Having some Serious trouble with Parallels

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Having some Serious trouble with Parallels

So, all I want to do is connect an external drive (firewire) to my virtual desktop (Windows 7, running on Parallels 7). That is all. I have tried everything parallels help has suggested. I have listed it under "custom folders" in the "sharing" menu in Virtual Machine>configure. There is no "Parallels Shared Folders" icon on my VM desktop. A search for it yields nothing. Trying to get directly to \\psf yields an error. I cannot tell if parallels tools are installed because I am unable to mount that to the VM in order to check it. I have gone through every security and sharing setting, all of them adjusted to the letter according to the parallels support forum and manuals. The only lead I have is that the network drive that shows up in my VM (lets call it \BWEBB-PC) yields some sort of troubleshooting error, simply claiming "The PCI drivers are not installed", and windows updater/troubleshooter cannot find the missing drivers.

Please help. I just want to back up my VM. It shouldnt be this hard.

Parallels 7-OTHER, OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.4), This is ridiculous, it's taken days

Posted on Jun 26, 2013 4:25 PM

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Answer 1

LowLuster

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Jun 26, 2013 4:56 PM in response to bfwebb

I don't use parallels but in VMware fusion and Oracles Virtualbox I don't think there is support for firewire. VMs support USB but since firewire is basically a dead technolgy they don't bother writing it into the virtual machine software. I could be wrong.

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Answer 2

bfwebb Author

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Jun 26, 2013 5:03 PM in response to LowLuster

Yes, this is part of the issue. Parallels does not support firewire. However, the drive is mountable to the Mac OS, and can therefore be shared with the VM as a "Shared Folder", which should give me access to the drive in the VM. There are multiple support threads on this topic, but all of them have failed me.

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Answer 3

LowLuster

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Jun 26, 2013 5:10 PM in response to bfwebb

Ok but you need to turn on Windows (SMB) sharing on OS X and then share that drive and give your username full read/write permissions. On Windows you have to setup a Workgroup, not the Win 7 Homegroup. On OS X go into the network settings select the ethernet connection and click the advanced button then go to the WINS tab and input the same workgroup name you used on windows. Then in OS X open a finder window and select Go from the menu and Go to server and type in the IP address of the Windows VM (SMB//ipaddress). Also the VM must be setup to Bridge the network connection so it is on the same LAN as OS X. If you have it set to NAT you will never get to that share on OS X.

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Answer 4

bfwebb Author

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Jun 26, 2013 5:48 PM in response to LowLuster

This seems like a feasable option. I would try it, but my VM has suddenly decided that it will, under no circumstances, connect with my mac, network, internet, or any network of any kind. It simply tells me that the drivers for my network device (BWEBB-PC) are not installed. Windows update cannot install them either.

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Answer 5

LowLuster

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Jun 26, 2013 6:00 PM in response to bfwebb

Sorry I am not familar with parallels at all. If it jwas Fusion or Virtualbox I could give you some suggestions.

Does parallels have some type of software that get installed after you install Windows in a VM? In Fusion it is called VMware Tools. Also check the settings for the VM specifically the network settings.

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Answer 6

bfwebb Author

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Jun 26, 2013 6:10 PM in response to LowLuster

Yes, It does, and that is called Parallels Tools. Only problem is that I can't access it on my VM, which means that either it was not installed, or never became functional for some reason. And now, without a connection to my Mac, I cannot install Parallels Tools Manually.

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Answer 7

LowLuster

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Jun 26, 2013 6:41 PM in response to bfwebb

Save the virtual machine files, the ones that actually make up the Windows install (Not sure if you can with parallels but you can when using other virtual machine programs. It is one or a set of files) and uninstall parallels then reinstall and then import that virtual machine and check all it's settings..

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Answer 8

bfwebb Author

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Jun 26, 2013 6:46 PM in response to LowLuster

Where can I save it to? I can't access any sort of internal or external storage device from Parallels, and I'm not sure how to do it from my Mac.

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Answer 9

LowLuster

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Jun 26, 2013 6:56 PM in response to bfwebb

Parallels created a set or one file that contains all of the Windows install along with all the program install in windows and all the files you have saved using windows on the Mac OS X hard drive. Normal VM files end with .vmdk for Virtual Machine Disk or .vdi for virtual disk image. Parallels might use it own file extension and I have no idea what that is. You have to understand you installed and are running windows in a "Virtual Machine". It is software that mimics physical hardware, it is Virtual. So the VM program creates a file or a set of files on the mac hard drive that stores all the mimiced hardware and all the software you install into that virtual machine.

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Answer 10

bfwebb Author

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Jun 26, 2013 7:04 PM in response to LowLuster

So you're saying that I could find these files and use them to replicat my VM on a new install of Parallels?

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Answer 11

LowLuster

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Jun 26, 2013 7:27 PM in response to bfwebb

Yes, exactly. Do a google search for "Extension used by Parallels virtual machine". Then get a program called easyfind and search your hard drive for *.parallelsExtension.

bfwebb wrote:

So you're saying that I could find these files and use them to replicat my VM on a new install of Parallels?

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Answer 12

Jun 26, 2013 7:40 PM in response to bfwebb

bfwebb wrote:

Yes, It does, and that is called Parallels Tools. Only problem is that I can't access it on my VM, which means that either it was not installed, or never became functional for some reason. And now, without a connection to my Mac, I cannot install Parallels Tools Manually.

You don't access Parallels Tools from within your VM, you access the Install Parallels Tools command from the menu of Parallels when you run your VM. See this knowledgebase article.

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