Windows Installer Wizard cannot detect virtual Disks using Paravirtual SCSI Controller

Problem

Solution

Windows doesn't include the VMware Parvirtual SCSI driver in its inventory, thus we have to provide it during the installation.

VSS Manual intervention

1. Send an email to vss(at)eis.utoronto.ca to mount the PVSCSI driver in the VM's floppy drive. 

2. Load driver from floppy in the Windows Installer Wizard

Once the driver is fully loaded, you will be able to start Windows installation as any other kind of HDD controller.

VSS-CLI (Recommended)

Using https://vss-cli.eis.utoronto.ca or a local VSS CLI install

1. List floppy drive images available:

   vss-cli compute floppy public ls id path name ---- -------------------------------------------- ---------------------- 12 client 2 [] /vmimages/floppies/pvscsi-Windows2003.flp pvscsi-Windows2003.flp 1 [] /vmimages/floppies/pvscsi-Windows2008.flp pvscsi-Windows2008.flp 3 [] /vmimages/floppies/pvscsi-WindowsXP.flp pvscsi-WindowsXP.flp

2. Mount Paravirtual SCSI controller driver:

   vss-cli compute vm set {VmName-or-Id} floppy 1 --image "pvscsi-Windows2008.flp"

3. Proceed on the Windows Wizard to load the driver from the floppy unit.

4. Disks can be detected.

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