Virtual Machines with virtual NVDIMM display blue screen (BSOD) on initializing disk in Windows Disk Manager or Disk Manager displays an error

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:

• When performing "Initialize Disk"  in Windows Disk Manager, Guest OS enters BSOD or Disk Manager displays an error message in pop-up window.
• The issue occurs in virtual machines configured with a virtual NVDIMM of size less than 16MB. A BSOD and failure to initialize disk are known to occur in Windows 10, Windows Server 2022, or Windows 11 v21H2 guest operating systems.

Environment

VMware vSphere 6.7.x
VMware vSphere 7.0.x

Resolution

Increase virtual NVDIMM size to 16MB or greater, as smaller sizes are not supported. For more information, see Add an NVDIMM Device to a Virtual Machine .