Fixed by VMWare in VMWare Workstation 5.5.3: Bug #92443
After the guest disconnects from a USB device on a Linux host, Workstation fails to automatically reconnect the USB device to the host. -- [Edgy]External USB Drive no longer accessible in vmware https://launchpad.net/bugs/64468 -- ubuntu-bugs mailing list ubuntu-bugs@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-bugs