I was trying to install ESXi 5.0 on a pc with a sata drive connected to an
onboard sata controller. It seems that Vmware folk do not expect users to
install their hypervisor on pc's, so local sata is not supported by default.
However, it can be done if the sata controller features ahci:
Set sata controller to ahci in the bios setup
Run the ESXi installer
Alt-F1 in esxi installer when it reports no disks found for installation
Login = root, pw = [blank]
vmkload_mod ahci
alt-F2 in esxi installer
rescan for disks
hopefully the installer should now recognize the sata disk.
