Hi,
I have an iMac with a broken superdrive (internal disk drive) which I cannot fix (due to it being an iMac).
When in VirtualBox on my iMac, can VirtualBox register and use a plugged-in external disk drive?
Or do I have to just settle for iso files?
I'm hoping it can, because then I can use various disks in virtualbox via the external disk drive.
Edit: I don't think so, I'll just have to make do with iso files
Can VirtualBox Register a plugged-in external disk drive?
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Re: Can VirtualBox Register a plugged-in external disk drive?
Ok, so I googled a 'superdrive' and found out it's just Apple's 'superfancy' name for a CD/DVD drive.
Virtualbox will boot from and use an external USB CD drive if the host still controls the CD drive and the VM's CD drive is pointed at the host's CD drive.
If the USB CD drive is passed into the VM with Virtualbox's USB Filters, then the VM would own the CD drive and Virtualbox would theoretically boot from it only if the VM uses EFI booting. Virtualbox BIOS boot cannot boot from any USB device.
If the external CD drive connects via another channel besides USB, like Thunderbolt or Firewire, I don't know if Virtualbox will use it. Theoretically it still should work if the host still owns the CD drive.
Converting CD & DVD install media to ISO is also a viable and faster method to boot VMs, provided there is no copy-protection scheme on the disc.
Virtualbox will boot from and use an external USB CD drive if the host still controls the CD drive and the VM's CD drive is pointed at the host's CD drive.
If the USB CD drive is passed into the VM with Virtualbox's USB Filters, then the VM would own the CD drive and Virtualbox would theoretically boot from it only if the VM uses EFI booting. Virtualbox BIOS boot cannot boot from any USB device.
If the external CD drive connects via another channel besides USB, like Thunderbolt or Firewire, I don't know if Virtualbox will use it. Theoretically it still should work if the host still owns the CD drive.
Converting CD & DVD install media to ISO is also a viable and faster method to boot VMs, provided there is no copy-protection scheme on the disc.