virtualbox.org

Hello,

I'm using WD MY Passport ULTRA 1TB to store virtual machines harddisk, but I have a pb when I connect it to usb 3.0 port(everything works fine on USB 2.0 port).

From time to time when there is a disk activity I have following error and machine suspends:

I/O cache: Error while writing entry at offset 2123448320 (16384 bytes) to medium "ahci-0-1" (rc=VERR_INVALID_HANDLE)

This is Linux 64bit guest on Windows 7 host.

USB 3.0 works fine with my pendrive and this error seems to be VBox specific(I had no pb reported from other apps).

I have newest firmware on installed on WD My Passport disk.

I'm attaching VM log maybe that will help to track the problem, please let me know if You need more information.

Regards,
Darek

Virtualbox 4.2.x doesn't support USB3, and to have USB2 working properly, you'll need to install the extention pack.
I believe that 4.3 comes with a start of USB3 support on Windows host (which you have),so you might want to give it a try, but remember this is beta still.

noteirak wrote:I believe that 4.3 comes with a start of USB3 support on Windows host (which you have),so you might want to give it a try, but remember this is beta still.

Actually, I think the claim was support for USB2 devices in USB3 ports, not yet support for USB3 devices.

It's unclear to me whether the OP has a USB3 device or not (the title says one thing, the text could be interpreted as saying another).

I went with the OP's statement that he/she is trying on a USB3 port, without concerning with device itself (yet). But worth checking I think.

Have you tried checking/unchecking the "Use I/O host cache" option for the hard drive controller in your VM settings?

rm_stef wrote:Have you tried checking/unchecking the "Use I/O host cache" option for the hard drive controller in your VM settings?

Why would toggling the use of host disk caching help to run a USB 3.0 disk?

mpack wrote:

rm_stef wrote:Have you tried checking/unchecking the "Use I/O host cache" option for the hard drive controller in your VM settings?

Why would toggling the use of host disk caching help to run a USB 3.0 disk?

To me, from OP's post and attached log, it looks like the VDI's are stored on the USB3.0 disk, he is not trying to mount the external HDD in the VM's he is runnig the VMs from the extrenal HDD.

I run a similar setup to his ( USB3.0 external HDD presented as a raw disk to the VMs) and had a similar issue during high disk activity until I've checked the I/O host cache option.

Ah, I see. Yes, now that I re-read the OP I agree your intervention is a good one.

In fact I go further and suspect that VERR_INVALID_HANDLE may be a result of unplugging a drive while the VM was working. My experience with similar operations is that any open file handles are invalidated in those circumstances and not revalidated if you plug the device back in. Host caching may have had an influence, i.e. make the VM seem to stall.

We might be missing some useful information as well, e.g. what filesystem is being used on the drive? External drives often use FAT, which has a 4GB file size limit, making them less than ideal for storing large disk image files.

Further thought: could the drive be getting unplugged by virtue of the OP grabbing it with a USB filter?

mpack wrote: In fact I go further and suspect that VERR_INVALID_HANDLE may be a result of unplugging a drive while the VM was working. My experience with similar operations is that any open file handles are invalidated in those circumstances and not revalidated if you plug the device back in. Host caching may have had an influence, i.e. make the VM seem to stall.

Good point, might even be a bad USB3.0 driver/HDD firmawre combination that causes the drive to disconnect.
Can't post links yet, but first results from a google search on "wd my passport usb3.0 disconnects" points to solutions for this issue.