# Need some help installing Windows Server 2016 on VMware Host



## theITfactor (Oct 2, 2007)

I am fairly new to vSphere and I am trying to install Windows Server 2016 Standard on a new virtual machine. I have previously installed Windows Server 2012 successfully on other machines on this VMware server., but for some reason I keep hitting a snag when installing 2016. I downloaded the trial ISO from Microsoft and loaded it to my virtual CD drive. The problem I keep running into is it can not find my hard drive during installation. I started with utilizing the LSI Logic SAS SCSI controller thinking it would pick up the drive automatically, but no such luck. I then tried the VMware Paravirtual SCSI controller and mounted the VMware tools and found the associated driver but after I select the driver and hit next, it tries to install and says the driver is not compatible. I have fought with this for about three days now and can not figure out how to get past this. If someone could help me out I would greatly appreciate it, thank you!


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## Mikeymikec20 (Mar 22, 2019)

Double check you've checked the 'connected' box on the virtual media??


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## managed (May 24, 2003)

Usually you can set up a 'virtual' drive, which is stored on the 'real' hard drive, during the creation of a VM. You should not have to set up a driver for the real HDD in the VM.

During the install is the HDD shown at all ?


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## theITfactor (Oct 2, 2007)

*Mikeymikec20* - yes the irtual media is "connected" and pointed to the Server 2016 iso.

*managed *- the hard drives are showing and it installs correctly with other ISOs such as Server 2012, it's just the Server 2016 OS that is giving me a hard time. I have tried downloading a different ISO for 2016 thinking maybe it was just a bad download but that didn't solve the issue either.


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## Mikeymikec20 (Mar 22, 2019)

Did you mount the tools iso as another CD rom drive and browse the pvscsi driver from the windows setup?


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## zx10guy (Mar 30, 2008)

What hardware are you running the ESXi host on? What version of vSphere/ESXi are you running?

I just created a Server 2016 VM on my vSphere 6.5 environment with zero issues running on a Dell R730.


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