Solving the “Boot Failed. EFI SCSI Device” error when installing Windows 2012 Server on Hyper-V

I’ve installed Windows 2012 server on a few Hyper-V images in the past but ran into an error that looked unfamiliar. I created my Hyper-V machine, configured it with a dynamic hard drive, added a DVD and mounted the Windows Server 2012 ISO making sure the DVD drive was top of the boot order and started it up.

I was then presented with a black screen an the error message:

Boot Failed. EFI SCSI Device.

Here’s the long winded explanation from the Senior Program Manager of the Hyper-V team (John Howard).

The short answer: It’s because the virtual machine was created as a Generation 2 machine rather than Generation 1.

To get past this error simply hold down a key as you start up the virtual machine. You’ll notice at the top of the error screen it says “Press any key to boot from CD or DVD…..” the issue is that it doesn’t wait for you to press a key, just make sure you have a key held down when it gets to this point and you should see the Windows Boot Manager prompt allowing you to boot to the DVD image.

Then hey presto you’ll get a successful boot to DVD and the Windows Setup window you expected.