ESXi 5.0 HP v125w 16GB Issue

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gsaunders
Posts: 4
Joined: Thu May 07, 2015 4:57 am

ESXi 5.0 HP v125w 16GB Issue

Post by gsaunders »

Our ESXi5 host boots on the HP v125w 16GB USB drive.

It fails during boot with following error: "Error loading /s.v00 Fatal error: 33 (Inconsistent data). After several reboots it now fails at an earlier file. I found a blog pointing to using USB image Tool to image system.

So on a Windows 7 unit I plug in the USB and windows sees the device (no drive letter assigned).
I fire up USB image tool and it sees the device, but I would have thought in the volume area it would have show something, but all it showed was the following:

Path was empty.
name was empty,.
Serial was 0-0
Size was 0 bytes
Free was 0 bytes.

I went ahead and did an image which was just shy of 16GB and no errors reported.

The question I have now... is this image valid based on the above info?

I stuck another USB in later which mounted as Drive L since it was one created on Windows. I ejected it and a few minutes later inserted the USB flash from the ESXi server and now it pops up saying it is also Drive L and says you need to format the disk in drive L before you use it. I said NO, but wasn't sure why I was now seeing this when it wasn't doing this when I first put it in.

I then put it back in the ESXi server thinking it would be in the same state it was originally. Now it doesn't even attempt to boot as if it doesn't see a boot loader.

Could Windows (even thought I did NOT allow it to format or do anything)... have written to the USB drive corrupting it?

Thoughts?

Thanks,

Greg
gsaunders
Posts: 4
Joined: Thu May 07, 2015 4:57 am

Re: ESXi 5.0 HP v125w 16GB Issue

Post by gsaunders »

Further info.

When looking at it in windows it shows as a file system of RAW.
If you try to look at it in Explorer it asks if you want to format and if you say no it tells you: The volume does not contain a recognized file system. Please make sure that all the required file system drivers are loaded and that the volume is not corrupted.

So what options do I have? I believe this should have been a FAT partition from ESXi. Is there a way to get whatever is needed back on their so it is bootable and the files are accessible?

Thanks,
Greg
gsaunders
Posts: 4
Joined: Thu May 07, 2015 4:57 am

Re: ESXi 5.0 HP v125w 16GB Issue

Post by gsaunders »

And some more info reported by Diskpart:

<<
DISKPART> list disk

Disk ### Status Size Free Dyn Gpt
-------- ------------- ------- ------- --- ---
Disk 0 Online 465 GB 3072 KB
Disk 1 Online 931 GB 3072 KB
Disk 2 No Media 0 B 0 B
Disk 3 No Media 0 B 0 B
Disk 4 No Media 0 B 0 B
Disk 5 No Media 0 B 0 B
* Disk 6 Online 15 GB 0 B

DISKPART> list partition

Partition ### Type Size Offset
------------- ---------------- ------- -------
* Partition 1 Primary 15 GB 0 B

DISKPART> list volume

Volume ### Ltr Label Fs Type Size Status Info
---------- --- ----------- ----- ---------- ------- --------- --------
Volume 0 E DVD-ROM 0 B No Media
Volume 1 F DVD-ROM 0 B No Media
Volume 2 RECOVERY NTFS Partition 11 GB Healthy System
Volume 3 C OS NTFS Partition 454 GB Healthy Boot
Volume 4 D DATAPART1 NTFS Partition 931 GB Healthy
Volume 5 G Removable 0 B No Media
Volume 6 H Removable 0 B No Media
Volume 7 I Removable 0 B No Media
Volume 8 J Removable 0 B No Media
* Volume 9 L RAW Removable 15 GB Healthy

DISKPART> detail disk

HP v125w USB Device
Disk ID: 00000001
Type : USB
Status : Online
Path : 0
Target : 0
LUN ID : 0
Location Path : UNAVAILABLE
Current Read-only State : No
Read-only : No
Boot Disk : No
Pagefile Disk : No
Hibernation File Disk : No
Crashdump Disk : No
Clustered Disk : No

Volume ### Ltr Label Fs Type Size Status Info
---------- --- ----------- ----- ---------- ------- --------- --------
* Volume 9 L RAW Removable 15 GB Healthy

DISKPART> detail volume

Disk ### Status Size Free Dyn Gpt
-------- ------------- ------- ------- --- ---
* Disk 6 Online 15 GB 0 B

Read-only : No
Hidden : No
No Default Drive Letter: No
Shadow Copy : No
Offline : No
BitLocker Encrypted : No
Installable : No

Volume Capacity : 15 GB
Volume Free Space : 15 GB

DISKPART> detail partition

There is no partition selected.
Please select a partition and try again.

DISKPART>
>>
gsaunders
Posts: 4
Joined: Thu May 07, 2015 4:57 am

Re: ESXi 5.0 HP v125w 16GB Issue

Post by gsaunders »

Update: I took the original image I made (before it started acting like it needed a drive letter) and restored it to another USB. It is now acting like it did initially with no drive letter and one of the recovery tools I am using can see the ESXi 5 partitions and data. Moving on to data recovery now and will see what happens.
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