how to mount and dismount usb drives only in the VM (Windows 7)

[MarcelM4]

Usually when I physically connect an USB drive Parallels asks me whether I want it to be available to OSX or only to the VM. If I dismount the drive, disconnect it and then connect it again, sometimes it won't be available any more to the VM. Is there anything I can do to mount it again under the VM without re-starting it?

Related to this question:
Sometimes I want a mounted drive to become exclusively available to the VM but when dismounting and disconnecting Parallels doesn't ask me again on re-connecting and instead seems to assume that my previous anwer is still valid.

Equally related to this question:
Is there any way to dismounting and re-mounting a drive independently on OSX and the VM without physically disconnecting it.

 

[alexg]

To disconnect USB device just use Devices -> USB & Bluetooth menu.
To assign USB device permanently use Parallels Desktop Preferences -> Devices (see pictures)

 

[MarcelM4]

Thanks, that makes a difference.
The only remaining device which I still can't get a hold on is the Apple card reader. When I close the lid of the laptop and want to continue working some time later, it has disappeared from the list of connected devices and it isn't listed among the USB-devices (to which you referred) either. Usually - but not always - I want to have it exclusively available to the VM. Is there any way to find it and to assign it to either OSX or the VM without disconnecting and reconnecting it each time?

 

[Arun@Parallels]

Hi @MarcelM4 , please have a look at this article and check if that helps.

 

[MarcelM4]

Thank you for pointing me to the article. The method described there is actually the one I'm using. In principle it should be possible to switch a divice back and forth between the VM and the Mac. In practice it works often, but when I leave my laptop unattended for a while and return to it after the screen switched off, the Apple card reader is often (though not always) disconnected from all windows programs, even though I can still switch it back and forth via menue bar, as described in the article and even though Parallels gives me due feedback regarding this switching. This is especially annoying if I have applications running which refer to open files on the card reader. The only remedy known to me so far is to re-start windows.

I have been working with Parallels 11 under 2 previous versions of OSX and never had this kind of a problem. Since I switched to High Sierra and Parallels 13 it is a constant niussance.