By Philip Churchill on March 25th, 2011
Install WHS2011 on the HP MediaSmart Servers
Now that a lot of us have WHS2011 running, whose who have a HP MediaSmart Server are asking what to do with their now old machines. So without further ado, those of you with a MediaSmart can now install WHS2011 on it courtesy of ex HP employee Alex Kuretz of MediaSmartServer.net.
Alex explains how to get the latest version of Windows Home Server installed on either a EX485, EX487, EX490, EX495, X510 DataVault or an LX195.
An excellent read for those of you with one of these servers to make it WHS2011 compatible, which can read here.
UPDATE: There is also another guide by Sean Daniel on installing WHS2011 on the MediaSmart – Details here.
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Just finished installing whs 2011 on my ex495 following the self install instructions here. Worked great. Many thanks for the instructions. I did run across 1 thing that caused me some grief though. The install writes a line into the cfg.ini file on the USB stick “Processed=true” after the windowspartitionsize line. I was redoing the install a few times and noticed that this line needed to be removed before my reinstalls would work
Removing that line saved me hours of anger. I got the install to run the first time no problems. I then had to reinstall and the second time around it just would not run. As soon as I removed that line it went first try.
Thanks Gary. saved me lots of time. I am working thru getting my EX495 WHS 2011 to do all of the things that it use to do. It has great response time. I am loving working thru the problems and learning Win Server 2008, WHS 2011 fundamentals using the Unleashed book, very good! Don’t forget to download the mass storage controller, google Si3531. You also need to disable the internet explorer Enhanced Security configuration, ie read the page that comes up when you start Internet Explorer and get rid of the functionality for your Administrator account so that you can download software. Start Windows Defender Services. Initial backup of my wireless laptop took hours and hours, til I stopped it, and connected it using ethernet cable to my router. I downloaded Air Video Server which works great for serving up videos to my iPad.
Hi Gary,
I’m writing this reply on 13th December 2015, so I’m a bit late, though I just wanted to say a BIG THANKYOU about the info on the USB Pen about REMOVING the “Processed=true” line (after the initial install).
I tried WD Hard Drives, a normal Seagate 2TB Desktop drive, NOTHING would work. But then I remember reading your message just the other day, and I’m so glad I came across it because it fixed all my problems!
So I DELETED that line of text and it’s all good, WHS 2011 installed again!
Prior to coming across your post again, for the life of me I couldn’t understand why NO drives at all would install WHS. Isn’t it amazing…. sometimes it’s just the little things that we overlook that makes all the difference.
Many thanks!
Thanks for this tutorial.
For those who are not so good with computers there’s a alternative way to install WHS on a HP Mediasmart.
Take the HD out of the bay where you want to install the OS on.
Hook it up an other computer (no other drives can be attached) which supports x64 cpu’s.
Now you can see what you are doing. And enter trough the setup.
When the computers reboots for the first time shut it down and put the HD back in you mediasmart.
Turn it on and wait for about 10 min then find out which ip the homeserver getst and connect to it with your browser.
The rest shows it way.
Hopefully someone finds this usefull.
Greetings,
Wizzz