I know this has been covered a few times already, but for folks who are searching this for the first time:
1. If you want to install WHS2011 to a drive smaller than 160gb - skip the cfg.ini route with a USB drive and simply install as normal - when you get to the first screen that should say Disk 0 (and only this screen) hit Shift F10.
2. That will pull up a cmd prompt window.
3. Type notepad
4. Navigate to the SKU directory
5. Tab down to All Files (not just .txt)
6. Open up the .def file within that directory (you'll see the min reqs for WHS2011 install)
7. Change the Hard drive requirements to whatever you're installing to (i.e. 50 if you're using a 60gb SSD)
8. Hit Save As and ensure you save it over the .def file (it will default to a .txt version which is useless) You'll know you did it right if it prompts you to overwrite the file.
9. Once you do that exit notepad - will bring you back to the command prompt
10. Then type wpshell.exe (not sure what this does exactly...might be able to skip this step
11. Now, proceed to install as normal and it will go right to setup.
*****No need to worry about USB drives and cfg.ini files and popping it out before reboot, etc. Seriously, this would have saved me two days of work had I known this. So I share it now.
1. If you want to install WHS2011 to a drive smaller than 160gb - skip the cfg.ini route with a USB drive and simply install as normal - when you get to the first screen that should say Disk 0 (and only this screen) hit Shift F10.
2. That will pull up a cmd prompt window.
3. Type notepad
4. Navigate to the SKU directory
5. Tab down to All Files (not just .txt)
6. Open up the .def file within that directory (you'll see the min reqs for WHS2011 install)
7. Change the Hard drive requirements to whatever you're installing to (i.e. 50 if you're using a 60gb SSD)
8. Hit Save As and ensure you save it over the .def file (it will default to a .txt version which is useless) You'll know you did it right if it prompts you to overwrite the file.
9. Once you do that exit notepad - will bring you back to the command prompt
10. Then type wpshell.exe (not sure what this does exactly...might be able to skip this step
11. Now, proceed to install as normal and it will go right to setup.
*****No need to worry about USB drives and cfg.ini files and popping it out before reboot, etc. Seriously, this would have saved me two days of work had I known this. So I share it now.