Specific DVD/CD drive shows CDs as empty or "disk structure is corrupted and unreadable" in Windows XP guest: how to fix?

[Jim_DeLaHunt]

Hi, I have a problem with a specific DVD/CD drive when it connects to my Windows XP guest.

Problem drive: Samsung/Toshiba "TSSTcorp CDDVDW SE-S204N USB Device", containing an audio CD.

Guest OS: Windows XP, SP3

Host OS: Mac OS X 10.5.8, on MacBook Pro computer.

VMware product: VMware Fusion 2.0.8 (328035)

My original symptom was an error message, "disk structure is corrupted and unreadable", when I tried viewing the audio CD in WIndows Explorer.

To reproduce:

1. Launch Windows XP guest OS.

2. Plug in SE-S204N DVD drive. Connect to Guest OS.

3. Insert audio CD in SE-S204N drive.

4. In Windows Device Manager, verify there is an entry under DVD/CD-ROM drives for "TSSTcorp CDDVDW SE-S204N USB Device"

5. Start menu... My Computer... A My Computer dialog appears, showing CD Drive 😧 (for the internal CD drive) and CD Drive E: (for the SE-S204N).

6. Double-click on "CD Drive E:".

Observed symptoms (1):

An error dialog appears, reading:

"E:\ is not accessible.
The disk structure is corrupted and unreadable."

Expected symptoms:

A Windows Explorer window appears, showing the tracks of the CD as audio files.

After some messing around, the symptoms changed a bit:

Observed symptoms (2):

A Windows Explorer window appears, showing zero files (an empty CD) in drive E:\.

Tests I tried:

* Using a different external USB CD/DVD drive, and the MacBook Pro's internal CD/DVD drive. Worked as expected.

* Using this exact SE-S204N drive with a different VMware Fusion guest OS (Ubuntu Linux) on the same MacBook Pro host. Worked as expected.

* Follow the instructions in "Troubleshooting USB devices using USB quirks in Fusion", KB Article: 1025256,  Updated: Feb 8, 2011, <http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=102525...> . I added lines like

usb.quirks.device0 = "0x13fd:0x2040 skip-setconfig, skip-reset"

and

usb.quirks.device1 = "0x13fd:0x2040 skip-reset, skip-refresh, skip-setconfig"

This changed my symptoms from symptoms (1) to symptoms (2). (This change lasted even after I deleted the usb.quirks.device line from the vmx file, which is odd.)

I tried searching the knowledgebase, the forums, and the web at large for hints on this problem, but I couldn't find anything which helped.  I'd file a support request, but my complimentary support expired a while ago.

Anyone have any clues or suggestions?  Thanks.

[Jim_DeLaHunt]

For the record, I had the same problem with the same drive back in January 2008, with VMWare Fusion 1.1. See this Communities thread, Why does my USB DVD-RAM device show in Windows XP as "disk structure corrupted and unreadable"?.

Also, I just upgraded to VMWare fusion 3.1.2 (332101). I no longer get the "disk structure is corrupted and unreadable" message. But the audio CD does not mount; the drive appears to Windows to have an empty 0-byte DVD in it.

[WoodyZ]

I'm sorry I don't have a specific answer for this particular issue however if the Optical Drive on the MacBoook Pro works then why not just use it instead.  Or as an example I rarely use the physical optical drive in a Virtual Machine and prefer to use ISO Images as they are faster then using the physical drive/media and when installing large software packages even with taking the time to create the ISO Image included it usually installs faster then directly from physical media.  I also typically reuse ISO Images over and over on many different physical and virtual machines so for me it's just a more practical way to go.

[Jim_DeLaHunt]

Woody, thanks for the ideas. What you don't know is that my use case is ripping music CD's into digital music files. Thus I have to read from a physical Audio CD. And I want to accelerate the process by having one computer read from multiple drives simultaneously. I do use the internal CD/DVD drive on the MacBook Pro host hardware, plus a second external USB DVD drive. I'd be even happier if I could use all three drives at once.

