Access External HDD from Windows and MAC

[gasport]

I am running Windows 7 via VMWare Fusion on my iMac OS X 10.6.4. I formatted an External HDD partly NTFS and partly MAC. I was going to back up a file and attached the HDD to VMWare. As I did that, it was "ejected" from the MAC and no longer visible in Finder or Disk Utility. Is it possible to have both OSs access the External HDD without going through the process of connecting one and having to re-connect on the MAC when I am done in Windows?

 

[Hellhammer]

Use FAT32 format or install NTFS-3G for OS X

 

[wrldwzrd89]

I am running Windows 7 via VMWare Fusion on my iMac OS X 10.6.4. I formatted an External HDD partly NTFS and partly MAC. I was going to back up a file and attached the HDD to VMWare. As I did that, it was "ejected" from the MAC and no longer visible in Finder or Disk Utility. Is it possible to have both OSs access the External HDD without going through the process of connecting one and having to re-connect on the MAC when I am done in Windows?

Unfortunately, that's not really possible with a virtual machine, as far as I am aware.

Use FAT32 format or install NTFS-3G for OS X

Not the problem here. The OP can read from/write to the drive on both OSes, just not simultaneously.

 

[gasport]

Unfortunately, that's not really possible with a virtual machine, as far as I am aware.

Not the problem here. The OP can read from/write to the drive on both OSes, just not simultaneously.

I did find a way to do it. On the VMWare site there is a link to Joe Kissel's Take Control of VMWare Fusion 3. It is a free ebook and is just super. He does explain several ways to accomplish this. I used the sharing method and it worked fine. I was able to use SyncBack in Windows 7 and backup my files to the NTFS partition on the external HDD. The drive was visible in both the MAC and Windows OS at the same time. I highly recommend the book for anyone interested in learning more about VMWare Fusion and the VM.

http://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/Take-Control-of-VMware-Fusion-3-eBook.pdf