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  2. Windows XP Mode Will Display Only One Optical Disk Drive (ODD) and or a Floppy Disk on a Host System which has Multiple Optical Disk Drives and or no Floppy Disk

Windows XP Mode Will Display Only One Optical Disk Drive (ODD) and or a Floppy Disk on a Host System which has Multiple Optical Disk Drives and or no Floppy Disk

Symptoms

Consider the following scenario:

  • You have a computer that is running Windows 7
  • Your Host system has either Multiple Optical Disk Drives (ODD) or No Floppy Disk.
  • You install Windows XP Mode or Create a Virtual Machine using Windows Virtual PC.
  • You access My Computer from within the Virtual Machine.

In this scenario,

On Host Systems which have multiple ODD drives, only one ODD will be listed within the Virtual Machine.

Or

On Host Systems which have no Floppy Disk, the Virtual Machine will display a Floppy Disk. When trying to access the floppy disk you will see the following error message.

"Please insert a disk in Drive A:"



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Cause

On Host systems which have multiple ODD, it is by design that Windows XP Mode as well as Windows Virtual PC includes only one DVD drive within the Virtual Machine settngs. 

Or

On Host systems which have no floppy disk, it is by design that Windows XP Mode as well as Windows Virtual PC includes a Floppy Disk within the Virtual Machine even though the Virtual Machine settings does not list a Floppy Disk 


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Resolution

On Host systems with Multiple ODD in order to access another drive you will need to select the alternate drive within the Virtual Machine settings. In order to change the ODD do the following;

  • Click on Virtual Machine settings from Menu Bar
  • Click on DVD Drive from the listed hardware
  • Select “Access a physical drive” and then click the drop down menu and select alternate drive.
Note: You have the following options available for the DVD from the Virtual Machine settings;

None – DVD Listed and no media is inserted.
Open an ISO Image – Browse to and select an ISO file to mount.
Access a physical drive – Drop down list will display available ODD drives.

or

On Host systems with no floppy disk drive, there is no option available within the User Interface of the Virtual Machine settings. Windows Virtual PC does support the use of floppy disks, but this option is not exposed within the User Interface. To use floppy disks you need to utilize a VBS or PowerShell script. To view information about the VBS and PowerShell scripts please see:

Using Floppy Disks with Windows Virtual PC
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/virtual_pc_guy/archive/2009/10/01/using-floppy-disks-with-windows-virtual-pc.aspx


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Keywords: consumerwin7track, kb

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Article Info
Article ID : 2556279
Revision : 1
Created on : 1/7/2017
Published on : 8/16/2011
Exists online : False
Views : 106