Windows Server 2012 R2 Installation failed SAFE_OS phase error during boot 0xc1900101-0x20017 (Perpetual spinning disk)

[LKall]

This is an Intel SR2600URLXR with a S5520UR motherboard and an LSI Raid on Chip SAS controller. This is a repurposed W2008 Hyper-v core server. Windows 2008 installs just fine.

Bios updated to the latest.

Both Windows 2016 standard and 2012 R2 give the same results.

I have disconnected everything except the onboard graphics and removed the 3rd NIC.

Installs have failed booting from DVD, from EFI USB stick, and from a copy of the OS onto one of the currently unused disk drives.

I have not found better drivers than those built into install disk.

This is a really fine server, I would hate to discard it, but Window 2008 is not useful for what I need to do.

Has anyone gotten this to work?

I did not find a firmware update for the LSI SAS controller, does anyone know where to find such?

Likewise for appropriate drivers?

Kal

[LKall · Accepted solution]

Here I found some similar errors with Windows 10, solved by removing the second disk drive. As a final step I removed the additional drives (4) and Windows 2016 installed right off the DVD, no tweaks. The BIOS was upgraded along the way, but that is all.

Kal