Hi
In the end I used this method to fix the problem:
(1) When the Hypervision screen appeared, I pressed Shift + O and then typed overrideDuplicateImageDetection and then hit Enter to boot.
This allowed the server to boot into 4.1.0
(2) I moved all the VMs out of the datastore on the same disk that contained the old system I wanted to remove - I moved the VMs to another datastore on a different disk.
(3) I tried to delete the empty datastore, but it errored. I then realised I needed to enable the Remote Tech Support Console so I could get in and remove all disk partitions on the drive in question - I needed the console operational so I could use PuTTY to do a remote connection :
http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=101791...
(4) Once connected in PuTTY, I deleted all partitions on the disk and rebooted the box. This removed all old partitions used for VM storage *plus* it removed the old installation of 4.0 which is what I was trying to do originally.
The tool used was fdisk.
I identified the disk by going to COnfiguration tab in vSphere client, then choosing devices view. I found the name of the disk then found its Identifier.
The identifier is what you need to use fdisk.
The Systax I used was :
fdisk /dev/disks/<disk_identifier>
(5) To display all the partitions on the disk I used this command:
p ( fdisk is already running )
you will see a display of the partitions of the disk like this :
~ # fdisk /dev/disks/t10.ATA_____WDC_WD3200AAKS2D75L9A0________________________WD2DWCAV2A141188
The number of cylinders for this disk is set to 305245.
There is nothing wrong with that, but this is larger than 1024,
and could in certain setups cause problems with:
1) software that runs at boot time (e.g., old versions of LILO)
2) booting and partitioning software from other OSs
(e.g., DOS FDISK, OS/2 FDISK)
Command (m for help): m
Command Action
a toggle a bootable flag
b edit bsd disklabel
c toggle the dos compatibility flag
d delete a partition
l list known partition types
n add a new partition
o create a new empty DOS partition table
p print the partition table
q quit without saving changes
s create a new empty Sun disklabel
t change a partition's system id
u change display/entry units
v verify the partition table
w write table to disk and exit
x extra functionality (experts only)
Command (m for help): p
Disk /dev/disks/t10.ATA_____WDC_WD3200AAKS2D75L9A0________________________WD2DWCAV2A141188: 320.0 GB, 320072933376 bytes
64 heads, 32 sectors/track, 305245 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 2048 * 512 = 1048576 bytes
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/disks/t10.ATA_____WDC_WD3200AAKS2D75L9A0________________________WD2DWCAV2A141188p1 5 900 917504 5 Extended
/dev/disks/t10.ATA_____WDC_WD3200AAKS2D75L9A0________________________WD2DWCAV2A141188p4 * 1 4 4080 4 FAT16 <32M
/dev/disks/t10.ATA_____WDC_WD3200AAKS2D75L9A0________________________WD2DWCAV2A141188p5 5 254 255984 6 FAT16
/dev/disks/t10.ATA_____WDC_WD3200AAKS2D75L9A0________________________WD2DWCAV2A141188p6 255 504 255984 6 FAT16
/dev/disks/t10.ATA_____WDC_WD3200AAKS2D75L9A0________________________WD2DWCAV2A141188p7 505 614 112624 fc VMKcore
/dev/disks/t10.ATA_____WDC_WD3200AAKS2D75L9A0________________________WD2DWCAV2A141188p8 615 900 292848 6 FAT16
Partition table entries are not in disk order
Note - the partition number that fdisk uses is the "p1" or "p4" etc at the end of the device name
(6) So I then used the "p" command and deleted each partition - 1,4,5,6,7,8 and this cleared the disk.
(7) The box then came up trouble free without the purple screen - I then created a new datastore & rebooted box - job done.
The key was the deleting partitions
Cheers
