Build a Green $400 Windows Home Server - Part 4: Installing Windows Home Server from the USB Flash Drive

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In Part 3 we prepared a bootable USB flash drive with Windows Home Server. In this part we will show you how to setup the BIOS and install WHS from the USB flash drive. We suggest that you read through the instructions fully before you start. If that is too much to ask, at least read through each step fully before you do it as there are important caveats and tips included that will make or break the installation.

1. First, plug in a mouse, keyboard and monitor into the appropriate inputs at the back of the KPC Shuttle. Power on your monitor.
2. Make sure that the KPC is powered OFF. Seriously, make sure it is off and THEN place the bootable USB flash drive into one of the USB ports on the back of the KPC. THE FLASH DRIVE MUST STAY PLUGGED IN TO THE SYSTEM UNTIL THE INSTALLATION IS COMPLETE. Do not remove the flash drive until instructed to do so! (step 31) Removing it prematurely can cause real problems with your installation.
3. Press the power button on the front on the KPC unit to turn it on.
4. As this is the first time you have booted the KPC since adding a processor, there are a few different screens that may appear. No matter what you see, press the DEL key repeatedly to the enter the BIOS setup. I ran this installation a number of times and found that a few things could happen - the BIOS may complain about 1) a CMOS checksum error, or 2) a new processor error. Or you may simply see the Shuttle logo screen. Here are a couple of screen shots that I saw during my test runs. Again, it really doesn't matter which screen you get, we just want to get into the BIO setup so as soon as you see "life" press the DEL key repeatedly within 3-5 seconds. If for some reason you  miss the window for entering the BIOS setup within the first 5-10 seconds of "life", there are a variety of things that will happen. It doesn't matter what happens, once you miss the BIOS setup you will have to power the KPC off and on to try to get into BIOS again.
      
5. Steps 5-8 show how to prioritize the USB flash drive as the boot up disk in the BIOS setup. Once in the BIOS setup, with the arrow keys, position the cursor to Load Optimized Defaults and press Enter. You will see a confirmation box appear. Press Y (yes) and press Enter. 
    
6. Now cursor to Advanced BIOS Features and press Enter.
   
7. As the USB flash drive appears to BIOS as a hard drive, we want to make sure it boots before our real hard drive. Cursor to Hard Disk Boot Priority and press Enter.
    
8. Locate the USB flash drive and click the plus key to move it to the top of the list.
   
9. Once we are done with installation, this will be a "headless" server (i.e. without a keyboard, mouse or monitor), so we need to disable the BIOS setting "Halt on Error". Steps 10-12 explain how to make this change.
10. Press ESC twice until you are back on the main BIOS setup screen.
11. Cursor to Standard CMOS Features and press Enter.
    
12. Make sure that Halt On is set to No Errors. If not, press Enter on the current value, cursor to No Errors and press Enter.
    
13. Finally press F10 to save these new settings and exit.
    
14. As soon as you exit, the system will reboot. You HAVE to watch this process, even though it takes a while. (I know it's like watching paint dry, but you really have to sit and watch this. Think of it this way - you are watching your WHS being born. It's exciting!) You should see the logo screen appear, followed by "Verifying DMI Pool Data...", "Windows is loading files..." (screen shot 1) and "Setup is initializing..." (screen shot 2). Eventually it will enter a Windows Home Server setup screen which you have to watch as it takes several minutes to format the system drive and copy system and installation files.
    1)    2)  
    THE MAIN THING YOU ARE WATCHING FOR is the "Rebooting the OS" notice (screen shot 3). Watch the progress bar at the bottom because right after this message, WHEN THE COMPUTER STARTS TO REBOOT, PRESS DEL REPEATEDLY TO ENTER THE BIOS SETUP. 
    3) <---LOOK FOR THIS!
    If you miss the "Rebooting the OS" message and it reboots without your pressing DEL to enter the BIOS, the installation procedure will repeat from (logo screen, "Verifying DMI Pool Data", etc.) and you will have another chance to enter the BIOS during reboot. It will just keep repeating the installation until you press DEL during reboot.
15. Now that we are in the BIOS setup, we need to change the hard disk boot priority back, raising the system hard drive to the top.
16. As before, cursor to Hard Disk Boot Priority and press Enter.
17. This time locate your system hard drive and click the plus key to move it to the top of the list.
18. Again, press F10 to save and reboot.
19. Everything else for the next 50 minutes or so is automatic. The system will reboot a half a dozen times or so during this time.
20. Eventually, you will see this screen. Click the arrow next to "Welcome".
    
21. Now enter a password (this will be your Administrator password).
22. Enter your preferences for the next few screens and you finally will see this message.
    
23. BUT WAIT. Before we can log off, we must install the LAN driver.
24. Bring up Windows Explorer and open the USB flash drive. Open the Shuttle folder and double click on install.exe.
25. Click on Install Motherboard Drivers, then on Install Marvell Gigabit LAN Driver. You have to reboot the KPC like you normally would (from the Start menu).
     
26. Log into WHS as Administrator with the password you setup previously.
27. Run Shuttle install.exe again. This time click on Install Intel Chipset Driver. You will be prompted to reboot but DON'T. Instead, go on to the next step.
28. There is one last optional step. The WHS Console allows OEMs to customize the icon on the Settings, Resources dialog. Open the USB flash drive and navigate to the HSH folder. Double click on the file ServerImage.cmd to copy the file. Note: Do not have the WHS Console open at the time you run ServerImage.cmd or you will get an error.
    
29. Shut down the system.
30. You may NOW remove the flash drive! Also, disconnect the keyboard, monitor and mouse. We are done with these components so you can return them to their original home.
31. While you are now done with the custom installation of your KPC (and you should be very happy), there is still network setup to complete on your HOME computer. Simply power on the KPC and proceed to Step 3:Install the WHS Connector Software of the Windows Home Server Getting Started Guide that came with the OEM install DVD.

Congratulations! Your KPC Shuttle based Home Server is ready for action. Proceed to Part 5 for the last fun step - learn how to "kustomize" the front panel of your new machine.

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