accessing guest OS file system?

[mdelvecchio]

ok i just read the guides, but i dont see any answer to this question -- is there a way for me to access a guest OS' file system (win xp) from w/i Mac OS?

thanks,

matt

[admin · Accepted solution]

Currently Fusion does not have the ability to mount virtual disks (like Workstation), but as a workaround you could set up a network share from the guest and connect to it from OS X.

[borisdusek]

You can use pretty standard means - share the folders you need in Windows with Windows sharing (i.e. right-click on the folder -> Sharing) and access them on your Mac just as any other PC in your neighbourhood (in Finder in the "Shared" section in its sidebar). For Linux VMs, you can export folders from the VM through NFS and mount them in Mac OS X.

Or you can reverse it and set up shared folders in virtual machine settings - that way the files will be on your Mac and accessible in your Windows VM.

[mdelvecchio]

boris,

while that works, it requires launching the VM. ideally, one would mount the VM package to see its file system; or, like in Parallels, simply drilldown in the package's contents from the host OS. very, very useful. especially if you dont have the VMWare on the machine anymore.

matt

[borisdusek]

while that works, it requires launching the VM. ideally, one would mount the VM package to see its file system; or, like in Parallels, simply drilldown in the package's contents from the host OS. very, very useful. especially if you dont have the VMWare on the machine anymore.

That's why I always use VMware shared folders - that way the data always stays on the Mac OS X filesystem. In rare cases you can have some issues with Windows programs not working correctly when accessing data on shared folder (e.g. Visual Studio). I agree what you are describing would be a nice addition to Fusion's capabilities.