Extra partitions visible but unusable in VM (win7)

Hi

I'm evaluating parallels.

I've configured a new mac setup with 3 extra partitions - 1 bootcamp partition and 2 other windows partitions (partitions created with disk utility after bootcamp-based windows installation - windows repairs fine after it fails to find the HD).

The setup from booting to windows 7 through bootcamp is working fine - 3 usable windows drives, 1 osx drive visible - and all the drives show up fine in OSX.

Parallels happily sees the bootcamp partition and I can use it as a VM - except that the extra drives are not accessible, when I try to access them it flags them as needing to be reformatted.

I installed VMFusion to see if that had the same issue and it doesn't - it has no problem with the extra partitions. Everything I'm reading puts parallels as the faster option however.

So I'm wondering if there is something I'm missing with the parallels config given it's fine elsewhere. (I've done some searches on the KB and docs, hoping I've not done a newbie and missed the front-page instructions)

thanks,
grant

 

Window -> Virtual Machine List -> right click the VM -> Configure... -> Hardware -> Hard Disk 1 -> Edit Partitions -> select each partition that you want to be visible in the VM -> OK.

 

I have the same problem as Granta.
I have 1 OSX/HTFS Partition , 1 FAT32 for Windows XP partition, and 1 FAT32 for shared data between OSX and Windows using Boot Camp.
The Data partition is acessible either from OSX or Windows using Boot Camp.
However if I try to access that Data parttiton from Windows under Parrallels it says it not formated and I cannot access it.

Any idea on how I can have that Data partition accessible from Parallels Window.
More importantly it is assigned as Drive X: under Windows and needs to be kept that way under parallel as some windows Programs are installed there.

The advice from joevt did not help since both partitions are already checked.
Window -> Virtual Machine List -> right click the VM -> Configure... -> Hardware -> Hard Disk 1 -> Edit Partitions -> select each partition that you want to be visible in the VM -> OK.

Thanks
JM

 

What do the following commands say about your partition setup?

Code:

diskutil list
sudo gpt -r show disk#
sudo gpt -r show -l disk#
sudo fdisk /dev/rdisk#

(# is the number of the disk as shown in the diskutil output)

 

I managed to have my DATA partition acessible by unmounting it.
I guess if both OSX and the Virtual Machine are accessing it causes the issue?

Follows answer to your request:
jmv$ diskutil list
/dev/disk0
#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER
0: GUID_partition_scheme *200.0 GB disk0
1: EFI 209.7 MB disk0s1
2: Apple_HFS Macintosh HD 101.7 GB disk0s2
3: Microsoft Basic Data DATA 64.4 GB disk0s3
4: Microsoft Basic Data WINDOWS 33.4 GB disk0s4
/dev/disk1
#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER
0: CD_partition_scheme *321.0 MB disk1
1: CD_ROM_Mode_1 OFFICE11 279.5 MB disk1s0
/dev/disk2
#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER
0: FDisk_partition_scheme *500.1 GB disk2
1: Windows_NTFS RENE 500.1 GB disk2s1
jmv$ sudo gpt -r show disk0s3
start size index contents
0 1 MBR
1 125829119
jmv$ sudo gpt -r show -l disk0s3
start size index contents
0 1 MBR
1 125829119
jmv$ sudo fdisk /dev/rdisk0s3
Disk: /dev/rdisk0s3 geometry: 7832/255/63 [125829120 sectors]
Signature: 0xAA55
Starting Ending
#: id cyl hd sec - cyl hd sec [ start - size]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
1: 00 0 0 0 - 0 0 0 [ 0 - 0] unused
2: 00 0 0 0 - 0 0 0 [ 0 - 0] unused
3: 00 0 0 0 - 0 0 0 [ 0 - 0] unused
4: 00 0 0 0 - 0 0 0 [ 0 - 0] unused
jmv$

 

Correct. Parallels needs to unmount the partition (if it's not already unmounted) so it can take it over as a Boot Camp hdd while running the VM. A partition can't be unmounted if files on the partition are opened.

Another option is to use a shared folder on your Mac disk to share data between Mac OS X and Parallels. You can assign a drive letter to shared folders. Mac stuff is located at "\\.psf\". Sharing you Mac home folder adds "\\.psf\Home". Sharing All disks adds "\\.psf\Host". User defined Mac OS X folders are all added to "\\.psf\". To map a Mac disk to a drive letter, you first need a path to the Mac disk. You can use the "All disks" option and find the path to your disk in "\\.psf\Host\Volumes\" or you can add your disk as a User-defined Mac OS X folder and your disk will be in "\\.psf\". Now right click "My Computer", select "Map Network Drive...", enter the drive letter you want to use e.g. "X:", and type in the path to the Mac OS X disk/folder e.g. "\\.psf\MyDisk". This will create a Network Drive "MyDisk on '.psf'" which you can rename to "MyDisk".


jmv, you don't need to post your info since you have it working ok now, but for future reference:

gpt and fdisk use a disk device instead of a partition (slice) device. So for disk0 you would use:

Code:

diskutil list
sudo gpt -r show disk0
sudo gpt -r show -l disk0
sudo fdisk /dev/rdisk0

Also, surround your output text with [code] and [/code] to preserve the spacing.

 

Joe thanks for your advice I really appreciate it.
Everything is fine now.
JM