How can I use my external USB disk? I can see USB flash drives, but when I plug in my USB disk I can't see it. I would be happy to use it directly in windows, or through the Mac.
Just click on Devices in the menu, click on USB then select to external drive to attach it to your virtual machine. You should then be able to access it in Windows. This assumes that it is formatted in a file system that is visible to Windows.
Sorry, I should have said that I already tried that. I can do what you suggest in order to see my USB drive, but that does not work with my external HDD. It does something ... it takes it away from MacOS. And when I un-check the HDD under Devices, then it gives it back to MacOS. But when checked it doesn't seem to actually connect it, doesn't show up as a device that can be "safely removed", and doesn't appear anywhere visible such as "My Computer". I would think that, since it works for a USB flash drive it would work for the HDD, but maybe not.
Hello! Please check the external HDD file system. It should be FAT, or FAT32, [or NTFS]. Please select your external drive via Parallels - Devices -USB menu, after that please click on the "Start" menu, choose "Run...", type devmgmt.msc and hit Enter. Your external hard disk drive should appear under the Disk Drives node. If you can see the drive under the disk drives node, please click "start" and then "Run..." and type diskmgmt.msc. Do you see the external drive there? Best regards, John
The external disk is FAT32 (I've also tried an NTFS external HDD with the same results). Disk Management (diskmgmt.msc) does not see the disk. It sees only C: (the virtual windows startup disk), the CD-ROM drive, and my USB Flash Drive. Something about Parallels knows it's there, because when it is plugged in, Parallels->Devices->USB shows "External HDD" (yes, this is checked). When it is unplugged, there is no "External HDD" listed under Devices->USB.
Hiya! Could you please attach a screenshot of the device manager window (devmgmt.msc)? Do you see any yellow question-marks there? What is the device model and manufacturer? Do you have any drivers for the drive? Please make sure this drive is compatible with Windows OS. BTW: It is possible to connect the drive by means of Parallels Shared folders. Best regards, John
I had the same problem so tried what johnv said & it turned out that in the Device Management window there was a yellow ? mark against USB Controllers. To fix that I then had to reinstall the controllers off my WIN XP installation disk & wow - now windows can see/detect my external HDD!
