ESXi 4 boot partition error (Help Needed)

[bethomas]

I have successfully installed the latest posted build of ESXi 4 on my machine. On boot, I am getting the following error: "Failed to find boot partition"

Checking the vmkernel log, the error looks to be:

"sysboot: Invalid Primary Boot Bank Detected /vmfs/volumes/4cb9ae7e-f48e8fcf-f20

sysboot: Failed to find boot partition"

The mobo is a Tyan S2915 Thunder n6650w and the SATA HD is in the integrated controller (not using RAID). Any help is greatly appreciated!

Thanks,

Brian

[Datto]

See if you can go into the system BIOS and change the on-board SATA controller to ACHI type from IDE type (or change it to IDE from ACHI) then reboot the box -- remember what the original setting was so you can set it back if need be.

Also, check that your media is good -- use MD5DEEP to check the MD5 sum with the one published by VMware to be sure the odwnload came down and arrived correctly on your hard drive prior to you writing it to media.

Datto

[bethomas]

Thanks for the help!

Unfortunately the Phoenix BIOS I am on doesn't have any meaningful options for the SATA, and no way to switch it into ACHI :smileysad: Any ideas on workaround on the ESX side? It didn't have any problems working with the drive during the install...

I've verified the media, but I'm not sure how to check all that same data that arrived on the HD from the ESX console.

Much appreciated,

Brian

[Datto]

I've had installs of ESX where ESX got confused by the existing master boot record that was in place for when the hard drive was used for something else. In that case I had to use the Boot N Nuke utility to clear the drive entirely, then re-install from scratch to get ESX to work properly. If you're okay with reinstalling, you might try that idea. Here's the link to Boot N Nuke

Also, note there are a few other people on the forums here with similar problems to what you're experiencing (similar to Install goes in okay but on the first boot ESX can't find the boot drive properly). Here's an example of a guy with not exactly the same problem but a similar one:

http://communities.vmware.com/thread/218458

What is the motherboard you're using (or server model)?

Datto

[bethomas]

Thanks! I'll give that a try and get back to you with the results.

The mobo is: Tyan S2915 Thunder n6650w

Brian

[DSTAVERT]

This doesn't seem to be the case where the Datastore overwrites the boot partition. Try restarting and use Shift + R as the VMware portion of the boot sequence first starts. See whether you have an alternate boot partition available. It is possible that there is some corruption and you may need to reinstall but try the SHIFT + R first.

[bethomas]

Datto - I ran Boot & Nuke then did a fresh install of ESXi. Still getting the same error...

I read through that thread you mentioned, but I'm not sure what I could change to fix my specific error. I'll continue to search the forum, but I've yet to find anything helpful (especially that applies to 4.0, not 3.5).

DSTAVERT - I tried the Shift-R trick, but it gave me the error "No valid fallback hypervisor found"

I am still getting the: "Failed to find boot partition" error.

Thanks for all the suggestions!

Brian

[DSTAVERT]

Try installing to a USB stick. You don't need anything larger than 1 GB.

[DSTAVERT]

ESXi 4 will install directly to the USB stick from the install CD.

[bethomas]

Installing on the USB drive did the trick! I am now able to boot successfully into ESXi! Strange that I couldn't run it directly from the HD. Sounds like a bug to me; is there somewhere I can write this up and report it?

[krishnaprasad]

There are two ways you can install ESXi on a system. one method is to install the ESXi image to a USB stick or SD card ( Embedded edition )

The other one is install the ESXi image to a harddrive ( Installable edition )

You are not supposed to have Embedded and Installable on the same machine. if you have such setup you will face this issue as the boot loader could not determine to which bootbank the system should boot into and hence throws up the boot partition error / panic error.

[nitepony]

I had the smae problem with a dell t105 server...... however I put esxi 4 on a thumb drive and so far everything is working I jhad installed the same version on different server and had no problems..not sure what the cause was

[alexmunk]

I also have a Dell PowerEdge T105, and I am having the same issue. If I install ESX to a thumb drive, then won't I have to leave the thumb drive in the machine? I don't want to do this. I want to install ESX to the HD.

[alexmunk]

nitepony,

I have the same machine that you have (Dell T105). Did you ever get it to work when you installed it to the hard drive?

Alex