Windows XP on ESXi Question

[daKrisht]

Hey Everyone,

I'm having some difficulty installaing Windows XP SP3 on my ESXi host.

I tried switching to LSI from reading a post or two, but still nothing. I get the "Windows could not find your hard disk drive" error.

Are there any guides or tutorials on the proper procedures for installing Windows XP?

It's strange, ESXi gives you the option of choosing Windows XP as your VM of choice, but it doesn't work when installing.

Thanks for the help in advance.

[daKrisht]

Hey Collin,

Ripped up the XP install 5 times to no avail. Nothing I do seems to fix this issue. I always get stuck at the "Setup cannot copy vmscsi.sys" screen.

I've used the BusLogic .flp, LSILogic.flp, and 3 other .flp images I've found on the boards here - Windows just doesn't want to recognize the disk!

I'll try Win XP SP1 and see if that changes things but I doubt it.

[daKrisht]

So any solutions for this? (aside from the dozen mentioned above!

Would trying a SP1 or SP2 Windows XP install CD work? (I don't think that even matters since Setup cannot find the xxxxx.sys file and etc.?)

[cmacmillan]

As I said, I actually stepped through your scenario with complete success according to the steps I outlined (and using the VMware SCSI driver disk.) That's with XP Pro SP2... Be sure to use BusLogic controller (i.e. XP from ESX Wizard) and vmware floppy image. I am not a fan of the LSI logic driver with XP under vmware...

Regards,

Collin C. MacMillan

Sr. Infrastructure Consultant

VMware & Cisco Certified

cell: 205.960.3031 | fax: 205.822.9650

collin@solori.net | http://blog.solori.net

[daKrisht]

Thanks, Collin.

I'll try it again using a different Win XP CD using the VMWare SCSI Driver

[espenmov]

Hi,

I´ve just done this today. I found that I had to go through the F6 and press "S", confirming and then click "S" again. Then (from memory as I don´t have access to the system here) I think the Win XP installer asks you to confirm if you´re using the old driver (from the Windows CD?) or the new driver from the mounted floppy image. Confirm that you´re using the drivers from the floppy and continue with the setup.

This was all done with ESXi 3.5 and SCSI driver floppy image downloaded a few days ago. The WinXP CD I used was a nLite version with SP3 slipstreamed (English).

Cheers

Espen

[roadsweeper]

I am seeing the same, "Setup cannot copy the file: vmscsi.sys" problem with a Windows XP Pro SP2 installation ISO on ESXi 3.5 and using the VMware vmscsi-1.2.0.4.flp image.

I have a different Windows XP Pro (pre-SP2) XP installation ISO which works perfectly on the same ESXi instance. However, my Windows licence key requires the SP2 ISO to be accepted so I can't just use this.

There is clearly an issue here IMHO and it does appear that the Windows installation disk attempts to load vmscsi.sys from the CD (ISO) rather than the floppy, desite being told to use the floppy. I have tried espenmov's suggestion of pressing 'S' again and selecting to use the drivers from the floppy rather than Windows but this makes no difference. If I skip the file (after multiple prompts) I get a BSOD on reboot.

Any help would be much appreciated as I've been trying to resolve this for hours! Did the original poster solve the problem?

[roadsweeper]

This error seems to relate to a particular release of the Windows XP Pro installation CD. I have tried another Windows XP Pro retail CD and an MSDN installation CD and although neither had the problem with the vmscsi.sys file neither would accept the licence key I have for the disk that is seeing the problem.

Any fix suggestions would be very much appreciated!

[Dave_Mishchenko]

You might want to try www.nliteos.com to integrate the drivers into the ISO image.

[roadsweeper]

Hi Dave

I was looking at nLite when I received an email notifying me of your message! I am trying to generate the new installation CD now. Unfortunately, I will have to upload the whole thing to our remote VMware instance over the broadband now. Given it's already 9:15pm UK time and I haven't even started building the image yet this is going to be fun!

Cheers,

roadsweeper

[roadsweeper]

I extracted the VMware SCSI drivers from the .flip image and built a new Windows XP Pro SP2 ISO incorporating the drivers using nLite. The installation then went flawlessly so I believe the problem is with the particular 'batch' of Windows XP Pro SP2 installation disks not loading drivers from the floppy as instructed.

Building the new installation ISO was simpe - I would estimate it was a 10min job - so I would recommend this approach for anyone seeing similar problems.

[SasquatchSweat]

Question: how do you extract the drivers from the flp file? I'm all set to create a new iso with the required drivers but actually getting my hands on the *.sys files is where i'm grasping at straws. I've done a little searching and i'm all i'm getting hits on is an app called magiciso which they claim can read .flp files, I downloaded this app and it it did not have the ability to read flp files.

Any assistance would help and surely get rid of one of many headaches.

[DSTAVERT]

winimage

You should always make a new post for questions and not tack on to an old one since this one looks "Answered".

[SasquatchSweat]

Thank you for your help, in the future I will begin a new thread. I do apologize for the inconvenience.