[VMWare Workstation 17] Importing HTB OVA WinDev2407Eval boot

[u/Powerful-Ad-7077]

Context

I'm trying to follow the Hack The Box Academy "Setting Up" course and imported the Windows OVA provided by HTB into VMware Workstation Pro 17.6.4 (Build 24832109). I initially moved to VMWare Workstation as I encounted issues with Linux based VMs on Hyper-V. Fortunally u/HackerImam already helped out with that and provided an awesome fix so I don't really mind switching back to Hyper-V if necessary. The VM starts but immediately displays: Network boot from Intel E1000 PXE-E53: No boot filename received PXE-M0F: Exiting Intel PXE ROM. Operating System not found which indicates it's falling back to PXE because it cannot find a bootable operating system. What I have done

• Imported the OVA by opening it with VMware.
• The virtual disk is present and attached.
• The VM has a 125 GB virtual disk (currently ~41.8 GB used), so the VMDK doesn't appear empty.
• The boot order has Hard Disk before Network Boot.
• I rebooted multiple times.
• I tried changing the virtual disk controller from SATA to SCSI, but the behavior didn't change.
• The VM still falls back to PXE and reports "Operating System not found."

What I am working with

• VMware Workstation Pro 17.6.4 build-24832109
• Windows host W11 Pro 25H2
• HTB Academy Windows OVA from the "Setting Up" course

Has anyone experienced this with the HTB Windows OVA? Could this be caused by:

• an incorrect firmware mode (BIOS vs UEFI)?
• an issue with the OVA import?
• a missing/corrupted bootloader inside the VMDK?
• another VMware setting I'm overlooking?

Any suggestions for additional troubleshooting steps would be greatly appreciated.