Home > IT Answers > Storage > Connecting external hard drive to VM software
Ricopersaud
145 pts.
 Connecting external hard drive to VM software
Backup and Recovery Hardware, External Disk Drives, External hard drives, Server management, VM Server, VMware
What external hard drives are compatible with VM software?

Software/Hardware used:
VM Software
ASKED: June 14, 2011  8:09 PM
UPDATED: December 8, 2011  2:18 PM
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I'd be interested to find this out as well. And also if there are recommendations on which ones work better.. thanks! ----------- Most software files like VM software are created or developed to be compatible with the most commonly used operating systems. Most compatibility issues are only associated with Operating Systems and not mostly on external hard drives.
Last Wiki Answer Submitted:  November 1, 2011  6:41 am  by  thongtarget21   485 pts.
All Answer Wiki Contributors:  thongtarget21   485 pts.
To see all answers submitted to the Answer Wiki: View Answer History.


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What VMware product and version are you using?

Denny Cherry
 64,520 pts.
 

We are using VM ware EXSI 4.1

Ricopersaud
 145 pts.
 

ESX/ESXi 4.1 allow USB passthrough so in theory any drive should work as long as you have added a USB adapter to the VM. I think it does not support USB3.0 though.

Mattcassell
 730 pts.
 

I have added the USB adapter and still it doesn’t see my drives , is there a certain configuration or something.

Ricopersaud
 145 pts.
 

Yes your right he did give suggestions for adding external usb harddrives to the vmware. I have added the adapter and im still unable to see the drives I have added.
So are there certain external USB hard drves that aren’t compatible with VmWare? If so, what are they , because Ive googled and googled and have yet to find this info.

Ricopersaud
 145 pts.
 

Check out this link for officially supported USB devices:

http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?cmd=displayKC&externalId=1021345

Mattcassell
 730 pts.
 

According to my experience SAN and NAS storage hard drives are compatible with VMware.

BODHost
 60 pts.
 

@ BOBHost.

You are correct on SAN and NAS storage, they are compatible with VMware. But we are trying to connect a 2TB external hard drive to the host but he guest machine (OS) is not seeing it. We call VMware on the issue and they give us a link http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?cmd=displayKC&externalId=1021345 with compatible external drive. These drives are too small for the date we are trhing to trasnfer.

Ricopersaud
 145 pts.