DVD/CD drive issues

Wow, I'm very excited by the progress of Parallels for Mac thus far. Along with the other great things the latest beta has brought to us, I was very surprised to see that DVD/CD drive access is very much improved... It actually feels much more like drive access in native Windows. Great job you guys! I haven't yet had a chance to try burning a disc from inside the Windows VM - hopefully that'll work too.

There still seems to be an issue with the guest OS accessing multiple optical drives though. I ordered my Mac Pro with two internal. When editing the VM settings, I add a second drive to the profile and try to select the "other" drive (the opposite one from what is selected under the first drive). After saving and going back to check, they're both set to the top drive. I said ok, leave them both disconnected when booting the VM, I'll connect them manually. Once Windows is booted, I can connect the first drive to the top drive in the Pro. When I try to connect the second VM drive to the bottom drive it says "Unable to open device/file" and gives the device name.

There may be other features that are higher priority but being able to use both drives as if I was running native Windows would be a big benefit to me. That along with putting a final polish on Coherence will have me set for a while.

Thanks!

 

Oh, there is one other thing with the optical drives. I'm sure it's been mentioned before because this has been the same since I started using Parallels (the first build that really supported the Mac Pro) but I'll put my $0.02 in...

If the one drive I'm able to connect is connected, the eject button on the keyboard doesn't work right. The button will open the top drive, but will not close it if pressed again. If I hold the Option key while pressing it to open the bottom drive, it first opens the top drive and then the bottom. While holding the Option key, it will continue to close/open the bottom drive while leaving the top drive open.

If neither drive is connected, the open/close from the keyboard works as it is supposed to.

This is a real annoyance that should be fixed.

 

This is still a problem in 3106.

 

This is still a problem in 3120 - RC1, no change.

 

This is still an issue in the latest RC2. I have sent several e-mails to the Beta mailbox and have received no reply.

 

Do you have two identical drives?
It seems you are trying to connect the same drive twice.
When you have more then one drive you can select it by name.
You can select your drives on VM configuration page, you can leave it disconnected if you prefer.
And after booting you can connect it without selecting by name, so you don't mull it.

 

I do have two identical drives. I ordered my Mac Pro with two optical drives so it came with two Pioneer DVR-111D drives. Parallels lists both of them (with the same name). When trying to connect the second drive, I try both listings and get the same error.

Can you give me more info as to how to select/connect to a particular drive without using the name? The only way I see in Parallels is through the GUI which just shows the drive by it's name.

Even if your workaround works, this is still a bug in the software that needs to be addressed.

 

I've been having problems with the Mac Pro's optical drives since the first revision of Parallels for Mac. In the last two builds, the optical drive works fine in the guest OS, but they do not work in the OS X. Kind of annoying...Ditto to the annoyance with the eject button. I've perused the forums a bit, but haven't seen much info on them.

 

Good, I had begun to think it was just me. Perhaps there just aren't many people ordering their Mac Pros with dual drives. Still, my biggest frustration is that still to this day after repeated communication attempts, nobody from Parallels has even acknowledged receipt of my messages.

Thanks for the support guys! I'm SOOOO glad I gave you my money (not). You can bet that if support doesn't improve, I won't be paying for any new versions. (For those of you about to reply with a statement about Beta software - don't bother - I know. This issue has existed since the first release that supported the Mac Pro including the "official" release.)

 

puithove, into the current release eject button behaviour will not be changed.
I don't know, but probably it will be fixed into the future updates.
There are many utilities for windows that allows to control CDROM tray by software. Use it if you cannot close your tray by hand.

Your troubles with two drives will be tested.

Thank you for contacting Parallels.

 

Ah! Am I to assume you work for Parallels then? Please change your status line from "Junior Member" to something that identifies the fact that you are actually a Parallels employee trying to help out the masses. I did not realize your status from your other post and assumed you were just another forum member.

Thank you, you addressed my biggest gripe - a lack of response which can turn a minor glitch into a major customer relations issue.

 

I have just a single drive actually, not dual. Nonetheless, I have no use of my optical drive in the host OS. I've submitted this in a bug report. The eject button issue is annoying, but not nearly as crucial as having the use of an optical drive in OS X. Any word on fixes Parallels?

 

vassego, Parallels needs exclusive access to optical drive. So you can not use it within VM and OS X at the same time.

 

Why is that? I've used other virtualization software on other platforms and optical drive access has worked in both systems (i.e. Running VMWare Workstation hosted on Windows XP SP2 with Ubutnu Guest). This seems to be a fairly significant problem, as shutting down the VM everytime I need to access information on an optical drive is an enormous inconvenience.

 

You don't need shutdown VM! Just disconnect drive from VM.
For example, try to write something to media simultaneously within VMWare and host OS and vice versa.

 

My apologies for misunderstanding, I guess...nonetheless, is it out of complete reason that the optical drive should be accessible from both host and guest?

 

Yes, it's unreasonable. To share a device, one OS (or the hypervisor) has to own it and virtualize it for the other. This is tricky and expensive to get working. Note the difficulty in making USB work.

 

I have a Mac Pro 3.0Ghz with two internal optical drives and I am encountering the SAME problem the original poster described and I am using build 3188.

This is a major problem.

I have reproduced it with:

Stock Apple superdrives on the ATA bus
Twin Plextor drives on the ATA bus
Twin Plextor drives on the SATA bus

Please fix this.

Thanks in advance.

 

Well, this is still an issue in the latest version 3. Very disappointed. Still can't use two optical drives in my guest OS.

On the up side, the eject key seems have had some improvement. I can eject/inject the top drive with the key. However the bottom drive (using Option-Eject) still has the same issues. If I was a single optical drive user, I'd probably be happy. However, I am one of many who BTO their Mac Pro with dual drives.

VMWare Fusion handles both drives just fine.