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How to use an USB external hard drive

Posted: 28. Jan 2010, 09:50
by n179911
Hi,

I have installed Virtual Box 3.1.2 on MacOSX 10.5.
And I have setup an Ubuntu 9.10 machine on Virtual Box.

And I have an new USB external hard drive.
How can I
* make ubuntu 9.10 sees the external hard drive
* format it to ext3/4 so that Ubuntu 9.10 can

I have enabled 'usb controller'
and add an 'usb filter' for my external hard drive

But everytime I boot up ubuntu 9.10 on Virtual Box, it does not see that external hard drive. When I right click on the usb controller icon at the bottom of Virtual Box, the USB filter for my external hard drive is gray out for some reason.

Thank you very much for any help in resolving this.

Re: How to use an USB external hard drive

Posted: 28. Jan 2010, 14:01
by SecretCode
Your profile says you are using the OSE version - this does not support USB.

You will have to uninstall it and install the PUEL version.

Re: How to use an USB external hard drive

Posted: 28. Jan 2010, 19:29
by n179911
Sorry, I am using the binaries from
http://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Downloads

So I think I am using 'PUEL' version.

Re: How to use an USB external hard drive

Posted: 28. Jan 2010, 20:15
by SecretCode
Can you attach other USB devices to the guest? A flash memory stick ... or even a USB mouse?

Re: How to use an USB external hard drive

Posted: 28. Jan 2010, 21:14
by n179911
Yes. I have an old USB drive (which i used with my old linux laptopt), when I plug that in , I am able to see that with my Ubuntu 9.10 runs on Virtual Box on Mac OSX.

And now I have a new USB drive (I have tried to boot my MacOS with a Live CD runs Ubuntu and format that hd to ext4 with sec partition). And then plug the new USB to Virtual Box , but it cant' detect it.

Any idea?

Thank you.

Re: How to use an USB external hard drive

Posted: 29. Jan 2010, 02:18
by n179911
I have tried with a USB thumb drive and it works. The USB thumb drive is formated to FAT32.

I can see that in my ubuntu machine and I can write files to it.

Re: How to use an USB external hard drive

Posted: 2. Feb 2010, 19:42
by hsharm3
I am having the same problem. My Western digital 500GB not getting detected in guest XP but it's there in Mac OS X. Any solution