Parallels, VMWare Question.

[WalcomTV]

With the iMac, when you install another OS onto it via VM or anything, can the OS see everything that you computer has?
I.E. Disk Drives, RAM, Card Readers?
For instance if I plug in a flash drive, will both OS read it and see it?

I'm just a little confused about it. How does it allocate system hardware?
Could someone explain or link me to a site?

Thanks.

 

[ks-man]

With the iMac, when you install another OS onto it via VM or anything, can the OS see everything that you computer has?
I.E. Disk Drives, RAM, Card Readers?
For instance if I plug in a flash drive, will both OS read it and see it?

I'm just a little confused about it. How does it allocate system hardware?
Could someone explain or link me to a site?

Thanks.

With VMWare it will ask when you connect a USB device (drive, camera etc) if you want to mount it in Mac or Windows. There is also a checkbox to remember your decision. So a camera you may say always open in Mac but a USB key you may choose not to have it remember.

I have Parallels installed on my MBA but I don't ever connect devices to it so I'm not sure how it handles the issue.

 

[whoda]

Parallels will also ask which OS you want the device allocated to. I use Parallels 6 with Win XP & Win 7 virtual.

 

[WalcomTV]

So if I put a disc in the drive, would it read into Mac?
Or would it ask which OS I want?
I'm asking cause I'm thinking of running both OS's at the same time, all the time so I'd like to know if it's really annoying.

 

[whoda]

So if I put a disc in the drive, would it read into Mac?
Or would it ask which OS I want?
I'm asking cause I'm thinking of running both OS's at the same time, all the time so I'd like to know if it's really annoying.

OS X running Parallels 6 with Win XP:
In Windows, the onboard cd/dvd drive shows as a network drive, fully accessible.
In OS X it is normal.

 

[WalcomTV]

Thanks Whoda, appreciate it.
Doesn't seem too difficult.
Thanks for the advice.

 

[thatisme]

So if I put a disc in the drive, would it read into Mac?
Or would it ask which OS I want?
I'm asking cause I'm thinking of running both OS's at the same time, all the time so I'd like to know if it's really annoying.

In Fusion, it reads to the MAC. You can assign it easily by clicking the icon in the bottom right of the screen for the CD drive, then it is assigned to Windows.

You can access your Mac drive directly through Windows. They show as network drives.