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Enabling a CD-ROM or DVD-ROM from a Virtual Machine

You can use the Configuration Editor to add and remove CD-ROM and DVD-ROM drives. The virtual CD-ROM or DVD-ROM is connected to the physical CD-ROM or DVD-ROM device on the host machine.

Note: A virtual machine can have at most four virtual IDE disk drives. If a host system has four disk drives, then configuring all four disk drives in the virtual machine does not leave space for a virtual IDE CD-ROM or DVD-ROM drive. Even if the host computer has a SCSI CD-ROM or DVD-ROM, the drive still appears inside the virtual machine as an IDE device. If you have configured four IDE disks in a single virtual machine, then you do not have room for a CD-ROM or DVD-ROM drive. You can either configure your virtual machine without a CD-ROM or DVD-ROM, or you can remove one or more of the configured hard drives.

To add a CD-ROM or DVD-ROM drive:

  1. Connect to the virtual machine with a console. Make sure the virtual machine is powered off.
  2. Select Settings > Configuration Editor from the console.
  3. Click the + sign next to IDE Drives or SCSI Devices.
  4. Select a device node where you want to create a virtual CD-ROM or DVD-ROM drive. For example, select the S-M node for an IDE drive or the SCSI 0:1 node for a SCSI drive. If a device node is not currently configured, the description reads Not Installed.
  5. From the Device Type field, make a selection:
  6. Enter the path to the physical CD-ROM device. Often, but not always, the device name for the CD-ROM is /dev/cdrom.
  7. Select the Start Connected option if you want the virtual machine to have access to the CD-ROM or DVD-ROM when it powers on.
  8. Click Install.

  9. Related topics:

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