Unable to use USB hard drive or USB memory stick in Virtual XP Machine

[leem2209]

Hey all;

I'm running VMware Workstation Player v12.5 on a Windows 10 Laptop.

I'm trying to get a virtual XP machine working but stumbling on this issue.

I cannot connect a USB storage device to any XP virtual machine I create.

I've tried creating 3 XP machines, 2 of them are XP professional 64 bit and 1 XP professional 32 bit, created in VMware vCenter Converter Standalone Client from physical machines.

Each was created to VM Workstation Payer v10 and each has been updated to the latest VMware tools in the guest.

When I look at the hardware profiles, the USB devices are displayed with the yellow exclamation mark error.

I have tried searching for updated drivers with no joy.

I've also tried setting the player USB profile to USB 1.1, 2.0 and 3.0. For 1.1 and 2.0 the results are the same, for 3.0 again, drivers cannot be found for the USB controller.

I'm not sure what else I can try. I've tired various USB storage devices from USB 2.0 stick to USB 3.0 hard disk.

Yet my USB mouse works OK!

The original machines can connect with USB ok so I'm at a total loss now and have spent HOURS trying to work around this...

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I've just tried a Virtual Windows 2000 professional - that too doesn't recognise my USB mass storage device. (Shows in Hardware manager with errors)

Tried Virtual Windows Server 2008 - doesn't recognise USB mass storage device. (Shows in Hardware manager with errors)

Tried Virtual Windows 7 Professional - doesn't recognise USB mass storage device. (Shows in Hardware manager with errors)

Is this likely to be an issue with my own laptop? If so what could it be?

Tomorrow I'm hoping to get access to another laptop to try the same things, until then, I'm stumped!

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Update: Access to another laptop with WMware Workstation Player v6.0 running on Windows 7 Professional:

When I run the same Windows XP Virtual Machine as I tried on my Laptop (and after eventually authorising windows) I could read my USB devices. But they also stopped working after a little while.

When connected to the guest and trying to view device hardware, it is so slow loading. If I disconnect the USB device, the hardware profile loads up immediately.

Absolutely baffled now as to what is going on.

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Tried a fresh re-install of everything VMware....

Created a fresh VM from the XP machine.

Still no good.

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Spent enough time now trying to resolve this and need to get on with it... so I set the USB drive up as a shared folder between Host and Guest, slow but at least I can now transfer files over.

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Message was edited by: Mark Lee

[wila]

Hi,

If your laptop has creator's update then there have been other people reporting that their USB devices stopped working.

From what I've understood, uninstall and re-install of VMware Workstation (or player) fixed that.

--

Wil

[leem2209]

Hi Wil...

That was going to be my next step.

Just updated the Windows 7 laptop from Workstation Player v6 to v12 and that still works fine.

Will report back shortly...

[leem2209]

Further Update:

Uninstalled all VMware products from my Windows 10 Laptop. Re-booted and reinstalled VM Ware Workstation Player v12.

Rebooted again and tested...

Still the same issue.

Plug in USB drive and the same error shows...

:-(

[wila]

Hi,

Sorry had some deadlines to meet so slow in responding to open threads down here.

Strange.

The next thing to check is if the vmware usbarbitrator service is running.

That would be a minimum requirement for usb to work in your guests.

--

Wil

[bluefirestorm]

Is this Windows 10 laptop happen to be using AMD processor?

If yes, you may want to have a look at this.

https://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=1016809

[leem2209]

Further Updates

Just set up another Laptop, (intel i5 HP EliteBook 2570p running windows 7)

Connected USB 3.0 drive to the laptop while running Windows XP Virtual Machine...

Message popped up saying something like "cannot connect USB device to ideal USB controller... will attempt to connect to best controller but may cause unexpected functionality..."

Then the same issue as previous (so 3 machines now!) so do I need to install something else? Is there another VM USB controller that is needed?

Devices I am trying to connect:

USB 3.0 1TB Toshiba HDD

USB 3.0 1TB Verbatim HDD

USB 2.0 16GB Verbatim Memory Stick

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Hi,

Sorry had some deadlines to meet so slow in responding to open threads down here.

Strange.

The next thing to check is if the vmware usbarbitrator service is running.

That would be a minimum requirement for usb to work in your guests.

--

Wil

Thanks Wil... checked and yes, it is running.

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Is this Windows 10 laptop happen to be using AMD processor?

