Shared folder error

[drmacintosh]

I have a small LAN with two Mac minis that are networked together. The first Mac mini a Late 2012 is the computer in which I have installed and running Virtual Box 4.2.8 r83876 on a 2.5GHz dual-core Intel Core i5 Mac mini, 16 GB RAM & 500 GB HD with Mountain Lion X.8.2. The second Mac mini a Late 2006 is the computer with which I have external HDs connected and being shared from a 1.66GHz Intel Core Duo Mac mini, 2 GB RAM & 60 GB HD with Snow Leopard X.6.8. On the first Mac mini running Virtual Box mentioned earlier I have Shared folders enabled where two external HDs are mounted on the second Mac mini and specified as shared. When I Start VB on the first Mac mini I immediate receive a message that reads:

The virtual machine execution may run into an error condition as described below. We suggest that you take an appropriate action to avert the error.

The shared folder "Western_Digital_My_Book_USB_1TB" could not be setup: Shared folder path '/Volumes/Western Digital My Book USB 1TB does not exist on the host.

The shared folder setup will not be complete. It is recommended to power down the virtual machine and fix the shared folder settings while the machine is not running.

As a result of the error mentioned above, I must manually power the computer down via the power button held until the computer is powered off. I then restart the computer and the previous apps that are running i.e. Mozilla Firefox and Virtual Box reopen and Spotify & Twitterific auto launch upon startup. I have checked the path from within the VB Preferences under Shared folder and it shows that the two shared external HDs are present. Since I have a Microsoft Natural Ergonomic Keyboard 4000 and a Microsoft Trackball Explorer plus appropriate driver software installed the trackball's pointer and response from the keyboard become unresponsive and this is why I must manually power the computer down according to what I mentioned above. This by the way forces me to have to uninstall both driver software where I then can successfully start VB running Microsoft Windows 7 Professional SP1 32-bit and inside the VM both keyboard and trackball work but from Mountain Lion I need to have the software installed for full functionality of the trackball and keyboard. If I auto mount the two shared external HDs with Microsoft IntelliPoint and IntelliType software installed, I then run into the problem described above.

My question is, is the combination of the Microsoft IntelliPoint and IntelliType and two shared external HDs causing my problem or what? Any help appreciated

[mpack]

Are you saying that you power down your host when you get this warning? The message is telling you to power down your VM, i.e. close the virtual PC window. Then you would fix the problem with the incorrect shared folder path, as it tells you. I can tell you in addition that it is usually a bad idea to use a complex string as a share name. Keep it as simple as possible, like "Shared".

Finally, the shared folder needs to be... a folder. Not a device name.

[rpmurray]

The shared folder "Western_Digital_My_Book_USB_1TB" could not be setup: Shared folder path '/Volumes/Western Digital My Book USB 1TB does not exist on the host.

Does the shared folder actually have those underscores in the name? Because the second part of the error message with the path doesn't show them. Shared folders cannot have spaces in the name.

[drmacintosh]

Are you saying that you power down your host when you get this warning? The message is telling you to power down your VM, i.e. close the virtual PC window. Then you would fix the problem with the incorrect shared folder path, as it tells you. I can tell you in addition that it is usually a bad idea to use a complex string as a share name. Keep it as simple as possible, like "Shared".

Finally, the shared folder needs to be... a folder. Not a device name.

Yes because I do not have access to the trackball & keyboard because they have frozen. Since I have the Microsoft IntelliPoint and IntelliType software installed, I am wondering if this is the reason for having to power down the host. I have had to unmount the two Shared folders and uninstall the Microsoft IntelliPoint and IntelliType driver software.

[drmacintosh]

The shared folder "Western_Digital_My_Book_USB_1TB" could not be setup: Shared folder path '/Volumes/Western Digital My Book USB 1TB does not exist on the host.

Does the shared folder actually have those underscores in the name? Because the second part of the error message with the path doesn't show them. Shared folders cannot have spaces in the name.

Yes the Shared folder does have the underscore in them. This is how the name is displayed. I do not know how to change the name since I have pointed to the location of where the drive is on my network.

[drmacintosh]

The shared folder "Western_Digital_My_Book_USB_1TB" could not be setup: Shared folder path '/Volumes/Western Digital My Book USB 1TB does not exist on the host.

