Connecting Mac Disk Image files under VM OS

[Blacksmith]

I'm running both Windows 7 and Windows 8 in Parallels 9.

I'd like to access some text files I have stored in a Mac OS disk image file. Does anyone know if this is possible?

I've tried mounting the disk image under Mac OS, running Parallels then mapping a network drive but it doesn't work. Can I access a disk image file from Windows and if so, how can it be done other than copying all the text files out of the disk image?

 

[lotw]

Just double click on the DMG on the Mac, then just drag the file over to the virtual machine.

 

[Blacksmith]

Just double click on the DMG on the Mac, then just drag the file over to the virtual machine.

Ah, it isn't a dmg file, it's a sparsebundle. Should have said that - sorry about that.

 

[joevt]

I've tried mounting the disk image under Mac OS, running Parallels then mapping a network drive but it doesn't work.

If you can mount the disk image in Mac OS, then it can be used in the Parallels virtual machine. .sparsebundles type disk images are mountable just like .dmg type disk images.

In Windows on the virtual machine, you should be able to find the mounted disk image at "\\psf\Host\Volumes\Disk Image". (replace "Disk Image" with the name of the volume).

"\\psf\Host\" is available when you use the "Share Folder: All disks" option. You can also use the "Custom Folders" option and select the Disk Image volume specifically. In that case, the volume will appear at "\\psf\Disk Image".

 

[Blacksmith]

If you can mount the disk image in Mac OS, then it can be used in the Parallels virtual machine. .sparsebundles type disk images are mountable just like .dmg type disk images.

In Windows on the virtual machine, you should be able to find the mounted disk image at "\\psf\Host\Volumes\Disk Image". (replace "Disk Image" with the name of the volume).

"\\psf\Host\" is available when you use the "Share Folder: All disks" option. You can also use the "Custom Folders" option and select the Disk Image volume specifically. In that case, the volume will appear at "\\psf\Disk Image".

Thanks for your reply. The issue was with psf as Windows 8 initially refused to recognise any drive mapped with "psf\Host\Volumes\..." yet psf is listed under Networks in a File Explorer window. I have a couple of external hard drives that are partitioned for Mac OS and these weren't appearing either so started my Windows 7 VM and all my hard drives appear as I expected. I returned to Windows 8 and started working on the problem when the File Explorer window refreshed and my missing drives all appeared. The Mac OS mounted sparsebundle also appeared under removable storage as a DVD/CD Rom drive so I was able to open the appropriate folder and start working.

Thanks for pointing me in the right direction as repeatedly trying to map drives with \\psf\ seemed to refresh the FE window which in turn revealed my missing hard and virtual drives. I know this sounds a bit odd but the only thing I can think of is a corrupt cache.

 

[joevt]

The issue was with psf as Windows 8 initially refused to recognise any drive mapped with "psf\Host\Volumes\..." yet psf is listed under Networks in a File Explorer window. I have a couple of external hard drives that are partitioned for Mac OS and these weren't appearing either so started my Windows 7 VM and all my hard drives appear as I expected. I returned to Windows 8 and started working on the problem when the File Explorer window refreshed and my missing drives all appeared. The Mac OS mounted sparsebundle also appeared under removable storage as a DVD/CD Rom drive so I was able to open the appropriate folder and start working.

Thanks for pointing me in the right direction as repeatedly trying to map drives with \\psf\ seemed to refresh the FE window which in turn revealed my missing hard and virtual drives. I know this sounds a bit odd but the only thing I can think of is a corrupt cache.

Instead of looking for the volume in FE, did you try just typing the full path into an explorer window like this:
\\psf\Host\Volumes\Disk Image

I wonder how the disk image appeared as DVD/CD. Did you manually assign it to the CD/DVD 1 device using the Parallels desktop Devices menu, the virtual machine window's CD/DVD icon menu, or the virtual machine's hardware configuration or did Parallels do it automatically? What file system does the sparsebundle use? Is it HFS or FAT or NTFS?

