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Using the VMware SCSI Disk Driver for Windows Guest Operating Systems

Purpose

VMware supplies a special SCSI driver for virtual machines that are configured to use the BusLogic virtual SCSI adapter. Virtual machines do not need this driver if they do not need to access any SCSI devices or if they are configured to use the LSI Logic virtual SCSI adapter.

The driver is included as part of the VMware Tools package, and is also available for download from this download page. The driver can be used in Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, or Windows 2000, with certain limitations described below.  This article includes steps on how to install the driver. 

Resolution

To successfully use a BusLogic controller with your Windows Operating system, do the following:
  1. Ensure that you have the drivers for the BusLogic controller.
  2. Attach the virtual floppy file to the virtual machine.
  3. Install the driver on your Windows Platform.
The following sections describes each step in greater detail.

Ensuring that you have the drivers for the BusLogic controller

The BusLogic driver comes bundled with VMware products:
  • VMware Workstation: %Program Files%\VMware\VMware Workstation\Resources\vmscsi.flp
  • VMware ESX: /vmimages/vmscsi.flp

If you are unable to find the file or it is not available in any of the above locations, the file is available for download here: http://download3.vmware.com/software/vmscsi-1.2.0.4.flp.

Attaching the virtual floppy file to the virtual machine

To attach the virtual floppy file to the virtual machine::
  1. Right-click the virtual machine.
  2. Click Edit settings.
  3. Click the virtual floppy drive and choose Connected.
  4. Select Use floppy image.
  5. Browse to the location of the virtual floppy file.
  6. Select the file vmscsi-1.2.x.x.flp or vmscsi.flp.

Installing the driver on your Windows Operating System

During Installation
 
If you are installing a Microsoft Windows XP operating system on a virtual machine that uses a BusLogic controller, the installer may report that it cannot find hard drives during the installation. This occurs because Microsoft Windows XP does not come bundled with drivers that work with the BusLogic controller. If you encounter these symptoms during your installation, verify that you do have virtual hard disks installed in your virtual machine, and follow the instructions in Windows XP setup cannot find any hard disk drives during installation (1000863).
 
Note: The Easy Install feature on VMware Workstation 6.5 and later may automatically provide the drivers during installation.
 
After Installation
 
If you have already installed Windows, and would like to use the VMware supplied drivers instead of the drivers bundled with your guest operating system, do the following:
 
Caution: When changing the controller that the guest uses to boot, you must ensure that you have both drivers installed in the guest operating system and that the virtual machine does not have a snapshot prior to any changes to the controller. If you disregard these recommendations, the guest operating system may boot to a STOP 0x0000007B error. For more information, see Troubleshooting a virtual machine that fails to boot with STOP 0x7B error (1006295).
 
  1. Log on to the guest operating system with an account that has administrative rights.
  2. Click Start, > Run, type devmgmt.msc, then click OK.
  3. In the Device Manager window, expand SCSI and RAID Controllers, right-click BusLogic SCSI Controller, then click Update Driver.
  4. If you are prompted to search for a driver from the Microsoft Windows Update Web site, click No, not this time, then click Next.
  5. In the Hardware Update Wizard, click Install from a list or specific location (Advanced), then click Next.
  6. Click Don't search. I will choose the driver to install, then click Next.
  7. Click Have Disk, click Browse, locate and click the A:\vmscsi.inf file.
  8. Click Open, then click Next.
  9. Click Finish, then restart the virtual machine.

Additional Information

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Actions
  • KB Article: 1006956
  • Updated: Feb 9, 2010
  • Products:
    VMware ESX
    VMware ESXi
    VMware Fusion
    VMware GSX Server
    VMware Server
    VMware Workstation