[Solved] USB 3.0 Device (external HD) not recognized in Windows XP

[youcancallmemar]

Hi, i recently got a Windows XP installation running in VirtualBox on my Macbook Pro running El Capitan. i plugged in a usb 3.0 external HD and i don't see it in My Computer or anywhere else in XP, but the drive is definitely working normally on the original Windows XP PC, and also on my macbook pro. I have guest additions installed. Any help? thanks!

[socratis]

my usb 3.0 external HD

but the drive is definitely working on the original Windows XP PC

A USB3 HD working on WinXP? That took some magic... Which is what's needed here as well.

Please read the following thread: USB basics and troubleshooting, all of the posts.

If you still have a problem after reading through the whole thing, please follow the advice of the last post, #8: Asking for help and post the information requested.

BTW, you could always use Shared Folders if you simply want access to the data and not the actual disk...

[youcancallmemar]

i just mean it is recognized and working well on XP, i realize it may not be functioning as USB 3.O, but rather 2.0. just wanted to confirm the drive is working.

i need access to the whole drive..

i found this post: viewtopic.php?f=28&t=74575

is that still a valid solution if i'm using VirtualBox 5.2.22?

[youcancallmemar]

socratis, the thread you had me take a look at helped... i had actually set up the usb filter prior to writing the post, and didn't realize i just needed to restart the VM... the device was recognized immediately.

thanks again!

[socratis]

is that still a valid solution if i'm using VirtualBox 5.2.22?

Yes. Otherwise I would have removed it from the FAQ...

i need access to the whole drive..

What are you doing exactly that you need the whole drive? Are you formatting it? Partitioning it?

didn't realize i just needed to restart the VM... the device was recognized immediately.

You won't believe how many a problem rebooting solves...

Glad I could help. Marking as [Solved].

[youcancallmemar]

I'm running Ableton Live on the guest machine (XP)... all of my audio samples and session files are on the external drive (the original XP machine had two hard drives in it, one was C: the boot drive, the other was where i had all the actual audio files stored), so i am using the external drive as a mirror of that original internal audio storage drive. it's working like a charm and i am stoked!

do you have any recommendations for running heavy duty audio processing on the XP guest machine? i.e. any tweaks i can make in virtualbox or to the VM to help have top processing/timing performance? the performance is already pretty dang good, but i do get small timing lags between, for instance, the moment i push play and hear the sound (takes about 1 second or so to start hearing sound). but the latency actually seems good, and i'm thinking its possible the performance isn't super high quality at the moment because i haven't actually installed a legit USB or thunderbolt audio interface (with drivers), i'm just using the integrated intel audio.

anyway, no biggie... was just a follow up question out of curiosity.

thanks again!

[socratis]

I don't know anything specific about audio processing in a VM (or not for that matter). But if it works, you're in a good shape, because one of the things that VMs are not good at it's timing. They're really bad at it. And audio really requires precise timing...

The external USB audio processing might help, because you're offloading the main task to the external device. But remember, they require precise timing as well...

[Martin]

Does your audio data need to stay on the external drive or would you have enough space internally to transfer the data to a virtual harddisk?
Using the data on a (local) virtual disk should be much more effective.

[jorgensen]

Try this viewtopic.php?f=6&t=76023&start=15#p354472

[youcancallmemar]

thanks so much for the replies! unfortunately the data on the external disk is too much to fit internally, though its possible i could trim it down a bit (would have to be trimmed down a lot actually) and then convert to a VM of it's own... that seems like a great idea.

will check out the topic link as well jorgensen, thx very much.

M