 

[Blacksmith]

Instead of looking for the volume in FE, did you try just typing the full path into an explorer window like this:
\\psf\Host\Volumes\Disk Image

No, I must confess I didn't try that the other day. I tried mapping a network drive using a \\psf\Host\ prefix which windows didn't seem to like. Update: I've now tried it (with the disk image still recognised as a rewritable optical drive) and FE can't access it. It throws up "network error: can't access location \\psf\Host\Volumes\DiskImages\Disk A. Re the actual mounted image name, spaces are allowed under Mac OS so I did change the name to remove the space between Disk and A. It didn't make any difference.

I wonder how the disk image appeared as DVD/CD. Did you manually assign it to the CD/DVD 1 device using the Parallels desktop Devices menu, the virtual machine window's CD/DVD icon menu, or the virtual machine's hardware configuration or did Parallels do it automatically? What file system does the sparsebundle use? Is it HFS or FAT or NTFS?

I have no idea why it appeared as a DVD. I bought the Windows version of Office online so had to download the software which is a Windows disk image file. That also mounted as a DVD/CD Rom drive when I ran it to install Office. It's the only other time I can recall seeing the same DVD/CD Rom icon. Parallels did this automatically as far as I can recall. Upon mounting the Disk A image under Mac OS, information shows its format is Mac OS Extended (journaled).

 

[joevt]

No, I must confess I didn't try that the other day. I tried mapping a network drive using a \\psf\Host\ prefix which windows didn't seem to like.

\\psf\Host\ will work only if you have Virtual Machine -> Configure... -> Options -> Sharing -> Share Folders -> All disks enabled.

Did you try "Computer -> Map Network Drive..." in Windows? You only need to do that if you want a specific network or psf folder to be mounted with a specific drive letter. Otherwise, just use the UNC path (starts with \\) to access the files and folders.

Update: I've now tried it (with the disk image still recognised as a rewritable optical drive) and FE can't access it. It throws up "network error: can't access location \\psf\Host\Volumes\DiskImages\Disk A. Re the actual mounted image name, spaces are allowed under Mac OS so I did change the name to remove the space between Disk and A. It didn't make any difference.

Are you sure that path is correct? Is DiskImages a mounted disk? All folders in Volumes are supposed to be mounted disks. Is Disk A a folder on DiskImages? If you use Finder -> Go -> Go To Folder..., can you type the path "/Volumes/DiskImages/Disk A"? If it says "The folder can't be found." then the path is incorrect. Open a terminal.app window, and drag and drop Disk A to the window. It will automatically paste the correct path. What is it? I think maybe it's supposed to be "/Volumes/Disk A" on the Mac side which would make it "\\psf\Host\Volumes\Disk A" on the Windows side.

You can also try the "mount" command in Terminal.app to see a list of mount points and the devices they belong to.

I have no idea why it appeared as a DVD. I bought the Windows version of Office online so had to download the software which is a Windows disk image file.

What's a Windows disk image file? Is it ".iso" or something else?

That also mounted as a DVD/CD Rom drive when I ran it to install Office. It's the only other time I can recall seeing the same DVD/CD Rom icon.

You don't run an image file because image files are not executable code. Did you open it Windows or Mac OS?

Parallels did this automatically as far as I can recall. Upon mounting the Disk A image under Mac OS, information shows its format is Mac OS Extended (journaled).

If it was Parallels, the name of the image file would be selected in Devices -> CD/DVD 1 instead of the usual "Disconnect" option being selected.

 

[Blacksmith]

\\psf\Host\ will work only if you have Virtual Machine -> Configure... -> Options -> Sharing -> Share Folders -> All disks enabled.

Did you try "Computer -> Map Network Drive..." in Windows? You only need to do that if you want a specific network or psf folder to be mounted with a specific drive letter. Otherwise, just use the UNC path (starts with \\) to access the files and folders.



Are you sure that path is correct? Is DiskImages a mounted disk? All folders in Volumes are supposed to be mounted disks. Is Disk A a folder on DiskImages? If you use Finder -> Go -> Go To Folder..., can you type the path "/Volumes/DiskImages/Disk A"? If it says "The folder can't be found." then the path is incorrect. Open a terminal.app window, and drag and drop Disk A to the window. It will automatically paste the correct path. What is it? I think maybe it's supposed to be "/Volumes/Disk A" on the Mac side which would make it "\\psf\Host\Volumes\Disk A" on the Windows side.

