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I'm unable to connect my usb harddrive (which is formatted in ms-dos), and when I do I get the following error:
Now I searched on the error VERR_PDM_NO_USB_PORTS, but got articles about connecting more than 16 usb devices, and I only have 1 device I want to connect...

I tried adding a different usb drive, but I got the same error.

"Formatted in ms-dos"? That's a neat trick, since MS-DOS doesn't have USB support, and most modern storage devices would be too large for it to understand. However that's a distraction since you aren't getting far enough to mount the filesystem.

Please post a VM log file. With the VM fully shut down, right click it in GUI. Select "Show Log" and save "VBox.log" (ONLY) to a zip file. Attach the zip here.

On Mac hosts, for some reason you can format a USB HD as Fat32 using Disk Utility.

mpack wrote:"Formatted in ms-dos"? That's a neat trick, since MS-DOS doesn't have USB support, and most modern storage devices would be too large for it to understand. However that's a distraction since you aren't getting far enough to mount the filesystem.

Please post a VM log file. With the VM fully shut down, right click it in GUI. Select "Show Log" and save "VBox.log" (ONLY) to a zip file. Attach the zip here.

Well, I formatted / partitioned it with a MS-DOS codation (is that how it works? ). But here you go, file attached

loukingjr wrote:On Mac hosts, for some reason you can format a USB HD as Fat32 using Disk Utility.

I haven't tried that yet, will do aswell, but don't think that's gonna work since I get this error aswell when I plug in a mac-formatted usb...

No, don't format it using Fat32.

MS-DOS(FAT) also called FAT32, may be useful if you want both a Mac and PC to be able to read and write to it. There are some drawbacks, such as a maximum file size of 4 GB; and the partition name must be in CAPITAL LETTERS and no more than 11 characters.

If you want the OSX and Windows to be able to read and write to the drive, you would be better off with exFAT.

loukingjr wrote:If you want the OSX and Windows to be able to read and write to the drive, you would be better off with exFAT.

Given that older Windows and OS X versions don't support ExFAT... maybe not. For recent versions, it's a good choice because it can handle large media much better.

The OP's problem is probably caused by trying to attach a USB3 device to a VM with no USB3 support. Either enable USB3 support in the VM (how hard that is depends on the guest OS) or force the device to USB2 by using an USB2 extension cable, for example.

Well the user is running El Capitan and other than 3rd party solutions to support NTFS on Macs there isn't really another option. Of course he could just use a shared folder.

p.s. I assumed he was trying to run a Windows 8.1 guest based on the name of the VM. I'm often mistaken however.

Has xHCI support been enabled in the VM settings? I see ahci stuff in the log (USB2), but no xhci (USB3).

exFAT isn't very portable, and besides which I wouldn't want to reward Microsoft for a blatant attempt to extract a toll from every USB memory stick sold. An open extension to FAT would have suited users better. It wouldn't even have required any work, they need only have supported one of the unofficial extensions that was already out there.

I'm not trying to reward Microsoft.
I was just thinking he may want guests with .vdi's > 4GB on the external drive. But, there may be another issue altogether.

I've never bothered to try to mount an external USB HD to a Windows guest until this morning. When I tried selecting a USB 2.0 drive from the USB menu with a Windows 8.1 guest…

You get a the disk was not ejected properly message from the host.

As near as I can tell, you have to unmount any USB drive from the host before you can select it in a guest. On OSX 10.11.1 anyway.

michaln wrote: The OP's problem is probably caused by trying to attach a USB3 device to a VM with no USB3 support. Either enable USB3 support in the VM (how hard that is depends on the guest OS) or force the device to USB2 by using an USB2 extension cable, for example.

That did it... I feel stupid now, I thought it wouldn't really matter if you left it usb2.0.. Thanks

I wouldn't feel stupid. It still doesn't work correctly for me.