CD Won't Show up in Win98 VM

[LegiGrimmReaper]

Hi all. New here. First question is how do I change my username as I messed up?

Now the main question. I have installed Windows 98SE on the VMWare virtual machine. I can't get the CD ROM to show up in My Computer. It is mounted and connected in the VM settings but just will not show up in Win98. When trying to install the VMWare Tools I get this error

As you can see in along the top of that pic, I have the CD ROM connected and have it pointed at the winPre2k.iso file.

I have a list of connectable devices in this pic, but none of them show up in My Computer either.

Can someone tell me where I'm going wrong?

Thanks in advance

[RDPetruska]

That's odd - in Windows Explorer, there isn't even a drive icon for a CD-ROM drive.  Like Windows doesn't think there's a CD-ROM drive present (or possibly the driver is malfunctioning - check device manager).  How did you install the OS?  I was pretty sure Win98SE only came on CD, with boot floppy to load the CD-ROM driver.

[LegiGrimmReaper]

I installed 98 using an ISO. The CD drive shows as mounted/connected along the top in the VMWare toolbar but it just won't show in Win98. Should I try installing 98 again?

[RDPetruska]

So the VM's CD-ROM drive obviously works, then, since you installed the OS from it.  Gotta be something in Device Manager, then..  What does Device Manager show - i'd expect to see a yellow triangle exclamation icon next to the CD-ROM drive...  should be able to see what the error message shows.

[CallistoJag]

Lots of good info here that might point you in the right direction: https://communities.vmware.com/t5/VMware-Workstation-Pro/Workstation-14-1-and-Windows-98-no-removabl...

[LegiGrimmReaper]

This is the Device Manager. Full of exclamation marks. Every time I boot into it I get a 'New Hardware Found - PCI Bus Controller', but I cannot point it to the Windows 98SE ISO file because the CD ROM won't show up, even though it is connected according to VMWare.

I've also noticed that the 'Connected' option in VMWare settings is greyed out, with only 'Connect at power on' option able to be checked. Shown below

Any more suggestions?

[LegiGrimmReaper]

Thanks for the reply but nothing from that thread has worked 😑

[LegiGrimmReaper]

I've even looked in the .vmdk file, and the CD Drive is there, as shown below.

I've even tried making a new VM and it doesn't show in that one either. I have no issues with my Windows XP, Windows 7 and Windows 11 VMs.

I'm out of ideas.