Virtual Hard Drive only mounts now and then..

Hi... I've used Parallels and Windows XP Pro on my Mac running Tiger and later Leopard for on the order of two years or so now... I love it... And for almost all of that time, when I launch windows, eventually a hard drive will show up (mount?) on my Mac desktop. The hard drive has a Parallels icon associated with it and is called [C] followed by the name I gave to my virtual machine. All that I trust is normal. Until I see that show up I have come to learn I can't really access anything on the Windows desktop... But once that does show up, I'm good to go... Included in all I can do is I can drag files or folders across the Mac/PC window boundary, ie., drag and drop... I use that constantly... However, recently I have discovered that sometimes, maybe about half the time, that Virtual Machine related hard drive NEVER shows up on the Mac desktop. I do find that even though it's not there, I now CAN do work in Windows but I have also discovered that when this hard drive is not present on the Mac desktop I can NO LONGER drag and drop files across the boundary... I use that feature so much that it really makes this new and aberrant configuration not very useful so I usually shutdown and restart the virtual machine... Most of the time, when I do that, the hard drive shows up and I can once again work normally... So the problem is sporadic. This is a new problem that I would guess showed up a month or so ago.. I haven't updated Parallels in quite a while, nor have I updated the Mac... Parallels version is Parallels Desktop for Mac 3 (Build 5608) and Mac OS is Leopard 10.5.4.... The only thing I have done in recent times is update Windows to SP3 but my guess is that happened some time before this problem showed up but again, that's just a guess... Is there some setting that I need to change/correct/fix that will rectify this problem such that I can get back to where the normal drag and drop (and I think that's tied to this hard drive mounting on the mac desktop) capability can be restored such that it works every time??? Anyone have any ideas as to what might be wrong?? Any help would be much appreciated... thanks... bob...

 

Please check in Configuration Editor - Configuration - Shared Folders that All Windows disks box is checked

 

All Windows disk box IS checked

Hi.. I did what you suggested and that box is checked so that doesn't appear to be tied to the problem... What's most troubling is that it never did this for a long time and recently it began doing it just now and then, maybe 1 in 3 times the disk just never shows up and drag and drop is disabled... Shutdown, restart and it usually comes back without me ever touching any settings... Any other thoughts???? thanks... bob...

 

the next step is to install http://code.google.com/p/macfuse/ Macfuse

 

Same problem; MacFUSE then what? and more details

John,

I'll second diitto's report: I see the same problem. (Except that diitto says that he can only use the mounted C drive to drag & drop; I can use the files on the mounted drive to work normally, e.g. double-clicking on file and having them open in the appropriate app)

I'm using build 5608 and Windows XP, running on a Mac Pro 2x2.66 running OS X 10.4.11.
Recent changes, in order from past to now: I changed my Windows profile to my active directory profile, I began using the mounted C drive to store my working files on the C drive, and I connected my Mac to the active directory network, too. However, I believe I was seeing this occasional-disconnect problem before I connted the Mac to AD.

[UPDATE: oops, I forgot some details. I, too, am sharing all Windows Folders. I'm also sharing my Mac Home folder with Windows, if that is relevant.
I am running a second virtual machine with Ubuntu. Don't think that would make a difference, but it's worth mentioning.
Finally, since I started using my Windows Active Directory profile, my tech services dept has been able to run updates on my profile automatically, overnight. I don't know if that would be relevant or not. I can't remember if I've ever seen the mounted C drive disappear during the day or only between work days.
I'll submit a Problem Report with the accompanying tech data in case that helps you guys.]

With regards to your answer: the next step is to install MacFUSE. And then what? What does that change and how do we make use of it?

thanks for all help and explanation.