[Solved] Disk write protected in vista guest

[tomar.sk]

Hi,

I've virtualbox 2.1.4 (PUEL) on host opensuse 10.3, along-with the guest additions. In a VM with Vista, I'm facing a somewhat strange problem. From the shared folder (from Linux) I can execute some files while not others (with similar attributes in linux). For example, I can install the antivir program, malwarebyte's anti-malware, etc., but it gives the following message when I try to execute SpywareTerminator.

Code: Select all

ShellExecuteEx failed; code 3
The system can not find the path specified.

Similarly, some voip applications it can install, while for others it gives this message. Moreover, is it not possible to copy the files from the shared folder to some folder of my user account in vista (for example in the Downloads folder). It says "The disk is write protected, remove the write protection or use another disk".

I repeat, all the files are being executed from the same folder with similar file attributes.

Any help?

[tomar.sk]

Somewhat surprised that no reply even after 3 days. This may be an indication that no one else faced this problem.

To add some more info, the programs which fail to install from the shared folder, they work fine when downloaded directly to a folder in my user account in Vista and then executed.

Desperately looking for some clues.

[0ceanic]

I have the same problem
It happened after I changed the permissions and owner of my FAT32 drives to my username
But even when i change them back it doesn't work

[Perryg]

You will need to post the permissions of the shared folder so we can see where the problem is. Also where is the actual folder stored? In your account or root? Also post the exact way you typed the folder name including case. I seriously doubt you can provide too much information for us to help resolve this issue.

PS: sorry for missing this the other day. Bumping is sometimes needed.

[tomar.sk]

Hi,

Thanks to Oceanic for rejuvenating this topic. Unfortunately, I couldn't resolve this problem. Following are some details and several things I tried.

(1) My home-dir is with 700 permissions. In my home-dir, I've a sub-dir with 755, and in that I've another sub-dir with 755, which I want to share with Vista VM. Previously, the name of this sub-dir was "Windows" (the first w is in capital). All the files in there are with 755 permission. I also tried changing the letter for the folder (in Vista, say from Z: to Y:) and changing the name of this shared folder in Linux from "Windows" to "DirWindows". I also updated to VB 2.2.2 (previously 2.1.4), and tried cloning the HD and then using it in a newer SuSE (11.1), but to no avail, I'm still stuck.

(2) Surprisingly, sharing the same folder with another VM with XP-SP3 (in same linux host) doesn't have any problem. For example, when I try to install notepad++ from the shared-folder, in Vista it gives the following message,

Y:\npp.5.4.2.Installer.exe
The specified path does not exist.
Check the path, and then try again.

Whereas in XP-SP3, it smoothly installs it.

I hope I've provided enough information. If anything else is needed please let me know.

[quote="Perryg"]
PS: sorry for missing this the other day. Bumping is sometimes needed.[/quote]

I'd posted a gentle reminder after 3 days. When I didn't receive any response to that I presumed its an isolated case.

Thanks anyway for your interest in looking further.
Satyendra

[Perryg]

Since this seems to be specific to Vista, I am suspect of the Vista UAC as the problem. This is the section of Vista that keeps you or anyone else from running an executable unless you elevate your self to use admin privilege. Search Vista for UAC and try disabling it. If this works then there is a way to setup Vista to allow you to run programs in a specific folder, but we will get into that later. No need to go into that much work until you verify that it is the UAC that is causing this problem.

[tomar.sk]

How right you are! I disabled UAC and it worked like charm. Many thanks.

But I'm surprised because I was logged in with administrator account. Shouldn't it then let me proceed, even if by asking a confirmation?

Now how to set up Vista to allow me to run from this specific folder.

[Perryg]

Ok so I can not find the script that I created to change the UAC on a specific folder. Thousands of files to look through, but there is still another way to get around it. Right click on the exe and tell it to run as administrator. This will elevate it to run. You can also right click on the file manager and tell it to run as admin and get by this issue. Closing it will turn off the bypass and you will still be protected under normal use. Also remember that while you are logging in with admin privilege you are not THE administrator. Vista changed this so you do not leave your PC logged in as THE admin.

[tomar.sk]

Hi,

The first option "Right click on the exe and tell it to run as administrator" I'd already tried. This doesn't help.

For the second option, so far I was just using Windows Explorer as the file manager, where I couldn't find this possibility. However, upon your suggestion I did some googling and searched at download.cnet.com, and finally installed FlexTk Express. Surprisingly, first time it ran the file with normal permissions but after reboot it gave the same message as from Windows Explorer. But then, when I run FlexTkExp as administrator, it went smoothly.

Thank you so much for all your inputs, which also guided me to use an alternative file manager.
Satyendra

[Roman]

I think this is the same thing. When I use Vista or Server 2008, the new OSes, I can not copy from a VirtualBox shared folder to the desktop, for example, using Windows Explorer. I get the "The disk is write protected." error. However, one work around is to use a cmd.exe window. Oddly enough, the copy command works fine. This is rather annoying though and I'd like to figure out how to fix it. I think Windows Server 2003 used to do that too and the fix was to add the share to the Internet Explorer trusted sites, but that does not work.

I would like a fix for this still if anyone has one. I do think it's a Windows issue that has nothing to do with VBox, but since that's where we're seeing the problem...
Thanks.

[Perryg]

VBox 3.0.2 was released yesterday and some of the permission problems have been fixed. You can try the new release and provide feedback here.

[Roman]

VBox 3.0.2 was released yesterday and some of the permission problems have been fixed. You can try the new release and provide feedback here.

Yes, that seems to have fixed it. Thank you.