Endlessly spinning loading indicator on Windows Server 2016

Question

I've got a Windows Server 2016 installation that went haywire and doesn't boot properly. It's a VM, so I can access the files fairly easily (as well as change the virtual hardware parameters) but that doesn't make fixing the issue any easier. At the time of writing the machnie starts... sort of. It gets stuck on the "loading" indicator of spinning circles on the blue background. There's no text (before this happens the system shows messages related to GPO updates and briefly shows a message related to the user profile service). In this state I cannot access the desktop nor access the service via RDP but some services appear to be running in the background (like file share or print server).

It all started yesterday when the server was acting unstable and I decided to give it a quick reboot (normal shutdown) at which point it entered the "CHKDSK needs to check file integrity" followed by immediately cancelling the process (without any input) and hanging on that screen. At that point I figured some kind of corruption must have taken place so I took the machine offline, mounted the VHDX and proceeded to do some preliminary fixes.

1. I ran CHKDSK - this found and fixed NTFS-level issues
2. I ran DISM on the mounted volume (failed with no sources; I eventually found the required sources in another Windows Server 2016 installation's WinSxS folder; see this question) - this found and corrected issues
3. I ran SFC against the target volume - no issues detected

After all the above steps I am in the "spinning circles of death" scenario described above. I've tried to enter safe mode as well (reboot a few times to trigger recovery, set safe mode from there) but the result was the same - even in console-only safe mode I got the endless spinning circle (and no console).

The server has a number of services that I need - I CAN reinstall them; it's not impossible... but even if I were to migrate this to another server I'd would be much easier to have a working server to copy from rather than just the existing virtual disks and files. I've even tried contacting MS but they were of little help since Server 2016 support ended this year (extended support is still technically available and I do have a support plan so I'm still unsure why they didn't help).

Does anyone have any clue what I could do to fix the server? Or at least bring it to a complete boot + desktop (I could try an in-place upgrade from there to sort of reinstall the OS whilst keeping the services)?

Answer 1

If the server is semi-booted, but can't load, try accessing the server remote service/task and check the state.

Often with the spinning wheel of death I fix it by running services.msc from another server, and I connect to the faulty server. My first service target is often Windows Installer and Windows Update, they are often the culprit.

If it's them the culprit you will find a enormous cbs.log's file inside the system's folder too, if you navigate on the server c$. It's sign of a install that loop indefinitely.

If it's not them the culprit, try from another server;

tasklist /s serverinproblem /u admin /p password

and then

taskkill /s serverinproblem /u admin /p password /im process

or

taskkill /s serverinproblem /u admin /p password /pid processPID