I have an external HDD connected via USB (and occasionally use it in Windows). I noticed the following behavior in Parallels 4.0:
(1) Run VM.
(2) Connect USB HDD to VM (by clicking on the USB icon in the VM window).
(3) USB HDD is connected and automatically recognized by Windows (Server 2003).
(4) Safely remove HDD.
(5) Disconnect HDD by clicking on the USB icon in the VM window.
(6) Suspend VM and exit Parallels.
(7) Relaunch VM.
(8) Connect USB HDD to VM by clicking on the USB icon.
(9) USB HDD is NOT automatically recognized by Windows.
(10) However, this is resolved by scanning for new Plug & Play hardware in Control Panel => Add Hardware.
This is a minor inconvenience. A more serious issue occurs when trying to copy large chunks of data (on the order of 10 GB) to the USB HDD. Occasionally the VM would simply disconnect the USB HDD, interrupting the copy process, and immediately add it back on (no Add Hardware scan required). Although scanning with chkdsk doesn't show any corruption as a result of the disconnect, it is annoying when it does occur.
Any ideas what's going on? This behavior did not occur on version 3.0, but is present in version 4.0 on the latest build (3540). (It has also occurred on an earlier build.) Despite the inconveniences, I admit that the new USB driver in version 4.0 is a marked improvement from version 3.0. It used to take me ages to copy 10 GB of data to an external HDD with Parallels. Now transfer performance is very competitive with transfers made directly on OS X.
(1) Run VM.
(2) Connect USB HDD to VM (by clicking on the USB icon in the VM window).
(3) USB HDD is connected and automatically recognized by Windows (Server 2003).
(4) Safely remove HDD.
(5) Disconnect HDD by clicking on the USB icon in the VM window.
(6) Suspend VM and exit Parallels.
(7) Relaunch VM.
(8) Connect USB HDD to VM by clicking on the USB icon.
(9) USB HDD is NOT automatically recognized by Windows.
(10) However, this is resolved by scanning for new Plug & Play hardware in Control Panel => Add Hardware.
This is a minor inconvenience. A more serious issue occurs when trying to copy large chunks of data (on the order of 10 GB) to the USB HDD. Occasionally the VM would simply disconnect the USB HDD, interrupting the copy process, and immediately add it back on (no Add Hardware scan required). Although scanning with chkdsk doesn't show any corruption as a result of the disconnect, it is annoying when it does occur.
Any ideas what's going on? This behavior did not occur on version 3.0, but is present in version 4.0 on the latest build (3540). (It has also occurred on an earlier build.) Despite the inconveniences, I admit that the new USB driver in version 4.0 is a marked improvement from version 3.0. It used to take me ages to copy 10 GB of data to an external HDD with Parallels. Now transfer performance is very competitive with transfers made directly on OS X.