Hi, Im using shared folders in Beta6 for Mac OS X. It is pretty unstable. I find that after a few suspends/resumes, the shared folders are usually inacessible from inside the guest (I mounte a drive pointing to it). If i navigate to \\.host\ through Windows Explorer, it crashes, all the time, giving me a BSOD. Anyone else had this? Any workarounds until beta 7? Thanks.
Can't access shared folders I'm having a similar problem, except I can't access the shared folder at all without Windows crashing. I can browse the document folder, but as soon as I try to open or copy a file the guest crashes. Any ideas? I'm running with 512 Mb memory. Could increasing memory help?
I've got a shared folder problem as well. VM does not crash but when I use an MS Office app to open a file in the shared folder, I get an error message as follows: The network name "\\.host\WinXP' could not be found. Make sure you typed the correct nework path and the network is available. FYI, my shared folder is "WinXP". Has anyone else had this problem?
I'm having the same issue. I'm quite frustrated with it since it's the only way that I have at the moment to get files out of Windows XP (USB key doesn't work, external USB Lacie drive doesn't work on Windows XP side, I can't use the DVD burner to write files to since the burner doesn't work on the Windows XP side). I'm therefore totally depend on the shared drive to get files out of the Windows XP environment and with it's instability, this is a very frustrating experience when the share fails and I have to wind up rebooting in order to re-establish the share). I'm looking forward to an update from Parallels to hopefully resolve this. If it's not done soon, I'm going to have to reinstall Boot camp and work in that environment instead. I'm keeping my fingers crossed
I also experienced this issue with Shared Folders. However, in Beta6, the Windows networking is working great. To use it and map to a folder on your Mac, open OS X System Preferences, click on Sharing and click on Windows Sharing. At the bottom of the window, it will tell you that you can access files from \\your.ip.address\youruserid. Now, the problem with this is that it will share your entire home directory. If you download SharePoints (freeware), you can specify one or more specific folders to share via windows. Next, go into PW and load Windows. Select Map Network Drive and press Browse. You will see the drives you shared via OS X. When you connect this way, it works as a true network drive and you can run programs directly or open and save documents on the shared drives. Works great! At least until the Shared Folders function is operational.
The problem I have with using the Windows sharing (Samba) is that I get the impression there is a major security problem associated with passwords and Samba (Mac help indicates that Samba passwords are not stored securely). So, this seems to work ok while I'm connected to a network, but what happens when I change networks? For example, if I map a drive in XP then change networks such as would happen when I put the computer to sleep and go home. The static mapping to an IP address assumes that I'll have the same IP address when I reconnect to another network. In fact, it assumes I'll connect to a network period. My conclusion is that Parallels must get the file sharing working reliably. This is an absolutely essential requirement for the product to have value to PC users that want to migrate to a Mac.
I have the same problem. I have my external USB & Firewire HDs shared in Parallels as shared folders. However, when I dig into the folders in the HD, the Explorer window just disappear (or sometimes come up with an error). It just doesn't just happen in Explorer, it also happens to application then browsing the shared folder. Like say I am saving an e-mail in Outlook Express or openning a file from Dreamweaver, the applications disappear without any error messages...
I'll bet there's a way to manually edit /etc/smb.conf, or the firewall config, to make sure that Windows File Sharing serves only the en2 host-only ethernet connection. That would render it completely safe from external hacks. Honestly, if I knew how to do that, I don't think I'd care at all about Parallels Shared Folders! I did some speed tests and they seem to be just about identical.
