Adding a CD/DVD-ROM Drive

You can add to your virtual machine a virtual CD/DVD-ROM drive that is either connected to a real CD/DVD-ROM on your physical computer or to an existing image file.

Note: A virtual machine can have up to four IDE devices (hard disks or CD/DVD-ROM drives) and 15 SCSI devices (hard disks or CD/DVD-ROM drives).

To add a new CD/DVD-ROM drive to a virtual machine

1. Choose Configure from the Virtual Machine menu to open Virtual Machine Configuration.
2. Click the Add button in the bottom part of the Virtual Machine Configuration dialog to launch Add Hardware Assistant.
3. In the Select Device window, select CD/DVD-ROM and click Continue .

   To add a CD/DVD-ROM drive that will have a typical configuration, choose the CD/DVD-ROM icon and click the Add Typical Device button. Assistant will create a typical CD/DVD-ROM drive ready for use.

4. In the Add CD/DVD-ROM window, select the resource for the new CD/DVD-ROM drive and click Continue . You can choose between the following options:
   • Real Device : select this option if you wish to add a real CD/DVD-ROM drive to your virtual machine.
   • Image File : select this option if you wish to use an existing image file as a virtual CD/DVD-ROM drive inside your virtual machine.

     Note: Parallels Desktop supports .iso , .cue , .ccd and .dmg (non-compressed and non-encrypted) image files.

   If you want the device to be connected to the virtual machine automatically at startup, select the Connected option. If you clear this option, the drive will be enabled in the configuration, but not connected to the virtual machine. You can connect it later when running the virtual machine.

5. Your next window will be different depending on what option ( Real Device or Image File ) you chose on the previous step:
   • If you chose to add a real device, select the corresponding device from the list in the Drive Name field.
   • If you chose to use an image file, type the path to the corresponding file in the Image File field or use the Choose button to locate the file.

   In both cases, you should specify the interface type for the CD/DVD-ROM device or image file:

   • IDE . Using this interface type, you can connect up to four virtual devices (hard disks or CD/DVD drives) to the virtual machine.
   • SCSI . Using this interface type, you can connect up to 15 virtual devices (hard disks or CD/DVD drives) to the virtual machine.

     Note: 1. The Mac OS X guest OS does not support the SCSI controller.

     2. In the latest Linux distributions (e.g. RHEL 5.3), the SCSI driver may be not installed. In this case, you should install this driver in your Linux guest OS to be able to use the SCSI controller.

   You can also define the device position in the Location list or accept the position offered by Add Hardware Assistant.

   Note: The SCSI 7:0 location is not available for selecting, since it is occupied by the SCSI controller itself.

   

   When you are ready, click the Add Device button to add a new virtual CD/DVD-ROM drive to your virtual machine.

Please send us your feedback on this help page