Mac won't recognize USB flash drive unless Parallels is shut down...

T

trachshack

Junior Member
I recently updated to Build 3170 because I suddenly was unable to get Windows to recognize my USB flash drive. The update solved that problem but now the Mac won't recognize the flash drive, or any other device, unless Parallels is completely shut down. Any suggestions?

Thanks.
 
USB has always troubled parallels. Try ejecting the device from within windows then if necessary disconnect it using the Devices menu. If that doesnt work you may have to suspend windows and quit parallels.
The important thing to note is that a device cannot be used both both OS's at the same time. I'm sure u will have realised this.
 
Eagle246 said:
USB has always troubled parallels. Try ejecting the device from within windows then if necessary disconnect it using the Devices menu. If that doesnt work you may have to suspend windows and quit parallels.
The important thing to note is that a device cannot be used both both OS's at the same time. I'm sure u will have realised this.
Click to expand...

Thanks Eagle246. I had already tried that with no luck. The strange thing is that this all used to work fine for me.
 
I've never been able to get OS X to reacquire a thumbdrive after Windows has had it except by extracting and re-inserting it (Windows has to be configured to not automatically attache USB devices). With that caveat, it has always worked. Normally, because I don't allow Windows to grab USB devices, the thumbdrive is always seen by OS X and detaches cleanly. I honestly don't even know if OS X can reacquire the device as the only time it announces itself is at the time of plugin.
 
I belive there may be UNIX command/s to remount an ejected drive but im not sure. If you really dont want to be pulling your USB drive in and out all the time, i found this workaround:
--Shutdown Windows
--Edit VM and add shared folder either / or /Volumes/
--Turn off Autoconnect USB
--Boot Windows
Now when a USB device is plugged in it shoudl mount in OS X so you can access it from there and you can access it through windows at the SAME TIME by going to into the shared folder /Volumes/(yourdiskname)
 
You would have access to it also if you have the Global Share enabled but I urgently suggest one not do that.
 
I have found that all I need to do to have Mac see such a drive is to use Devices/USB and then uncheck the USD drive that is currently in use by Windows. It shows up then in Mac OS, where I can use it and then Eject it.

To reaccess it in Windows then I plug-unplug or use Devices/USB and then check the USB Drive.

It's been pretty easy for me.
 
Val - is that with a true disk or a thumb disk? I don't have a real disk to try.

Edit: Experimenting here - just did this with Fusion and it presented the thumb drive back to OS X. Guess I'll try it in Parallels again.

Edit again: That's the first time I've tried this in 3188 and it worked fine. The thumb disk was handed back to OS X rather than being abandoned as before. Very good!
 
Last edited:
drval said:
I have found that all I need to do to have Mac see such a drive is to use Devices/USB and then uncheck the USD drive that is currently in use by Windows. It shows up then in Mac OS, where I can use it and then Eject it.

To reaccess it in Windows then I plug-unplug or use Devices/USB and then check the USB Drive.

It's been pretty easy for me.
Click to expand...

I just tried this and it works great. Thanks drval.
 
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