You can also try the "mount" command in Terminal.app to see a list of mount points and the devices they belong to.

First of all, my thanks for being so helpful and second, my profuse apologies for two pieces of mis-information which I'll attempt to put right below.

You are absolutely correct: /DiskImage/ is the Mac OS folder that the sparsebundle image file is stored in, so should never have been included in the "psf\Host..." command.

To recap: I mount Disk A in Mac OS before I run Parallels and start Windows 8. When I drag Disk A into Terminal as you suggest, it shows "/Volumes/Disk\ A".

When I start Parallels and Windows 8 then enter "\\psf\Host\Volumes\Disk A" in FS, I get the "Windows cannot access \\psf\Host\Volumes\Disk A, please check spelling etc" error, with the virtual DVD/CD Rom disconnected. (Windows 8 now mounts Disk A as a second DVD/CD Rom drive on startup. It appears under "Devices with removable storage.")

However, I've had a Eureka moment! Entering "\\psf\Disk A" does the trick and FS displays the contents of Disk A.

What's a Windows disk image file? Is it ".iso" or something else?

You don't run an image file because image files are not executable code. Did you open it Windows or Mac OS?

My second senior moment of my last reply - again my apologies for this. I burned the image file I downloaded to DVD so have a bootable DVD with the usual EXE file to install Office 2013.

If it was Parallels, the name of the image file would be selected in Devices -> CD/DVD 1 instead of the usual "Disconnect" option being selected.

Re what follows, I should point out that I upgraded Parallels 8 to version 9, so these issues existed in Parallels 8, just in case this thread is giving the impression that this is a version 9 issue.

With Disk A showing as a second DVD optical drive when I boot Windows 8, Devices -> CD/DVD 1 shows Optiarc DVD RW AD-5690AH with "Disconnect" underneath. The internal Sony Optiarc optical drive is selected with the second DVD/CD Rom showing in the FS window.

Network locations shows three shared folders: Home, iCloud and Photo Stream, with Home being the MacintoshHD drive. Photo Stream also appears under "Other". This is different to Windows 7 as I also have an external USB hard drive partitioned into three Mac OS journaled partitions all of which appear correctly as hard drives. Windows 8 doesn't recognise them unless I map them as network drives. If I enter "\\psf\Host\Volumes\TimeMachine" in FS I get the "Windows cannot access" error message but as per my Eureka moment, entering "\\psf\TimeMachine" is correct.

 

[joevt]

When I start Parallels and Windows 8 then enter "\\psf\Host\Volumes\Disk A" in FS, I get the "Windows cannot access \\psf\Host\Volumes\Disk A, please check spelling etc" error

You haven't stated which options you are using in "Parallels Desktop -> Virtual Machine -> Configure -> Options -> Sharing". If you have "Share Folders: All disks" selected then \\psf\Host\Volumes\Disk A" should work.

However, I've had a Eureka moment! Entering "\\psf\Disk A" does the trick and FS displays the contents of Disk A.

Ok, this happens if you're using the "SmartMount" option where each of your mac disks is mounted in Windows at \\psf even though the \\psf explorer window doesn't show them. Each Mac disk gets a drive letter also. Did your Disk A get a drive letter?

Another way this can happen is if you use the "Custom Folders" option and select "Disk A". In this case, Disk A will appear in \\psf and won't get a drive letter unless you map it manually or it's already mapped.

(Windows 8 now mounts Disk A as a second DVD/CD Rom drive on startup. It appears under "Devices with removable storage.")
...
I burned the image file I downloaded to DVD so have a bootable DVD
...
With Disk A showing as a second DVD optical drive when I boot Windows 8, Devices -> CD/DVD 1 shows Optiarc DVD RW AD-5690AH with "Disconnect" underneath. The internal Sony Optiarc optical drive is selected with the second DVD/CD Rom showing in the FS window.

