Dell Autoloader Powervault 124T and ABR 10 Advanced Server in VMWare Player

I've installed Acronis and Windows Server 2008, and, to no surprise, it always asks for a new tape whenever I do a backup. Thus, this solution will not work for me, as we will be cycling tapes. So, I need a 2003 box. I've installed Windows Server 2003 inside VMWare Player on the same box, and my VMWare won't show the autoloader, but only the Tape Drive (IBM LTO 3 Ultraium) itself. I've tried the suggestion on the VMWare forums here: http://communities.vmware.com/thread/53432?start=15&tstart=0
to no avail. Does anyone have an alternate solution for me? I've called support and opened a ticket on this, and I'm wondering if we need to re-format the box that has 2008 on it and put 2003 on it rather than going with Virtual Machines. I don't want to resort to that if possible, I'd like to get it working inside VMWare Player.

Thanks.