Device driver was not successfully installed; network connections not restored?

[dlee668]

Hello all,

I restored a backup of virtual machines from Acronis bootable media. I created a virtual hard disk and loaded it to vSphere and opened the VM. Upon booting and logging in, I am not able to see any network adapters. Network connections are not restored and I cannot change any IP address. I copied the VM to my personal machine and also does not work. Any idea on how to get the network connections up again after an Acronis restore?

Acronis Bootable Media 12.5, ESXi 7.0, Workstation 16 Player

[Lalegre]

Hey dlee668​,

Try a quick test and re-install the VMware Tools as they will provide the necessarily drivers for multiple devices and maybe on the restore they got corrupted.

[scott28tt]

What network adapters are shown in the VM settings?

[dlee668]

Adapter Settings:

    Network Name: VM Network

     Connect at Power on

     Adapter Type: E1000

     MAC Address: Manual, xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx

Digging into VMX file

     ethernet1.virtualDev = "e1000"

     ethernet1.networkName = "VM Network"

     ethernet1.addressType = "static"

     ethernet1.address = "xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx"

     ethernet1.wakeOnPcktRcv = "FALSE"

     ethernet1.present = "TRUE"

     ethernet1.pciSlotNumber = "19"

[dlee668]

Lalegre​

I just installed VMWare Tools on one of my machines and I still cannot see any network connections. They are both on but my VM does not recognize any of them.

[a_p_]

If this is a default Windows 7 installation, the E1000 driver should be built in.

What you may try is to remove hidden/phantom devices from the Windows Device Manager, and then rescan for new devices, to see whether it is a configuration issue.

For how to do this, see e.g. https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/315539/device-manager-does-not-display-devices-that-are-not...

André

[scott28tt]

VMware Tools should not be the issue, a Windows OS would natively have the driver needed for an E1000 adapter.

[dlee668]

a.p.​

Followed your instructions, I am seeing Non-Plug and Play Devices along with Network Adapters that were hidden. But I removed Ethernet Controllers and Network Adapters then scan for hardware changes but still no luck.

[a_p_ · Accepted solution]

After taking another look at the screenshots, it looks like this is Windows Vista!?

Unless the generated MAC addresses need to remain the same, you may try to:

1. shutdown the VM
2. open the VM's settings
3. ensure that the correct guest OS in the VM's option is selected
4. delete the network adapters from the configuration
5. click Ok, then open the VM's settings again
6. add a new network adapter

André

[dlee668]

a.p.​

I can assure you that it is Windows 7 x64

Regardless, after opening up on VMWare Workstation and changing the operating system and changing the network adapters. I am able to see the network adapters in my VM! Additionally it solved an issue I had where the mouse on ESXi was unresponsive. From there I just changed the MAC address to the one I need.

I guess the OS had to be specified before the VM decides what drivers to install. The OS after the Acronis backup was set to "Other".

Thank you all for the help!