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Goz
Contributor
Contributor

How can I format USB devices from windows under VMWare fusion?

I am running a bootcamp partition under VMWare Fusion 8.1 and I've recently noticed that I am unable to format any external USB devices.  This goes for USB keys as well as external hard disks.  I'm running a mid-2014 Macbook Pro retina 15".

I've tried booting into bootcamp but unfortunately Im having another problem there.  It won't boot up.  In fact I first noticed the problem while trying to build a recovery disk to try and fix the bootcamp booting.

Any help would be hugely appreciated as this is extremely annoying Smiley Sad

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22 Replies
Mikero
Community Manager
Community Manager

It should work just like it does with physical disks once you've 'connected' the USB device to Windows.

I do it regularly to format NTFS (and subsequently copy large files to the newly formatted USB stick).

The disk should show up when you open up the 'Disk Management' partitioning tool which has been included in Windows for some time.

For more info on using that: How To Manage Partitions on Windows Without Downloading Any Other Software

Are you doing something there that fails or isn't giving you the results that you'd expect?

-
Michael Roy - Product Marketing Engineer: VCF
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Goz
Contributor
Contributor

I insert the drive I can see a 7.5GB RAW partition.  I right click select Format.  I leave everything on defaults and hit go.  After a wait during which all I see is the wait cursor (no progress update or anything)  I suddenly hear a sound like the USB device disconnecting and then I have an error dialog box saying "The format did not complete successfully".

I have verbose USB debugging enabled if that helps? (No idea where to look for the log though!)

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Goz
Contributor
Contributor

A bit of further checking says it WILL format the USB key as exFAT but not as FAT32 or NTFS.  Very strange but as far as I'm aware useless to me as I can't boot from an exFAT formatted drive.

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ColoradoMarmot
Champion
Champion

You may have to repartition the drive, not just format it.

Are you connecting directly?  If via  a hub, try connecting directly instead.

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TheDeepak
Contributor
Contributor

Having the same issue trying to format a USB drive in Windows 2012 R2 running on Fusion 8.1 - Connecting directly.

I've tried Disk Manager, DiskPart, HP USB Disk Storage Tool - no luck.

Macbook Air running Capitan 10.11.2

Fusion 8.1

Windows 2012 R2

Tried 2 different known good USB drives with the same result.

Ideas?

Deepak

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Goz
Contributor
Contributor

The drive has already been partitioned on another machine so it "should" be fine.  It not being fine points to a problem, IMO.  You also can't re-partition a USB key (it turns out).  I'm not going to re-partition my external HDD as it is in use.

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cjstout
Contributor
Contributor

The issue appears to be an incompatibility between Windows 10/Server 2012 and VMware Fusion. I'm running the latest version (Professional Version 8.1.0 (3272237)) and my Windows 10 vm will stall when attempting to format any USB drive. I've tried USB 2, USB 3, and many varying capacities and brands of flash drives and each attempt to format results in the vm locking up until I unplug the flash drive. The same drives will format in my Windows 7 vm just fine. This post is the only other record I could find of someone else having the same issue as me, so please count this as my "me too."

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_Douglas_
Contributor
Contributor

Same issue here... no way to properly complete an USB device format (SD, HD, USB key and so on) since I upgraded to Win10 Pro (no issues with previous virtualized MS OS).

Format is OK with ExFAT, but fails with FAT32 or NTFS.

The symptom is quite horrible... while formatting, the devices go disconnected and then immediatly reconnect under Fusion...

Formatting the same devices works fine under physical Mac, PCs and so on... so the issue is not related to devices in any way...

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holly_lee
Contributor
Contributor

Yes I got same issue. It must be a bug in 8.10. Turn back to 8.0.2 and formatting runs smoothly.

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Goz
Contributor
Contributor

I'm running windows 8.1 ...

Any comment from VMWare?  Other than the initial denial that anything is wrong?

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joeMJ
Contributor
Contributor

You will also see this by using diskpart utility with clean or convert.

Solution: Use any USB2.0 Hub in between or your Thunderbolt Display to workaround.

Fusion has "issues" together with USB 3.0 or with USB in general, you will also have problems when your mac wakes up from standby.

Edit - Bigger notice.

Regards,

John

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ScottyM1C
Contributor
Contributor

I am having the exact same issue with Windows 10 - thought I had borked my install so did a fresh Win 10 install and still cant format USB Drives, then I found this.

Are VMWare aware? Is there a fix coming?

EDIT - have just installed Win 7 X64 and it works fine

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R0MANAT0R
Contributor
Contributor

I'm having the same issue using VMWare fusion 8.1 with Windows 8.1 x64 Virtual Machine and Bootcamp.  DISKPART and simple fat32 formatting does not work.  I upgraded to VMWare fusion 8 from 7, which introduced this new bug.  Is there any software updates from VMWare fusion?

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RickShu
VMware Employee
VMware Employee

Hi,

This is a known issue in Fusion 8.1 unfortunately, we will fix it in next release.

Sorry for any inconveniences to you.

Regards,

-Rick

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ScottyM1C
Contributor
Contributor

Do you know when the next release is please?

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sjf
Contributor
Contributor

I was having thumb-drive format failures under Windows 10 (Fusion 8.1.0) on two different iMacs. Discovered that changing the VM's Settings -> USB & Bluetooth -> Advanced ->USB Compatibility  from "USB 3.0" to "USB 2.0" corrected the problem.

Note that the thumb-drive was USB 2.0. One of the iMacs has USB 3.0 ports, the other has USB 2.0 ports.

Hope this helps!

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bubbagoldstein_
Contributor
Contributor

Still a problem with Windows 7 x64 running on VMWare Fusion 8.1.1 (3771013) in USB 2 mode.  Is there a fix on the horizon? It has been over 6 months.

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etienneterblanc
Contributor
Contributor

Running Win 10 with VMware Fusion 7.1.3 - same issue

I assume still no fix, even with version 8?

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vmxmr
Expert
Expert

/ Begin snarky remarks /

The best predictor of future behavior is past behavior. In past years, VMware seems to stop releasing bug fixes for Fusion long before summer. Instead, they release "version +1" by end of summer, which includes support for Apple's latest operating system (still in beta), a few minor features, and some bug fixes. Everyone buys it, hoping that the bug fixes include a fix for their "pet" bug. They find that their pet bug wasn't fixed and the +1 version introduced new annoying bugs, eliminated support for features that they used, and disappointed most everyone.

/ End snarky remarks /

Nonetheless, I stay with VMware Fusion and pay my upgrade every time a new version is released. Despite my snarky comments above, it is an excellent product that I want to support with my hard-earned dollars. I like their non-subscription, family-style licensing, and overall VMware Fusion does what I need.

Considering the changes in the development and support teams, I hope this year breaks the mold with helpful new features, bug fixes, stability fixes, quality improvements, better testing, etc. etc. etc. We will all know soon enough, unless they also break the pattern of their release cycle.

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