I'm not sure what you mean by this. Disk A is the mounted disk image from Mac OS X or is it the burned DVD disk the you mention later? Are you sure the icon is a DVD/CD Rom icon? In the following screenshot (from Windows 7) it shows Hard Disk Drives (Hard Disk devices in the virtual machine configuration; Hard Disk 1 is the boot disk and Hard Disk 2 is a second disk), Floppy Disk (currently disconnected), removable disk (added by the "SmartMount" option), DVD drive (currently disconnected), another SmartMount removable disk, then Network locations with drive letters (the drive letters were assigned by SmartMount but the locations were added by "Custom Folders".

Network locations shows three shared folders: Home, iCloud and Photo Stream, with Home being the MacintoshHD drive. Photo Stream also appears under "Other". This is different to Windows 7 as I also have an external USB hard drive partitioned into three Mac OS journaled partitions all of which appear correctly as hard drives. Windows 8 doesn't recognise them unless I map them as network drives. If I enter "\\psf\Host\Volumes\TimeMachine" in FS I get the "Windows cannot access" error message but as per my Eureka moment, entering "\\psf\TimeMachine" is correct.

Home, if it's \\psf\Home, is not the MacintoshHD. It is your user folder on MacintioshHD (path "~" or "/Users/YouUsersName" or "/Volumes/MacintoshHD/Users/YourUserName"). Home appears in //psf if you use the "Share Folders:" "Home folder only" or "All disks" options.

iCloud is your iCloud drive. Parallels Desktop 9 has a new "Shared Cloud" option for sharing iCloud, Dropbox, and Google Drive. In my screen shot, you can see Dropbox.

 

[Blacksmith]

You haven't stated which options you are using in "Parallels Desktop -> Virtual Machine -> Configure -> Options -> Sharing". If you have "Share Folders: All disks" selected then \\psf\Host\Volumes\Disk A" should work.

Sorry - Shared folders is set to Home folders only / Custom folders - none listed / Shared profile is checked - Documents, Pictures, Movies, Music checked / Shared cloud is checked / SmartMount Map Mac volumes to Windows is checked.

Ok, this happens if you're using the "SmartMount" option where each of your mac disks is mounted in Windows at \\psf even though the \\psf explorer window doesn't show them. Each Mac disk gets a drive letter also. Did your Disk A get a drive letter?

Another way this can happen is if you use the "Custom Folders" option and select "Disk A". In this case, Disk A will appear in \\psf and won't get a drive letter unless you map it manually or it's already mapped.

Drive A persistently appears on startup with the DVD Rom icon and has a drive letter appended. Disconnecting the network drive only works for the current session as the next time that Windows reboots it reappears so I assume that's SmartMount at work?

I'm not sure what you mean by this. Disk A is the mounted disk image from Mac OS X or is it the burned DVD disk the you mention later? Are you sure the icon is a DVD/CD Rom icon? In the following screenshot (from Windows 7) it shows Hard Disk Drives (Hard Disk devices in the virtual machine configuration; Hard Disk 1 is the boot disk and Hard Disk 2 is a second disk), Floppy Disk (currently disconnected), removable disk (added by the "SmartMount" option), DVD drive (currently disconnected), another SmartMount removable disk, then Network locations with drive letters (the drive letters were assigned by SmartMount but the locations were added by "Custom Folders".

View attachment 7313

I think it best to forget about this as I have obviously muddied the waters by bringing this up.

Home, if it's \\psf\Home, is not the MacintoshHD. It is your user folder on MacintioshHD (path "~" or "/Users/YouUsersName" or "/Volumes/MacintoshHD/Users/YourUserName"). Home appears in //psf if you use the "Share Folders:" "Home folder only" or "All disks" options.

iCloud is your iCloud drive. Parallels Desktop 9 has a new "Shared Cloud" option for sharing iCloud, Dropbox, and Google Drive. In my screen shot, you can see Dropbox.

OK, I understand that now.

Thanks for all your help, joevt. Despite my continued ability to explain things badly you are a very patient person! Thank you.

