Cannot map network drive; "UNC" error

I need to run a Windows application (WSUS Offline) from an NTFS-formatted external drive. The drive will not connect to the Parallels VM (I am using a Windows 7 Pro VM for this). I can access the drive as part of my shared configuration, I can browse the drive and copy to and from the drive, as well as open basic file types from the drive and save them (I tested this with a PDF and MS Word and Excel 2010 files).

Previously I would connect the drive to the Windows 7 VM and choose: Devices -> External Devices -> [drive name] - then I would go to the drive and open as Administrator the exe "UpdateGenerator" and the app would open with no issues.

Now I can no longer connect a drive in this manner. I also cannot map the drive to Windows - I have tried the //psf/ fix to connect the drive, it fails - and anytime I try to run "UpdateGenerator" from within the external drive as part of the shared configuration, it generates an error:

The script was started from a UNC path.
Please map a drive letter to the network share.

One of the limitations of WSUS Offline is it cannot work from a UNC path. So I tried to map the drive, used the psf fix, and nothing so far has worked.

I have tried this on two separate external drives (one 160 GB Bipra, and one 2 TB Silicon-Power). I use these WSUS updates to update non-networked servers and clients. I found one solution, but it did not work (here).

Any help would be very much appreciated.

 

Try reinstalling/update Parallels Tools as per this steps and let us know how it works?

 

I've already tried that, it didn't work. I always get the same result.

 

Hi ben_marko,

Try to map your drive to Windows & change the drive letter to a different letter by following article and check how it works.

Thanks, Dhana