Just an FYI, one of those rare Windows open source gems that are getting increasingly hard to find on the web these days, amidst a see of downloader payloads.
I've found Rufus to be very handy for quick creation of USB flash drive you can boot from, then install to, for ESXi, no command line stuff to memorize needed, and very quick:
TinkerTry.com/rufus-takes-2-minutes-to-create-a-bootable-usb-flash-drive-for-esxi-installation
works great with ESXi 5.5 too:
TinkerTry.com/download-vsphere-5-lab
and when done with that flash drive and you want to use it for something else (but normal reformatting doesn't work), it handles that too, even on Windows 8.1:
TinkerTry.com/rufus-lets-you-quickly-and-easily-reformat-an-esxi-usb-flash-drive-back-to-full-capaci...
Particularly handy for folks getting started who shy away from VMware's Linux procedure:
Format a USB Flash Drive to Boot the ESXi Installation or Upgrade
vSphere 5.5 Documentation Center
or potentially dangerous Windows diskpart commands. Really just fast and useful for pretty much everybody.
Thoughts/opinions?
TinkerTry.com