Access host physical drive from VM with orignal drive letter, not UNC path

Question

I virtualized an existing Windows XP partition using VMWare Converter, and I am running it from within a Windows 7 host. The original system had XP on drive C: and a large data drive on D: (too large to virtualize).

From within VMware Player (before starting the VM), I go to Virtual Machine Settings, Hardware tab. I click Add and add a new hard disk. The wizard steps are "Add Hard Disk", "Use A Physical Disk", select physical drive and individual partition, then check the partition corresponding to the desired D: drive.

After making these changes and attempting to start the VM, VMWare player gives an error about not being able to connect, and then hangs.

I also tried a different approach using Shared Folders. Under the Virtual Machine Settings, Options tab, "Shared Folders" lets me map the D: Drive as a shared folder, but from withing the VM, it appears as a network resource, with a UNC path like "\VMware\long\unc\path". Unfortunately, programs that are expecting D:\ will not work with that.

What is the procedure to access a host drive and map it as a physical drive letter from VMWare player?

Solution

After further searching with various keywords combinations, I came across this article:

The key phrase is:

You can map a shared folder to a drive letter just as you would with a network share.

How to get your "other" drive to appear with the proper letter -

1. From the VMWare Player menu: VM / Settings / Options Tab / Shared Folders.
2. Click Add and enter the drive lettter (D:) as the host path. Enable the share.
3. From a Windows Explorer Window in the guest OS, map the desired drive letter to the VMWare share. It will appear in the Network tree as a new level called "VMware Shared Folders" below "Microsoft Windows Network".

Comments

[Narcolessico]

A few years later (2018), in a Linux guest OS shared folders are automatically mounted under /mnt/hgfs