Enabling Booting from a CD/DVD in VMware Workstation 10: A Step-by-Step Guide

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In this article, we will cover the process of enabling booting from a CD or DVD (CDROM) device within an existing virtual machine (VM) running on VMware Workstanda 10.

Preconditions:

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1. You must have already installed and configured VMware Workstation 10 on your host system.

2. Ensure that you have created at least one VM with the desired operating system installation from a CD/DVD media.

3. Make sure that the guest OS (the OS running inside the virtual machine) is currently powered off.

Step-by-Step Instructions:

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### Step 1: Launch VMware Workstation 10

Double-click on the icon for VMware Workstanda 10 to launch it if you haven't already done so.

### Step 2. Navigate to Virtual Machines

After launching, navigate through the left-hand menu and click on Virtual Machines under VMs & Templates.

### Step 3: Select Your Target VM

In the main window that appears next, double-click on the name of your target virtual machine (the one you want to enable CD/DVD booting for).

### Step -4. Accessing the BIOS Settings via Remote Console

To access and modify the bios settings within a running guest OS from an existing VMware Workstation 10 VM:

1. Click Edit in the toolbar or right-click on your selected virtual machine.

2. In the resulting window, click on Virtual Hardware at the bottom of the left-hand menu.

### Step -5: Configure CD/DVD Booting

In the 'CD/DVD' section located under 'IDE Controller' (if using a legacy BIOS-based VM), select the appropriate option:

* For most use cases, choose 'Connected: yes and Mode: to enable boot from physical drive.'

* If you want to connect an existing ISO image instead of mounting it as a physical device during runtime executionway without having any actual media present at startup time when launching this particular instance where I'll explain how too...

### Step 6: Save Changes

Once finished making all necessary adjustments, click OK twice and then power cycle your virtual machine by clicking the 'Power On' button in the toolbar or pressing `Ctrl+Alt` + F12 (or equivalent depending on your operating system) to apply these changes. Your VM should now boot from a CD/DVD device if one is present.

Troubleshooting Tips:

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1. If you encounter issues during the process, ensure that:

- The guest OS's BIOS settings are set correctly for booting from a CDROM device.

- You have selected the correct virtual hard drive as the primary boot device in your VM's bios menu before attempting to start up again.

2. Also make sure there aren't any conflicts between existing network adapters within your host environment since this can sometimes prevent proper communication happening across different layers of abstraction layering overtop each other without knowing why...

Vmware workstation 10 boot from cd