I have read through the forms looking for any information for connecting an external eSata drive to VirtualBox. I have a Windows XP and Ubuntu 10 Virtual machines running on my Dell E6400 laptop. I want to connect an external drive using either the built in eSata port or an eSata express card on the laptop. USB works fine but I can't find a way to connect the eSata drive.
Any suggestions would be appreciated.
connect an external eSata drive to VM
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Sasquatch
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Re: connect an external eSata drive to VM
eSATA is not the same as USB. It can't be transferred to a VM as such. If you want to have the drive available in the VM, use shared folders, your OS native network sharing or RAW Disk. The latter will be the most dangerous, see the manual for that. It will also cause the VM to fail to boot or at least give an error when the drive it not attached or it's device path changed.
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VirtualBox FAQ: Check this before asking questions.
Online User Manual: A must read if you want to know what we're talking about.
Howto: Install Linux Guest Additions
Howto: Use Shared Folders on Linux Guest
See the Tutorials and FAQ section at the top of the Forum for more guides.
Try searching the forums first with Google and add the site filter for this forum.
E.g. install guest additions site:forums.virtualbox.org
Retired from this Forum since OSSO introduction.
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mpack
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Re: connect an external eSata drive to VM
The USB passthrough feature is unusual in that it lets you directly access physical (host) devices. In general however the existence of host devices, such as an eSATA drive, is irrelevant to a virtual PC. There is as yet no eSATA passthrough feature in VirtualBox.
What you can do however is create a folder on the drive and share it. Shared folders do work with removable drives. Of course you could share the root folder, but I don't recommend sharing the root folder of any drive.
What you can do however is create a folder on the drive and share it. Shared folders do work with removable drives. Of course you could share the root folder, but I don't recommend sharing the root folder of any drive.
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frank777
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Re: connect an external eSata drive to VM
This answers my question. Thank you for the quick reply.