Welcome to the VMware Communities forums.
It doesn't appear that you're concerned with the data on the disk, but I thought it would be best to confirm that.
What sort of storage controller does your server have? When you get to the error message in the ESXi installer, press ALT+F1 to access the console. Login with root (no password).
Run lspci -p. Do you see a vmhbaX device for your controller? Does it have a module listed?