Hi Phil,
I think there are 3-issues:
- disk format that can be used for both Mac and PC; and
- USB generation (1, 2, 3.0, 3.1) of thumb drive must match usb generation your computer supports; and
- which operating system (Mac or Virtual Machine) connects to the USB thumb drive.
Issue #1 -- The ExFat with Master Boot Record works with both platforms: Mac and Windows.
Issue #2 -- Make sure the thumb drive's generation (USB 1, 2, 3, or 3.1) matches the USB generation your computer supports.
Issue #3 -- Have you tried the SmartMount option? The documentation says, "Using SmartMount, you can set Parallels Desktop to automatically mount storage devices and
volumes to Windows. That way, you can access the contents from both Mac OS X and Windows."
See "Share External Storage Devices and Volumes".
Last edited: Dec 12, 2016