Did you install DSM, and the timeout is in the manager?
Or are you timing out pre-install of the pat file?
What ESXi hardware are you running this on? Intel / AMD, memory, disk, motherboard, etc.
Are there any other VMs on the same machine?
Are you using a VMFS Disk or a RDM Disk? You may have faulty hardware (fails to virtualise).
Follow the guide, use a VMFS Disk first to test that it installs and works, then delete/disconnect the disk and redo it properly with the desired Drive. All else being the same, the guide setup will work, since it is purely virtual.
The guide is very good, i had the same problem with error code 38. The DSM doenst recognize the hdd, so put the vmdk file (200mb) in paravirtual scsi mode and it will work perfectly and fast enough.
i got 40-60mbps on my gigabit home network