Can't write to Shared Folder (Windows XP)

[tobiasps]

Hi

I am having problems with the "Shared Folders" feature:

If I try to write a file to the shared folder from windows the file is only touched. Also it seams that somthing in windows is chrashing because if I try to restart/shutdown windows I get something like "Windows is currently working on a file, please wait or close it". I have to kill explorer.exe to be able to restart windows.

Reading from the folder works fine.

I have "Enable at power on" ON and the "Read only" OFF. There are no special characters in the path or folder name. I use Version 1.0b4 (49528).

Is there a way to solve this or is it a bug in the release?

/Tobias

[admin]

Sounds like a bug, but not specific enough to be a known issue. Do you have any antivirus (or similar product which might want to act on files as they're written/created)?

[GeezerGeek]

I'm having similar problems. Sometimes opening a shared folder will hang my entire MacBook Pro for several minutes. The mouse moves, but nothing else works. Finally something times out and everything I've clicked responds.

Also have a problem with Office documents. You can save the file initially to a shared folder, but if you open it, change it, and try to save it again (File -> Save As) you get a message that the folder is read-only. If you save it to the VM, you can drag it to the shared folder with no problem. Because of this I've about quit using shared folders.

[tobiasps]

I just installed windows xp this tuesday so its is pretty much a clean install. I have installed: M$ Visual Studio 2005, Avast! 4.7 Home edition antivirus and Cisco VPN Client 5.0.00.0340. But as far as I remember the problem was there from the start (before I installed anything besides Windows).

My windows installation is:

Microsoft Windows XP

Professional

Version 2002

Service Pack 2

/Tobias

[CJConline]

Yes unfortunately VM shared folders has been broken for sometime and rather sadly it is the one area (the ability for Windows applications to reliably access the Mac partition) where the product lags significantly behind Parallels which is your only option (other than native bootcamp with MacDrive) if you need this functionality which Fusion doesn't currently completely deliver on.

Suggest you file a bug report.

[SoSa11]

Avast prohibits access to shared folders. There is a topic on this. Unfortunately the only solution (until somebody solve this problem) is to remove avast.

http://www.vmware.com/community/thread.jspa?messageID=671315&#671315

[Obeechi]

Hopefully NOD32 doesn't have this issue...

Is the Shared Folder a feature of OSX (I think it is), or of Fusion?

I'm thinking of trying out the shared folder... Can you use this with both the Boot Camp Partition (from both within a Virtual Machine, and booted natively) and also with the Virtual Machine installed on the Virtual Disk (I have two copies of Vista Ultimate installed)...

I understand that using the Shared Folder requires the use of MacDrive.

Are there any other things I should know or do to use the Shared Folder...

[admin]

Is the Shared Folder a feature of OSX (I think it

is), or of Fusion?

The Shared Folder we're talking about is a feature of Fusion.

I'm thinking of trying out the shared folder... Can

you use this with both the Boot Camp Partition (from

both within a Virtual Machine, and booted natively)

and also with the Virtual Machine installed on the

Virtual Disk (I have two copies of Vista Ultimate

installed)...

Yes, it should work with both Boot Camp VMs and regular virtual machines.

I understand that using the Shared Folder requires

the use of MacDrive.

That is incorrect. Fusion abstracts away the underlying filesystem (just like network shares).

[Obeechi]

What? Abstracts... so nothing really matters any more because matter doesn't matter. Gee, I just bought MacDrive, thought I had to have it...

The question is, can I trust Shared Folders with my files at this point, such as Quickbooks...

I just created a file, a word pad file, and went to Save As.. and couldn't see any place to save to a Shared Folder... then I noticed that under Virtual Machine / Settings, there is a Setting for Shared Folders.. and so I enabled it (for the first time).. and still I can't see any Shared Folder when trying Save As...

\[I also noticed that my Boot Camp partition is showing IDE.. is that what it is supposed to be for Vista?]

What am I doing wrong?

[CJConline]

Obeechi,

You use MacDrive only when you boot up natively directly via bootcamp into Windows. It allows you to access your Mac partitions (any OSX HFS or HFS+ formatted partition) just like you would a Fat or NTFS formatted drive rather than via a network share (ie it is much much faster). Otherwise you would not be able to access these partitions.

When you use Fusion to boot up your bootcamp partition you can only acces you OSX partitions either via VM Shared Folders or or using a network share. Unfortunately the VM Shred Folders implementation is still has some problems with it although for the most part it is fine for just copying files.