VM Fusion Pro 7 and USB3

[Jerry_G]

I've searched hi and wide, but can't get this question answered.

Fusion Pro 7 is said to add support for USB 3. I tried this with a USB 3 thumb drive under Mac OS 10.10, Yosemite, and it seems to work.

Tried it under 10.9, Mavericks, (same Pro 7), but the USB 3 thumb drive doesn't work.

Is Yosemite required for Pro 7 and USB 3 to work?

Thanks

[Jerry_G]

P.S. I should have mentioned that I'm running Windows 7 Pro.  Thanks.

[MacsRule]

Jerry_G wrote:

...Fusion Pro 7 is said to add support for USB 3. I tried this with a USB 3 thumb drive under Mac OS 10.10, Yosemite, and it seems to work.

Tried it under 10.9, Mavericks, (same Pro 7), but the USB 3 thumb drive doesn't work.

Is Yosemite required for Pro 7 and USB 3 to work?...

As it happens, I had to try that yesterday, though with Mountain Lion as the host, not Mavericks, and it worked. Indeed, the issue was a 128GB USB 3.0 Flash Drive with three partitions, each with a different OS, and when Yosemite was installed on one of them, the partition scheme on the Flash Drive was converted to a Logical Volume Group, which ML's Disk Utility wouldn't allow to be repartitioned.

Booting into a Snow Leopard Server VM in Fusion 7 Pro and then using a USB 3.0 port to connect the Flash Drive to it allowed SLS's Disk Utility to repartition the Flash Drive.

If, on the other hand, you mean by "work" to run at full USB 3.0 speed, I haven't tried that yet.

[Jerry_G]

By work, I should have been more specific. Either I'll get a message that no drivers could be loaded, or the USB thumb drive just won't load.

[MacsRule]

Jerry_G wrote:

By work, I should have been more specific. Either I'll get a message that no drivers could be loaded, or the USB thumb drive just won't load.

In that case, it did work, and it's odd that the OS between Mountain Lion and Yosemite should cause a problem. I don't know if it matters but in my case the USB 3.0 port was part of a CalDigit USB 3.0 PCI card in a Mac Pro and that came with its own third party drivers.

Moreover, when Fusion asked if the Flash Drive should be connected to the host or the guest, it really meant connected because it's one thing to copy a file to an external partition, it's another (bigger) thing to reformat a connected device. Just one more reason to keep a $20 Snow Leopard Server VM handy.

[wila]

Hello JerryG,

Unfortunately Windows 7 itself does not come with USB3 support (this is sometimes referenced as windows 7 not having an inbox driver for USB3).

While some devices come with extra drivers for USB3 support under Windows 7, these drivers are not guaranteed to work when running under VMware Fusion. At this time VMware Fusion does not provide a Windows 7 specific USB3 driver to the guest.

In order to use a USB3 device under VMware Fusion you have the following options:

- Use an operating system with USB3 support (eg. Windows 8.x or similar)

- Use a USB2 hub or USB2 cable between your computer and the USB3 device you want to use to downgrade the USB3 interface to USB2

- Connect to a USB2 connector on your computer if your computer provides such a connector.

- You can try setting the USB compatibility under menu Virtual Machine -> Settings -> USB & Bluetooth -> Advanced -> Compatibility -> USB2

Hope this helps,

--

Wil

[MAlexander20111]

The other option is to mount the drive on the Mac, and then share it to the VM using the VM Settings, System Settings, Sharing.  add that drive and then you can use it in the VM as you would with any other folder you may share with the VM.