ESXi installer won't detect flash drive?

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JimPhreak

Active Member
Oct 10, 2013
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I'm trying to install ESXi 5.5 on a flash drive connected to the motherboard USB 3.0 header of my SuperMicro A1SAI-2558F motherboard. No matter what I seem to set in the BIOS, I can't get the ESXi installer to recognize the flash drive (I've tried two) in order to install ESXi onto it.

I remember hearing about issues with USB 3.0 flash drives but is there also an issue with USB 3.0 headers? It's a real bummer if I can't use the internal header.

P.S. The BIOS detects the flash drive just fine.
 

cheezehead

Active Member
Sep 23, 2012
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Midwest, US
A couple of things come to mind.

* Try an external header and see if it works
* What kind of pen drives are those?...some have some quirky driver issues
* have you tried setting the usb ports in legacy mode?
* Are there any unusual partitions on the flash drives?
 
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Reactions: Chuckleb

Chuckleb

Moderator
Mar 5, 2013
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Yes, I was trying to do a Windows update for a friend and couldn't get it to work until I dropped to a USB 2.0 port. Sometimes it's the USB drivers that are loaded in the OS installer I think.
 

JimPhreak

Active Member
Oct 10, 2013
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Yea, just needed to plug into a USB 2.0 port to get it working. Sucks I can't use the on board USB 3.0 internal header.
 

JimPhreak

Active Member
Oct 10, 2013
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Thanks. for the link. I actually have a USB header -> USB port adapter that I could use if I wanted. It's just that I have to remove my entire motherboard to get to everything as I have a very cramped case (U-NAS NSC-800)
 

JimPhreak

Active Member
Oct 10, 2013
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Some USB 3.0 support got added with the October 2014 patch for ESXi 5.5 (VMware Front Experience: VMware silently adds native USB 3.0 support to ESXi 5.5). If your running 5.1 or earlier, there is no native USB 3.0 support. However, you could try manually side-loading the extra drivers (if available) via the ESXi Customizer as well (http://www.v-front.de/p/esxi-customizer-ps.html).
Thanks for the link. For now I'm working off a USB 2.0 port but next time I do maintenance on my server I'll give this a shot.