 

[joevt]

Drive A persistently appears on startup with the DVD Rom icon and has a drive letter appended. Disconnecting the network drive only works for the current session as the next time that Windows reboots it reappears so I assume that's SmartMount at work?

You're right. I inserted a DVD ROM in Mac OS X, and SmartMount mounted it with drive letter R: and it had a DVD-ROM icon (which I did not expect). This is different than the icon for an empty DVD drive that my previous screen shot shows. It is the same DVD-ROM icon that would replace the DVD Drive icon if it were connected with a disk image that doesn't have it's own icon. Many DVD rom's have their own icon which I think comes from the setup.exe file. This icon won't appear if SmartMount is used to mount it.

In the following screenshot, the same disk image is mounted by connecting it to the virtual machine's CD/DVD ROM (drive E, and by mounting it in Mac OS X which is mounted in Windows on the virtual machine by SmartMount (drive R. You can tell if SmartMount mounted it by looking at the file system of the drive. "PrlSF" is the file system used by Parallels (short for Parallels Shared Folder) on Windows.

Note that while it's possible to connect an image and mount it in Mac OS X simultaneously, it is not possible to connect a physical DVD and have it mounted in Mac OS X at the same time. In that case, Parallels un-mounts it from Mac OS X, mounts it in Windows (as a real DVD), then the "Mount virtual disks to Mac desktop" option will mount it to Mac OS X (using Parallels' "Generic File System (MacFUSE)" for Mac OS X). This is similar to virtual hard disks using the "Boot Camp" option.

 

[Blacksmith]

You're right. I inserted a DVD ROM in Mac OS X, and SmartMount mounted it with drive letter R: and it had a DVD-ROM icon (which I did not expect). This is different than the icon for an empty DVD drive that my previous screen shot shows. It is the same DVD-ROM icon that would replace the DVD Drive icon if it were connected with a disk image that doesn't have it's own icon. Many DVD rom's have their own icon which I think comes from the setup.exe file. This icon won't appear if SmartMount is used to mount it.

It's probably irrelevant but my Windows 7 client uses the more usual shared folder icon for Disk A, which is why I was so confued at what was going on with my Windows 8 client. Being a DVD-Rom icon I assumed this would mean read only permissions to all files therein but that's not the case as I do have full permissions. Perhaps Windows 8 doesn't have a rewritable DVD-Rom icon (grin).

In the following screenshot, the same disk image is mounted by connecting it to the virtual machine's CD/DVD ROM (drive E, and by mounting it in Mac OS X which is mounted in Windows on the virtual machine by SmartMount (drive R. You can tell if SmartMount mounted it by looking at the file system of the drive. "PrlSF" is the file system used by Parallels (short for Parallels Shared Folder) on Windows.

Note that while it's possible to connect an image and mount it in Mac OS X simultaneously, it is not possible to connect a physical DVD and have it mounted in Mac OS X at the same time. In that case, Parallels un-mounts it from Mac OS X, mounts it in Windows (as a real DVD), then the "Mount virtual disks to Mac desktop" option will mount it to Mac OS X (using Parallels' "Generic File System (MacFUSE)" for Mac OS X). This is similar to virtual hard disks using the "Boot Camp" option.

...Attached images snipped...

 

[joevt]

It's probably irrelevant but my Windows 7 client uses the more usual shared folder icon for Disk A, which is why I was so confued at what was going on with my Windows 8 client. Being a DVD-Rom icon I assumed this would mean read only permissions to all files therein but that's not the case as I do have full permissions. Perhaps Windows 8 doesn't have a rewritable DVD-Rom icon (grin).

I'm not 100% sure who's responsible for setting the icon. Parallels creates the mounts in Windows. It must also set some flag to say what kind of icon to use. It looks like any disk image mounted in Mac OS X will appear as a DVD-ROM icon in Windows because of SmartMount no matter if it's writeable or not, regardless of the file system (HFS, or NTFS). Maybe Parallels chose that icon because Windows (I'm seeing this on Windows 7) doesn't have a disk image icon. The chosen icon does not appear to depend on the size of the image - I tried a 100 GB sparsebundle type disk image.