Windows 2012R2 no boot and freezes when booting into repair

[vNomad]

Hi all, Hoping for some help. I am new to Proxmox, and I have a test setup with Proxmox 9.03 installed as a VM on ESXi 7. I have a Windows 2012R2 ESX vm that I have prepared by removing VMTools and installing the VirtIO Drivers 0.1.215 (also tried 0.1.189). I have tried several methods to import the VM into Proxmox using Veeam to restore the VM, the import option within Proxmox, and export/import OVF. All of these result in an unbootable Windows 2012R2 VM that locks/freezes during Windows repair. I have tried changing the drive to SATA and IDE, but the result is the same. If I set the drive to SCSI, it will actually boot into repair mode, but adding drivers from the command prompt hasn't worked. I also tried booting from the ISO and went through as if I was installing a new OS, and when it gets to the point where you pick the drive to install on and point the installer at the scsi .inf, the VM freezes while loading the driver.

I created a new 2012R2 VM and was able to install an OS on the VM. Just to know if there were problems with that.

So I have been racking my brain over this for days. I don't know if the problem is because I have a nesting Prox install or what. I have successfully imported a 2008 (non-R2) without issues (Changed drive to SATA). But this 2012R2 is kicking my butt. Seems like some sort of virtual HW maybe, but I have tried different machine types (q35, v7.0, 8.1) and CPUs, all the same result, or won't power on at all.

VM Config:
root@prox:~# qm config 103
bios: seabios
boot: order=sata0
cores: 1
cpu: x86-64-v2
ide1: none,media=cdrom
machine: pc-i440fx-10.0
memory: 8192
meta: creation-qemu=10.0.2,ctime=1763399963
name: ****
net0: e1000e=00:50:56:B1:AA0,bridge=vmbr0,link_down=1
numa: 0
ostype: win8
sata0: DS01:vm-103-disk-0,size=80G
scsihw: virtio-scsi-single
smbios1: uuid=4231c0ae-78f8-8357-46b7-945eccf5eb53
sockets: 1
vmgenid: 0def09fa-39a1-49c4-ad41-f98cefede391



Thanks for any help!

 

[vNomad]

Well... I take back what I said about the new VM. I created a new one, but I only got to the part where it lists the disks to install on, and the disk shows up. I never actually ran through the install. I just tried, and when I select the disk and choose New and click OK, when it tells me it might create other partitions, the VM freezes. This was with IDE and SATA disks. Haven't tried SCSI yet.

Just wanted to drop that is more info.

 

[_gabriel]

changing the drive to SATA and IDE

then try boot into Safemode

 

[vNomad]

then try boot into Safemode

Thanks for the reply. I gave that a shot, and once I select Safe Mode, it acts like it's going to boot, but then starts loading the repair again and locks up like the pic I posted.