I recently came across an issue where I had a vmware ESXI server that had a fresh CentOS 6.2 install that had been rebooted and gave the cryptic error:
kernel panic not syncing attempted to kill init!Most sites that you are googling will talk about either changing the permissions on file, changing the Disk controller to LSI or that you need to edit your vmx file?!
In my case, pressing "Esc" during the boot process showed what was really hanging up the system loading. SeLinux was angry and needed to be disabled.
To do this, just boot off the same CD that you used to install the OS, choose Rescue and answer the first few questions normally, then when it drops you into a shell use:
vi /mnt/sysimage/etc/selinux/config
Set Selinux to 0