The other reason for pushing to make this SE-204N drive usable on a Windows guest OS is for the benefit of the next person who encounters the same trouble. It would help them to have a solution laid out here in the forums... or better yet, incorporated into VMWare fusion as a bug fix.

[continuum]

does it make a difference when you do NOT assign the drive via USB but as a IDE or SCSI-drive ?

[Jim_DeLaHunt]

I don't know how to assign a USB external DVD drive as an IDE or SCSI drive. Can you point me to instructions on how to do this?

I see that KB 1016192 talks about "Converting a virtual IDE disk to a virtual SCSI disk", but that doesn't seem applicable.  It is about primary disc drives, not external USB drives.

[WoodyZ]

Have a look at the image below:

[Jim_DeLaHunt]

Thank you for the image, WoodyZ. I'm not quite sure what you mean to tell me, though.  Are you suggesting that it might help me to point the VM's CD drive device to my physical USB external DVD drive, the SE-204N?

I tried it. The symptoms don't change. When I insert an audio CD into the SE-204N, then try to open the corresponding CD Drive 😧 in Windows, I see what looks like an empty CD.

Thank you for the suggestion, though.

[WoodyZ]

I'm not quite sure what you mean to tell me, though.  Are you suggesting that it might help me to point the VM's CD drive device to my physical USB external DVD drive, the SE-204N?

You have a USB External CD/DVD and you can either connect it directly to the Host or Guest and in my image I show both my internal and the external CD/DVD which is connected to the Host and passed to the Guest as a normal CD/DVD not as a USB CD/DVD.  The default type in this case will be as an IDE Device and can be made to appear as a SCSI Device by manually editing the Virtual Machine's .vmx configuration file.  This may not help however it is one of the choices and might be worth experimenting with.

Have a look at:  CD/DVD Settings for the .vmx configuration file.

[WoodyZ]

As an example when I specify physical CD/DVD drive and do not manually edit the .vmx configuration file it shows in Windows Device Manager as a NECVMWar_VMware_IDE_CDR10 and when I manually edit the .vmx configuration file using the following as an example it shows as SCSI as in the image below.  This can be instrumental in some cases.

In this particular Virtual Machine the virtual hard drive is IDE and the CD/DVD is as well and I have no SCSI Devices until I make the following edit.

I commented out the following lines by placing a # charter in front of them.

# ide1:0.present = "TRUE"
# ide1:0.autodetect = "FALSE"
# ide1:0.deviceType = "cdrom-raw"
# ide1:0.fileName = "cdrom0"
# ide1:0.startConnected = "TRUE"

I then add the following:

scsi0.present = "TRUE"
scsi0:0.present = "TRUE"
scsi0:0.autodetect = "FALSE"
scsi0:0.deviceType = "cdrom-raw"
scsi0:0.fileName = "cdrom0"
scsi0:0.startConnected = "TRUE"

Note if I was using the external drive I'd use "cdrom1" instead of "cdrom0".

Also because I didn't have any SCSI Devices previously installed VMware Fusion notified me with the following message and I just checked the check box and click OK since I have VMware Tools installed the SCSI Driver is already installed and will recognize the drive.

Now if you already have SCSI Devices like the virtual hard drive it will already probably be using "scsi0:0" so I'd change it to "scsi0:1" for the CD/DVD.

Note: When editing the .vmx configuration file the Virtual Machine should be shutdown from with the Guest OS, not suspended and VMware Fusion closed.

[continuum]

I would not use

scsi0:0.deviceType = "cdrom-raw"

if the special device is misbehaving.
Instead I would use

scsi0:0.deviceType = "atapi-cdrom"

[WoodyZ]

Under the circumstances I would try all possible permutations and that is one reason I gave Jim a link to your web site along with what else I've provided here.

[admin]

Maybe I missed it, but have you tried this device with a normal data CD?

USB debug logs? Also, the test suggested by WoodyZ and continuum would be interesting.

[Jim_DeLaHunt]

WoodyZ, continuum, etung: thank you for your suggestions.

