Windows 2000 Ethernet Controller - Driver

[ifstat]

I have installed windows 200 server on to seperate vSphere deployments and on both installations there is a problem with the Network Card's device drivers.

VMware tools is installed and this is a new VM Host. We are running the very latest build.

Tried installing the VMware Accelerated AMD PCNet Adapter and VMware PCI Ethernet Adapter drivers that are located under C:/Program Files/VMware/VMware%20Tools/Drivers/vmxnet/, but with no luck. Windows complains of incompatibility.

Has anyone else experienced this and possibly has a solution.

I have tried both the Flexible and E1000, network cards, these are the only 2 options available for Windows 2000. VMNet2,etc are supported by different OS not Windows 2000.

this would be helpful

[VMmatty]

You shouldn't need any drivers for the E1000 as that is likely built into Windows, even back as far as Windows 2000.

What error message are you getting? Is it just classifying it as an unknown device?

[ifstat]

It's listed as an ethernet controller. All the other device drivers got installed when installing vm-tools but not this

Sent from my Windows Mobile® phone.

[VMmatty]

And it's showing up as not having a driver installed? I'm surprised to hear that the E1000 driver doesn't work as Windows should have a driver for that by default.

[vNabi]

I have same problem in ESXi 5.1

The vmware tools is installed but the e1000 ethernet controller is "unknown device" in device manager.

Did you find the solution?

[vNabi]

I searched and found that the E1000 is the "Intel 82545EM Gigabit Ethernet NIC". This NIC can also appear under the alternative name “Intel PRO/1000 MT Network Connection”.

I downloaded the driver for windows 2000 from the intel.com, and after installation the problem fixed.

[RHW]

Good shout. Allowed me to recover a legacy server from a .tib image ( acronis) as VMware tools in ESXi 5.1 do not appear to  install an E1000 driver.

[James_G_Morriso]

I found the drivers in https://downloadcenter.intel.com/download/17640/Network-Adapter-Drivers-for-Windows-2000-Final-Relea...

However, I did have to point the New Hardware Wizard at the %temp% folder halfway through running the PRO2K.exe.