USB Superdrive compatibility?

[sasanchez]

I'm trying to connect an Apple USB Superdrive DVD/CD player to a MacBook running VMware Fusion. When I connect the Superdrive to the system, the Apple OS asks if I want to connect the drive to the Apple OS or Windows. When I choose Windows, the drive installs and shows up in the Windows 7 Device Manager. However, although the device installs and shows correctly, it won't accept discs and can't be accessed by the Windows OS. When connected to the Apple OS side it functions correctly.

Is there anything special that needs to be done to enable the USB Superdrive to work with the Windows OS?

Also, will it read and/or write Windows data discs or only things like DVD movies and music CDs?

Thanks!

[WoodyZ]

FWIW I just connected an "Apple MacBook Air SuperDrive" to a Windows 7 VM and it popped up a message saying...

The "Apple MacBook Air SuperDrive" device requires installation of the Apple Boot Camp driver disc in the virtual machine.  Without this driver disc, the device might not work properly or it might cause the guest operating system to fail. Do you wish to continue?

Windows installed its own driver and I did not have to install the Apple Boot Camp driver.

In Device Manager it shows it as an "HL-DT-ST DVDRW GX40N USB Device".

In Windows Explorer it shows the device as a "DVD RW" and when a writable disc is inserted it prompts for "Burn files to disc using Windows Explorer".  So it does properly see it as writable although I don't want to waste a disc to see if it will actually write.

[wigginsd]

I ran into same issue. There is a note on:

http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=101288...

Which says: "For Mac Book Air Superdrive that requires boot camp drivers, you do not need to install entire boot camp drivers.

Install Apple/Drivers/AppleODDInstaller.exe or Apple/Drivers/x64/AppleODDinstaller.exe"

I was able to download the right installer from:

http://support.apple.com/downloads/#macoscomponents

In particular: Boot Camp Support Software 5.0.5033

Once downloaded, unzipped, I found what I needed with a similar name to AppleODDinstaller.exe and after doing that and unplugging the device and re-plugging in I was able to insert the DVD and have it function normally. HTH.

[alyanm]

I'm experiencing exactly the same thing.  When I attach my superdrive to Mac OS it works just fine, in fact I can access files on the drive by sharing the folders.  But, when I attach to my Windows 7 x64 VM I can see the drive there, drivers install, but it won't let me insert a disk.

I attempted to install the Apple support bootcamp stuff per instructions here: Boot Camp Support Software 5.0.5033 following links suggested in other post, but this failed and said "Boot Camp x64 is unsupported on this computer model".  Unfortunately, I am not running this Windows installation under boot camp -- I wanted to be able to easily adjust the amount of disk that Windows is using and I didn't see a good way to do that under boot camp.

Has anybody come up with a solution to this problem?

UPDATE: I stumbled upon a solution, I inserted the disk while the drive was attached to Mac OS, then I attached the drive to my Windows VM.  It ejected the disk, installed a driver, and then I was able to re-insert the disk and everything seems to be working fine.  I can only guess that WIndows was able to install the correct driver when there was a disk present in the drive.

[geekzero]

Remember the Superdrive is a USB 3 device.  Windows 7 does not natively support USB 3 devices.  Windows 8 does.  So there are problems hooking the Superdrive up to Win 7 VMs.

A question I keep wondering - when will VMWare provide a Win 7 driver as a part of the Tools?  Lots of OEMs of physical USB 3 devices provide drivers for Win7, which is why a lot of us were unaware Win 7 didn't support USB 3.  I see no reason VMWare couldn't include a USB 3 driver for Win 7, especially given Win 7 is a very common virt running in Fusion, and Macs have had USB 3 for a few years now.

[ColoradoMarmot]

They probably won't since Windows 7 doesn't support it.  Putting a USB 2 hub in between the device and the machine allows you to connect a 3 device to a Win7 VM.

[TimG201110141]

geekzero wrote:

Remember the Superdrive is a USB 3 device.  Windows 7 does not natively support USB 3 devices.  Windows 8 does.  So there are problems hooking the Superdrive up to Win 7 VMs.

A question I keep wondering - when will VMWare provide a Win 7 driver as a part of the Tools?  Lots of OEMs of physical USB 3 devices provide drivers for Win7, which is why a lot of us were unaware Win 7 didn't support USB 3.  I see no reason VMWare couldn't include a USB 3 driver for Win 7, especially given Win 7 is a very common virt running in Fusion, and Macs have had USB 3 for a few years now.

Completely agree.. Though detractors in this forum will bash you for suggesting it as valid feedback. In spite of VMwares competitors (Parallels / Virtual Box, etc) having figured out how-to do it right away, or that Windows 7 will be around for years to come.. You'll just see them 'blame' Microsoft or tell you to use a USB 2 hub, etc. heh.. anything but except maybe, just maybe, VMWare should address it..

Parallels made an Intel compatible Virtual USB 3 controller for Windows 7 and then left it to you to install the Intel driver.. which is fine.. but VMWare cannot even do that; sad really. I would be using Parallels if I didn't need VMWare specifically for work. So best anyone can do is continue to push VMWare and continue provide feedback.