NTFS drive auto mount

I've finally got this really close...getting external USB drives to work in WinXP/Parallels is tough. Could not get a FAT32 drive to work any way (or even be seen in WinXP) except as a shared folders/drive. Using a NTFS formatted drive makes things easier. Note this drive is merely data, not a booter, not holding the VM, etc., etc.

1. Set the NTFS drive *not* to mount in Mac OSX (via edited fstab in terminal...otherwise I have to manually eject the drive before launching the VM).
2. Set VM USB to "Guest OS."
3. Launch VM, then choose Devices, this drive on the dropdown list.
4. Wait a couple of minutes as WinXP/Parallels loads the drive.

So my questions:

1. Can anything be done via Windows setting to speed up this loading? (I have turned off indexing for the drive.)
2. Can Parallels (or will future versions of Parallels) auto load this drive?

Thanks,
Gary

 

I guess you are using Boot Camp, and thus only operation to do, is to plug NTFS drive, after you launch VM

 

Thanks John. Not using boot camp, just the VM.

 

In this case all you need is pass this device from Device menu - USB

 

NTFS not working

the directions above seem so simple. why isn't it working? it just never sees it, and i followed the steps above.

i select the drive in the USB submenu under devices and it just sits there. for a long time.

this is not very user-friendly, IMO. this is a basic task that you have to search the boards how to do???

-brian

Parallels 3 / MBP / OSX 10.5.6 / 1 TB Maxtor USB 2.0 NTFS