Host drive not accessible

I am running Windows XP Virtual Machine in Windows 7 Professional (64 bit). From time to time I get the error message "drive is not accessible" with the submessage "incorrect function" when I try to access one of the drives on the host operating system.

The problem occurs reliably when I run Microsoft Developer Studio 4.1 (Visual C++) and work with a project on a drive on the host (e.g. \\tsclient\c). After compiling and running the project, Developer Studio locks up and has to be stopped with the Task Manager. As soon as I exit Developer Studio, I can access the drive again.

The computer is a Lenovo W510 with an i7 820QM processor and 8 GB RAM>

I am very disappointed that the Virtual is so unstable. I have a number of older programs that I need to run on this computer for my business. Any suggestions?

Hi there
what Virtual machine software are you using -- XP Mode IMO isn't fit for purpose if you want to run things like developer studio.

You need to run a FULL BLOWN VM -- VBOX or VMWARE player are both free and EXCELLENT.

I've no experience myself of VBOX but others use it and like it. I use vmware products as we have these at work and it saves messing about with 2 different types of Virtual machine software.

If you enable any sort of Networking on your Virtual machine you should be able to access the HOST drives -- you'll need to make these "shareable" of course and it helps to have the same user id and password on the virtual machine and host.

Here's an example of a MINIDISC application -- Audio CD==> MD audio burning software -- yes I'm still using Minidiscs -- for me the sound is so much better than typical IPODS and you can use these as nice recording devices at gigs, lectures etc etc as well.

The MD software won't even work on VISTA -- XP was the last supported OS for these type of devices.

Anyway the VM I'm running it on performs flawlessly.

Your Visual Developer studio app will run just fine on an XP Virtual machine created with VMWARE or VBOX.

I also run some SAP data base ERP testing on a Virtual machine. Your work apps will run fine on an XP or W2K3 Server Virtual machine.



Cheers
jimbo

jimbo45 said:

Hi there
what Virtual machine software are you using -- XP Mode IMO isn't fit for purpose if you want to run things like developer studio.

You need to run a FULL BLOWN VM -- VBOX or VMWARE player are both free and EXCELLENT.

I've no experience myself of VBOX but others use it and like it. I use vmware products as we have these at work and it saves messing about with 2 different types of Virtual machine software.

jimbo

I am using the Window XP mode virtual machine that comes with Windows 7 Professional x64.

If I use VBOX or VMWARE how do I get the license number for Windows XP? With the built in virtual machine in Windows 7, the Windows XP license is built in. Is there a way to find this license number out? Can I use the Lenovo OEM license that appears in Windows XP Mode under System Properties?

Is VMWare Player what I want? It appears that WMWare is only free for non-commercial use. So it I use it to run Visual Studio, it appears I must buy the WMWare Worksation, correct?

Thanks for your help.