How do you access external USB drive on Hyper-V VM without using the network redirected pathway

Khalid 0 Reputation points
2024-03-26T02:54:51.66+00:00

My VM is running Windows Server 2019 and I am trying make the USB drive accessible in 'Devices and drives' section in 'This PC'. I am able to re-direct the USB drive to the VM (as in shown in the picture attached) but the added software cannot access it.

I tried to go into disk management and make the USB folder go offline, but the option does not show when I right click on the folder and I tried it with the cmb prompt, using 'diskpart' command and it doesn't work either. It might be because this is a thumb-drive.

Could you please tell me if there is another way to do this?

Thanks in advance.

Host - usb.PNG

VM - usb.PNG

Windows Server 2019
Windows Server 2019
A Microsoft server operating system that supports enterprise-level management updated to data storage.
3,457 questions
Hyper-V
Hyper-V
A Windows technology providing a hypervisor-based virtualization solution enabling customers to consolidate workloads onto a single server.
2,538 questions
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  1. Jing Zhou 2,085 Reputation points Microsoft Vendor
    2024-03-28T04:44:55.8966667+00:00

    Hello,

     

    Thank you for posting in Q&A forum.

    To access local USB device in Hyper-V machine, please kindly

    1.Turn on enhanced session mode on a Hyper-V host

    2.Open VMConnect and choose the local USB

    For completed steps, please kindly refer to Microsoft Official Documentation:

    REF: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/virtualization/hyper-v/learn-more/Use-local-resources-on-Hyper-V-virtual-machine-with-VMConnect

    To help other customers who may be facing the same issue, please don't forget to vote if the reply is helpful.

    Hope this answer can help you well.

     

    Best regards，

    Jill Zhou

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  2. Net Runner 505 Reputation points
    2024-03-29T01:09:48.27+00:00

    Unfortunately, the only way Hyper-V "sees" USB drives is through a storage device. In your case, I suppose that is some hardware key used for software licensing purposes. If I am right, the only two options that work are either using a USB-to-Ethernet gateway or adding a cheap PCIe USB controller and passing it to the virtual machine completely using DDA.

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