Contents

Connecting Virtual Devices

On the Devices tab you can view a list of all removable devices (such as floppy and CD-ROM drives) available to the virtual machine and whether they are connected or disconnected. You can also connect or disconnect any of the listed devices.

Note: The controls for connecting and disconnecting devices are available only if your system administrator has enabled them.

If the box next to a device is selected (checked), the device is connected and the virtual machine can access that particular device.

The state of a device can be changed by checking or clearing the box next to the device name. To verify the change, close and reopen the VMware Tools control panel and select the Devices tab. The devices' check boxes should match your selections.

When the virtual machine is in windowed mode (not full screen mode), you can connect or disconnect a device by choosing VM > Removable Devices or right- clicking the device icon in the status bar of the virtual machine window.

Sharing Devices between the Host and Guest Operating Systems

Some devices cannot be shared between the host operating system and the guest operating system, or between two guest operating systems running in two different virtual machines.

For example, the virtual machine cannot access the floppy drive at the same time as another running virtual machine or the host operating system. If you encounter an error while trying to connect the floppy drive to the virtual machine, make sure that the device is not mounted by the host operating system and that it is not connected to any other virtual machine running on the host.

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