Sharing a folder from a mac host and a win xp guest

[bsprowl]

Host is an iMac with Snow Leopard 10.6.2. Virtual Box 3.0.12. The shared folder has shared permitted.

Guest is Win XP Service Pack 3. Guest additions are installed.

Under VirtualBox devices I set up the shared folder.

After the Windows guest loaded and following the instruction is section 4 of the user guide, I mapped the network drive using Tools, Map Network Drive and and browsing for the drive. The network drive then show up in Network places as a local drive.

When I try to access the shared folder I get the following error message in a Pop-up WIndow named "My Network Places", "\\BOXSVR\FolderName refers to a location that is unavailable."

[vbox4me2]

What if you use the 'net use x: \\vboxsvr\name' methode ?

[mc23646266]

which network adapter did you choose to setup the VM?

I had the same problem with bridged-network.
It's working with a NAT network-adapter for me.

greetz

=:-)f

[bsprowl]

I tried that first (should have said that I guess.) Got the basically the same error, " X:\ refers to a location that is unavailable...", when I click on the network drive icon for "Filename on 'vboxsvr' (X:)".

I didn't do anything about a network adapter, just have whatever was installed by default. I guess one is installed, how do I check this? I was able to install the Windows security updates.

I'm a new Mac user and while I'm no computer novice (I have done some main frame assembler programming along the way) I'm just starting to learn Linux/Unix. DOS command lines I understand. Mac ones mostly confuse me.

Thanks,

Bob

[bsprowl]

I went back and spent most of the weekend trying to resolve my problem. I've also reviewed many related posts.

The user manual is very hard to understand. Acronyms are used in many places yet are seldom defined in the Glossary.

For example I started reading from Chapter 1 (page 9). On page 10 I was referred to page 18 (to check supported operating systems). Under Mac OS on page 19 I’m referred to page 224 for known limitations. That page is covered with acronyms, VDI files, VMDK and VHD formats, and OVF import/export, none of which mean anything to me. Only OVF (Open Virtualization Format) is defined in the glossary and that definition leads you into Chapter 3.8 before it is really explained.

Moving on to Chapter 3. Finally on page 35 there is a comment about VDI files that leads to Chapter 5.2 I where they define VDI (Virtual Disk Image) files as: VirtualBox uses its own container format for guests hard disks.

Back to Chapter 3.

Now the fun begins. Section 3.4.2 Changing removable media refers you to 3.3, Basics of virtual machine configuration page 36. 3.3 basics of virtual machine configuration refers you to 3.7 Virtual machine settings on page 45, which in turn directs you to Chapter 8, VBoxManage Reference on page 100. That is just is command line listing which does not help the new VirtualBox user at all.

If you are able to retrace your steps back to 3.7 Virtual Machine settings and move from page 46 to the top of page 47 you find useful data about the Virtual machine settings but I didn’t see that section the first several times I read the manual because the reference to Chapter 8,VirtualBoxManage reference at the bottom of page 45 got me lost. Would someone PLEASE move that reference to the end of the 3.7 section, i.e., just before section 3.8.

Finally found a reference to shared folders in section 3.7.10 but that just directs you to Chapter 4.6, Folder sharing.

(I have also checked section in Chapter 8, VBoxManage reference on Shared Folders (8.22 on page 122) but that just refers you to Chapter 4.6.)

Followed the instructions in 4.6 very carefully and made a conscious decision to use X:, Y: and Z: as the drive letters for my shared VirtualBox drives so that these drive letters in my notes to myself will clearly stand out. The first will be used for my Paint Shop folder located under my UserID, in a subfolder of Pictures named 2010-Calendar, the second for my Class Lecture Notes folder in Documents and the last for VBoxTemp folder in Documents that will contain everything else. Got the message “The command completed successfully.” after each in the DOS prompt window.

Didn’t make any difference. I still get the same error that I’ve had since last summer. When I click on the 2010-Calendar on ‘vboxsvr’ (X:) icon in the Network drives section of My Computer inside Windows I get a pop-up window labeled “My Computer” with the first sentence stating “X:\ refers to a location that is unavailable.”

Found one suggestion to not use special characters or capital letters. Opened an Explorer Window and deleted my network drives, went to the VirtualBox’s menu bar and selected Devices and Shared Folders where I changed the shared name to all lower case, then I opened a Command Window and re-created them with the new names. When I used Explorer to test them I got the same error as above. Closed the VirtualBox and restarted it still had the problem. Went back deleted the Windows drives, then deleted the VM Shared folders under Devices, closed the VM, changed the files names on my Mac to they didn’t use capital letters or special characters and verified that they when shared folders. Restarted my window’s VM and setup shared folders again from the Devices menu and then within Windows. The problem remains: I get a pop-up window labeled “My Computer” with the first sentence stating “X:\ refers to a location that is unavailable.” whenever I try to open a shared folder.

I’ve also tried capital letters and lower case letters for the drive letters and tried defining then shared folders inside windows with the undocumented –p option that was suggested in some posts. These made no difference; I still get the same error.

So I'm stuck at the same point I was last August. Any suggestions?

Thanks,

Bob

[bsprowl]

I am still trying to get shared folders to work. When I click on a shared drive in Windows Explorer I always get the same error message “Z:\ refers to a location that is unavailable…”

I’ve set it up using the command line “net use Z: \\vboxsvr\vboxtemp” where vboxtemp is the shared name of the folder on the Host. Vboxtemp has shared permissions on the host and was setup on the Guest as a Shared Folder with the name vboxtemp and with the path /Documents/vboxtemp which is a valid path in my user folder on the Host.

I’ve also tried setting it up from the menu bar using Tools-Map Network Drive. The drive appears in the list of Virtual Box Shared Folders when I Browse for it and I when I select it the Folder Box properly (to me) shows \\VBOXSVR\VBOXTEMP. I leave the Reconnect at login in box checked and then click on Finish. The Network Drive list immediately has this new entry. But when I click on this new entry I get the above error message.

Guest additions are installed and networking seems to be working fine. I can printer to my networked Brother printer without any problems.

Thanks,
Bob

[guyinsb]

I've got the same problem, it seems. Mac OSX 10.6.2 host, WinXP guest.
I have the shared folder setup and it works fine, as long as I access it
from Windows Explorer; the shared folder shows up in
"My Network Places" --> "VBOXSVRshared on VirtualBox"
I can drag files to this folder from either desktop, then
access them from the other OS. So I created a sub-folder "fdesk".

But when I try to map a network drive to "fdesk", I can browse and select
fdesk, get the message
"Attempting to connect to \\VBOXSVR\shared\fdesk"
then an error message pops up:
"The network path \\VBOXSVR\shared\fdesk could not be found"

I'm using NAT routing.

[MarkCranness]

But when I try to map a network drive to "fdesk", I can browse and select
fdesk, get the message
"Attempting to connect to \\VBOXSVR\shared\fdesk"
then an error message pops up:
"The network path \\VBOXSVR\shared\fdesk could not be found"

I don't think you can share to a folder one level down. VirtualBox is not sharing fdesk out, it is sharing 'shared' out, so
net use x: \\vboxsvr\share
... will work, but not \\vboxsvr\shared\fdesk