Does the shared folder actually have those underscores in the name? Because the second part of the error message with the path doesn't show them. Shared folders cannot have spaces in the name.

I would like to give you an update to my problem which has since been resolved. It seems after 5 hours of troubleshooting that the issue had to do with the Microsoft IntelliPoint and IntelliType driver software. Here is what I can say that I have done. Since I have two Mac mini's a Late 2006 running Snow Leopard X.6.8 and Late 2012 running Mountain Lion. As I mentioned in my original post, the Microsoft tech representative told me that he suspect that the IntelliPoint/IntelliType driver software is the issue because the system requirements state that they work with OS X.4.11 through X.7.5 and since I am running ML then this is the issue. To add to this the customer who he spoke to before I called running X.7.5 and had the exact same problem. Issue isolated. After speaking with Microsoft, since I have another Macintosh, I tried the Natural Ergonomic Keyboard 4000 and Trackball Explorer with it. The same issue occurred. After installing the IntelliPoint/IntelliType driver software and launching VB, I got the infamous message telling me that the IntelliPoint/IntelliType software had been disabled/unmounted. I then reconnected keyboard/trackball back to the Macintosh running ML, did not install driver software and when I launched VB did not receive the message of disabled/unmounted. I tried the keys mimicing <Command> and <Option> which are the <Windows key> and the <ALT>. When I pressed <Windows key>+Q to quit an open application the command responded. I then tried Apple menu\Shut down...+ <ALT> which removed the ... telling me that I would not get the pop-up indicating if I wanted to shut the computer down but instead it bypassed this pop-up. Issue is this. Apparently the keyboard functionality is built into OS X that I am running. Microsoft apparently did not know this is the case, in which Apple has included Microsoft IntelliPoint/IntelliType functionality in the OS. Problem resolved. Feel free to pass this along to others that may be in the dark like I was 5 hours ago when I first ran into this problem.

[drmacintosh]

Are you saying that you power down your host when you get this warning? The message is telling you to power down your VM, i.e. close the virtual PC window. Then you would fix the problem with the incorrect shared folder path, as it tells you. I can tell you in addition that it is usually a bad idea to use a complex string as a share name. Keep it as simple as possible, like "Shared".

Finally, the shared folder needs to be... a folder. Not a device name.

I would like to give you an update to my problem which has since been resolved. It seems after 5 hours of troubleshooting that the issue had to do with the Microsoft IntelliPoint and IntelliType driver software. Here is what I can say that I have done. Since I have two Mac mini's a Late 2006 running Snow Leopard X.6.8 and Late 2012 running Mountain Lion. As I mentioned in my original post, the Microsoft tech representative told me that he suspect that the IntelliPoint/IntelliType driver software is the issue because the system requirements state that they work with OS X.4.11 through X.7.5 and since I am running ML then this is the issue. To add to this the customer who he spoke to before I called running X.7.5 and had the exact same problem. Issue isolated. After speaking with Microsoft, since I have another Macintosh, I tried the Natural Ergonomic Keyboard 4000 and Trackball Explorer with it. The same issue occurred. After installing the IntelliPoint/IntelliType driver software and launching VB, I got the infamous message telling me that the IntelliPoint/IntelliType software had been disabled/unmounted. I then reconnected keyboard/trackball back to the Macintosh running ML, did not install driver software and when I launched VB did not receive the message of disabled/unmounted. I tried the keys mimicing <Command> and <Option> which are the <Windows key> and the <ALT>. When I pressed <Windows key>+Q to quit an open application the command responded. I then tried Apple menu\Shut down...+ <ALT> which removed the ... telling me that I would not get the pop-up indicating if I wanted to shut the computer down but instead it bypassed this pop-up. Issue is this. Apparently the keyboard functionality is built into OS X that I am running. Microsoft apparently did not know this is the case, in which Apple has included Microsoft IntelliPoint/IntelliType functionality in the OS. Problem resolved. Feel free to pass this along to others that may be in the dark like I was 5 hours ago when I first ran into this problem.

[Perryg]

Or the fact that the keyboard and mouse that are presented to the guest is not actually the Microsoft IntelliPoint but rather a generic device.