When working with Hyper‑V and suddenly encounter an error similar to the one we will be discussing here, you are not alone. In this blog post, we shall discuss “Fix an error occurred while attempting to start the selected VM on Hyper-V”. This is a common issue when starting a virtual machine (VM) especially after moving files, deleting ISOs, or changing storage paths. Please see Failed to Upgrade VIHR Component: Failed to open deployer Service Management Port, and The Backup Was Safe: The Data Center Was not: A Real-World Lesson About Hidden Data Center Risks and Governance Failures.
A Virtual DVD Drive in Hyper-V is a synthetic device used to mount ISO images. It behaves like a physical CD/DVD drive and is commonly used for:
- Operating system installation
- Driver injection
- Boot ISO environments (WinPE, recovery tools)
However, unlike virtual hard disks (VHD/VHDX), ISO files are not embedded in the VM configuration. They are external dependencies. If the ISO path becomes invalid, Hyper-V treats this as a critical configuration error during startup.
Why was the error “VM failed to Start”?
As you can see from the image below, the attachment: E:\All-Images…\windows_server_2025_x64_dvd.iso failed to open because the file was not found. This is because, the drive was deattached from the server.
This leads to the virtual machine failure and its unable to start because Hyper-V attempts to mount an ISO file that no longer exists. Since the ISO file is unavailable, Hyper-V cannot resolve the virtual media device, resulting in a boot failure.
Because Hyper-V performs a device validation check before VM startup. This leads to a failing Component “The Virtual DVD Drive (SCSI Controller)” as shown above.
Please see Prevent Automatic Driver Updates in Windows and Xen-Orchestra, how to Switch from IP Addresses to DNS for Backup Infrastructure in VBR, and How to remove a Repository from Veeam Backup and Replication.
Solution
The fix involves removing the invalid ISO reference from the virtual DVD drive configuration. This ensures the VM no longer depends on missing external media.
To do this, open Hyper-V VM Settings from the Hyper-V Manager, right-click the affected VM (TechDC01), and select Settings.
Locate the DVD Drive Configuration by navigating through the hardware tree: SCSI Controller and then click on “DVD Drive”.
To remove the Invalid ISO Attachment. Under Media configuration, click on “None”. This will detache the broken ISO reference.
Do not forget to apply the configuration changes by clicking on Apply and OK or OK on the fly as shown below. This will update the VM configuration metadata.
Nex, start the VM, the VM should now boot successfully.
I hope you found this guide very useful on “Fix an error occurred while attempting to start the selected VM on Hyper-V”. Please feel free to leave a comment below.
