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TECH198
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Does Fusion 11/Pro recognise NTFS ?

Reading this article: VMware Knowledge Base

Excert

"Note: Windows does not recognize USB hard drives that are formatted in the HFS+ (Mac) file system. You have to use Disk Utility to format the hard drive in the FAT32 or ExFAT file system."

(however article does't list version 11 as :"Related")

It doesn't mention NTFS at all..

However, i encountered a simial problem on the weekend. A was plugging in USB drive which was NTFS formatted, Got a dialog from VMWare Fusion abut 'unable able to connect to controller, and device may function improperly .. ' Windows didn't get the chance.

Pulled it and formatted it on a physically machine as FAT32, plugged it back in to Mac, and connected it to VM fine and began copying

This is one one USB drive i tested, but wanted a more better answer....... Are NTFS drives compatible with Fusion at all ?  It defiantly not Windows, so that leaves/assumption VMWare Tool or Fusion itself... or perhaps USB drive, but once formatted as FAT32,it worked  fine in Fusion.

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pfruth
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TECH198

1 - Set the USB compatibility mode to USB 3.0 in the VM's settings.

2 - Install the USB 3.0 drivers for Windows 7

3 - Done.

You'll will be able to use either USB 2.0 or USB 3.0 sticks, with file systems formatted as-per you choosing.

I'm outta here.

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ColoradoMarmot
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Ok, let's separate things.

Fusion doesn't care what the drive looks like if it's connected to the guest.  That's all about the guest OS - so you have to see if it supports both the partition map and partition format.

For hosting VM's on MacOS, those should be on HPFS or APFS drives.  Using third-party NTFS drivers is very problematic.

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pfruth
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Adding to dlhotka​ comments...

Fusion is all about presenting the device (beit a virtual disk, or a physical disk) to the guest OS.  Fusion is not concerned with the content/format/organization of the filesystem(s) on the device.  That's up to the OS running inside the VM.

As for that message you saw... "unable able to connect to controller, and device may function improperly"

Just a quick shot in the dark... I'd guess you probably need to set the USB compatibility to USB 3.0Screen Shot 2019-01-04 at 5.47.30 PM.png

Failing that...

You'll need to provide some specific details about;

- What hardware are you running Fusion on

- What version of Fusion are you running
- What Windows version is running the guest VM
- What hardware compatibility version is the VM configured to use

- What is the USB compatibility setting in the guest VM (see screen-shot above)

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TECH198
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No third party software installed.  No need, since USB drive is marked as "connect to windows.." in USB pane. Mac never gets control in the first place/

In response to the above:

- Macbook AIr, MacOS Majove 10.14.2, 13'inch 1.8Gig 2017 model, 8 Gig Ram, Intel HD Graphics 6000 1536MB)

- VMWare Fusion 11

- Windows 7

- Hardware version 16

- USB compatibility in Fusion is set to USB 3.0

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pfruth
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Hmmm, Windows 7 VM w/ USB compatibility set to USB 3.0.... have you installed USB 3.0 drivers for Windows in that Windows 7 VM?

See here -> VMware Knowledge Base

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pfruth
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Small divergence... not directly related to the NTFS question at hand.
As you've likely already figured out, running a couple VMs on a dual-core MBA w/ 8GB of ram, is a tight squeeze.  Maybe ok for some basic science experiments, but you'll probably want a more capable set of hardware if you need to run more meaningful workloads.
Just saying 😉

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TECH198
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Well USB drives are backward compatible regardless..  I think this was a USB 2.0 drive, ,  I would follow this one better :

USB 3.0 support in Windows 7?

I'll try USB 2.0 speed setting, but will update when i get more flash drives. VMWare Tools handles this i beleive, not Mirossoft.as VMWare prevails.. Your running WIndows "inside" their product.

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pfruth
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Speed of the USB drive/stick is not the consideration here.  If you've set the USB Compatibility setting to USB 3.0, then VMware is going to present a USB 3.0 host bus adapter to the OS running in the VM.  That's Windows 7 in this case.  Since there are no Out-of-the-box (aka. baked in) USB 3.0 drivers for Windows 7, you HAVE TO EXPLICITLY INSTALL them.

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TECH198
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I just got some USB flash drives today... FAT 32....  Used (as is),, and USB mode set to USB 2.0.. ut it still didn't work

I even went as far as doing this on a new install of Mojave..:   USB devices not able to connect to VM fusion since update to 11 pro and mac mojave

FedEX-20's post by doing doing attributes in Terminal before install from .dmg image, but that didn't work either for me.

ie.. I did a fresh install of Mojave just for this, because i didn't know how to clear the KECTS that honers the request to allow system extensions.. Anyway, here are screenshots after fresh install:

USB 1.png

USB 2.png

Fusion 11.0.2 on MacOS Mojave 10.14.2

If i could test NFTS and/or USB 3.0 specially i would, but looks like i can't even get that far. I just wanted to test USB 2.0 compatibility first just to isolate the issue. First things first

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pfruth
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TECH198

1 - Set the USB compatibility mode to USB 3.0 in the VM's settings.

2 - Install the USB 3.0 drivers for Windows 7

3 - Done.

You'll will be able to use either USB 2.0 or USB 3.0 sticks, with file systems formatted as-per you choosing.

I'm outta here.

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