I have noticed some issues with installing 2008 R2 Server on a virtual (which for our XenApp for R2 tech preview farm is a common task!) – it seems to sometimes hang on “Starting Windows”, with the CPUs running at a steady 50%, even if I have already build R2 VMs on the same server that day.
After a quick trawl through the forums this seems to happen in VirtualBox and XenServer and some people fixed it by changing the memory settings. I did give it 2000mb, which is a bit weird, so I adjusted the other VMs on the server to free up some RAM and upped it to a more normal 2048mb. Booted again and bam, works first time. You know its good because the very un-server animation of the Windows logo appears above Starting Windows and then its all go.
I tried some different configurations – 2000, 2001 and 1024mb do not work, 1536, 2047 and 2048 DO work. Every time. I give up trying to find a pattern at this point.
Basically if you get this issue with 2008 R2 on a Virtual, pick a number (any number) and change the RAM to it. It might work.
