Win xp USB drives on Parallels 4

[Jpclark49]

I recently upgraded to Parallels 4 because I wanted my USB thumb drives in both Mac and XP at the same time. Unfortunately, I've noticed 2 problems.

problem 1
If I eject the thumb drive and leave Windows running and the mac running... When I come back, the XP/windows will not see the thumb drive has been remounted. Usupending the VM seems to make the same problem. This is probably user error when I remove the thumb drive, right now I have to restart the XP vm to get it back.

Problem 2 (and this is MUCH more annoying)

Each time my thumb drive mounts, it shows up as a different letter. Under ver 3 of parallels, it showed up next to the C: drive. Now it's getting an X:, Y:, V: type drive letter and it changes every time. How can I make it keep the same drive letter? I am using Microsoft OneNote and it's very picky about what drive letter the file is on.

A tiny annoying 3rd problem is the XP vm automatically logs me on as "administrator" even though XP has a second account named Jason that I would rather use as it doesn't give the user administrator priviledges (he doesn't need them).

Thank you.

 

[Jpclark49]

I had no idea I had such a difficult question!

 

[John@Parallels]

1. Not possible, use Shared folders instead - mount to mac and add to VM as Shared Folder
2. If 1 second problem will be eliminated
3. It is MS question, anyway solution is
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/315231

 

[Jpclark49]

Gee, I could have used shared folders in ver 3 and skipped the upgrade fee. The feature of mounting under both OSs at the same time was a primary reason for upgrading.

It does essentially the same thing, I'm not able to control the drive letter, so the mapping (which goes by drive letter) is changed each time. I need to guarantee that the thumb drive is always drive letter (whatever).

Thanks for the reference to the XP logon article.