delete all of the data from your desktop or laptop hard drive(s). Connect the boot drive from the HP MediaSmart server via either SATA or eSATA. Keep in mind that not all external eSATA drive enclosures support large drives, so check that you can access the drive from a working machine if the installer is not correctly recognizing the drive. Boot from the USB Key, typically by pressing F12 as the computer first starts (POST). The WHS 2011 installer will then load and if you did not do step 3, you will be prompted to select a clean install (default), so press Enter. You will then be prompted to accept that the installer will erase the primary disk (this is why you need to remove or disable your original hard drive from the spare machine). If you used an answer file (cfg.ini), the installer will simply partition the drives and install based on the answers you provided. IMPORTANT: when the computer boots for the first time, you will need to turn the machine off, disconnect the drive and put the drive back in the HP MediaSmart Server in the bottom drive bay. This is so that the install is customized for the HP server and not the spare machine. Turn the HP MediaSmart server on and let it boot / sit for at least 20 minutes. This will allow the installation process to complete. You will know it is done when you see on your network a machine with the name you entered in to the cfg.ini file (MyHomeServer) or Server if you did not (Server is the default name). Step 5: Completing Installation: Once you can see the server on the network, you can complete the installation / configuration by launching the Setup Wizard through your browser: On your desktop or laptop, enter the server name or IP address of your MediaSmart Server (for example, this would be http://MyHomeServer/ if you used the answer file (cfg.ini) settings from step 3, or http://Server/ if you did not). You should see a button to Download and run the setup wizard.

Click on the button to launch the setup wizard and it should open another web page displaying the progress of the final part of the installation. This will take a good while, 30 or 40 minutes and cause the server to reboot a couple of times. Step 6: Connecting your first computer: You will need to install the WHS 2011 connector software on at least one machine, which will allow you access to the dashboard. This is the configuration tool that includes a number of common tasks etc to get your WHS 2011 fully up and running. You can do this by going to http://MyHomeServer/Connect (assuming you used the
answer file) or http://Server/connect if you did not.

Congratulations! Your installation of Windows Home Server 2011 will now be complete. Keep in mind that you will still need to set up user accounts etc. You can do this either through Remote Desktop Connection, or through the Dashboard. In the next post, I will discuss the process I went through for data migration. have the EX470 mediasmart home server. Here is what I did to install the WHS2011 software onto my mediasmart server and had no problems. Change your RAM so you have at least 2GB of RAM, this is important. First, you need a spare 64bit compatible computer with a monitor, dvd player. Temporarily disconnect any hard drives in that computer. Now temporarily install a clean Hard Drive that is going to be used in you mediasmart server. You have to boot up first into you Bios Setup

Menus and change the Boot Priority Order by making your dvd player the 1st boot device, so when you start your computer with your WHS2011 disk in the player, it will boot from that disk. You want to install your WHS2011 software as a new install and windows will format the drive for you. When the windows program install all the files and then goes to reboot for the first time, shut your computer off at once, this is important. Now remove this hard drive and install it in the bottom tray in you mediasmart server. Now you need to be very patient as the mediasmart server takes a while to load. You should be hearing the server loading. At some point you will need to check and keep checking from your main computer, to see if your computer has found your server yet. You do this by typing into your search window: http://server/connect where server is the default name for the server. If that does not work, use the server name you used with your mediasmart server. Once the server is found, windows will install the WHS connect program. After that is installed you should see all the information needed to finish installing your new WHS2011 software. It was that easy. Discussion:
thought i write a brief overview of my experience and couple of troubleshooting that i did (which may help others). Followed most of the instructions from the great article here: http://www.mediasmartserver.net/2010/04 ... art-server My WHS: Ex470, upgraded 4 GB ram and upgraded CPU ADD4200 Dual core. 1. I bought the retail copy of WHS 2011 and created a boot USB (used steps in http://www.intowindows.com/bootable-usb) 2. I moved all my data to external drives and my home pc before i nuke the existing harddrives. 3. Connected the 4 internal hard drives of WHS to my home PC and deleted all partitions. 4. then i connected my orginal 500GB hard drive to bottom bay, plugged the bootable USB at bottom USB slot and keyboard at front and booted. -- it is better to put your smallest size hard drive for OS as you will need larger drives to hold data 5. Now i tried the steps for first time given on the "how to install whs 2011 on media server" and my server did come up was installing WHS 2011, i was able to connect to the server to see progress via http://myserverip/connect (my server ip remained the same as on my router i have reserved the ip for the same mac address) -- also i kept my home server name the same in cfg.ini --- then i came back after 5 mins and my server was off i realized that the cpu got heated up while install was happening, so i tried restarting everything from scratch a. deleted partitions again from the 500GB drive and plugged in and restarted with a fan infront of my open EX470 front door. b. but i was getting no where.. blue light blinked and blinked and blinked.. c. then thanks to Claude, i realized that the first setup wrote the like "Processed=true" in

