Cannot connect a USB Hard Disk

[kmmohann]

I have an OSX 10.10 host (a Mac Mini, 8GB RAM, 1TB Fusion Drive), and trying a windows 7 Home Premium Guest. (I am a newbie, started playing VM a week back). After many trials (and errors), I have the VM working, 2GB RAM, 100GB Disk capacity. I already have extension packs and guest additions installed. I have created filters in the settings - USB ports page, I am able to use a pen drive (Sandisk) for read and write. Now I am trying to connect a USB Hard drive of 1 TB (in fact tried with two, a Sony HD-E1 and a WD passport, both are readable and writable from the host). They both are in the filters and when I eject them from the host they are immediately seen in the guest but doesn't connect giving an error box message - something about a missing proxy (message pops up immediately on ejection from host). I tried several times with both - on ejecting, then from the Devices Menu, and from the USB icon at the bottom - same results. (Unfortunately I do not have the entire message with me right now but will post it again after I get home and try again).

Would anyone have any immediate comments.

And by the way I have installed successfully the MS Office 2003 full version from my pen drive, and Avira antivirus from the web... FYI only, Both are functional. I don't claim to be a systems-aware person, I am not.

[kmmohann]

Missed mentioning that I have Virtualbox 5.0.2 running.
And My Win7 is a bare installation, neither activated nor updated... would that have any effect on my problem?

[mpack]

Moved to OS X hosts, since the correct procedure for redirecting host devices tends to be host-OS specific, with the guest OS choice largely irrelevant.

[loukingjr]

Just off the top of my head, Windows cannot read Mac formatted drives.

[kmmohann]

Well... My WD is Mac special used for Mac Backup Time Machine, I have not checked on another windows machine.
But my Sony HD-E1 is one I use generally - it worked on Win 8.1 (now W-10 too), and Win-7, both read and write. AND I can read this from OS-X too, not checked write.

[loukingjr]

What is the disk format of the Sony?

[loukingjr]

Macs can read NTFS disks but not write to them without a third party driver.

[kmmohann]

I have an OSX 10.10 host (a Mac Mini, 8GB RAM, 1TB Fusion Drive), and trying a windows 7 Home Premium Guest. (I am a newbie, started playing VM a week back). After many trials (and errors), I have the VM working, 2GB RAM, 100GB Disk capacity. I already have extension packs and guest additions installed. I have created filters in the settings - USB ports page, I am able to use a pen drive (Sandisk) for read and write. Now I am trying to connect a USB Hard drive of 1 TB (in fact tried with two, a Sony HD-E1 and a WD passport, both are readable and writable from the host). They both are in the filters and when I eject them from the host they are immediately seen in the guest but doesn't connect giving an error box message - something about a missing proxy (message pops up immediately on ejection from host). I tried several times with both - on ejecting, then from the Devices Menu, and from the USB icon at the bottom - same results. (Unfortunately I do not have the entire message with me right now but will post it again after I get home and try again).

Would anyone have any immediate comments.

And by the way I have installed successfully the MS Office 2003 full version from my pen drive, and Avira antivirus from the web... FYI only, Both are functional. I don't claim to be a systems-aware person, I am not.

Now I have here what is displayed in the error window (Checked accessing Sony drive) typed in here verbatim:
<<<<<<<<<<
Failed to attach the USB device SONY Hard Drive [4620] to the virtual machine Windows 7
Details
Error:VERR_PDM_NO_USB_PORTS
Result Code: NS_ERROR_FAILURE (0x80004005)
Component: ConsoleWrap
Interface: IConsole {872da645-4a9b-1727-bee2-5585105b9eed}
>>>>>>>>>>>>
Any Ideas??

I looked up the error - is there a limit on number of devices - a forum comment says it is 8 for EHCI. I believe I have four attached at a maximum unless something is hidden, how do I check the number of USB devices? In devices dropdown I can see 6 only at the maximum (Including greyed out ones).

[kmmohann]

What is the disk format of the Sony?

It is NTFS

[kmmohann]

Comments or solutions, anyone???

[loukingjr]

The Sony drive is USB 3. Windows 7 did not natively support USB 3. You probably need to install USB 3 drivers in your Windows guest and switch the USB controller to xHCI.

[kmmohann]

The Sony drive is USB 3. Windows 7 did not natively support USB 3. You probably need to install USB 3 drivers in your Windows guest and switch the USB controller to xHCI.

I did not consider that... nor did I know it is USB3. I will try your suggestion when I get home.
My other WD pass port also has the same problem, it works on Mac but gives the same error message when trying to connect to Win7 VM. It is not NTFS.. but may be USB3?
Guess I will come to know when I try it your way.

Incidentally I found that I can access the disks another way, by sharing folders. Was successful with the WD on read and write but failed with the Sony (though I could share it no writing action could be done) - probably because it is NTFS?

Thanks for your comments.

[mpack]

Incidentally I found that I can access the disks another way, by sharing folders. Was successful with the WD on read and write but failed with the Sony (though I could share it no writing action could be done) - probably because it is NTFS?

Shared folders is in fact what I would recommend that people nearly always use, instead of messing with USBx, guest drivers etc. It allows multiple VMs and the host to share the device, rather than assign it exclusively to one VM.

The write issue would be beyond the VirtualBox remit. A shared folder is a service provided by the host. You will have read/write access to the shared folder if the host provides it. If the host can't write to an NTFS drive then it obviously can't provide that service across a network.

[kmmohann]

Incidentally I found that I can access the disks another way, by sharing folders. Was successful with the WD on read and write but failed with the Sony (though I could share it no writing action could be done) - probably because it is NTFS?

Shared folders is in fact what I would recommend that people nearly always use, instead of messing with USBx, guest drivers etc. It allows multiple VMs and the host to share the device, instead of assigning it exclusively to a VM.

The write issue would be beyond the VirtualBox remit. A shared folder is a service provided by the host. You will have read/write access to the shared folder if the host provides it. If the host can't write to an NTFS drive then it obviously can't provide that service across a network.

Mpack - thanks for the information, I too would rather not mess with drivers etc... unless absolutely necessary. And if Mac cannot write to NTFS, well.. so be it. I will await the upgrade of OSX whenever they please!

Thanks once again, I think we can close this query.

[loukingjr]

And if Mac cannot write to NTFS, well.. so be it. I will await the upgrade of OSX whenever they please!

Thanks once again, I think we can close this query.

If you mean wait for an OSX upgrade that writes to NTFS volumes, That will most likely not happen in our lifetimes. There is a long standing arrangement between Apple and Microsoft to preclude that.

If you want a Mac to write to NTFS volumes there are third party solutions to accomplish that.