esxi 6.5: Windows 2012/2016 "A media driver your computer needs is missing"

[MichelatNL]

Today I installed a fresh homelab with esxi 6.5. All with default settings.

After created successfully an Ubuntu server and Windows 10 workstation I was ready to setup a new Windows 2016 server. Right after starting up the server it comes with:

I thought I did something wrong with selecting the SCSI Controller. What ever I choose to use I always get this message.

Tried the paravirtual SCSI and browsed the VMware tools to the driver, but same error.

Tried Windows 2012R2 and same message.

With esxi 6 never had this problem :smileyconfused:

Anyone having a tip to look further?

[dariusd · Accepted solution]

That error message almost always means that your Windows installer .iso image is corrupted or truncated, and probably has nothing to do with your choice of mass storage controller.

If you've copied the .iso onto your new ESXi 6.5 system's datastore, check that the entire file was copied and verify that its SHA1/SHA256 checksum are correct.  If you're using an .iso file from a network share, check that the entire filesize is accessible through the network share.  In any case, verifying the file size and its SHA1/SHA256 checksum is wise.

Cheers,

--

Darius

[MichelatNL]

Hi dariusd,

You where right. The file size was about 3/4 of what it should be.

Uploaded the files with the /ui interface and using Internet Explorer. Looking at recent tasks it showed me that the task never got finisht .

Using the vSphere Client or Chrome did the right job and completed at 100%.

[RaviLuchmun]

Hi dariusd,

Thanks - solved my problem too.

Had to use vpshere client 6.0u2 to upload the ISO again and then once the pvscsi driver was loaded, the installation continued.

Thanks

Ravi

[microbrew22]

Thank you, this also solved my issue. I had uploaded the iso installer for server 2016 but it had become corrupt, the upload stalled at 75%.

My workaround was to install the VMware remote console; mount the iso from my machine, and complete the installation of server using VMRC.

[Freakin11]

Thanks Darius!  Same problem here and your answer was the solution. 

Is there a way to see checksum through web client or do I have to browse datastore through cli/powercli?

[cdizzlefizzlesh]

Also had this problem and this was the resolution.  Using the web interface, and trying to upload ISOs to the datastore, I got two OS's that got to about 73% and 50ish% and the graphs hung on the interface where the operational messages appear.  Recognizing them as hung, I refreshed the interface and their operation said Success.  Then I started getting this error when trying to load the OS's in VMs.

Upon examination of the files in the datastore using the datastore browser, they were both were identical in size (4GB) when the originals were ~5.5GB and 8.7GB.  Deleting them and re-uploading them using the .NET client worked like a champ.

I'm not sure if this is a limitation in the ESXi web server, server-side engine (if there is one (e.g. PHP, etc.)) or my browser.  Regardless, if VMware is going to continue to force everyone down this path of browser only, please make sure the basic functions work without crazy bugs.

And if you can't... then FFS, give us back a fully functional .NET client.  It's simply unparralelled compared to everything else that's been offered as a replacement (web FLASH and web HTML5)...

[KSKK]

Same issue here.

Try to Upload it via Firefox, everything other is buggy as hell in FF, but at least the upload works.

[BlackRamIT]

Looks like this is an issue with IE and not VMware.  I too got an error after approximately 75% (4Gb) in vCenter V6.5,  I switched to the ESXi host in IE and got the attached error.  Switched to Chrome and that seemed to work.

[dbutch1976]

This worked for me, just downloaded the ISO again.