virtualbox can't detect hard drive?

madavid789 · Post by **madavid789** » 25. Sep 2011, 00:25

I have a seagate 250gb hard drive and virtualbox can't seem to detect it... everytime I plug in the external into my mac (yes, I have a mac don't complain about it) it shows up as grey and I can't access it.
I tried other methods such as unmounting the external and then letting virtualbox detect it but it then gives me an error message and I have to forcefully stop the virtual machine.
Any insight on this?

By the way, I have two partitions on my external hard drive, one is empty; theres nothing on it. this is the partition that I'd like to put stuff on... the other has files and other random crap on it (and no I'm not willing to combine those two partitons because i don't have enough space on my hdd to put it all)

Thanks y'all!

Post by **Sasquatch** » 25. Sep 2011, 00:47

Did you try a USB filter, specific for the device or empty?

madavid789 wrote:and no I'm not willing to combine those two partitons because i don't have enough space on my hdd to put it all)

Partitioning software has had support to grow partitions for a long time. You can remove one partition and enlarge the other without data loss.

madavid789 · Post by **madavid789** » 25. Sep 2011, 01:30

Sasquatch wrote:Did you try a USB filter, specific for the device or empty?

madavid789 wrote:and no I'm not willing to combine those two partitons because i don't have enough space on my hdd to put it all)
Partitioning software has had support to grow partitions for a long time. You can remove one partition and enlarge the other without data loss.

I install the guest additions for virtualbox plus the usb filter. None of those worked. I'm pretty sure its because that virtualbox detects the external as one large partition rather than two separate ones that I'm getting this problem.
So how can I combine two partitions without losing data?

http://www.virtualbox.de/wiki/User_FAQ · Post by **stefan.becker** » 25. Sep 2011, 10:54

Use a partitioning software for your host. This has nothing to with VBOX.

Post by **Sasquatch** » 25. Sep 2011, 13:01

madavid789 wrote:I'm pretty sure its because that virtualbox detects the external as one large partition rather than two separate ones that I'm getting this problem.

No, VB just sees a storage device. It doesn't care if it has one partition, no partitions at all or 100 partitions. It's still one device.

Guest Additions won't help, they do nothing with USB. Installing the ExtPack on the Host however might help, since you'll be able to use USB2 on the Guest. But do you actually see the device disappear from the Host when you try to attach it to the Guest?

madavid789 · Post by **madavid789** » 25. Sep 2011, 19:43

Sasquatch wrote:
madavid789 wrote:I'm pretty sure its because that virtualbox detects the external as one large partition rather than two separate ones that I'm getting this problem.
No, VB just sees a storage device. It doesn't care if it has one partition, no partitions at all or 100 partitions. It's still one device.

Guest Additions won't help, they do nothing with USB. Installing the ExtPack on the Host however might help, since you'll be able to use USB2 on the Guest. But do you actually see the device disappear from the Host when you try to attach it to the Guest?

Actually, I can't attach it at all. It appears as grey and it doesn't disappear either. I tried unmounting it from the host and then letting the guest detect it, but it gave me an error message

Post by **Sasquatch** » 25. Sep 2011, 19:51

Ok, in the TS you said you have a Mac, your profile states the OS is 'other', which OS is it exactly? You may want to search this forum for other users that have issues with their OS and USB, you may find a solution.

madavid789 · Post by **madavid789** » 25. Sep 2011, 20:57

Sasquatch wrote:Ok, in the TS you said you have a Mac, your profile states the OS is 'other', which OS is it exactly? You may want to search this forum for other users that have issues with their OS and USB, you may find a solution.

I forgot to update my profile. I used to use linux...
I just got this mac like a couple of weeks ago.
By the way, my partitions are exFat. Should I change them to NTFS?
Can virtualbox detect exFat?

Post by **Sasquatch** » 25. Sep 2011, 22:10

VB doesn't care about the file system. For your Host now, add your user in the vboxusers group, as noted in the User Manual and VirtualBox FAQ.

madavid789 · Post by **madavid789** » 25. Sep 2011, 23:03

Actually, I got it to detect the external with windows 7 from bootcamp so I'm good for now

Got portable windows 8 on my external now

madavid789 · Post by **madavid789** » 26. Sep 2011, 02:38

Ok... I answered too early.
I thought I was gonna get windows 8 portable, but... when installing virtualbox keeps on crashing

apparently I only used 2gb ram and its can't do anything on windows 7 32bit so, I've got two choices:
1. get windows 7 64bit, burn it to a disk and upgrade from 32bit
2. find out how to let virtualbox on mac detect my external

I'll go with the second option for now as windows 7 64bit downloads.
And I'm back where I'm started *sigh*

whoops. sorry for double posting. I'm really mad right now so I didn't notice

Post by **Sasquatch** » 26. Sep 2011, 20:02

So, with Linux, did you put your user in the group?

madavid789 · Post by **madavid789** » 26. Sep 2011, 20:43

Never mind.... I got it working on another forum and windows 64 bit is finished downloading

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