Optical Discs not recognized while XP is running in Parallels

Whenever parallels is running on my 2.8GHz Intel Core i7 iMac, running 10.6.8 with 12GB memory, no disc ever is recognized by the Mac or XP. Any USB device I plug in, I am asked to select which O/S should it go to, yet no DVD or CD ever works, shows up, is recognized, or can be ejected until I quit XP, and then it shows up.

What is up with that? It kind of ***** having to shut it down every time I put in a disc.

Any suggestions on how to get around this?

Any help is appreciated!