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addisonwk
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v11.1.1 Mojave w/ Windows 10 Guest Cannot access USB 3 SanDisk Extreme External SSD

Hi all,

I have been trying to access my SanDisk Extreme 500GB SSD in a Windows 10 guest install on a 2017 MBP with Mojave and v11.1.1, but I keep getting errors and frequent disconnect/reconnect tones from the guest without ever seeing the actual drive in windows explorer.

The error I get when I try to connect the drive to the Windows guest is as follows:

Screen Shot 2019-08-30 at 5.52.57 PM.png

A lot of people seem to suggest that the USB compatibility needs to be switched to USB 3.0 but I have tried the drive with it set to both 3.0 and 2.0 and get the same result.

Sometimes in the windows taskbar notification area "usb safe-removal" menu I see a "SanDisk Extreme" listed briefly but it makes the disconnect and reconnect tone rapidly over and over and the listed device goes away.

The same goes for device manager in both `disk drives` and `System devices`:

Screen Shot 2019-08-30 at 6.05.29 PM.pngScreen Shot 2019-08-30 at 6.05.41 PM.png

Should this usb SSD be identifying as a SCSI device in windows?

Additionally I have tried fully uninstalling Fusion and reinstalling, and followed the steps here: https://communities.vmware.com/message/2814515#2814515

I can't remember if I ever saw "Allow" come up in Settings > Security & Privacy, but I haven't seen it come up when reinstalling or since either.

Has anyone experienced this issue? Any advice is appreciated, thanks.

1 Solution

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RickShu
VMware Employee
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Hi

SanDisk Extreme External SSD belongs to USB 3.1 gen 2 category, however, Fusion 11.1.1 supports USB devices up to 3.1 gen 1, that is why you saw the prompted dialog box.

Regards,

-Rick

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RickShu
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Hi

SanDisk Extreme External SSD belongs to USB 3.1 gen 2 category, however, Fusion 11.1.1 supports USB devices up to 3.1 gen 1, that is why you saw the prompted dialog box.

Regards,

-Rick

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addisonwk
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Hi RickShu​,

Thanks for your quick response, I appreciate it! That makes sense, I guess I didn't realize Fusion could only do 3.1 gen1.

Two questions:

1. Is it reasonable to wait for USB 3.1 gen2 support in Fusion or is that feature not on the horizon?

2. Is it possible to force a device to fall back to an older USB spec like 3.1 gen1 or 3.0 and just use the slower speeds offered by those?

Thanks again.

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RickShu
VMware Employee
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Hi addisonwk,

It is possible to force a USB 3.1 gen 2 device to fall back to gen 1 controller, however, this feature was unstable and worked on certain cases and failed during other times,  so we do NOT recommend you work with it and we do not provide any support for this use case.

add this entry to the vmx file and things would work:

usb.mangleUsb3Speed = "TRUE"

Backup your data before you start to try with this.

Regards,

-Rick

ColoradoMarmot
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A brute-force way would be to get a Gen-1 hub and put that between the device and the computer.  We used to do that with USB 3 devices before Fusion supported it in legacy windows versions.

addisonwk
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Thanks a ton for the advice.

I actually ended up installing WindowsToGo using WinToUSB on the drive from a borrowed windows laptop, and then naming it Boot Camp I was able to use it as a boot camp drive, and as a result Fusion was able to see it as a Boot Camp installation and can boot it as well. It seems that USB 3.1 gen2 support isn't needed when the machine is run as an imported boot camp install?

Best regards

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