[CentOS] VMWare Client COS 5 Disk Type

When creating a VMWare client that is Cent OS 5, the default SCSI disk 
is not recognized by the installer.  Any suggestions for getting a disk 
on a COS5 client?  Possible alternatives: 1) IDE disk, seems to work 
fine, 2) ??.  Follow up to choice 1, is there a performance hit?

While I have you, what is the best choice for "Guest Operating System".? 
Choices include RHEL, RHEL 4, and Other 2.6 Kernel.

-- 
Sincerely,
John Thomas