Use Peripherals on Mac Side While Running Virtual OS?

clindner · Dec 20, 2006

I'm sure this is explained somewhere, but I couldn't find it.

Is there a way to be able to use the DVD drive, usb peripherals, and firewire peripherals while running my Windows virtual machine?

I have been leaving the virtual machine running all the time, then I realize I need to stop it when I want to use the DVD in OS X, or capture video via firewire.

Sorry if this is a stupid question, but I couldn't find the answer myself!

tomservo291 · Dec 20, 2006

clindner said:
I'm sure this is explained somewhere, but I couldn't find it.

Is there a way to be able to use the DVD drive, usb peripherals, and firewire peripherals while running my Windows virtual machine?

I have been leaving the virtual machine running all the time, then I realize I need to stop it when I want to use the DVD in OS X, or capture video via firewire.

Sorry if this is a stupid question, but I couldn't find the answer myself!

You can disable the CD ROM in the VM (through the Parallels menus, or with the icons in the bottom right of the window in windowed mode.) This can be done while the VM is running (last I checked.)

You can do the same for USB/USB Devices... also, in the configuration for the VM, you can turn on/off USB Autoconnect...

clindner · Dec 21, 2006

tomservo291 said:
You can disable the CD ROM in the VM (through the Parallels menus, or with the icons in the bottom right of the window in windowed mode.) This can be done while the VM is running (last I checked.)

You can do the same for USB/USB Devices... also, in the configuration for the VM, you can turn on/off USB Autoconnect...

So, there's no way that they can share peripherals then? I guess that makes sense.

Also, what about firewire?

Thanks!

clindner · Dec 22, 2006

So, there's no way to use firewire in OS X when running Parallels???

palter · Dec 22, 2006

clindner said:
So, there's no way to use firewire in OS X when running Parallels???

Parallels doesn't support Firewire. Firewire should just work in OS X while Parallels is running. Do you have a counter-example?

clindner · Dec 27, 2006

palter said:
Parallels doesn't support Firewire. Firewire should just work in OS X while Parallels is running. Do you have a counter-example?

When I am running a Parallels Windows session, I cannot access my camcorder in iMovie via firewire. The camera shows that it is connected, but it does not show up in the input selection dialog in iMovie.