I Originally posted this in "GENERAL", but on second thought, this is technical... Attaching Camcorder & Ext. Hard Drives to VM Host: MacBook Pro Duo 2 running OS-X. 200GB HD, 3GB RAM. Parallels installed normally and was immediately updated. Guest: Windows 2000 installed normally (although I haven't yet figured out how to go online in my virtual machine to update to the latest service pack). I want to be able to connect via USB to a Sony HDR-SR1 digital hard drive camcorder to download up to 30GB AVCHD video files - for editing in the installed Sony "Picture Motion Browser (Windows software)". I would also like to connect my (2 EA.) G-Technology 500GB external hard drives and a LaCie 120GB portable external hard drive to back up those video files (ideally, using firewire 800...but USB 2.0 is a second available choice). When I run my VM and connect the USB camcorder, it is not recognized (whether I plug it in before or after starting the VM). The same is true of the hard drives. They are not recognized by the VM, although the Mac recognizes them. I want to use EMC Retrospect Backup software to configure and organize my hard drives, and I'm not sure if I should install it on the Mac drive, or if I should install it on my virtual machine. Questions: 1. Can I do what I'm planning? 2. How can I go online in my virtual machine to update the service pack of the guest O/S Windows 2000? My Mac has good wireless internet access. 3. How can I get the VM to recognize the USB connection and accept the download of the huge AVCHD video files from my camcorder? 4. I'm assuming that I'm going to have to manually enlarge the Virtual hard drive on my VM to accept the giant video files. How big should I get, and how can I do that? 5. I want to immediately back up those video files to my 3 external hard drives. How can I get the VM to recognize the hard drives? 6. Should I install the EMC Retrospect software into the Windows 2000 on the VM or should I install it onto the OS-X on the Mac? I will only be backin up the data onto my hard drives (and maybe burning DVD backups as well). 7. I've got an older dive computer interface that uses a serial RS-232 connector that (of course) is not supported by my Mac. I've read the recommendation on this forum to use a Belkin (serial/usb) interface, and that offers some hope. I wonder if anyone knows about serial/ExpressCard 34 interfaces? This would be cool, but not a top priority. BTW, I'm just computer literate enough to be dangerous. I have been reading all of the FAQs and manuals, and have tried to make this work...with no luck. I'm about to head out of town on a trip, and I really need to make this work reliably. Help!! Keep Smilin'! Phil
A couple of thoughts: You have a MacBook Pro, which comes loaded with iMovie for real easy editing. You also have a state of the art Sony Camcorder, which uses a proprietary format not compatible with iMovie...so you need to load the Sony proprietary SW. In my opinion, you would be happiest if you ran your Sony SW under Boot Camp, which is available from Apple. It differs from Parallels in that you would boot your computer up in Windows and run Windows natively. You could not switch to the Mac applications without rebooting. But the performance would be great and you could easily configure as much hard drive space as you need, and connecting your USB peripherals becomes easy. You would have to install Windows XP SP2, because Windows 2000 is not supported on Boot Camp. Chances are you might get this to work on Parallels, but I don't believe you would be happy long term. You can try it by loading it up and editing a small file to see if the performance is sufficient. To connect your USB camcorder, I would try the following: Set your USB controller to Autoconnect OFF. Look at the list of USB devices. Now plug in your camcorder. Look again at the list of USB devices. If your camcorder shows up in the list, click on it and you should see a check mark next to it. It is now attached to your VM. You can do this from the DEVICES drop down menu that you will see at the top of your screen when Parallels is active. You can attach USB drives in the same way. Good luck.
Thanks Purplish! Thanks for the recommendations! I know that I'm expecting alot from my equipment, but I'm really trying to make it work. A Sony Tech Rep. told me that a Mac "is just not capable of accepting streaming AVCHD files through the USB ports". An Apple Genius said "bulls__t! to that. O.K., I've decided to pay for the Apple "Pro Care", and have the good folks at the store show me what they've got... I'm going to try your suggestion of turning off the auto USB detect, and I'll let you know if it works. My top priority is downloading, and backup. Speed and performance are a lower priority. Thanks again! Keep Smilin'! Phil
Hello Phil ! As far as you was suggested to use Bootcamp. It is a very good idea for your complicated issues with Sony. Parallels in addtion has a very wonderful feature to access Bootcamp partition and run guest Windows Xp while MAC OS is running. ALso if you have plenty space on hard drive , you can experiment to work with Virtual Machines. It means you create VM on mac side and use it. Yes , it is still has several issues with USB device problems. But who will see, maybe your software will work briliantly on VM. Our next release will fix remaining bugs...
