How can I USB boot a VM in VMWare Workstation 9?

How can I boot a VM off USB in VMWare Workstation 9? I don't see the USB I have attached in the bios boot order.

It's clearly attaching before boot, as this shows up before the VM even starts running: enter image description here

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There is a workaround, in your virtual machine settings, add a new "harddisk", and when prompted to select the type, choose "physical disk" , and then point it to the usb stick.

This way, the usb will appear as a real drive to the virtual machine.


You can use "Plop Boot Manager". See its features here.

  • USB boot without BIOS support (UHCI, OHCI and EHCI)
  • CD/DVD boot without BIOS support (IDE)