Windows HD dissappears when VM running...

Is it just my MBP or does everyone's Windows HD disappear from the MAC Desktop while running Parallels VM? I use MAC Mail and would like to be able to save attachments to the Windows folder structure while the VM is running. Why am I not able to do this and why does the Windows HD disappear during VM session?

Any other way to save to Win partition during VM session? I can save from Windows to MAC during VM session, just not the other way around.

Thanks...

 

you cant have both OS's accessing the same file system, so when windows runs in the VM, access to it is removed from osx.

 

you can if you activate file sharing

Parallels Desktop >> menu >> devices >> shared folders >> add

( sometimes enter the mac area via your user name )


browsing using MSIE 7 on the VM

\\.PSF\USB hard disk Karl\2060718 desktop files\start page\Aaaa_start_page.htm

is a typical path to an old back up of my PC on a USB NTFS disk


and the same file open in Firefox on the Mac OS
file:///Volumes/Karl/2060718%20desktop%20files/start%20page/Aaaa_start_page.htm

it is an old webmaster trick to view the same file in several browsers while editing it

and saving the changes and then remembering to reload each browser

\\.PSF\Mac desktop\sitemap.html
is a file on the mac desk top
(just another folder on the mac hard disk)
after I added that using

Parallels Desktop >> menu >> devices >> shared folders >> add

enjoy

Hugh W

 

Sorry, but that doesn't make much sense. Not really sure what you are doing. You have not written to the Windows file system from the MAC during the VM session. You have access a file from on the MAC from Windows, and then accessed the same file from the MAC.

I do have file sharing enabled on the Parallels desktop and shared a folder from the Windows partition, but I have no idea where to access that on the MAC when the VM is running. It's gonzo...doesn't exist.

I know it's there when the VM is not running, but that is not my question. Why can Windows write to the Mac when the VM is running but I can't write from the Mac to Windows during the VM session?

That is what I'm trying to do.

 

I don't really think that statement is entirely true. Why can I write to the MAC from Windows during the VM session, but not the other way around?

Also, then what is the point of Parallels Shared Folders? Where do you find these shared folders that you setup during the VM session?

 

because this is being done by an SMB stack thats written into Parallels, rather than directly to the device.

however, this is not true when trying to write from osx to the mounted hard drive containing windows. when the windows drive is mounted in osx, its writing directly to the device. When the VM starts, that also writes directly to the device, as such, access to the device is removed from OSX.
The SMB stack does not write directly to the device. When copying from windows to osx, the data is sent form windows via the smb stack, to osx which writes the data to its hard drive device.