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Cannot mount USB device on Win XP guest
Posted: 12. Sep 2010, 02:01
by tomole808
I'm new to the forum. USB drive mounts on Mac OS 10.6 host, but will not mount on Win XP guest. Any suggestions are appreciated.

- Screen shot - USB .png (69.93 KiB) Viewed 8915 times
USB controller is enabled.
USB 2.0 controller is enabled.
Bluetooth USB Host Controller filter added
Thank you.
Re: Cannot mount USB device on Win XP guest
Posted: 14. Sep 2010, 17:50
by caz
Sorry, I don't have a reply to this but would like to piggyback off the issue.
I don't get an error but i'm connecting a USB security device (its a licensing dongle for a software), it appears grayed out in the list of available devices. I can't enable it...
Re: Cannot mount USB device on Win XP guest
Posted: 14. Sep 2010, 17:57
by Perryg
Sorry guys, I am not a MAC guy but see you struggling and no one has answered you yet.
I read a lot of people that have MACs need to unmount the USB device from the host before it is available to the guest. Maybe this will point you in the direction you need to go to get this to work.
Re: Cannot mount USB device on Win XP guest
Posted: 15. Sep 2010, 19:58
by Stringbag
Yes, you need to eject it from the mac side first (drag to trash click on eject button in finder).
Re: Cannot mount USB device on Win XP guest
Posted: 19. Sep 2010, 02:31
by tonychung
Unfortunately, if the USB device is an external drive formatted to NTFS, Mac OS X holds the resource even though you asked the system to eject the drive. I found this post that explained everything. I wanted to post a comment on his blog that said he's a genius, but comments appear to be disabled:
http://frank.heydlauf.de/jm2c/archive/8 ... -usb-drive
Setup:
Mac OS X Snow Leopard host
Windows 7 guest (should work the same for Windows XP)
Quick overview:
1. With Guest OS machine shut down, connect the USB device the host can't read. Select Eject.
2. In a terminal window, enter: VBoxManage list usbhost to view devices.
3. In the Virtual Machine settings control panel, create and activate a filter for the USB device (specify the information learned in Step 2).
4. Disconnect the USB device.
5. Start the Guest OS machine.
6. Reconnect the USB device.
I didn't have to go through the work of setting up dev/ permissions as specified in the post.
Note: This process worked well for my Thermaltake BlacX Duet USB docking station and a 1TB SATA HDD. I'm scanning the disk for failures, as I think it might have overheated last night (it hasn't been connecting to even my Windows machines lately). Where the Windows boxes all froze, the VirtualBox is still chugging along.
Hope this helps.
-T
Re: Cannot mount USB device on Win XP guest
Posted: 19. Sep 2010, 02:41
by Perryg
Really unplugging and replugging an external hard drive is asking for problems if it is not removed properly. One mistake and if the heads are not parked properly all information can be corrupt. Just be careful if you need to switch from host to guest. If it is simply for data transfer it makes more sense to share the drive and mount it as a shared resource.
Be sure to read Chapter 3.10. USB support in your VirtualBox users guide. Especially the notes and warnings.
Re: Cannot mount USB device on Win XP guest
Posted: 19. Sep 2010, 06:04
by mdurisseau
I still can't get my iPhone to work...did once upon a time...