If yes, you may want to have a look at this.

https://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=1016809

Thanks BlueFire... all machines I am using are Intel i5 processors, now 2x Windows 7 and 1x Windows 10.

Am I missing something stupidly simple?

[wila]

Hi,

For USB3 your guest needs to be at least Windows 7 and you have to download a special driver from the intel website in order to get that to work.

USB3 was not supported by Windows XP natively and as such you cannot get that to work using USB3.

If the device is able to communicate via USB2 then you might be able to downgrade that by setting the controller to USB2 and if that doesn't work by inserting a USB2 hub inbetween device and host.

USB2 devices however should work with Windows XP.

--

Wil

[leem2209]

Found this on another thread.

not sure exactly what all this means, I'm assuming these are lines run in cmd line?

and also assuming these commands are run on the host?

==========================

10. Re: USB drives not detected

Knappe

Knappe 09-Jan-2014 00:28

I fixed it:

~ # chkconfig usbarbitrator

usbarbitrator  off

~ # chkconfig usbarbitrator on

usbarbitrator  on

~ # /etc/init.d/usbarbitrator restart

watchdog-usbarbitrator: Terminating watchdog process with PID 150457

usbarbitrator stopped

usbarbitrator started

~ # /etc/init.d/hostd restart

watchdog-hostd: Terminating watchdog process with PID 152404

hostd stopped.

hostd started.

~ # chkconfig/etc/init.d/vpxa restart

-sh: chkconfig/etc/init.d/vpxa: not found

~ # /etc/init.d/vpxa restart

watchdog-vpxa: Terminating watchdog process with PID 152752

vpxa stopped.

~ # services.sh restart

…..

Now I can assign the usb devices to the vm´s (again).

[wila]

Hi,

Not a useful post for you as that is about vSphere, not workstation.

A different product, bare metal virtualisation where the host runs the hypervisor directly, there's no host OS besides vSphere.

--
Wil

[leem2209]

I've checked the USB controller setting and it is set to USB 2.0 and I even tried setting to 1.1

i will try today to use my USB 2.0 hub and see how that goes.

As for that vSphere thread, I hadn't noticed! Virtualisation is new to me, just trying to get some Windows XP software running for some old technology... I'm using and old laptop and if I get it all working as required I might be running several VM's... no base host is really needed so vSphere might be worth looking into.

[leem2209]

As recommended by Wila, I used a USB 2.0 hub, connected to a USB 3.0 port on the laptop.

In VM Windows XP, connected the hub to the host.

Inserted Verbatim USB 2.0 memory stick (to hub), and it connected and I was able to read.

Inserted Verbatim USB 3.0 1TB HDD (to hub), and it connected and I was able to read (took some time before it showed up)

Inserted Toshiba USB 3.0 1TB HDD to a USB 2.0 port on the laptop, would not read. Got errors as shown below.

Removed Verbatim 1TB from hub, inserted into laptop USB, would not read. Got errors as shown below.

Put Verbatim 1TB back into hub and again, I can read (took a while to show up and connect again)

Then this....

[wila]

Hi,

Not sure but it is entirely possible that when you connect the USB3 device directly into the VM that either the Windows XP stack or VMware's usb logic gets confused and ends up in a broken state that can only be resolved by rebooting the guest.

FWIW I have never read about anybody who was able to use USB3 within an Windows XP VM successfully. Yes I have seen some claims, but I'm fairly sure that those devices simply negotiated down to USB2.

--

Wil

[Dave Wall]

Hi, 

I understand that this is a very old thread, I'll leave the solution that worked for me in case anyone else comes across this with the same issue connecting a USB 3.0 key to a Windows XP vm guest using VMware Workstation 17 pro.  It is as simple as using a USB 2.0 port on your host machine (i.e. the USB doesn't have the "SS" and blue connector) to physically connect the USB 3.0 stick.  This allows XP to recognize the USB stick.  If you try changing the USB compatibility to 3.1, as it is in VM wrkstn 17 Pro, for the XP guest it will recognize a new device has been plugged in and ask you for permission to look for the software necessary to support USB 3 (good luck with that :) ).  I found this information here on the website 

https://us.informatiweb-pro.net/virtualization/vmware/vmware-workstation-15-solve-known-problems.html#device-unable-connect-host-controller

Section --> 5. The device was unable to connect to its ideal host controller

Hope this helps someone else!