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adw
Contributor
Contributor

How to install Windows 10 Version 1511 upgrade (aka November update) on SCSI drives

Are you running your Windows 10 VM off virtual SCSI drives?

That's what Michael Roy recommended. See Trying to Upgrade to Windows 10 on Fusion but hitting the SVGA bug? Here's the simple workaround - V...)

"The SCSI protocol is faster than SATA when virtualized, doesn’t matter what the physical hardware us underneath which is why we use it by default"

you may have configured your Windows 10 virtual machine to have virtual SCSI drives.

If so, you probably already discovered that Windows 10 doesn't ship with a SCSI driver installed, so you will have had to define the disk as an SATA Drive, install Windows 10, install a SCSI driver. Then you can reconfigure the drive as a SCSI drive.

See my post dated 27 August in the same thread.

It turns out that this problem resurfaces when you try to install the Windows 10 November update.

If you are booting your Windows system from a virtual SCSI drive, the update doesn't complete but there are no helpful messages.

The fix is as it was for the initial installation of Windows 10:

  1. Shutdown the Windows 10 VM
  2. Redefine the Windows 10 boot drive as an SATA drive
  3. Make sure the SATA drive is defined as the startup (boot) drive
  4. boot into Windows and install the 1511 update (you may need to download the Microsoft Media Creation Tool)
  5. Install the Storage Controller device drive for "LSI Adapter, SAS 3000 series, 8-port with 1068"
  6. Shutdown Windows
  7. Redefine the Windows 10 boot drive as a SCSI drive
  8. Make sure the SCSI drive is defined as the startup (boot) drive
  9. You should now be good to go.
  10. If you use Shared Folders you may have to reinstall VMware tools (see Shared Folders - Windows 10 upgrade from 15.11.)

Or does anyone else have a simpler solution?

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5 Replies
SvenGus
Expert
Expert

BTW, why is SCSI still used, as a virtual drive protocol? Isn't it obsolete, by now...? Just curious (personally, I'd just default to SATA)...

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fubvmware
VMware Employee
VMware Employee

I just completed a 1511 update installation with a Windows 10 VM that runs on SCSI drive, without touching the virtual hard drive type, and no issue occurred. The Windows 10 VM I have was created as a fresh install a few months back, not an upgrade from Windows 7 or 8 so I can't speak for those cases.

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wila
Immortal
Immortal

Hi Sven,

As mentioned, SCSI is faster as a device and the drivers will perform better as SATA.

Perhaps you are thinking about the old parallel SCSI, but SAS (Serial Attached SCSI) isn't legacy at all, in fact it is what is used in servers almost everywhere as SATA cannot keep up once you run something more demanding as just desktop software.

--

Wil

| Author of Vimalin. The virtual machine Backup app for VMware Fusion, VMware Workstation and Player |
| More info at vimalin.com | Twitter @wilva
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Woodmeister50
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

I had just performed the update as well (took seemingly forever, even though I have an SSD) without issue.  Spent ~1/2 hour

messing around with the VM after the update and came across nothing unusual.

FWIW:

-Windows 10 originally updated from valid Windows 7

-the virtual drive was configured as expanding and single file (and SCSI).

-Fusion 8.02

-OSX 10.11.1

-early 2011 13" Macbook Pro, 2.7 GHz i7

Will be seeing how it goes tomorrow with my iMac Windows 10 VM, configured the same.

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SvenGus
Expert
Expert

‌Ooops, my fault: for some reason, I hadn't seen the explanation that virtualized SCSI is always faster in VMware products.

Anyway, yes, I thought about the "old" SCSI, which obviously looks rather aged, today.

But, OTOH, Parallels Desktop uses SATA by default, also in Windows VMs: that's also why I wondered why VMware Fusion still defaults to SCSI, even if it would not be used on a real Windows desktop machine (which would of course probably have SATA HDs/SSDs, or even PCIe)...

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