virtualbox.org

I just installed VirtualBox on a host machine running Windows 7 Home Edition. The virtual system is running Windows 7 Professional. I need to install MS Office Access 2003 on the virtual system in order to avoid having a conflict with MS Office Access 2007 on the host machine.

When I insert the Access 2003 disk in the DVD drive, it tries to install on the host machine.

I know very little about these virtual systems but I thought that if I my virtual system was running as the lead system (had the "focus" in Access terms), then it would install the software on the virtual HD.

What am I doing wrong?

Kevin

The host will see the local CD/DVD first. You should be able to cancel the local install, then mount it in the guest. Or you can disable auto-start on the host and be done with it.

I cancelled the local host from installing it, then went into the folders on the virtual system, found the DVD drive, opened it and clicked on "Setup". It then gave me a cyclic redundancy error. Is there another way to "mount" this?

Kevin

That error usually means the CD/DVD is corrupted or damaged.
There is a possibility that you need to enable passthrough on the virtual CD/DVD drive. This must be done with the guest powered off.

I would think that if it tried to install it on the Host machine, then the DVD is ok.

But as for the other, "enable passthrough", I have no idea what that means, or even how to accomplish it. I'm not at all familiar with the inner workings of a virtual system other than it allows you to basically have two or more computer systems/operating systems in one box.

I appreciate you taking the time to assist me with this but I have a feeling I may have to abandon this.

Kevin

Easy enough. Stop the guest (not saved state) and go into the guest settings, the storage. They you should find the CD/DVD icon. Click it and to the right you should see the check-box "enable passthrough". Put the check-mark in and save, then boot the guest and see how it goes.

I couldn't find anything that said, "Stop", so I used the ACPI Shutdown. Went into Settings, and then into Storage. Attached is a screenshot of what I see. Unfortunately, I don't see "passthrough".

Kevin

If you look there is a CD icon and the VirtualBox Guest additions.iso is already mounted in it.
Click on that icon and then to the right there is a pull down window that will list the hosts CD/DVD.
Select that and then the passthrough will show and you can enable it.

I'm guessing I'm out of luck. The attachment is what I have when I click on what I perceive to be the CD/DVD part of the IDE controller. The version of VirtualBox I'm running is 4.2.4 r81684.

Kevin

Well your having growing pains for sure. At this point you have added another drive to the controller. The one that says empty. Click it to bring focus to it and then look down below for the icon (red - ) that removes it. Go slow and you will see it when you hover over it.

Now once that has been removed click once on the icon that says VirtualBoxGuestAdditions.iso to get the focus and look to the right.
Where it says CD/DVD Drive and to the right of that you click on the CD icon again and you should be able to select the hosts CD drive.

Perry, that did the trick.

Thank you so much for your help and patience!! I could not have solved this problem without your assistance.

Kevin

Hi Perry,

I am having a similar problem as Kevin. I want to install office but my VM doesn't recognize my optical drive. I followed the instructions that you gave Kevin but my situation is a little bit different. I attached a screen shot to show where I am at. I can't find any passthrough box.

Thanks for any help you can offer,

Corbin

Corban,
You need to click on the CD just below the IDE controller (says empty now). Then to the right (attributes) click the cd icon and select the hosts cd/dvd. Then you should see the enable passthrough.

That did the trick! Thanks Perry