Host-based backup of VMware vSphere VMs.
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unsichtbarre
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Uninstalling VMware Tools causes blue screen with pvscsi

Post by unsichtbarre » 3 people like this post

Hi all,

I wanted to put this here on the Veeam Forums because the problem is a direct result of Veeam KB1788 which instructs you to:
Uninstall VMware Tools, and Reinstall VMware Tools. (Please see https://kb.vmware.com/kb/2010137 for more information). If you are unable to upgrade existing VMware tools see https://kb.vmware.com/kb/1001354
Even in the referenced VMware KB2010137, the Impact/Risks are NOT correctly listed:
This method uninstalls VMware Tools and does a complete cleanup in a headless mode.
The reality of the situation is that if you use the VMware pvscsi driver (which is a Best Practice in most situations), as soon as you uninstall the VMware Tools from a Windows VM, that system will blue screen!

We encountered just such a situation on a VM yesterday where a client had followed Veeam and VMware KB verbatim and got a blue screen. Because it was a brand-new system, it had not-yet been added to backups, so the only option was recovery.

Full credit due the client, Hayden Smart, resolved his own situation and asked me to post it on the forums for others to use in case they encountered issues:

1. Attach Floppy disk w/ appropriate PVSCSI drivers
2. Enter "Troubleshoot" once the system hits recovery console
3. Select the "command prompt" option
4. Use the CMD prompt to run the following command to install driver into preboot

drvload <path to driver>
i.e. drvload A:\AMD64\pvscsi.inf

5. Use the CMD prompt to run the DISKPART command
6. Under DISKPART issue LIST VOLUME command to identify the mapping for the new drives and identify the Windows Install Partition (C: Drive)

*note: the drive that is normally mounted as C: may have moved*

7. Exit DISKPART.
8. Use the DISM tool to install the driver into the system drive

dism /Image:<system root> /Add-Driver /Driver:<path to driver>
i.e. dism /Image:E:\ /Add-Driver /Driver:A:\AMD64\pvscsi.inf

9. Reboot the system

Found command for DISM here
https://superuser.com/questions/139899/ ... indows-cli
John Borhek, Solutions Architect
https://vmsources.com
foggy
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Re: Uninstalling VMware Tools causes blue screen with pvscsi

Post by foggy »

Hi John, thanks for sharing, much appreciated!
picinf
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Re: Uninstalling VMware Tools causes blue screen with pvscsi

Post by picinf »

Hello,

Your solution not working for me. I have always screen error 0xc000000e after boot vm windows server 2016
lando_uk
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Re: Uninstalling VMware Tools causes blue screen with pvscsi

Post by lando_uk »

To get your system booting, can you not edit the VM and point the scsi controller back to the default LSI?
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