I can confirm that in my case it was due to a corrupted download of the ISO file. The size of my file was not correct; and it gave the error mentioned in the question above, here on my VMware vSphere 5.0.
Use a download manager (e.g. Orbit Downloader) and compare the SHA-1 hash of the downloaded file with the SHA-1 value published at Microsofts download page. (Install HashTab, right-click the iso file and click the tab File Hashes) Or download from msdn.microsoft.com, as they use a buildin download manager which checks the integrity of the file.
Both Windows Server 8 Beta and Windows 8 Beta seems to run without any problems at my VMware vSphere 5.0 here.
Try to look for a guide to get a Windows 8 Preview working on VMware, because there are known problems with trying to get Windows 8 working virtually. It might be that this is only specific to the Consumer Preview, but it's worth looking around none-the-less. – Tamara Wijsman – 2012-03-01T02:33:43.123
works perfectly for me, same setup, using an iso – Journeyman Geek – 2012-03-01T06:32:07.187
I wonder if it's as simple as it's just looking for a DVD rom due to some hard coded expectation, do you not have any DVD roms? If not install a virtual device tool like Daemon tools on the host OS... – Nick Josevski – 2012-03-01T06:33:23.930
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Unless you are married to VMWare player, try virtualbox. there is a great guide for the dev preview and consumer preview HERE
– G Koe – 2012-03-01T06:35:20.903Which VMware version? Some tech blogs report that version 3.14 cannot be used to install and run W8... (but the articles are from last september and the things change fast...). Virtual Box is a good alternative imho. – climenole – 2012-03-01T07:29:10.417