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It seems that this is going to become my hobby. Wouldn’t it be boring if it were possible to install Vista by just running the setup? On Saturday I complained that Vista RC2 can’t be installed on VMware Workstation because the Vista setup claimed that there is a CD/DVD driver missing. One of my readers mailed me the solution to this new problem. Thanks!
One has to add a second CD/DVD drive. When Vista setup is hallucinating about missing drivers, you have to load the ISO file in the second virtual CD/DVD and here you go.
This is obviously a bug. They fixed the bug with the graphics card driver and added a new one. If you ask me, I’d say that Microsoft’s developers are working under very high pressure. If they really keep the release date, I wouldn’t expect a Windows Vista that you want to deploy in a corporate environment.
Update: Please, check out this article about Vista final and VMware Workstation.
Gosh, Spamhaus under threat (and Belgian mechalion…
Tally Ho! It’s IT Blogwatch, in which those jolly decent Brits at Spamhaus have ticked off the U.S. legal system. Not to mention a homebrew, mechanical steampunk lion from Belgium……
Works for me.
Wait, no, RC2 just blue screened!
Didn’t work for me
I use vmware player though.
Doesn’t work for me. I still get the CD/DVD driver missing message.
me neither..
still get the same message with vmware + vista rc2
I use VMware Workstation 5.5.2
Create VMX 1 Go Ram, SCSI HDD, 2 IDE CD/DVD, 2 CPUs (I own a dual centrino)
Booted from physical DVD Drive
I Didn’t get the missing CD/DVD Driver, has gone straight forwards to requesting WPA Key,
Processing installation normally.
Worked for me as well added the second dvd drive, then browsed out to my iso and started the installation process. Great info thanks.
cjk
say i have a few tabs open,how do i roll view them.
Didn’t work for me either. Tried 6-7 different combinations of it.
Didn’t work for me. To be clear, I have two virtual DVD drives, and both of them are connected to the RC2 ISO. Both drives are connected at bootup of the VM.
Im using VMware server. You have to point the first CD rom to the local machine drive. Then point the second drive to the ISO that contains vista. This is how I got it to work. Just sharing what my success was hope this helps others.
Now I’m wondering if this solution works for VMWare Workstation but NOT VMWare Server …
Yes, I have to tell you that the 1rst drive must be connected to the phycical drive and the second either set to auto if you use the Vista DVD or set to your ISO file if not.
Trick : If you don’t have the WPA key in you hand, you can keep on installing Vista without the key. You’ll be prompted for which edition (among a list of 7) to install. The drawback is that you won’t be able to Microsoft update or activate your copy unless you type in the Serial WPA key; but this will let you test it for up to 14 days. (it depends on your download type (Technet+MSDN = 14 days; CTP = 3 days)
Thanks, ck … didn’t see your post there. How do you get Vista to boot? When I configure my VM the way you’ve explained, the VM doesn’t boot (as the first CD drive is empty)
Ugh, I didn’t have the second drive connected. I’ll wait a few minutes before posting next time. heh.
OK, now I got it — the important thing is to have one CDROM drive pointed at your “real” CDROM drive … then, once Vista starts complaining, you Edit the connection and point it at your ISO … then Vista will read the ISO.
It looks like the basic issue here is that Vista recognizes the “real” CDROM at startup, but not the ISO … so you have to have one real drive connected at startup or Vista thinks you actually don’t have any CDROM drives at all.
Bizarro …
Thanks ck and everyone …
Thx, boozedog! Your input did it! RC2 and RTM both need a REAL CD/DVD drive. My advise here is: avoid problems, and burn your ISO to a DVD. Then you can install without any problems.
To save yall some plastic…. I had the same experience which was subdued by simply mounting the iso on the host os with a virtual cd tool like Alcohol 120% then pointing to that “physical” cd within vmware
ugh, the vmware server is in the lab at work, I do most of my work from home over VPN… even when I do go into work, the server is in a lab in another building from my office… I -hate- having to use actual dvds.
hmmm, i wonder if I could loopback mount the ISO in the linux host OS ?
negatory on that last, a loopback mount doesn’t create a suitable /dev
Doesn’t work for me either. Pressing browse reveals that Vista hasn’t detected either of the CD drives. Nice.
It’s not as if they’d get me off Ubuntu anyway.
Got it to work eventually, following these instructions: http://www.vmware.com/community/thread.jspa?threadID=61625&tstart=0#513780
Vista still sucks.
Liam, maybe you should try it with Vista final and VMware Worksation 5.5.3. I didn’t have any problem there.
I am having this problem as well.
Except I am installing on just a regular system, without using any VMware (virtual machine ware?)
When I attempt to upgrade, I am told it is disabled.
Right now I’m at class, but I have my ISO image mounted, and also burned to a DVD. When I try to boot to DVD and I get the error about missing device drivers. When I hit browse, all I see is my DVD Drive and my HD(s). I still have my image mounted so it should show the image.
If I put in another DVD into my drive, nothing changes and it still shows Vista as being in the drive.
I received this DVD from my friend so I’m not sure which version of Vista it is though. Either way, this problem should not be happening. I know it works because my friend did it. He didn’t get this error though.
If anyone else is getting this error
Be sure you have ANY SATA DRIVERS READY.
My 2 were recognized, so I didn’t think about it.
I unplugged my SATA and it installed fine.
Doesn’t work for me either.
Hi,
That is how I managed to solve the problem.
I mounted the image with virtual daemon as drive G.
I selected the Use Physical Drive (Auto detect)
I just changed virtual device node to IDE 1:0 CD-ROM 1
Then it worked fine.
Thanks! It worked amazing. I’ve been searching the web for days to find the soloution
great
1. leave your physical cd drive blank.
2. create first cd drive in vmware -> mount your .iso
3. start install
4. when prompted for the drivers, mount the image to second drive also and
5. off you go
Hey Guys Can you Please tell me how to install Vista. I don’t only have that problem but 100 of other problems with it. Can u please write every step thanX how to install it please THANKX.
I mean in VMware Workstation THANKX
Doesn’t work out on ESX 3.0.0 or ESX 3.0.1.
Would be nice if it did, but, well…can’t expect everything.
Hi.. thanks for all your help.. I think I found something else that makes it work on my system… In addition to pointing t a real CD device… I pressed f2 during VMware boot to ente BIOS, and also change CD-ROM to 1st boot device. worked perfect after this..
>I use VMware Workstation 5.5.2
>Create VMX 1 Go Ram, SCSI HDD, 2 IDE CD/DVD, 2 >CPUs (I own a dual centrino)
>Booted from physical DVD Drive
Worked for me, thanks a bunch.