Win7-32 guest, Win7-64 host, File sharing

[Richard Taylor]

I have been unable to get my 32-bit Win7 guest to see the 64-bit Win7 host machine, so I cannot map any drives for file sharing. They just don't see each other, despite having followed the instructions about using Guest Additions, etc. Can someone please give me step-by-step guidance (or point me to it) on what has to be done on both the host and guest sides to make this happen? The VM is useless to me if I can't get files back and forth between the two. Thanks!

[mpack]

The bittedness of the host or guest OS is not relevant to the filesystem, nor is it relevant to shared folders.

Also, you should not really share the root folder of any drive. And even if you do, the share will not appear in the guest as a drive - not unless you map the share to a drive letter (Windows guests have that ability).

All you need for simple shared folders is to install the Guest Additions, and define the share in the VM settings. The share will then be visible if you browse in the "Network Neighborhood" of your guest OS.

Please post a VM log file. With the VM fully shut down, right click and "Show Log" in the GUI, save "VBox.log" (ONLY) to a zip, and attach the zip here.

[Richard Taylor]

OK, here's the log file.

>>All you need for simple shared folders is to install the Guest Additions,<<

Did that.

>>and define the share in the VM settings. <<

Don't see the host machine at all, so how does one define the share when the guest won't "talk to" the host?

[scottgus1]

The log seems to show that Guest Additions are installed in the guest OS.

See section 4.3 in the manual. You set the desired host folder to put into the guest using the guest's Settings in the host's main Virtualbox window, or the guest Virtualbox window's Devices menu, then Shared Folders, pick the desired folder, and whether read-only or writable. Within the guest, look for the "\\vboxsvr" network server, and the host's shared folder will be present. This Guest Additions shared folder system is only for transferring files, not for running programs or databases.

You can also set up a real network between the host and guest, see section 6 in the manual. These real shared folders can be used for anything a shared fodler can support in physical PCs.

[Richard Taylor]

>>Within the guest, look for the "\\vboxsvr" network server<<

OK, that's got it -- the missing piece of information. Thank you!