So, here’s how my virtual machine did look like before an upgrade:

Here are the steps I’ve followed:

1) Shutdown virtual machine, open properties window and click Add… to open “Add Hardware Wizard” that will help you to add a new disk. Why do we need a new disk? Because you can’t add a new SCSI controller without adding a new disk or assigning any other available disk to a new controller.

2) Click Next and select “Create a new virtual disk”.

3) Click Next again. Select the size of the disk. In my case I made it 1 Gb because I will delete it later after I replace a SCSI controller.

4) Again click Next button to go to advanced options. What I did here, I selected a second SCSI controller, which is SCSI (1:0). This is the way I actually mount it on another SCSI controller which VMWare will add for me as soon as I will complete this wizard.

5) Click Next. Review what is to be done and then click Finish.

6) At this point you will see that the new BusLogic SCSI controller is added to virtual machine hardware list. Click OK.

7) Right click on a virtual machine and click Edit Settings… Click on SCSI Controller 1 and then Change Type button under SCSI controller type.

Select LSI Logic in the Change SCSI Controller Type dialog box and click OK.

9) You will see the following window where the controller type is LSI Logic:

10) Click OK button and start your virtual machine. When Windows boots open Device manager ( Start –> Run –> devmgmt.msc ) and click “+” in front of SCSI and RAID controllers node. You will see both controllers that you’ve added:

11) Now you need yet to replace the first BusLogic SCSI Controller with the LSI Logic controller. To do that shutdown virtual machine and open Properties window.

12) Now it’s time to change the type of SCSI Controller 0 from BusLogic to LSI Logic. You can also delete the Hard Disk 2, which you added in the beginning for temporary purposes. This is what you should see after changing the controller type to LSI Logic. Click OK.

13) Again open the properties of the Virtual Machine to see that all changes where successfully committed. Click OK to close this window and start the VM.

14) Notice, that when you will start it there will be a small yellow balloon on a VM icon.

15) Right click on a VM and select Answer Question…

16) Virtual Machine Question dialog window appears asking you whether you want to allow ESX Server to change the adapter disk’s type for you.

Virtual Machine Message
msg.disk.adapterMismatch:The disk connected to the scsi0:0 node has been created for a BusLogic SCSI adapter, but the virtual machine’s scsi0 device is a LSI Logic SCSI adapter. VMWare ESX Server can change the disk’s adapter type to LSI Logic. use caution; if a guest operating system is installed on this disk, it may not be able to boot.
Do you want VMWare ESX Server to change the adapter type for scsi0:0 disk?

17) Click Yes, then OK.

18) At this point, when you will start your VM and boot into Windows, open the device manager you will see only 1 SCSI controller:

19) However, we have not finished yet. By default, Windows doesn’t show devices which are currently disconnected and driver’s of such devices are still installed. If we know that we’ll never again need these devices we can uninstall them. First, you will have to turn on visualization of disconnected devices. Check here to learn how to do that.

20) Then open device manager, click View and select ‘Show hidden devices’.

21) Open SCSI and RAID Controllers node and check for dimmed (phantom) devices.

22) Right-click each dimmed device and uninstall it.

23) Reboot Windows.

Some useful links:

• VMware Files Explained: VMDK, VMEM, VMSN, VMSD, VMX & More
• Device Manager does not display devices that are not connected to the Windows XP-based computer
• BusLogic SCSI Disk Driver [http://www.vmware.com/download/ws/drivers_tools.html]
• Configuring a Virtual Machine to Use the LSI Logic SCSI Adapter

bios.bootDelay = "5000"

– adds an additional 5 second boot delay
OR:

bios.forceSetupOnce = "TRUE"

– forces the VM to enter the BIOS on the next start (this parameter will be automatically reset to FALSE).

The following examples illustrate how to use the virtual disk manager. You run the virtual disk manager from a command prompt.

Creating a Virtual Disk
To create a new virtual disk, use a command like the following:

vmware-vdiskmanager -c -t 0 -s 40GB -a ide myDisk.vmdk

This creates a 40GB IDE virtual disk named myDisk.vmdk. The virtual disk is contained in a single .vmdk file. The disk space is not preallocated.

Converting a Virtual Disk

To convert a virtual disk from preallocated to growable, use a command like the following:

vmware-vdiskmanager -r sourceDisk.vmdk -t 0 targetDisk.vmdk

This converts the disk from its original preallocated type to a growable virtual disk consisting of a single virtual disk file. The virtual disk space is no longer preallocated, and the virtual disk manager reclaims some disk space in the virtual disk so it is only as large as the data contained within it.

Expand the Size of an Existing Virtual Disk

To expand the size of a virtual disk, use a command like the following:

vmware-vdiskmanager -x 40GB myDisk.vmdk

This increases the maximum capacity of the virtual disk to 40GB.

Renaming a Virtual Disk

To rename a virtual disk, first remove it from any virtual machine that contains the disk (choose VM > Settings > , then click Remove).

Then use the following:

vmware-vdiskmanager -n myDisk.vmdk myNewDisk.vmdk

To rename the disk and locate it in a different directory, use:

vmware-vdiskmanager -n myDisk.vmdk ..\<new>\<path>\myNewDisk.vmdk

Note: The paths used in these examples assume a Windows host.

To locate the disk in a different directory but keep the same name, use:

vmware-vdiskmanager -n myDisk.vmdk ..\<new>\<path>\myDisk.vmdk

After you rename or relocate the virtual disk, add it back to any virtual machines that use it. Choose VM > Settings, click Add, then follow the wizard to add this existing virtual disk.

Defragmenting a Virtual Disk

To defragment a virtual disk, use a command like the following:

vmware-vdiskmanager -d myDisk.vmdk

Remember, you cannot defragment a virtual disk if you allocated all the disk space when you created the virtual disk. You cannot defragment a physical disk.

Preparing a Virtual Disk for Shrinking

Before you can shrink a virtual disk, you must prepare each volume on the disk (C: or D:, for example) for shrinking. To prepare a volume, it must be located on a Windows host. First you must mount the volume. To mount the volume, use the VMware DiskMount Utility, available as a free download from the VMware Web site. For information about downloading and using VMware DiskMount, see Shrinking Virtual Disks with VMware Virtual Disk Manager.

VMware DiskMount mounts individual volumes of a virtual disk. For the best results when you shrink a virtual disk, you should mount all the volumes and shrink them.

After you mount a virtual disk volume, use the virtual disk manager to prepare the disk for shrinking. To prepare the volume mounted as the M: drive for shrinking, use the following command:

vmware-vdiskmanager -p M:

Once the preparations are complete, unmount the volume. Repeat this process for each volume of the virtual disk. After you prepare all the volumes for shrinking, you can shrink the virtual disk.

Shrinking a Virtual Disk

To shrink a virtual disk, it must be located on a Windows host. Before you can shrink the virtual disk, make sure you prepare all the volumes of the virtual disk for shrinking. Then use a command like the following:

vmware-vdiskmanager -k myDisk.vmdk

Remember, you cannot shrink a virtual disk if you allocated all the disk space when you created the virtual disk. You cannot shrink a physical (raw) disk.

If the virtual disk has a snapshot, you cannot shrink the virtual disk. You must remove the snapshot before you shrink the virtual disk.