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Kevan
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Creating XP VM. No Disk found when booting

Hi

I am trying to create a new Windows XP Virtual Machine.

Nothing special, 512mb memory 20Gb hard drive, 1 processor. I am booting from an ISO Image and have also tried booting from a different windows XP Instalatiuon disk.

When I boot the VM it boots from the ISO Image or the Disk, does the normal inspecting your setup routine and then finishes saying that it can not find a hard drive to install to.

I have deleted and recreated this VM several times, always with the same result.

This has never happened before and I am not sure where to troubleshoot this.

I have tried Bus Logic and LSI disk controller, I have tried different LUN's and ESX hosts. Always the same problem.

We are using ESX 3.02 and Vertual Center 2.02.

Can anyone sugest where I should look to resolve this issue.

Regards

Kevan

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java_cat33
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Hi - you need to have the SCSI driver for Windows XP.

In the below link it gives you instructions on how to install a Windows XP guest and where you can get the driver from etc....

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java_cat33
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Hi - you need to have the SCSI driver for Windows XP.

In the below link it gives you instructions on how to install a Windows XP guest and where you can get the driver from etc....

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Texiwill
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Hello,

Moved to VI: Virtual Machine and Guest OS forum.


Best regards,

Edward L. Haletky

VMware Communities User Moderator

====

Author of the book 'VMWare ESX Server in the Enterprise: Planning and Securing Virtualization Servers', Copyright 2008 Pearson Education.

Blue Gears and SearchVMware Pro Blogs: http://www.astroarch.com/wiki/index.php/Blog_Roll

Top Virtualization Security Links: http://www.astroarch.com/wiki/index.php/Top_Virtualization_Security_Links

--
Edward L. Haletky
vExpert XIV: 2009-2023,
VMTN Community Moderator
vSphere Upgrade Saga: https://www.astroarch.com/blogs
GitHub Repo: https://github.com/Texiwill
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TomHowarth
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XP does not include the Buslogic or LSI drivers in the default driver pack, you need to feed it to the installation routine by inserting a floppy image and pressing F6 during the initial blue screen set up stage. I suggest you read the blog post identified in the other answer for a complete bullet by bullet methodology of how to do it

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Tom Howarth

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Blog: www.planetvm.net

Tom Howarth VCP / VCAP / vExpert
VMware Communities User Moderator
Blog: http://www.planetvm.net
Contributing author on VMware vSphere and Virtual Infrastructure Security: Securing ESX and the Virtual Environment
Contributing author on VCP VMware Certified Professional on VSphere 4 Study Guide: Exam VCP-410
JonRoderick
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Tom, slightly off topic but do you know when XP VMs stopped being created with LSI SCSI adapters and changed to BusLogic? Our XP image always used LSI drivers and I only noticed the change when the disks stopped appearing during the build process.

I understood LSI to be the preference for XP and 2003 but that seems to have changed - is this documented anywhere?

Cheers

Jon

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TomHowarth
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Personally I have always used the Buslogic driver, as I always build my guests with a single vCPU, the only time I ever used the LSI was when I was building SMP guests as it is a multi-threaded driver.

So to answer question, I don't know :smileygrin:

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Tom Howarth

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Blog: www.planetvm.net

Tom Howarth VCP / VCAP / vExpert
VMware Communities User Moderator
Blog: http://www.planetvm.net
Contributing author on VMware vSphere and Virtual Infrastructure Security: Securing ESX and the Virtual Environment
Contributing author on VCP VMware Certified Professional on VSphere 4 Study Guide: Exam VCP-410
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JonRoderick
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THanks

the response I've had from VMware is that there are issues around the LSI driver and being able to bundle it in so they have changed to BusLogic as the default driver.

LSI still has the edge over BusLogic on XP when it comes to performance though.

Jon

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Kevan
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Hi

Thank you for this reply and the link. I had to use the Buslogic driver as LSI wanted me to register to download their driver?

Everything is up and running now.

Regards

Kevan

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TomHowarth
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I have personally only ever seen any performance increase in a SMP environment

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Tom Howarth

VMware Communities User Moderator

Blog: www.planetvm.net

Tom Howarth VCP / VCAP / vExpert
VMware Communities User Moderator
Blog: http://www.planetvm.net
Contributing author on VMware vSphere and Virtual Infrastructure Security: Securing ESX and the Virtual Environment
Contributing author on VCP VMware Certified Professional on VSphere 4 Study Guide: Exam VCP-410
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