Hi!, first check the hardware compatibility matrix http://www.vmware.com/go/hcl..

When you select Local HD, in boot loader, the esxi 5 instalation is abort and process to run esxi preinstalled..

Also make sure that you have choosen right booting method (either EFI or BIOS). Use the same that you used it during the installation of ESX5.0 and check it

ups sorry try this

http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1017162

I designed the installer and demanded that we have that feature.  :-D

One of the key features for the 5.0 release was that we wanted to support 2+TB disks.  We thought everyone would have BIOSes which were compatible with GPT when we started putting together the requirements back in 2009.  Since we were going to be migrating everyone over from ESX based partition tables onto the partition layout that ESXi uses, we figured we should start getting everyone to use GPT as well.  It works with any system on our HCL, but we knew there were bound to be some people out there with first generation 64 bit systems which didn't support EFI or BIOS based GPT.  We just didn't know how many people it would effect so we left in the option to partition with either.

On a related note, we also had a problem with migrating VMFS partitions from MBR to GPT which would have caused the VMFS partition to potentially have been clipped due to the secondary boot record.  If you upgrade from ESX 4.x or ESXi 4.x you still end up with an MBR partition table and not a GPT based one.  If you'd used VUM or the installation CD to upgrade your 4.x based system you wouldn't have run into this problem, but probably would have been scratching your head when you tried re-installing from scratch.  :-D

Thanks,

--Patrick.

Patrick, the formatwithmbr seems to help me as well..mostly. Here's what I'm doing and my issue. I run esxi5 bood CD.  do shift + O.  Erase runweasel...type in "formatwithmbr".  I'm not sure if this syntax is correct.  Anyway, ESXi5 loads great this way.  Issue is still upon reboot it won't load.  I've seen once after about 20 minutes it does load but this isn't acceptable.  MB is on HCL, so I'm stuck, and need help.  Thanks.

For anyone trying to duplicate these successes, "add" means type a space and formatwithmbr. I first tried a comma, and that didn't help. I didn't try a plus sign because a space worked. So, by "boot prompt" they mean the prompt you get after hitting Shift-O. And by add, they mean a space delimited addition of the string. "runweasel formatwithmbr". Clear as mud? I have no idea why it's so important to be obscure with these tips.

Oh, but "Thanks anyway" I really appreciate having only 3 things to try instead of the hundreds I'd have had on my own looking into the bootloader with no doc! Thanks Patrick!