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Windows Server 2012 R2 setup may fail on a virtual machine that is configured to use the minimum required memory

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This article provides workarounds for an issue where Windows Server 2012 R2 setup fails with error 0xE0000100 on a virtual machine.

Applies to:   Windows Server 2012 R2
Original KB number:   2901152

Symptoms

Consider the following scenario:

  • You create a virtual machine that is configured to use the minimum RAM requirement (512 megabytes [MB]).
  • You start the virtual machine from an ISO image file.
  • You try to set up Windows Server 2012 R2 on the virtual machine.

In this scenario, the setup fails, and you receive the following error message:

Windows installation encountered an unexpected error. Verify that the installation sources are accessible, and restart the installation.

Error code: 0xE0000100

Cause

This issue occurs because of insufficient memory during setup.

Workaround

To work around this issue, use one of the following methods:

  • Create a page file. To do this, follow these steps:

    1. When the virtual machine starts, press Shift + F10 to open the Command Prompt window.

    2. Run Diskpart.exe to create and format the partition (for example, C:) on which you want to install Windows Server 2012 R2.

    3. Run the following command to create a page file that has default size of 64 MB:

      wpeutil createpagefile /path=C:\pf.sys

    4. Exit the Command Prompt window, and then continue the setup.

  • Increase the allocated memory of the virtual machine before setup.
  • Create and set up another virtual machine that is configured to use more memory, and then attach the virtual hard disk.

Data collection

If you need assistance from Microsoft support, we recommend you collect the information by following the steps mentioned in Gather information by using TSS for deployment-related issues.