USB hard and flash drive issues

I tried searching, but most of the threads were last updated last year, so I thought I'd start a new one.

Basically, I use Parallels at work and just now at home on my new iMac. At both locations I've noticed troubles with USB flash and hard drives.

Specifically, it can take a long time for Windows under Parallels to actually mount a device, and during this time, I cannot open System Properties or System Management or Disk Management, the services are busy. It can take up to 5 minutes sometimes.

I'm using NTFS or FAT formatted drives, since they're obviously native under Windows. I haven't tried other formats.

I'm using Build 5584 at both locations.

 

I use native mac formatted HD and don't see these problems

If I use my old Windows USB hard drive it appears as read only

please remember the Macintosh is running on a flavour of Unix

The modern Mac OS is in fact a Unix shell

just as WinXp is a GUI shell for Microsoft Windows NT
so using legacy disk formats may be counter productive

you may find some good Wiki articles by googling

see also

http://www.apple.com/macosx/technology/unix.html

UNIX certification.

Leopard is an Open Brand UNIX 03 Registered Product, conforming to the SUSv3 and POSIX 1003.1 specifications for the C API, Shell Utilities, and Threads. Since Leopard can compile and run all your existing UNIX code, you can deploy it in environments that demand full conformance — complete with hooks to maintain compatibility with existing software.

<< and lots more

Hugh W

 

Seriously? That reply had absolutely nothing to do with the problem I'm having.

I know OS X is UNIX-based. Big deal.

What I'm trying to do is get Parallels running a Windows virtual machine to work as expected with external USB-connected drives.

The same drives mount quickly and work fine under OS X. That's not the issue. It's Parallels.

Yes, I know NTFS-formatted drives are not writable under OS X (unless using third-party driver.) That's not the issue.