Creating an virtual USB pen drive bootable

[balubeto]

HI

With a VM Workstation 8.x, it is possible to create a virtual USB pen drive that also allows to booting?

THANKS

BYE

[mprost]

Hi.

Take a look at this tool: http://en.kioskea.net/faq/7591-boot-from-your-usb-drive-under-vmware

Cheers,

mprost

[continuum]

watch out - when using Plop bootmanager from ISO the attached USB-stick or drive often boots horrible slow.
This is because the device often is using USB 1 speed only.

So if you notice that USB-boot is dead slow - reset the VM. Most of the times the second boot will then work with USB 2 speed

In WS 8 it should also be possible to boot directly from USB if you tell the VM to use EFI instead of the regular BIOS.
Note - this feature is highly experimental.
The Plop approach is quite reliable

[balubeto]

How do I tell a VM to use the (U)EFI?

THANKS

BYE

[continuum]

firmware = "efi"

if you are i a hurry to make this work ... - use Plop[ - thats the easy way

[dariusd]

Yep, it's just

   firmware = "efi"

in the .vmx file, but it's important to note that this is not officially supported on VMware Workstation, and you'll need to boot EFI-aware software when you're using virtual EFI firmware... you can't use EFI firmware to boot something designed for legacy BIOS from a virtual USB device.

Cheers,

--

Darius

[noglider]

Perhaps balubeto wanted to know how to boot a VM from a pen drive, but his wording made me think he wants to create a virtual pen drive. That's what I want to do. Is it possible?

[continuum]

nope - thats not implemented.

[noglider]

Can I put it in as a feature request? It'd be mighty useful!