Process to connect external hard drive to VMware Virtual Machine

Products

• VMware Desktop Hypervisor

Issue/Introduction

This article outlines steps for connecting and using a USB external hard drive inside your VMware Workstation virtual machine. If you want to use an internal hard drive from another computer, you need an enclosure for it that has a USB connector.

Environment

VMware Workstation Pro 14.x (for Linux)
VMware Workstation Pro 15.x (Linux)
VMware Workstation 11.x (for Linux)
VMware Workstation 9.x (Windows)
VMware Workstation 10.x (Linux)
VMware Workstation Pro 16.x (Linux)
VMware Workstation 8.x (Windows)
VMware Workstation Pro 15.x (Windows)
VMware Workstation Pro 14.x (for Windows)
VMware Workstation 11.x (for Windows)
VMware Workstation 9.x (Linux)
VMware Workstation 8.x (Linux)
VMware Workstation Pro 16.x (Windows)
VMware Workstation 10.x (Windows)

Resolution

You can use external USB hard drives with your virtual machine, much like any other USB device.

Process to connect a USB hard drive to VMware Virtual Machine:

• Windows

• Linux

  • OpenSUSE 11.x
  • Ubuntu versions, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.x and 6.x, and supported Fedora versions

Process to connect USB hard drive to Windows Virtual Machine:

1. Plug the external USB hard drive into the USB port of your physical machine.
2. Launch VMware Workstation.
3. Start your virtual machine
4. Click VM > Removable device > external_hard_drive_name, then click Connect.
5. Windows indicates that it is installing the necessary software for your new hard drive, then assigns it a new drive letter.
6. To access the contents of the USB hard drive, double-click My Computer. The hard drive appears in the My Computer window.
7. Double-click the hard drive to access the contents.
    

Process to connect USB hard drive to Linux Virtual Machine:

• OpenSUSE 11.x:
   
  1. Plug the external USB hard drive into the USB port of your physical machine.
  2. Launch VMware Workstation.
  3. Start your virtual machine.
  4. Click VM > Removable device > external_hard_drive_name, then click Connect.
  5. Click the KickOff Application Launcher icon in the bottom left corner of the screen.
  6. Type File Manager and click the application name to open it. The hard drive appears on the left side of the File Manager window under Places.
     
     Note: The default mount point is /media/.
      
• Supported Ubuntu versions, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.x and 6.x, and supported Fedora versions:
   
  1. Plug the external USB hard drive into the USB port of your physical machine.
  2. Launch VMware Workstation.
  3. Start your virtual machine.
  4. Click VM > Removable device > external_hard_drive_name, then click Connect.
  5. The hard drive icon appears on your desktop and a file browser window opens.
  6. Double-click the hard drive icon on the desktop to access the contents.
     
     Note: The default mount point is /media/

Note: Please consult the documentation for your version of Linux for other distribution and version-specific instructions, as well as for instructions on manually mounting USB hard drives using the terminal.

 

Additional Information

On Windows, you can also connect an external hard drive by right-clicking on the external hard drive icon in the bottom right corner of the Workstation window.