Problem was an incomplete ISO. Downloaded it again & it runs.
I added another (known good) virtual disk to the VM with the defective disk (as a comparison).
Device Information:
No outstanding diffs.
Attempt Data Rescue:
Bad vmdk says "No file systems found on /dev/sda".
Known good vmdk found #1 and #2: fat32 (1,024 MiB)
Check Partition
Nothing that looks like an error to me.
Reboot after this still didn't work.
One of our internal tech support people helped me install and try some "MBRfix" (http://www.sysint.no/nedlasting/mbrfix.htm) commands but that didn't fix it.
I setup the VM to boot off a different vmdk, added the defective vmdk, plus a third know good as another reference, started it up and ran some MBRfix commands on the drives. "volumeinformation" is the only command that shows anything wrong on the defective vmdk:
c:\Temp>MbrFix.exe volumeinformation c:
Drive: c:
Volume:
Serial: 1A0077520077343B
Cluster-size: 4096
Total Clusters: 5765542
Number of Sectors: 46124343
Free Clusters: 2039099
Volume size: 22521 MB
Free space: 7965 MB
Bytes per sector: 512
Sectors per Cluster: 8
Bytes per File Record Segment: 1024
Clusters per File Record Segment: 0
MFT start LCN: 786432
MFT 2 start LCN: 1964388
MFT Valid Data Length: 94355456
MFT Zone Start: 809440
MFT Zone End: 1277536
c:\Temp>MbrFix.exe volumeinformation d:
Function failed. Error 1: Incorrect function.
c:\Temp>MbrFix.exe volumeinformation e:
Drive: e:
Volume:
Serial: 1A0077520077343B
Cluster-size: 4096
Total Clusters: 4456184
Number of Sectors: 35649479
Free Clusters: 746819
Volume size: 17406 MB
Free space: 2917 MB
Bytes per sector: 512
Sectors per Cluster: 8
Bytes per File Record Segment: 1024
Clusters per File Record Segment: 0
MFT start LCN: 786432
MFT 2 start LCN: 1964388
MFT Valid Data Length: 83279872
MFT Zone Start: 806752
MFT Zone End: 814432
c:\Temp>MbrFix.exe /drive 0 driveinfo
Drive 0
Cylinders = 3230
Tracks (heads) per cylinder = 255
Sectors per track = 56
Bytes per sector = 512
Disk size = 23615692800 (Bytes) = 21 (GB)
c:\Temp>MbrFix.exe /drive 1 driveinfo
Drive 1
Cylinders = 2219
Tracks (heads) per cylinder = 255
Sectors per track = 63
Bytes per sector = 512
Disk size = 18251896320 (Bytes) = 16 (GB)
c:\Temp>MbrFix.exe /drive 0 drivesize
Drive 0
Disk size = 22521 (MB)
c:\Temp>MbrFix.exe /drive 1 drivesize
Drive 1
Disk size = 17406 (MB)
c:\Temp>MbrFix.exe /drive 0 listpartitions
# Boot Size (MB) Type
1 Yes 22521 7 NTFS or HPFS
2 0 0 None
3 0 0 None
4 0 0 None
c:\Temp>MbrFix.exe /drive 1 listpartitions
# Boot Size (MB) Type
1 Yes 17406 7 NTFS or HPFS
2 0 0 None
3 0 0 None
4 0 0 None
c:\Temp>MbrFix.exe /drive 2 listpartitions
# Boot Size (MB) Type
1 Yes 14328 7 NTFS or HPFS
2 0 0 None
3 0 0 None
4 0 0 None
c:\Temp>MbrFix.exe /drive 0 readsignature
18D7Fxxx
c:\Temp>MbrFix.exe /drive 1 readsignature
E2A7Exxx
c:\Temp>MbrFix.exe /drive 2 readsignature
C280Cxxx
c:\Temp>MbrFix.exe /drive 0 readstate
0
c:\Temp>MbrFix.exe /drive 1 readstate
0
c:\Temp>MbrFix.exe /drive 2 readstate
0
c:\Temp>MbrFix.exe /drive 0 /partition 1 getpartitiontype
7
c:\Temp>MbrFix.exe /drive 1 /partition 1 getpartitiontype
7
c:\Temp>MbrFix.exe /drive 2 /partition 1 getpartitiontype
7
c:\Temp>MbrFix.exe /drive 0 getactivepartition
1
c:\Temp>MbrFix.exe /drive 1 getactivepartition
1
c:\Temp>MbrFix.exe /drive 2 getactivepartition
1
I don't think MBRfix will take care if this since writing a master boot record also writes partition information. I would like to save the master boot record off of one of the other 2 disks and replace the MBR on the defective with it but I think that would hose up the partition table.
Next going to boot the Windows server installer CD and try rescue mode.