You are trying to start a Windows server on a VMware infrastructure.

What you do (or don’t) realise is that this VM is heavily tainted by a Citrix Xen.

Procedure to fix this:

1. Snapshot the VM
2. Boot into Safe Mode
3. Open Device Manager (Show Hidden Devices)
4. Go through each section and delete all Xen devices (yes, to delete driver)
5. Reboot. The machine should boot normally without safe mode.
6. Control Panel -> Remove Programs
7. Remove ALL of the Citrix programs and drivers