Accessing Host Hard Drive in Parallels

[Kirkle]

I am running Mountain Lion and Parallels 8.

I created a virtual machine on my iMac that is also running OSX, so I am running OSX on a VM, on OSX.

Currently the VM has no access to the hard drive of the iMac, and I can't figure out why.

First, I do not have the option checked which isolates the Virtual Machine from the host, and I do have the Sharing option set to "All Disks," and I have also selected "Connect All" from the Devices menu, so everything should be working.

Here is where the problem begins. In the VM, if I open finder, on the sidebar, my host machine is listed under the "Shared" section, so I should be able to access it, but when I click on it I just get a message that reads, "Connecting..."

So why can't the VM connect to the host machine? Any ideas?

 

[JPSaltzman]

I believe you need to install Parallels Tools (part of Parallels 8). Be sure all the external disks you might use are already attached to your Mac Mini. Launch Parallels Desktop. Launch your OS X Server in Parallels. Then go to the Parallels Main Menu > Virtual Machine > Install Parallel Tools.

This will bring up a window in your OS X Server window (all within the Parallels window environment), as it installs Parallel Tools. Once it is installed, your OS X Server will reboot automatically. When complete, you should now see a folder on the right side called "Shared Folders." Double-click this icon, and you will have access to all the hard drives on your main Mac computer, and be able to copy files, install applications, from these shared drives.

Hope this helps. Documentation on Parallels 8 and SLS is very .... uhm... slim.