getting a USB thumb drive or SD card to work with VB

[mmcl26554]

My host is Win8.1. The guest is win10. Win 10 works fine but I have yet discovered how to be able to transfer files from the host hard drive or a USB drive (thumb or SD card). I have been searching the web but none of the solutions work. I Vbox just doesn't connect to he USB drive and when I try to access the Host drive it asks for the username and password and I am never to enter what it wants. I'm at the end of my skills with this so I hope someone can help. I have loaded the USB extension and set up filters but nothing works.
Michael

[mpack]

Easiest way: install the Guest Additions and define some shared folders.

Forget direct USB access.

[mmcl26554]

I tried that and it didn't work either! I can't even get to files on the host hard drive says it needs a username and password. But the username and password for the computer doesn't work.
Michael

[mpack]

If you have it available as a shared folder then anything you can access on the host you can also access in the guest.

VirtualBox has no password prompts for drives btw.

[mmcl26554]

Well then it must be some strange thing win 8.1 is doing. Any suggestions would be helpful.
Michael

[mpack]

Perhaps if you posted a screenshot of the password dialog then the context might be more understandable.

[mmcl26554]

When I installed VBox I thought I installed "Guest Additions", however I am not now certain. I have been searching the web for instructions on how to do it but none of the instructions for either installing it or checking if it is installed. They seem to be relating to a different version of VBox than what I am using. Mine is 4.3.26. I have both win 10 and Ubuntu installed a virtual machines. Could you tell me how to see if I have "Guest additions" installed in my version.
Michael

[mmcl26554]

I have been able to share the folders I want to home group with the exception of the "Download" folder which Win 8.1 says cannot be shared. Is there a work around for this?
As far as the username and password situation I found that only happens when I try to access my host via the network. So maybe that cannot be done.
Michael

[scottgus1]

Read up on Guest Additions in the manual, Section 4. As suggested, this provides Virtualbox Shared Folders, which offers the easiest way to get data between the host and guest. The guest additions can be installed right over the top of previous installs, so just install them again. (there will be a Guest Additions icon in the system tray next to the clock on Windows guests.)

regarding accessing regular Windows shared folders, I have found that entering the computer name and a backslash before the username lets the shared folder appear. So:

user: hostPCname\hostusername
password: hostuserpassword

Note that all this info is for the host user account, not the guest user account.

[mmcl26554]

Suddenly it started working but I have no idea why!
Thanks for the help
Michael