If the Virtual Machine,s Virtual Hard Drive has a mountable filesystem and you're using Fusion 2.0 you can ctrl-click the Virtual Machine Package and select Open With > VMDKMounter.

Note: The target Virtual Machine must be shutdown, not suspended and without Snapshots in order to be mounted by VMDKMounter and must then be unmounted in order to run the Virtual Machine.

Just because AutoProtect is not turned doesn't mean there are no Snapshots. If AutoProtect was on in the past or a Snapshot was taken manually then there could be although if there was you would have gotten a error message.

Did you actually format the virtual hard drive after creating the virtual machine and what filesystem did you format it, FAT or FAT32? Although if you didn't format it with a mountable filesystem you would receive an error when trying to mount it.

Typically if the virtual hard drives mounts it will just show up on the Desktop without any prompts in the process and it usually is a white icon and is named "Untitled". Are there any icons on your Desktop like that?

Well you have to format the virtual hard drive or you cannot mount it. If you not installing an OS then the easiest thing to do would be to boot the VM with a DOS Boot Disk Floppy Image and format it FAT32 although you need to do what ever the requirements for you specific needs are. you can also boot the VM with GParted and format it with that as well.

Since you hadn't formated the disk yet that's why nothing is mounting on the Desktop however I'm surprised you're not getting an error message when you try.

Message was edited by: WoodyZ

Just like with a physical computer, you set the boot priority in the (virtual) BIOS. The catch is that it flashes by very quickly - if you're unable to catch it, see A Power User's Guide to VMware Fusion or VMX Extras for how to slow it down or force entry to the BIOS.