VMWare Workstation and XP

I'm having some issues getting all my OSD stuff set up in VMWare, and I'm hoping someone here can help point me in the right direction. I'm running the latest version of VMWare Workstation on 64-bit Windows 7, and I've got my Build and Capture process working just perfectly for my 32-bit and 64-bit Windows 7 captures. The problem I'm running into is that I don't seem to be able to get the right configuration to do the same for 32-bit Windows XP Professional. Has anyone set up the virtual machine in VMWare for an XP build and capture sequence? If so, are there any tricks or tips that I may be missing?
Thanks!

you'll need network drivers for VMware, and possibly a SCSI driver depending on what type of drive you give the VM.  

Nothing special needed.  I build all my reference images in Workstation 7 with no issues.  All I have in the boot image is the VMWare NIC driver.
 
What errors or failures are you seeing?

I snagged the "windows.iso" that's part of the VMWare Tools (for Workstation 7.1.0 build 261024) and added the drivers from inside it to the SCCM environment. I then added the drivers to my boot media, updated everything, and made a new bootable .ISO image.

So I made progress! I can now format the virtual drive and communicate with the SCCM server over the network. Now the odd thing... I can't install my XP OS task sequence. The task sequence works just fine on a physical box, and my other Windows 7 images work just fine on my other virtual machines. Whenever I try to use my XP image, after I select the task sequence, it tries to resolve the dependencies and then tells me that:

"This task sequence cannot be run because the program files for XXXXX cannot be located on a distribution point. For more information, please contact your system administrator or helpdesk operator."

And I know XXXXX is out there and working fine because this is the package for the ConfigMgr client - which is part of every one of our OS task sequences (that are working just fine).

Any idea what I'm missing? I'm thinking there's something wrong with the selections I made in setting up the new virtual machine. Can anyone tell me what drive type they are using? SCSI, IDE? And what operating system do you have listed? Does it matter if I have it set for "Windows 7" or "Windows XP Professional"?

Again, my Windows 7 stuff works just fine on my virtual machines (build and capture, or basic OS deployment). I'm just having problems getting XP up and going for some reason.

Another way of getting VMWare drivers is to start the installation for VMWare tools, go to the mounted drive and copy the drivers for NIC and SCSI into your boot image. 
 
The error for not finding the package has nothing to do with what type of drive you selected, try updating the client package on the DP.  I've seen this with the MDT toolkit package, an update on the DP takes care of that issue.
 
Sounds like you're almost there!

the issue is with the network card that VMWare uses. in the win7 virtual machine it uses the Intel E1000 NIC, when you select XP as a VM you get the AMDLance network card.
 
windows 7 doesn't have drivers for the AMD Lance, WinXP doesn't have drivers for the E1000. you are caught in a catch-22 if you create a VM for windows 7, your PE will boot, but the XP install will fail because it doesn't have drivers. if you create a VM for windows XP, the PE will reboot at "applying network settings" because it doesn't have drivers.
 
to fix ths I had to use VMXBuilder and change my NIC to E1000 in the VMX file. I also found a set of e1000 drivers out on the internet for windows XP and now everything works... until I create a new VM and have to do it all over again.
 
 
 

Rather than adding drivers and doing a bunch of stuff to make XP OSD compatible with VMWare, I just make my VM compatible with XP OSD.


*  Create a new VM specifying Windows XP as the operating system.


*  Then, make the following changes to the .vmx configuration file:

Change:  scsi0.present = "false"
Add:  ethernet0.virtualDev = "e1000"




You should now be able to execute a build and capture from WinPE for an XP task sequence without network problems or the mass storage controller blue screen.  And you didn't even have to update a DP!

Still not getting it. This is what I'm doing:

1. Open WMWare Workstation 7.1.0
2. Select File/New/Virtual Machine
3. Select the "Typical" option
4. Select my SCCM OS Image Installation CD's ISO image for the installer disc image
5. Select Microsoft Windows XP professional for the guest operating system
6. Leave everything blank except the "Full name" since our SCCM process provides all this info
7. Chose the location on my C:\ drive to use for the virtual machine
8. set the max disk size to 40 GBs and store it as a single file
9. I then click to edit the settings and adjust my RAM and Display

If I adjust the settings as npherson suggests I can't format the virtual drive via DISKPART (so do I need to pick a different drive in my steps above?).

If I leave the settings alone, the VMWare drivers I added to my SCCM boot image allow me to format the virtual drive.

But no matter which method I use, as soon as I pick my XP task sequence it gives me an error that it failed to run because it couldn't locate the program files for XXXXX. Which as I mentioned before, is our ConfigMgr client, which is working just fine in all our other task sequences (and this XP OS task sequence works just fine if deployed to a physical machine).

What am I missing?

What problems do you run into with diskpart?

I am able to successfully select the disk and do all the partitioning necessary for OSD, both manually and thru the task sequence.  

If I do my 9 steps, and then go in and make those two changes to the .VMX file, if I boot up and press the F8 key, when I get into DISKPART and execute the command "list disk" I get: "There are no fixed disks to show."

Which I assume means I'm missing needed drivers on my boot disc. But if I leave out the two changes to the .VMX file I can see and partition the drive just fine since I added some of the VMWare drivers to my boot disc.

Ideas? Suggestions? I just can't figure out why I can't get this going for XP. Am I not adding the right drivers? I still feel like my settings for my XP virtual machine aren't right since I can format the drive and PING the server.

I think the problem is the SCSI driver on your VM.  Try selecting "Custom" instead of "Typical" when creating the new VM and specify the HD type as ide instead of SCSI. 

If I remember correctly, you need to select IDE in the wizard and still change scsi0.present = "true" to scsi0.present = "false" in your .vmx configuration file to get a standard XP OSD Build & Capture or Deployment without VMWare specific drivers to not blue screen on the mass storage controller when XP is installing.  At least this is the way it is in VMWare Workstation 6.5.