Just thought I would mention how I have kept consistent drive mappings of the Mac partition using Bootcamp with or without Parallels using MacDrive and Parallels shared folders (f it hasn't been mentioned already). I have a bootcamp partition. However I keep ALL my data files on my Mac partition. So when running programs like Outlook, Thunderbird (or whatever) from the Windows partition, the data files the applications point to is on the Mac partition. This is fine in Parallels using shared folders, but when running bootcamp outside of Parallels the Mac partition is not viewable. In order to view the Mac partition in bootcamp outside Parallels, MacDrive is required. The problem arises in assigning a drive letter that is consistent in both MacDrive and Parallels shared drives so that if I boot into bootcamp or run bootcamp through parallels, the drive mappings will be the same and windows applications like Outlook, etc will run with the same data files in use. After installing MacDrive in bootcamp (outside parallels), my Mac partition is assigned to the F: drive. MacDrive assigns the root directory of the Mac partition to F:, not the /users/<username> directory. When installing Windows applications, I install the data files onto F:. For example my Outlook PST file is located on my Mac partition at /Users/<my-user-directory>/Documents/Mail (known in bootcamp as F:\Users\dmacd\Documents\Mail). However when running bootcamp through Parallels, MacDrive will not work and F: will not be mapped. Therefore Outlook, etc won't find the correct files. So in bootcamp under Parallels I assign a shared folder to the F: drive by doing the following: In Parallels>Edit>Virtual Machine>Shared Folders, I add a share called MacOS assigned to the root of the Mac partition (ie. the '/' folder). In the bootcamp partition I have added a batch file with the following commands: if exist \\.PSF\MacOS net use F: \\.PSF\MacOS /PERSISTENT:NO pause The batch will map my Parallels share '\' to the F: drive; the same share that MacDrive uses. The batch file first checks that the share exists so that when booting in bootcamp the share will not be performed. Also the share is set as 'not persistent' so that when booting in bootcamp Windows will not try to remap the F: drive by default. I added a pause just to show the batch results before it disappears. I then add the batch file to the startup folder. Why do all this? Well, Outlook might not be the best example as you have to be in Windows to actually run it. However I have a few applications that can be run in both Mac and Windows (for example Thunderbird, ReaderWare, OpenOffice, etc). Currently I am moving over to Thunderbird to handle mail and so I run it both in Windows and MacOS at various times. With the above setup, no matter where I am (MacOS, bootcamp or bootcamp in Parallels), Thunderbird will always use the same data files and be up to date with the correct mail. CAVEATS: Only those Parallels versions WITHOUT "Parallels Tools for Boot Camp" needed will work with MacDrive. Parallels build 3106 seems to work fine. MacDrive doesn't work with ZoneAlarm. Sorry for being long winded but I just wanted to point out how I have unified my data so that I don't need to keep multiple copies of data in different partitions. Thanks, David
Thanks for the tip. This is a very useful suggestion that will make working with my Dreamweaver sites easier under both environments.
