📎 AI Summary:
The thread discusses a user's issue with their Windows 8.1 Pro preview running in VMware Player not recognizing external USB drives on a Windows 7 host. Advice is given to ensure devices are correctly connected and recognized in VMware, with suggestions to use shared folders as a workaround. The user confirms success in sharing the drives through shared folders, indicating a resolution to their problem.
davidhk129

davidhk129

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Thread Author #1
Acer Aspire laptop.
Host OS : Win 7 Home Premium SP1.
Guest OS : Win 8.1 pro preview installed in VMware Player

Win 8.1 does not see my external hard drive or flash drive when I plug them into the USB ports.
How do I correct that?

Thank you.
 

Solution
Mike
You need to dismount the devices on the host computer and make sure they are defined in VMWare Player. There may be some limitations to player that do not exist in VMWare Workstation. VMWare Workstation will allow you to emulate all of the devices you have connected to your physical machine directly to the virtual machine every time you start the machine. VMWare Player is not as specific about this and there is likely a limitation of how well it is supported. You can try sharing them in a folder with the virtual machine as a way to get around it with the storage issue.
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Mike

Mike

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#2
You need to dismount the devices on the host computer and make sure they are defined in VMWare Player. There may be some limitations to player that do not exist in VMWare Workstation. VMWare Workstation will allow you to emulate all of the devices you have connected to your physical machine directly to the virtual machine every time you start the machine. VMWare Player is not as specific about this and there is likely a limitation of how well it is supported. You can try sharing them in a folder with the virtual machine as a way to get around it with the storage issue.
 

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Solution
davidhk129

davidhk129

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Thread Author #3
davidhk129 said:
Acer Aspire laptop.
Host OS : Win 7 Home Premium SP1.
Guest OS : Win 8.1 pro preview installed in VMware Player

Win 8.1 does not see my external hard drive or flash drive when I plug them into the USB ports.
How do I correct that?

Thank you.
Click to expand...

Editing..............
In VM, top right corner, there are some icons, one of which is my ext. hdd.
I right clicked at it and it said " Connect (disconnect from host)".
I clicked at it. But the ext. hdd is not found under Computer although it is supposed to be connected to the VM.
 

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davidhk129

davidhk129

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Joined
May 19, 2012
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Thread Author #4
davidhk129 said:
Editing..............
In VM, top right corner, there are some icons, one of which is my ext. hdd.
I right clicked at it and it said " Connect (disconnect from host)".
I clicked at it. But the ext. hdd is not found under Computer although it is supposed to be connected to the VM.
Click to expand...


Here is the screenshot to show that I had done what VM told me. But still can't find it in VM.

Link Removed
 

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