Unable to boot to installer

[Josh Marris]

I have just started a new job and I have convinced my boss to let me install the 2019 preview to demonstrate Proof-of-Concept for WSUS and WDS before making them part of our process.  I'm using tower system previously in use by a regular employee.  Hardware is ASUS P6X58D Premium mainboard, Core i7 CPU, 12GB RAM, 320GB Western Digital spinning drive and Nvidia QuadroFX 570.  Booting from DVD the system stops at the Windows logo with no spinning dots.  Pressing the power button results in immediate power off, so I know it's not completely unresponsive; just not passing into the PE system.  Windows 10 1709 installer runs fine from DVD or USB to the same system -- and installs and runs fine, so I know it's not a hardware issue.  Server 2016 also fails to boot from DVD.

[#2]

Hmm. This sounds like corrupt DVDs.

A guess: When you burnt the DVDs for Windows Server 2016 and 2019 did you use Dual Layer DVDs? WS2016/2019 don't fit on a standard 4.7 GB DVD. (Windows 10 does fit on a standard DVD.) Your burning software should have caught this.

Otherwise, download the image again and reburn the DVDs.

[#3]

Windows Server 2019 LTSC all preview buils were small enough to fit into a regular DVD, not a dual layer DVD, unlike Windows Server 2016. I had tried to use an USB pen drive to get the installer for WS 2016, but it failed, since Fat32 could fit the larger then 4 gb install.wim file. I hope that the RTM WS 2019 LTSC will fit into a regular, non-dual layer, DVD, or at least the preview builds until then.