my cfg.ini file on the USB and that caused the setup to never start d. I tried to delete it and restart the process but could get anywhere. it was frustrating because i didnt had any VGA cable e. then saw a post and powered down my PC and plugged the USB there and the harddrive (disconnected the home pc hd) f. i saw the setup starting and then it pausing at a screen asking if this is new setup, which drive to use and it started installing. g. as soon as install finshed and it rebooted. i shut off the home pc h. plugged the usb and hard drive back to my ex470 and started it i. behold, all started fine and i was able to connect to ex470 via http://homeserverip/connect 6. Now i was able to follow all the steps and got my home server up and running. 7. Next hurdle i faces was recovering my .homeserver.com domain via my live ID. Now when ever i tried to login and try to associate my old .homeserver.com domain, the wizard throws an error that operation cannot be completed 8. after researching around i got a common tip where client pc was having trouble join the server or live domain linking issue. I found that the time needed to be in sync between the server and client machines and that live domain retrival also needed this sync. a. followed the recommendation and manually set the server and client machine times to sync with: time.nist.gov instead of time.windows.com... now this has almost 4 mins difference for me. (To change this click on time in notification area -> click 'change date and time settings -> last tab allows you to specify which server to use for syncing time) b. after this, retried my .homeserver.com linking and logged into my live id. and vola.. everything worked fine. 9. then i added all my other hard drives and added them to the storage pool 10. added my home pc and home theater pc and they both installed the connector and joined the server without any issue (via http://<home server ip>/connect 11. Next hurdle i faced was that my laptop (that is on my worked joined domain) was not getting joined on home server and the wizard via http://<home server ip>/connect was just throwing "unexpected error") again and again. a. after some research found that the issue was with NetTcpPortSharing service as it was not getting started on my machine due to bad registry settings. http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums ... 5a4344006d b. now i went to registry and changed the valus of the entries with paths like: \Microsoft.NET\Framework64\v4.0.20506 to \Microsoft.NET\Framework64\v4.0.30319 (which is the latest folder there) c. after this i started the NetTcpPortSharing service and it sarted fine d. then started the connector software and all worked perfectly and my laptop is joined to the server e. the way i found that NetTcpPortSharing was the issue, is by looking at the ClientDeploy.log file: http://social.microsoft.com/Forums/en/w ... 5c80e761f1 12. So all my client machines are connected and i manually created similar users for them on my home server 13. Now before you copy back your data. check which data can fit easily on which drive. and from the dashboard move the exisiting empty category to that drive. Example, i moved

videos to my 2TB drive, my pictures to 1TB and my music and documents to another 1 TB drive 14. after this move i copied back all the data to respective drives and folders 15. conncted my 2TB external drive to the home server and setup my server backup on that and thats it.. face 3 hurdles and my whs 2011 on ex470 was up and running. Since then the performance of the server is much better and i didnt need to increase my server fans in any way and they are not heating up as it used to on whs v1. hope this article help some ppl facing similar issues. http://www.mediasmartserver.net/forums/viewtopic.php?f=33&t=10967
4. When the installation reboots the computer the first time turn OFF your PC. This is VERY important, otherwise you'll end up with your PC's hardware information on the system drive and when you put it into the home server it will likely fail.

2. Connect desired system drive to desktop PC. I removed all my other drives for the time being. 3. Boot from the WHS 2011 DVD and run the installation. 4. When the installation reboots the computer the first time turn OFF your PC. This is VERY important, otherwise you'll end up with your PC's hardware information on the system drive and when you put it into the home server it will likely fail. 5. After shutting down computer, put the new drive into the system drive slot on the home server. For the Acer Aspire Easystore H340 it is the bottom slot. Leave {all} your other drive(s) out for now. 6. Turn on the home server and let it run for a while. Mine took about 10 - 15 minutes for the installation to complete. {Again leave out any other drives other than slot 1} 7. On your desktop, {restored to its original Op System Drive}, it should be turned on now open your Network folder and when the home server installation is complete you'll see it pop up as SERVER (you may need to refresh the window). SERVER is the default name given by the installation. 8. Open http://ipaddressofserver/setup/launch.aspx from a browser (you may need to view the devices connected to your router to obtain the IP address of the server, or you could use the name "SERVER" in lieu of the IP). {in a command window, IPCONFIG Server, will get the IP of the new server as it will be a DHCP assigned IP}. {8a. You will be asked for a new password to the server, then you must 'Download and Run the Server Wizard' to make the connector active between client and server at this point. After series of setup screens you will be able to setup the Client Connector. It starts with a 'Under that button is a jump link that I had to use that states 'If no setup after 2 minutes, click here'. Clicking on the button didn't start the process, but clicking on the line below got it started.} 9. Confirm date and time 10. Agree to EULA

