Windows XP setup cannot find any hard disk drives during installation(1000863)
Details
When installing Windows XP in a virtual machine on VMware ESX, Windows setup fails to detect hard disks in the virtual machine
You receive the following error:
Setup did not find any hard disk drives installed in your computer.
Solution
When installing Windows XP in a virtual machine setup is unable to find the hard drives because no compatible disk controller driver is shipped on the Windows XP setup disc. You must supply the correct drive during setup to proceed with installation.
To ensure you supply the correct drive:
When creating the new virtual machine, select the BusLogic option for the Virtual SCSI Controller mode.
Attach the VMware SCSI driver floppy image and connect the virtual floppy drive to the virtual machine.
If you are using an ESX host and the Virtual Infrastructure client:
Right-click the virtual machine from the Inventory pane.
Click Edit settings.
Click the virtual floppy drive and select Connected.
If you are using VMware Lab Manager the file is available from the media library.
To insert the floppy disk into the virtual machine:
From the virtual machine console window, move the pointer over the virtual machine name and clickInsert Floppy.
From the Media Library menu, select (LMStorage1) vmscsi-1.2.0.4.flp.
Click Use.
Attach or insert the Windows XP installation media and connect it to the virtual machine.
Power on the virtual machine and open a console view of the virtual machine.
Click in the console to assign keyboard control to the virtual machine.
When the blue Windows setup screen appears, press F6 when prompted.
When prompted for additional drivers, press S .
Press Enter to select the VMware SCSI Controller driver, and then Enter again to continue setup.
Complete Windows XP setup normally from this point.
Note: When setup has completed the first phase of installation and restarts the virtual machine, you may need to disconnect or unassign the virtual floppy drive or the virtual machine may attempt to boot from the floppy image.
Windows XP setup fails to find the vmscsi.sys file on attached SCSI driver floppy when installing from a modified ISO (1013298)
Details
Installing Windows XP from a modified ISO fails
When attaching the vmscsi-1.2.x.x.flp file during a Windows XP guest operating system installation from a modified ISO (or a CD burned from a modified ISO), the installer does not find any hard drives
You see the error:
Setup could not find/locate the file 'vmscsi.sys'
Skipping the file shows the same error for each file that should be on the floppy image and prevents the installation from continuing
Solution
This issue occurs if the OEMPREINSTALL option in the WINNT.SIF file within the I386 folder is set to Yes. When set to Yes, this option prevents the floppy image files from loading into the installer.
To resolve this issue:
If the install media is a CD, extract it to an ISO.
Extract the WINNT.SIF file and modify the line OEMPREINSTALL="Yes" to OEMPREINSTALL="No".
Copy the modified file into the ISO, replacing the old file.