USB drive won't show in Windows Gues OS

Discussion in 'Windows Virtual Machine' started by MangeshG, Dec 21, 2010.

  1. MangeshG

    MangeshG Bit poster

    Messages:
    1
    Hi all,

    I am new to Parallels - but have searched the forums, the knowledge base, the users manual, and "the google" :). so please don't flame me for this apparently simple question.

    My setup:
    - PD6 for Mac, Windows XP SP2 guest OS.
    - Windows set to Isolation mode. (At least initially I want to completely isolate my mac from windows).
    - Windows "Removeable Storage" service is enabled.

    My problem:
    I have a USB hard drive connected to my mac. I want to give the windows guest OS access to this drive.
    When I try to do this by going through the "Configure" menu, the dirve dissapears from the mac's Finder (as expected), but never shows up in Windows' file explorer.
    I've tried this with NTFS as well as FAT32 drives.

    I *am* able to give windows access to the mac's superdrive.

    I expect to be able to share the USB drive as well without having to create shared folders or setting up SmartMount. (I want to hold windows on a tight leash and control what mac resources are available to windows and want to stay in isolated mode).

    I am evaluating the free trial version and if I can get over this issue I am ready to purchase a license - but don't want to purchase if some of my expected use cases don't work.

    Please help!

    Thanks much
    Mangesh
     
  2. strawbot

    strawbot Bit poster

    Messages:
    4
    Same problem USB drives not there

    I plugged in severla USB drives and the popup window asked if I wanted to connect them to Mac OS or XP. In each case I connectd them to Windows. None showed up in windows.
    I couldn't find any useful answers except the usual uninstall everything and try again approach. Instead, I went to the guest os (XP) and Start Menu->Settings->Control Panel->System. Hardware tab. Select Device manager. My USB Drives were there but with a yellow question mark and exclamation mark. I right clicked one and chose update driver. This triggered a hardware update for mass storage. This took a few minutes. Then go to windows explorer (which I had open before with none of the usb drives) and select refresh. I did the same for all the devices under Other Devices. They became Unknown device, a usb mass storage device showed up under universal serial bus controllers and the drives appeared in windows explorer after a refresh.

    Seems dumb but that is what worked for me. I think there is something wrong with Parallels Desktop. (V6)
     

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