Today i had to install Windows 2003 R2 + SP2 (downloaded from MSDN) within a virtual machine because i needed a DC for a physical testcluster (if your not into IT, this sentence must be a pain in the ass).
I noticed that the installer just kept on going forever at the “installing devices” part.
Did you know that you can press SHIFT-F11 during setup to see that windows is doing? In this case the ‘add new hardware’ wizard was running.
You can also use SHIFT-F10 to get a command prompt
After some research i found the solution:
1) Reset the virtual machine (don’t boot from cdrom)
2) Keep the focus within the virtual machine (don’t ctrl-alt)
You’ll see it works this time, probably has something to do with the detection of keyboard and/or mouse.
January 18th, 2008 at 23:37
I had the exact problem on my VMware server, so this was a great help to me! Thanks for posting it – Jeff
January 19th, 2008 at 11:02
Glad to help you out! Thanks for leaving a reply!
January 23rd, 2008 at 0:11
Thanks a lot for this. Couldn’t find the solution anywhere until I stumbled across this site.
February 15th, 2008 at 4:45
Thank god i found this post.
March 12th, 2008 at 9:22
Thanks a lot,Pieter!
April 30th, 2008 at 3:51
Thanks, I thought something was wrong for sure until I found this site!
May 29th, 2008 at 18:28
You’re the man!
June 7th, 2008 at 15:37
This exact same solution solved the exact same problem for me, except I’m using QEmu for Linux & installing WinXP as a guest.
September 18th, 2008 at 13:15
Thanks for the tip!
October 29th, 2008 at 23:52
I wasted 20 minutes today staring at the VM console. It would have turned into several hours except for this site. Thanks!
January 5th, 2009 at 2:32
Your post really helped me, would have never thought that not being on the program would have caused this. Thank you very much!
January 9th, 2009 at 14:54
thank you also for this tip, I felt into this trap also this morning …
January 18th, 2009 at 21:57
Thanks a lot, if I never read this I would have left it hanging at that stage for hours.
January 29th, 2009 at 0:53
I ran into this same problem.
Stuck at 37 minutes, “Installing Devices”.
I restarted the VM and did not take the mouse/keyboard out of the VM as you suggested. I am now humming right along with the remainder of the install.
I also didn’t know about the Shift F10 and F11 tricks and I have installed and configured a lot of servers. I love to learn great tips like this. Thanks for taking the time to post this.
February 9th, 2009 at 16:54
Really thanx….this is help me too =)
February 19th, 2009 at 12:13
Yeah!
Thanks a lot, man, this solution also helped me.
The same issue exists installing Win Server 2003 under Virtual PC 2007 – so this is not a VMWare glitch, but Windows one.
– Red
February 21st, 2009 at 5:45
Wow… this post saved me a bunch of time…
Thanks!
May 4th, 2009 at 8:59
I had the issue with Virtual PC 2007 on Vista home premium, trying to install XP. Helped for me! Thanks!!
May 5th, 2009 at 14:33
genius
May 21st, 2009 at 21:54
This helped me so much!!!!!!! THanks!
May 26th, 2009 at 8:17
So all I have to do is take out the disk and reset the virtual machine and that’s it?
June 11th, 2009 at 1:33
Thanks very much. Your suggestion worked for me too!
June 16th, 2009 at 17:07
[...] http://pieter.wigleven.com/it/archives/11 [...]
July 6th, 2009 at 17:16
Thanks!!!!
July 10th, 2009 at 2:59
Yes.. excellent work.. worked a treat…. took a few reboots for me.. but got there in the end… This was on ESXi server using a ISO
September 25th, 2009 at 7:44
hi, very much thanks fotr this help yaar..
i am really stuck up with this error now..
i ll reset my machine.. and i ll do the installation again
than u very much yaar……….
September 25th, 2009 at 11:56
ty for this
October 13th, 2009 at 15:44
Thank you!
November 13th, 2009 at 21:22
You are a genius !!!! Thanks !!!!!!!!!!
November 25th, 2009 at 21:58
Thank you, had the very same problem on VMWare ESXi 4.0
This fixes it!
November 30th, 2009 at 2:37
thx. I am installing windows xp on windows xp.. encountering exactly the same problem and being solved by the same method.
December 15th, 2009 at 19:32
Thanks for posting this.
February 5th, 2010 at 15:46
Thank you very much, I spent almost 2 days trying to reinstall a windows 2003 server in ESXi 4. I am going to leave it on focus now. The Shift+ F10 is also nice to know;-)
Thanks once more.
April 30th, 2010 at 15:05
Just wanted to say this was a time saver. I waited way to long for it to get past this screen before I found this post. THANKS!
July 16th, 2010 at 20:14
You, sir, are a genious. Saved me for up to unlimited hours. Thank you!
August 17th, 2010 at 18:56
Good job on this!! Saved me lots of time!
October 4th, 2010 at 13:54
OMG!!! So much time wasted for something so stupid!!! Thanks for your tip, saved me a lot of hair!!! BTW, I wasn’t using VMware, but Hyper-V and had the same issue.
November 12th, 2010 at 14:17
Excellent, thanks very much!
January 4th, 2011 at 15:20
Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Who knows how long I would have tried to figure this out.
January 11th, 2011 at 8:29
Thanks so much! I’ve lost a lot of hours today waiting for this dumb thing to install. (Or am I the dumb thing? Wait, don’t answer that.) Again, thanks!
January 16th, 2011 at 4:01
Thx.. it’s the simple things that get us sometimes..
April 14th, 2011 at 17:24
Thanks a million, this saved lot of my time, otherwise I always let windows sit there for a while when installing an OS, specially when its on VM … lol
Thanks again, great job by posting it on the blog.
May 3rd, 2011 at 14:05
Worked like a charm. Many thanks.
May 12th, 2011 at 22:02
Hi just trying to understand the thing…totally new to Mac but need windows on my G5 PPC so how do you reset VM ???
Thanks a lot,
Alex
June 9th, 2011 at 7:39
Thanks GOD! You rock! You saved my day man.
August 18th, 2011 at 8:58
many thanks !
September 10th, 2011 at 12:27
Oh man! Thanks so much!!! You’re lucky you only wasted the 20 mins waiting- I was running programs in the background and dragged it out for an entire morning!!!
September 14th, 2011 at 14:16
thanks so much for creating this page. you saved me a lot of time. it seems so obvious when you know the solution!
November 6th, 2011 at 0:46
So simple!
Your fix also works when installing SBS2003 on Hyper V. I left the dvd running last night on my Hyper V and came back this morning to find it was still stuck at 37 minutes. Rebooted, made sure the screen had focus and voila! You saved me so much time.