VMware Fusion USB not visible

Does anyone else have this problem?

USB memory stick works with Leopard
When you connect it into the virtual machine it's not visible

That's the best I can explain, a picture is worth a thousand words...

verbatim210 said:

Does anyone else have this problem?

USB memory stick works with Leopard
When you connect it into the virtual machine it's not visible

That's the best I can explain, a picture is worth a thousand words...

Click to expand...

Thanks for the 2,017-word explanation Can I have a few more words?

I assume you want to save files from Windows to your USB key? Have you tried plugging the flash drive in after launching Windows? Has the drive worked before in this Windows installation (i.e., the drive's drivers are installed in Windows?) The USB symbols in the bottom right of the window also connect/disconnect devices. Can I see the rest of your Windows Explorer window (does your flash drive mount in Windows)?

Good job with the screenshots, BTW.

Your USB drive has been mounted on the MAC OS hence can not be seen by the virtual machine. Unmount it from MAC. Then you should be able to see it on VM.

No, fusion would auto unmount it for him. More likly it is sitting in your device manager in windows and hasn't been assigned a drive letter due to not having a driver available it likes. You might want to try a brand that is alittle more mainstream.

My experience has been that VM wouldn't recognise it till the device is unmounted from the OS.

I use fusion daily. All I have to do is plug in my usb hard drive, wait for OSX to mount it, click the corresponding usb icon in fusion, and it auto unmounts and shows right up in windows.

As shown in the guys screen shot it is already connected to the virtual machine. He just needs to check his device manager.

Windows is pretty messed up when it comes to flash drives - I regularly have trouble on a real PC, let alone a VM. Definitely check Device Manager, you might need to force a drive letter onto it. Also try restarting Windows with the drive plugged in, sometimes it will assign a drive letter then.

SmartyMAC, what you say is not always the case, unmounting it from OSX doesn't automatically mean Fusion will see it.

What is the format on the USB drive? Is it FAT32 or Mac OS Extended?

If formatted by MacOS, then XP will never see it..

Also, look in the device manager, does it show up there?
If it does, go into disk management in XP and see if you just need to give it a drive letter. That is a problem I run into on XP every once in a while..

The first image is just there to say it works and OSX is happy
In the second image i've ejected from OSX and mounted it into Fusion.

I've tried using two sticks-
Laser 1GB: works on OSX and XP, invisible in Fusion
IBM 128MB: works on OSX XP and use to work in Fusion (for some reason it no longer works)

As for Device Manager, there is an exclamation mark next to USB. I figured this was tolerable since the Device Manager on my real XP displays the same thing.

This problem is virtual machine specific, all sticks work fine in the real world and all use FAT32.

I've tried restarting the virtual machine. Also tried disconnect/reconnect. Normally when you plug in a USB, Windows will show a pop-up saying mass storage device detected. This does not happen in Fusion, on my MacBook.

here is another screenshot showing all is fine in the real world, XP:

Hi I am having the same problem a USB stick that has been working for 6mth n my VMware decided a week ago to no longer work - as I am no computer tech I will use layman's terms and explain the best I can.
The USB stick works fine on the mac side of the computer and generally when I want to use it on the windows side I would just click on the icon in the bottom left corner and it would load it up.. no problems - a couple of pop up boxes from my virus ware but that is it. Now none of the USB drives are being recognised on the WMware side regardless of what I try to plug in. Really annoying as Windows tends to be... Oh I am using Vista 32bit. I have tried all the suggestions above.. HELP????

My wifes machine had this problem. It was an XP driver issue. In device mangler (sp) it had an exclamation point. So I removed it. Rebooted, reinserted the thumbdrive and had it autodetect plug and ply devices. Problem solved.

Oh and there are some db issues going on, I posted this long after verdejt's post (couple minutes, ancient history in terms of machine cycles though)

All I can say is that I am in my XP fusion install. I plug in my flash drive and it works. I have many different models and they all seem to work. If when in device manager you see and exclamation point it means that there is a problem with that device whether you are in a virtual state or on a real computer. First thing make sure VM Tools is installed and then make sure you are enabling the host controller that you are using. If it isn't selected then no matter what you plug into it won't be seen. From my experience once it's seen in Mac then VM won't see it. You have to unmount it then log into your VM and then insert your flash drive.

Mike I love your line about chisels. That's a great one.

verdejt said:

Mike I love your line about chisels. That's a great one.

Click to expand...

Thanks! and OOOOooohhh so true!