DVD Locked in Win 98 Virtual

[ITRONICS]

I have successfully built a Windows 98 Virtual using VMWare Workstation 16 Professional on a Host HP Desktop PC running Windows 10 Build 20H2 with No SATA Optical DVD Drive installed.

Initially I had issues with the Sound which was easily rectified with a Win 98 Sound Blaster Driver.

The Virtual easily built using an external USB DVD Drive and OEM Win 98 Disk. USB Sticks were never detected until I changed the settings > ehci.present = “FALSE”
The issue I have is that I can’t install multiple CD Software due to the drive being locked.
When the installation asks for disk 2 I cannot eject the drive from the DVD to insert the next CD.
When I press the eject button on the drive it is recognised with a prompt saying that a disk that is in use has been requested to be ejected do you want to continue? If I click on YES the disk ejects but when I place the next disk in the program installation terminates. I have tried multiple USB DVD Drives and I have also set VM\Setting\CD-DVD (IDE)\Advanced – Legacy Emulation to Enabled but this didn’t fix the problem. Does anyone have a Fix for this problem or will I have to load the software via SATA DVD Drive attached with the cover removed. The customer was wanting to purchase an External USB DVD Drive with this setup so he could do similar installs later so it would be great to get the External USB DVD Drive working correctly if possible.

Your assistance with this issue would be greatly appreciated…………..Cheers!!!

[continuum]

Changing CDs or ISOs needs a special trick.

First click disconnect device.
Then wait until the guestOS realizes the change.

Then change the media in the USB-device.

Then reconnect the USB-device.

Now the guest should be able to read the next DVD

[ITRONICS]

Spoiler

Hi Thanks for your quick reply

I have tried the following process

1. At Insert Disk 2 Prompt disconnect drive via DVD Icon bottom RH corner of Virtual Screen - Attached Pic 1
2. This prompts Eject Warning and if I Click OK at this point the drive disconnects but can't eject CD - Pic 2 Attached
3. Then Eject Request appears which I click on OK - Pic 3
4. The only way to Eject the CD is to Reconnect DVD Drive and Right click on DVD Icon and click on eject 
5. File Explorer now shows Disk 2 is inserted - Attached Pic 4
6. Clicking Next Terminates the Program - Attached Pic 5

[ITRONICS]

I have also tried this process

1. At Insert Disk 2 Prompt Right click on DVD Icon and click on eject  - Attached Pic 1
2. File Explorer now shows Disk 2 is inserted - Attached Pic 2
3. Clicking Next Terminates the Program - Attached Pic 3

[bluefirestorm]

You could try this as a possible workaround

Create a folder in the VM for example, C:\LinksLS99 and underneath subfolders named disk1 through diskn. Then copy the contents of CDROM 1 to disk1 subfolder, CDROM 2 to disk2 and so on. And then launch the setup.exe (or whatever that needs to be launched) from the disk1 subfolder to initiate installation.

I am pretty sure this disk1 through n subfolder scheme worked with floppy disks setup where you don't have to sit in front of a PC swapping floppy disks while installing a software package with dozen or more floppy disks; but I think it is a feature of the Microsoft ACME setup not of the Windows OS.

If the LinkLS software setup has a minimal setup option (expecting to launch the application from the PC hard disk but read stuff off the CDROM media while running), you could try that as well if it is recognises the disk1 … diskn subfolder structure.