“Windows could not prepare the computer to boot into the next phase of installation” error when installing Server 2022 on HPE Proliant server

I’d been trying to install Windows Server 2022 onto a HPE Proliant server remotely with media plugged in virtually via the ILO and kept running into this error. The install target was a standard RAID1 configured pair of disks, and I spent a lot of time looking at this disk setup, as right when the disks are being partitioned and the file copies start is when the error is thrown.

However, the target was not the problem. What was causing a problem was the internal SD card slot, and the fact that had an SD card with the previous ESXi install on it. Following the HPE instructions to disable the SD card slot and then re-attempting the install was the fix in this case.

Ultimately I don’t know why having the SD card available interferes with the Windows install process, but clearly it does.