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macmadden
Contributor
Contributor

How to get an Apple USB Superdrive to be recognized in Windows 7 VM

Hello,

I have just installed Win 7 VM under FMWare Fusion 7.x, and cannot get Windows to recognize the USB external Superdrive.  I go up under Virtual Machine and click to connect, it says it will and do I want it to always do this?  I click YES.  And nothing.  When I look under USB and Bluetooth drives, SATA is the one selected, but USB is not a choice.  Just SATA, IDE, and SCSI!!

If I unplug the drive and plug it back in several times, MAYBE it will be recognized, and sucks the DVD in.  Once it actually let me install software.  But that was it.

I had it set to ask what to do, so I could pick windows or mac, and it did to that, so I know it is recognizing the drive is plugged in.  I then set it to always be windows, but does not matter.

I got error saying device requires installation of Apple Bootcamp driver disk in the virtual machine.  NOT sure why, since I am not using Bootcamp at all.  However, I went thru the motions in Bootcamp Asst, downloaded the driver from the machine with the VM, and saved it to a thumb drive.  Relaunched the VM, went into the thumb drive to set up, and it comes back with error, this cannot be installed on this system.  What?????

So I am in a loop right now.  REALLY need the VM to recognize the external Apple Superdrive, so need to know how to accomplish this.

VMWare Tooks are installed, and VMWare is up to date.  As is Windows.

Thanks,

Lisa

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5 Replies
nancyz
VMware Employee
VMware Employee

Hi Lisa,

Welcome to  Fusion forum. Which kind of USB superdrive did you use?

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macmadden
Contributor
Contributor

Hi,

As mentioned in my initial post, it's an Apple USB Superdrive.  A generic drive works, but the Apple one does not, or works sporadically.  Seems to me that Win 7 does not have the right driver for it, but no idea how to get it.....

Thanks,

Lisa

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clbaker
Contributor
Contributor

Has this issue been resolved or discussed any further?

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Wilmerwilkins
Contributor
Contributor

I see this thread has not been added to for some time. But I have just had exactly this same problem and found several similar discussion threads elsewhere where nobody has an answer. I then found the following procedure worked fine for me:

1) Powered my Mac down and rebooted (I was "frozen" from a previous unsuccessful approach with the superdrive). I did not reboot the Windows virtual machine.

2) Connected the Superdrive, which was automatically connected to Mac OS. It appeared as a drive and was recognised by its name. I inserted a CD that was read and left it in the drive.

3) Open the VMWare Fusion library and the settings panel for the virtual machine (Windows 10 in my case).

4) Click on "Add Device" in the top right corner and select CD/DVD Drive. This produces a box with a drop-down list for selecting the drive. The Superdrive was already preselected by name, but even if it had not been I think it would have been possible to select it using Finder.

5) Started the virtual machine and the Superdrive was connected and was reading the inserted disk, which I was then able to access and use.

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CadisDRaizel
Contributor
Contributor

@Wilmerwilkins

Your procedures worked for me. 😃

Thank you very much for sharing this detailed solution to the problem.

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