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My host OS is OS X 10.7.4. Virtual Box version is 4.1.18 r78361. Guest OS is Windows XP.
The external HD works fine in macbook Air 2011, because it should be under USB 2.0 mode.
But when it connect to macbook Air 2012 that has USB 3.0 port, it cannot mount anymore.
Does anyone mount USB 3.0 external HD successfully?

VirtualBox does not yet support USB 3.0. You can however create a shared folder on the drive and mount that. In many ways the shared folder will work better anyway.

Thank you for your reply.
But if my external USB 3.0 HD file format is NTFS, can I write data by shared folder?

The filesystem used by the server (i.e. the host) OS is not meaningful to a shared folder. It makes no difference. NTFS is good because it won't impose any unexpected constraints on file size or filename length.

mpack wrote:The filesystem used by the server (i.e. the host) OS is not meaningful to a shared folder. It makes no difference. NTFS is good because it won't impose any unexpected constraints on file size or filename length.

After I try shared folder of my USB drive which file format is NTFS, I find that I cannot access the shared folder in guest OS.
Is any other solution for accessing NTFS USB 3.0 HD?

As I said above, the filesystem on the drive is not relevant. The only relevant factor is configuring the network share correctly. If you have the Guest Additions installed inside the XP guest then shared folders can be configured simply in the VM settings.

AlanHu wrote:

mpack wrote:The filesystem used by the server (i.e. the host) OS is not meaningful to a shared folder. It makes no difference. NTFS is good because it won't impose any unexpected constraints on file size or filename length.

After I try shared folder of my USB drive which file format is NTFS, I find that I cannot access the shared folder in guest OS.
Is any other solution for accessing NTFS USB 3.0 HD?

Canthe Mac access the NTFS drive?

stefan.becker wrote:Canthe Mac access the NTFS drive?

I believe so, via a port of the same NTFS driver used in Linux.

My earlier comment about the filesystem being irrelevant applies only to the client side of the network connection. Of course the question of whether or not the server side (i.e. the host) can read that folder is very relevant!

If you have a USB 3.0 drive and a Mac host, AFAIK the method I've outlined in this thread is the only way to do it... and probably still better even if VBox did support USB 3.0.

Would not the guest need to support USB 3.0 also? Has MS updated XP,Vista,Win7 to support USB 3.0?

If it's a shared folder then the guest would not be accessing the drive via USB (in fact it isn't accessing the drive at all - the host is), hence the level of USB support would be moot.

Google yields http://www.everythingusb.com/superspeed ... os_support
the section What operating systems support USB 3.0? states OS X Mountain Lion for USB3 support.

mpack wrote:

stefan.becker wrote:Canthe Mac access the NTFS drive?

I believe so, via a port of the same NTFS driver used in Linux.

My earlier comment about the filesystem being irrelevant applies only to the client side of the network connection. Of course the question of whether or not the server side (i.e. the host) can read that folder is very relevant!

If you have a USB 3.0 drive and a Mac host, AFAIK the method I've outlined in this thread is the only way to do it... and probably still better even if VBox did support USB 3.0.

Believing or Knowing?

If the host cant access NTFS, you cannot use shared folders. Can you access files from the drive on the host?

My mac, os x mountain lion, only can read NTFS. Writing NTFS is not allowed.
And I want to write NTFS in guest OS. But guest OS cannot mount USB 3.0 device.

I'm afraid there aren't many ways around this. The VirtualBox VM doesn't currently support USB 3.0 devices. It's unclear if your host does? If the latter is yes then shared folders will work, but not if you aren't prepared to format the USB drive with a "portable" filesystem which the Mac can use. Frankly, unless I had a need to transport individual files larger than 4GB, then I would format the drive using FAT32, and I'd create a shared folder on the drive.

For what it's worth, there are some ways to get Mountain Lion to write to NTFS drives. One free and two others non-free. Once the Mac can write to a NTFS volume, a shared folder should work. Here's some info. link