Shared Folders for two hosts?

[mhorn103]

Hi, I am new here and I don't see this topic anywhere else. If it is covered elsewhere, feel free to direct me accordingly. Here is my situation:

I am running a laptop that dual boots Windows 7 Ultimate and Linux Mint Debian. I have VirtualBox installed on both host OS's. I created a Windows XP SP3 virtual machine that I can access on either host OS. No problems there. My hang-up comes when I try to set up a shared folder to exchange files between the host OS and guest. I can set up a shared folder under one or the other hosts, no problem. But the VM becomes inaccessible when I boot into a different host and try to fire up VirtualBox.

Is there a way to create a shared folder that can communicate with either host? A workaround?

My end goal is to use this VM to download (legally) via bittorrent. I want to use it to scan the files, make sure they are safe, then transfer them to the NTFS partition that can be accessed using both hosts.

Suggestions?

Thanks in advance!

-Matt

[mpack]

If the physical shared folder is accessible from both hosts then there should be no problem. Either put the folder on a partition that uses a filesystem that both host OS already support (e.g. FAT), or install NTFS support in the Linux OS.

[mhorn103]

Not sure I understand. The partition on which the folder resides is NTFS. I have that partition set to automount when I boot up the Linux host and it works fine. I can read/write to it from linux. On the Windows host it obviously is detected. I am guessing my problem is with the paths to the share. If I set it up from Linux, the windows host won't load the machine b/c it doesn't recognize the share path. And vice versa.

[mpack]

Are you saying that you are trying to use the same .vbox file from two hosts? As far as I'm aware, that is not supported: file paths to all disk image files, printer and other resources will use the naming conventions of the host OS the VM was created on and be wrong for the other host.

A .vbox file does not take a lot of space. I suggest you have separate .vbox files for each host, but both referring to the same .VDI. I suggest that the easiest way is to remove the VM from one host - don't delete the physical files. Then copy the .vbox file (it can remain in the same folder), edit the .vbox copy to suit the 2nd host, then add it back into that host's VM manager.

[mhorn103]

Thanks. I was approaching the same conclusion but was waiting for some mad genius to work a miracle. I have the VM copied already, so I will just set everything up to do just that. I really appreciate the fast replies and all of your help.