I think I understand about configuring my external device to appear as an IDE or SCSI device to Windows. I wasn't aware that the device connected as the internal CD device would appear as ATAPI.  I'd had some exposure to VMX magic for SCSI and IDE devices, but I hadn't seen an explanation that tied it to the CD device on the VM. (Does VMware document this stuff, or is it just oral folklore passed on in the forums and at sanbarrow.com?)

Right now I have a support case open with VMWare, and I'm following their instructions. I've submitted the bundle of support information which Fusion collects, removed and restored the USB Controller, checked the device in the Device Manager, updated the drive's firmware, and answered a lot of questions.  That's used up my time for tonight, so I won't get to trying to mount the drive as SCSI.

[continuum]

I think that using deviceType "atapi-cdrom" has the best chances - then the guest will see a NECVMWar_VMware_IDE_CDR10

[Jim_DeLaHunt]

After a few weeks exchanging info with VMWare Support, my conclusions are:

a) this is a bug in VMWare Fusion, triggered by this particular device (Samsung SE-S204N External DVDWriter)

b) a workaround is to connect this device to the virtual machine as a CD/DVD drive instead of as a USB device

Congratulations to continuum and WoodyZ for identifying the workaround, though I'm going to give slightly different instructions here which were clearer for me and worked better.

How to connect a Samsung SE-S204N External DVDWriter to a Windows XP guest OS via VMWare Fusion 3.1:

1. Shut down the guest virtual machine
2. Plus the SE-S204N External DVDWriter into the host Macintosh via USB, and turn it on. Give it time to connect to the Macintosh.
3. In VMWare Fusion, select that Virtual Machine, then select the Virtual Machine menu... Settings. The Settings dialog appears.
4. Click on "CDs & DVDs". The CDs and DVDs settings dialog appears.
5. Below the left-hand panel is a "+" button. Press this. A new entry, "CD/DVD 2" appears in the left-hand panel.
6. Click on the "CD/DVD 2" entry. On the right-hand panel, select the radio button "Specify physical CD/DVD drive". From the popup menu immediately below, select "TSSTcorp CDDVDW SE-S204N". (WoodyZ's reply of Mar 16, 2011 6:11 PM shows this panel.)
7. Close the Settings dialog.
8. Start up the guest virtual machine.
9. Insert a CD into the SE-S204N drive. It now appears in the Windows "My Computer" list. Double-click on the "CD Drive" icon. An Explorer window appears, showing the CD contents.

Back on 7. March, WoodyZ suggested a similar workaround, and I replied that it didn't work.  I can't explain why the workaround I just described worked, and the one on 7. March did not.  Perhaps it matters that the SE-S204N be attached to a new CD/DVD device entry, and not to the first entry.

KB article 1014523 "Working with printers, disks, and other devices in VMware Fusion" has some useful documentation about how to add a CD/DVD device to the VM and connect it to a physical CD/DVD device.

I didn't need to do anything with the CD/DVD device configuration or its entries in the .vmx file.  I didn't need to tell the VM to treat it as a SCSI device. The VMware Fusion logs didn't turn out to show anything interesting, as far as I know.

For anyone with access to Service Requests, my discussion with VMWare support was in SR# 11052808803, opened 16. March 2011.

Part of the appeal of using a USB device for this application was that I could plug and unplug it at will.  It turns out that one must shut down a virtual machine to add or remove CD/DVD drive entries, but one can at will uncheck the "connected" checkbox in the CD/DVD drive 2 settings dialog. Also, if the virtual machine resumes from being suspended and cannot locate the physical CD/DVD drive (because it's unplugged for example), it displays a harmless error dialog, disconnecteds the virtual CD/DVD drive, and carries on.

And for those who wondered why I wanted an external CD drive instead of using the laptops internal drive?  My internal drive achieves a 2x speed when ripping CDs. The external drive achieves about 20x speed.  It's nice to have that part of the job take 1/10 the time.

Thanks to continuum, WoodyZ, VMware support, and everyone else for your help.

[Jim_DeLaHunt]

It's a bug in VMWare Fusion. Workaround: connect the physical drive as virtual "CD/DVD drive 2".