11. Enter product key from WHS package/COA (Make sure you enter the correct key all at once. I had a typo, which I then corrected, but the installation would not take the fix. I had to retype the entire product key once more and it worked fine.) 12. Let the wizard prepare your Home Server. It will take some time and the server will reboot multiple times. {Took about 35 mins}. {12a. For V1.0 users: Removal of your older V1.0 Connector via Control Panel - Add and Remove Programs is required prior to WHS 2011 Connector install on any of your client computers. Its also noted that DotNet 4.0 isrequired for the new connector to work (you get prompted to this, and it indicates that it will install it but it never did on my installs). After several tries to get it to work, I then added DotNet 4.0 manually (with a download from MS) as the WHS initial install did not seem to complete this process on its own. This allowed the launchpad and dashboard to fully install.} 13. Once done you will be prompted to connect to the Home Server. Say "Connect" or open your browser and go to: http://ipaddressofserver:65510/Connect/ 14. Once the launchpad and dashboard software are installed on your client computer you can administer the server there, however for more advance features you'll need to RDP to the home server. This process would also work for replacement of a failed system drive with the same WHS OS. {15. This brings us to the reconnecting of all computers on the network to the server. This how ever is another story as one of my older XP Pro installs would start the client connector setup and then stop midway though (with the install bar graph stopping at 75% and then going backward to 0) and then cease the install and not inform you why. The only response you get from the failure is contact the System Administrator. How helpful M$ ! ! !} ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Comment on 15: The failure to install has since been found to be a fragmented file somewhere in the client XP operating system files, this was identified by another on a different forum. So a full re-install of XP Pro and all its programs resolved this issue on that machine. Several older laptops on the system required addition of XP SP 3 to run the WHS 2011 launchpad and dashboard connector as well. Two general comments on all this, the amount of install information from Microsoft is basically nothing for the WHS 2011, its mostly advertising and back patting. I am not sure how they expect the general public to use this system without any directions at all. So far the only support you will get is on the forums, poor way to present a pretty good product actually, but its like they never even used it. Lots of thanks to the initial author of the above Jake Thomas, my additions are in {}, also thanks to BullDawg and Ken Warren, who's comments on Acer support was right on the money. Its truly astonishing how two different product makers, that both have unique and fairly good products, that work well, and could have a dramatic impact on home network systems, have no one on staff that can answer simple support questions. Thanks to all once again

. Create bootable USB containing the image of the WHS 2011 DVD using for example, Ultra ISO to create the ISO and the Windows USB DVD Download Tool.

2. Add modified cfg.ini to the root of the USB 3. Connect Server system drive to running PC via USB to Sata cable 4. Wipe Server system drive via Disk Management 5. Create 'Simple' volume with no label 6. Power-Off PC 7. Disconnect PC system drive 8. Fit Server system drive to PC 9. Fit USB stick to PC - containing WHS 2011 bootable image on it 10.Start PC and set to boot from USB 11.Allow WHS install to begin and install components 12.When prompted that machine will reboot, wait till screen goes black and shut PC down. 13.Remove Server system drive from PC 14.Remove USB stick from PC 15.Refit System drive in server 16.Fit USB stick in server 17.Refit PC system drive in PC 18.Start PC 19.Connect USB KB to Server 20.Start Server 21.Install should carry on (activity on HD) - If not hit 'enter' on KB 22.Server will reboot after approx 5 mins 23.After 5 mins, should be able to see the server, but not yet be able to connect, by running an Angry IP scan on your network. 24.Server will reboot again after 5 mins 25.Server will reboot again after another 5 mins 26.After Server comes back up, wait a further 5 mins and run 'FindMyServer' tool available from MS. 27.Should then see new 'Green' WHS 2011 Connector page with options to download the connector for either a Windows box or Mac - download as required 28.Configure Connector and use to access server, if prompted to install .net 4 proceed. After much to-do I got this running, however my Win7 box would not connect, complaining about .net error - tried uninstalling this, rebooting and reinstalling using download from MS. Eventually, used my wifes laptop with XP and the connector installed imediately, suspect I'm probably due a rebuild on the 7 box anyhow (as i try alot of new software beta's etc...), however, at this stage, no reason to suspect, following the above won't get this up and running for someone else. Additional I tried modifying the cfg.ini for a UK keyboard and playing around with Server names, password etc...but wasn't getting very far, so just stuck with this one I downloaded - can't remember where or who originally posted it, but if you are reading, BIG thanks, I tried dozens of cfg's before the one below worked for me.

Remember if the install all goes Pete Tong, you MUST edit the cfg file and remove the 'Processed=True' statement before using the USB stick to try and boot from again. [WinPE] InstallSKU=SERVERHOMEPREMIUM WindowsPartitionSize=MAX CheckReqs=0 ConfigDisk=1 [InitialConfiguration] Language=en-US Locale=en-US Country=US Keyboard=00000409 AcceptEula=true ServerName=WHS2011 PlainTextPassword=Password1 PasswordHint=Cap P 1 at end Settings=None PID=add your licence key here seperated by "-", ie. gkhr-123l-yyui etc...etc... Enjoy!
[WinPE] ConfigDisk=1 WindowsPartitionSize=61440 [InitialConfiguration] Language=en-US Locale=en-US Country=US Keyboard=00000409 AcceptEula=true AcceptOEMEula=true ServerName=HomeServer PlainTextPassword=P@ssword PasswordHint=Passing by Settings=All

From Microsoft pages