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TLEMMIKSOO
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ESXi 3.5 will not boot after Motherboard SATA port 0 failed.

I have a DELL PE1800 server with ESXi 3.5 U3 installed on HD1. The motherboard SATA port 0 failed. I bought a new sata controller card, Rosewill RC-218. Installed and attached the hard drives to it. Configured the BIOS to disable the on-board sata controller and rebooted. Now ESXi 3.5 will not boot.

My old configuration was two hd's with ESXi 3.5 U3 on drive 1 and my VM's on drive 2. Now no hard drives are seen by ESXi 3.5. Yet the bios see's them.

Todd L.

Todd L.
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DSTAVERT
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Another thing you might try is to install ESXi on a USB stick. http://www.yellow-bricks.com/2008/07/29/esxi-35-update-2-on-a-usb-memory-key/

Plug your storage into the good sata port. I would have a look for a dell sata controller Perc 5's can be had pretty inexpensively on ebay and the like.

-- David -- VMware Communities Moderator

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mouradb
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Hi,

Is your new controller listed on the HCL? I presume this is now a diffrent architecture and setup configuration for ESXi and that's why this can't see your HDs.

I've haven't tried this but why don;t you try to mount this HDs on a difrent machine, extract and copy your images onto a diffrent storage and rebuild your faulty installation!!

or try to set up ESXi on a diffrent HD using the same setup you have right now and see if this will recognize your controller?

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DSTAVERT
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I doubt you have support for that card in ESXi. At the very least you should be looking for something that matches the SATA chipset in the motherboard. The Intel ICH series are quite common on motherboards but check. If you have important information on the current drives I wouldn't mess until you have a compatible controller.

-- David -- VMware Communities Moderator
TLEMMIKSOO
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Thanks for the helpful reply DSTAVERT. After looking in the I/O compatibility guide my problem is how to find a controller card that will work. No where is a model listed just a driver version. In searching the web no one lists a chipset or driver in there descriptions. This is the only box I can use for VMware, no other options. I had my VM guests on the other HD, so no access to them until I get a controller card that ESXi will see.

Todd L.

Todd L.
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DSTAVERT
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Another thing you might try is to install ESXi on a USB stick. http://www.yellow-bricks.com/2008/07/29/esxi-35-update-2-on-a-usb-memory-key/

Plug your storage into the good sata port. I would have a look for a dell sata controller Perc 5's can be had pretty inexpensively on ebay and the like.

-- David -- VMware Communities Moderator
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TLEMMIKSOO
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Thanks for the USB tip. I will try that when I get a USB stick. eBay is out of the question, not allowed to buy anything on eBay. Company had a bad experience there.

Todd L.

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DSTAVERT
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Dell will certainly sell you a perc controller. Smiley Wink

-- David -- VMware Communities Moderator
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