Troubleshooting issues with virtual CD and DVD drives in VMware Fusion

Products

• VMware Desktop Hypervisor

Issue/Introduction

This article guides you through the process of troubleshooting being unable to use a CD or DVD from within a virtual machine. It assists you in eliminating common causes for your problem by verifying that your physical media is not damaged and that you have correctly configured the CD/DVD settings for the virtual machine.

Symptoms:

• You cannot burn a CD or DVD from within the virtual machine
• Writing or recording to a CD or DVD fails and the application generates an error
• You are unable to install from a CD or DVD within a virtual machine
• Your virtual machine fails to detect CDs or DVDs
• Your virtual machine fails to detect a bootable CD
• Installation of a Windows Operating System fails
• You see one of these errors:
   
  • One of the components that Windows needs to continue setup could not be installed
  • Data error (Cyclic Redundancy Check)
  • If you are installing from a CD, there might be a problem with the disc. Try cleaning the disc or using another disc.

Environment

VMware Fusion 4.x
VMware Fusion Pro 8.x
VMware Fusion Pro 11.x
VMware Fusion 2.x
VMware Fusion 1.x
VMware Fusion 3.x
VMware Fusion 6.x
VMware Fusion 11.x
VMware Fusion Pro 10.x
VMware Fusion 5.x
VMware Fusion 7.x
VMware Fusion 10.x
VMware Fusion 8.x

Resolution

Please validate that each troubleshooting step below is true for your environment. Each step will provide instructions or a link to a document, in order to eliminate possible causes and take corrective action as necessary. The steps are ordered in the most appropriate sequence to isolate the issue and identify the proper resolution. Please do not skip a step.

 

Note: If you perform a corrective action in any of the following steps, attempt the CD/DVD operation again.

 

1. Verify the integrity of the physical CD/DVD media by performing the same operation attempted inside the virtual machine on the host machine or a different physical computer.
2. If you are using a Mac Book Air or Mac Mini and an external SuperDrive, ensure that the SuperDrive is plugged into the USB port before you open VMware Fusion. Otherwise, the drive will not be recognized.
3. Ensure that the settings of the virtual CD/DVD drive point to a specific host physical drive.
    
   1. In the Fusion interface ensure that the virtual machine is being viewed.
   2. Click Virtual Machine > Settings > CDs & DVDs (In Fusion 1.x, click Virtual Machine > Settings > Removable Devices > CD/DVD ).
   3. If it is not already set to SuperDrive (Fusion 4.x and later) or Specify physical CD/DVD drive (Fusion 3.x and earlier), turn it ON, specify the host drive to use if there is more than one, and click OK.
       
4. If you are unable to record to a physical CD/DVD from within a virtual machine, change the emulation mode for the virtual drive from IDE to SCSI.
   
   To change the emulation mode for the virtual drive from IDE to SCSI:
   
    
   1. Shut down the virtual machine.
   2. Close Fusion.
   3. Open the virtual machine's settings file for editing.
      
      For more information, see Editing the .vmx file for your VMware Fusion virtual machine (1014782).
       
   4. Locate the following entries in the settings file:
      
      ide0:0.deviceType = "cdrom-raw"
      ide0:0.fileName = "<CD/DVD ROM name>"
      ide0:0.present = "TRUE"
      ide0:0.startConnected = "TRUE"
       
   5. Replace the text in the lines matching ide0 to read scsi1. The results look similar to:
      
      scsi1:0.deviceType = "cdrom-raw"
      scsi1:0.fileName = "<CD/DVD ROM name>"
      scsi1:0.present = "TRUE"
      scsi1:0.startConnected = "TRUE"
       
       
   6. Add this line:
      
      scsi1.present = "TRUE"
       
   7. If you are using a 64-bit version of Windows, add this line:
       
      • Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 2003: scsi1.virtualDev = "lsilogic"
      • Windows 10, Windows 7, Windows 2008, Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012: scsi1.virtualDev = "lsisas1068"
         
   8. Save the .vmx file.
       
5. Reopen Fusion, and power on the virtual machine.

If you are unable to boot from a CD/DVD from within a virtual machine, change the emulation mode for the virtual drive to IDE. Follow step 3 above, but reverse the changes and change the SCSI lines to IDE lines.

Additional Information

 

Editing the .vmx file for your VMware Fusion virtual machine
VMware Fusion で仮想 CD および DVD ドライブに関する問題のトラブルシューティング
对虚拟 CD 和 DVD 驱动器相关问题进行故障排除