---
title: 'Windows in recovery mode: No fixed disks to show'
url: 'https://patrik.kernstock.net/blog/windows-in-recovery-mode-no-fixed-disks-to-show'
markdown: 'https://patrik.kernstock.net/blog/windows-in-recovery-mode-no-fixed-disks-to-show.md'
date: '2019-06-22'
description: 'I have a bunch of Windows Server VMs running in a VMware vSphere HomeLab. After nearly about three months of uptime, FreeNAS decided for yet some unclear reasons to crash completely (probably a kernel panic). End of the story: Windows installation was completely broken. Not booting anymore. Apparently the crash ocurred during update installation (perfect timing!). To get the VMs back running I needed to change a few things using the Windows recovery mode. However diskpart showed: "There are no fixed disks to show". Wondering why? Me too! After a good hint from a friend I realized that I’m using VMware'
taxonomy:
  category:
    - Microsoft
    - VMware
  tag:
    - Windows
---

# [Windows in recovery mode: No fixed disks to show](https://patrik.kernstock.net/blog/windows-in-recovery-mode-no-fixed-disks-to-show)

   June 22, 2019    1 min 

   [Microsoft](https://patrik.kernstock.net/category:Microsoft)   [VMware](https://patrik.kernstock.net/category:VMware)    [Windows](https://patrik.kernstock.net/tag:Windows)  

 Note

This article is more than 7 year(s) old – information may be outdated.

 ![Windows in recovery mode: No fixed disks to show](https://patrik.kernstock.net/images/2/0/1/9/-/2019-06-2202-43-27-jisonmz7-c0b1d64b.png?g-1145e14b "Windows in recovery mode: No fixed disks to show") 

I have a bunch of Windows Server VMs running in a VMware vSphere HomeLab. After nearly about three months of uptime, FreeNAS decided for yet some unclear reasons to crash completely (probably a kernel panic). **End of the story**: Windows installation was completely broken. Not booting anymore. Apparently the crash ocurred during update installation (perfect timing!).

To get the VMs back running I needed to change a few things using the Windows recovery mode. **However *diskpart* showed: "*There are no fixed disks to show*".** Wondering why? Me too!

After a good hint from a friend **I realized that I’m using VMware PVSCSI for my virtual disks**. (Apparently I was so clever to let PXE take care about this when deploying new virtual machines, so I didn’t even think about it anymore.)

**Solution is basically very easy, I’ve done it that way:**

1. Just to verify that no disks are existent before:

    ```
    X:\windows\system32>diskpart

    [...]

    DISKPART> list disk

    There are no fixed disks to show.
    ```
2. Now head over to the vSphere client, right-click on the VM and click on *Guest OS – Install VMware Tools* and proceed by clicking on *Mount* (Make sure the VM does have a virtual CDROM drive)
3. Time to get into Windows recovery, open the Command Line and type in following: (for Windows 8 and up)

    ```
    drvload "D:\Program Files\VMware\VMware Tools\Drivers\pvscsi\Win8\amd64\pvscsi.inf"
    ```
4. To verify that you’re now seeing your drives attached to the PVSCSI controller use:

    ```
    X:\windows\system32>diskpart

    [...]

    DISKPART> list disk

      Disk ###  Status         Size     Free     Dyn  Gpt
      --------  -------------  -------  -------  ---  ---
      Disk 0    Online           75 GB  1024 KB        *
      Disk 1    Online           90 GB  1024 KB        *

    DISKPART>
    ```
5. If that works, simply unmount the VMwareTools ISO: Back to the vSphere client, and hit *Guest OS – Unmount VMware Tools installer* in the context menu

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