Preparing an SD card with a Linux installation from my workstation to later on transfer that to new hardware, my current Parallels Desktop 5.0.9344 for Mac left me alone.
Under no circumstance would a Parallels VM environment boot the USB SD Card reader. After switching to VMware Fusion 2.0.7, I experienced the same problem. The Virtual Machine environment wouldn't boot from the USB SD Card.
Finally I found a post referring to the PLoP Boot Manager. And that did the job without any problem in the VMware Fusion environment.
Thanks for your great, free and ultra tiny sized USB boot solution.
A feature that would make me happy, is a separate specialized .iso image, that immediately boot from the USB device (without a menu and without key press)
BTW - Under Parallels Desktop there is still no luck, booting a USB device via PLoP. Though that is no problem to me.
Thanks again for all your effort.