virtualbox.org

Hello, really appreciate your help.
I have a new computer running Windows 8.1.
I have installed VirtualBox and have Windows XP SP2 running in it.
What I am trying to do is access an external hard drive on my host computer.
The host computer uses a wireless router to access the external hard drive and works fine on the host computer.
I don't know how to get the guest Windows XP OS in VirtualBox to locate the external hard drive that is in my host computer.
Please help, Thanks, Danny.

You do not need to access the wireless network from the vm. The host machine knows how to access the external drive.

When you access a file on another computer (and the vm is not the same computer as the physical host machine) you use file sharing (Windows file sharing if the machines are both running Windows).

Have you even used networked computers? Do you know how to share files?

Bill,

I have two other computers that use the external hard drive; they are wired to the router.

The new Windows 8.1 computer found the router using wireless com. and accesses the external hard drive ok.
I have a virtual machine(VirtualBox - Windows XP SP2) on the new Windows 8.1 computer.
I just haven't been able to find the right way to access the external hard drive through the VirtualBox setup.

Any detailed information would really be appreciated.

Thanks, Danny.

Is it a shared drive actually in the router box?

If it is you should be able to access it from the vm if you set the vm to use bridged networking and let it get its network config from DHCP on the router.

SOLVED.....ran Guest Additions from the Devices menu on the XP screen; all is good.

Thanks for your help, Danny.