Hi.

We've recently gone from Server 2008 R2 (Data Center) to Windows 2012 R2 (Data Center) and we're now trying to install Windows 8.1 clients on our Hyper-V solution.

When using the virtual machine creation wizard I create two test machines.
One machine is a gen1 and one machine is gen2 both are set to install via network (MDT 2013) and both a given a 40GB disk and 4GB of ram. Both installations fail.

"Windows setup could not configure windows to run on this computer's hardware".

According to everything I've found on the web this could happen if you try and install Windows 7 - something to do with 4K disks I think. This shouldn't happen on Windows 8.x.

I've seen a few posts where they explain the IDE controller being unable to handle 4K disks so that might explain something but in my case I also have a gen2 machine where disk is attached to a SCSI controller.

As I understand it a server 2012 R2 with Hyper-V should be able to have a Windows 8.1 installed on a VHDX file on a SCSI controller.

Can anyone help out here?

Thank you!

• Edited by tbresson-rh Monday, February 23, 2015 12:54 PM
• Edited by BrianEhMVP Friday, March 06, 2015 2:18 PM title clarity
• Moved by BrianEhMVP Friday, March 06, 2015 2:21 PM

Can you try to create a Vm on a hyper v host instead and see if you are able to deploy it? (you can add it to the cluster at later stages)

open the console session from hyper v and then do a pxe boot, do you ever boot into winpe? 

It really sounds as though your error is being caused by some form of driver injection. If your image is devoid of drivers (having been created in Hyper-V with only Office installed) then I would suggest creating a new, basic task sequence and attempting to install with that task sequence. This would isolate the cause of failure between tasks performed in the task sequence you are using and the base image.

I suspect youre injecting a driver from a selection profile that is failing to launch in the VM.

Brandon
Windows Outreach Team- IT Pro
Windows for IT Pros on TechNet

Sorry for not responding, I've been on vacation.

Brian: It seems you're right, it's probably a WDS issue. Though I haven't had any issues with a Standard Client Task Sequence working for both a VM and bare metal but I agree when it comes to drivers there's really no need for a sequence to inject them into a VM. I did however try and create a new Task Sequence with no driver injection and it still doesn't work. Perhaps there's something in the Standard Client Task Sequence that Windows 8 doesn't like.

Mayank: I think I did try and create a non-clustered VM. Yes all my installs boot into WinPE but stops during the install (doesn't complete). I will however try just once more since the results are a bit hazy after my holiday. Perhaps I need to focus on the log files of the WDS install and see what's going on there.

Brandon: Yes it does sound like it but even with an image without driver injection I still have the problem and I have actually already done what you're suggesting.

I'll post soon again.

I tried once more and created a VM (non-clustered) and tried to MDT/WDS install our image which has no drivers and injects none either (this works fine with Windows 7) but it still doesn't work.

This time however I don't get the error I wrote in the 1st post. I simply don't get any errors. Perhaps I will get this error on a generation 2 machine - I haven't tried that recently.

According to the deployment logs the image is applied and there are no warnings and no errors. BUT! it's not finished. If you look at the monitor it's only on step 52 of 90 and it simply stays there. It haven't moved to the step where it activates Windows (which is the only obvious visible indication that it hasn't finished).

What is your step 51, 52 trying to do?  That might give a better idea of some hang-up.

And, when you prepared your image with sysprep, did you use the vm flag?  (this stops hardware detection from happening all over again on deployment).

And, Generation 1 and Generation 2 need to be unique WDS images.  Built on the respective VM types.

That I've been trying to figure out. I don't see any step counter anywhere, neither in the TS or in the log.

According to the log it's been through the PreInstall fase, the Install fase, the PostInstall fase and the last few lines indicates it's in the STATERESTORE fase: (read with Trace32):

Property PHASE is now = STATERESTORE ZTINextPhase 08-04-2015 10:12:41 0 (0x0000)
ZTINextPhase COMPLETED.  Return Value = 0 ZTINextPhase 08-04-2015 10:12:41 0 (0x0000)
ZTINextPhase processing completed successfully. ZTINextPhase 08-04-2015 10:12:41 0 (0x0000)
Event 41001 sent: ZTINextPhase processing completed successfully. ZTINextPhase 08-04-2015 10:12:41 0 (0x0000)

(the BDD.log ends here with these last 4 lines)

When I create the image I use the capture feature of WDS/MDT (rules: DoCapture=YES) so I don't know if the VM flag is set or not.

I tried installing a generation 2 machine but got the same result. I'll make a note of the unique image based on gen-type. Thank you.

• Edited by tbresson-rh 34 minutes ago

That I've been trying to figure out. I don't see any step counter anywhere, neither in the TS or in the log.

According to the log it's been through the PreInstall fase, the Install fase, the PostInstall fase and the last few lines indicates it's in the STATERESTORE fase: (read with Trace32):

Property PHASE is now = STATERESTORE ZTINextPhase 08-04-2015 10:12:41 0 (0x0000)
ZTINextPhase COMPLETED.  Return Value = 0 ZTINextPhase 08-04-2015 10:12:41 0 (0x0000)
ZTINextPhase processing completed successfully. ZTINextPhase 08-04-2015 10:12:41 0 (0x0000)
Event 41001 sent: ZTINextPhase processing completed successfully. ZTINextPhase 08-04-2015 10:12:41 0 (0x0000)

(the BDD.log ends here with these last 4 lines)

When I create the image I use the capture feature of WDS/MDT (rules: DoCapture=YES) so I don't know if the VM flag is set or not.

I tried installing a generation 2 machine but got the same result. I'll make a note of the unique image based on gen-type. Thank you.

• Edited by tbresson-rh Friday, April 10, 2015 6:48 AM

I'm sorry for the long wait. First vacation, the sickness, rinse repeat.

I was able to reinstall the OS and setup a new WDS/MDT server from scratch using the instructions I've noted from the last setup and my very first attempt with Windows 7 worked fine. When I tried my first Win8 deployment I was back to this mentioned problem:

The deployment just stays at step 52 and says Running.

I have no idea why Windows 8 won't be deployed. In this current state I'm only testing on VMs and therefore have no drivers installed at all.