How to display the same USB drive both in host and guest ??

[jiapei100]

My working environments:

Host OS: Ubuntu 7.10
Guest OS: Windows Vista Business
Virtualbox: 1.6.2
Samba is installed to enable "shared folders" .

1. My USB Western Digital External Hard Drive was originally mounted to my Ubuntu folder "/mnt/wd500g"
2. I then shared this folder "/mnt/wd500g" as the "Shared Folders" in my guest Vista.
3. Every time when I start Vista, my host OS Ubuntu won't be able to access this USB hard drive again. All the USB contents originally in "/mnt/wd500g" disappeared.
4. Even after I shut down my Vista, Folder "/mnt/wd500g" won't show the original contents in USB device. And I couldn't even find the USB device any more until a thorough Ubuntu reboot.

Can anybody give me a clue on
a) If I can share the USB device both in the Host Ubuntu and Guest Vista?
If so, how?

b) Even if a) is not able to be realized, is it possible that Host Ubuntu will be able to access the USB device once again after I shut down th Guest Vista, without entirely rebooting the Host Ubuntu ?

Best Regards
JIA Pei

Welcome to Vision Open
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[Sasquatch]

I think the hard drive is connected to the VM when you start it for some reason. Disable USB support for the Guest and see if that works.
If it doesn't, you could try to unmount the hard disk from the Host, mount it in the Guest and when you're done, unmount it from the Guest, shutdown the Guest system and mount it again in the Host.
This is the first time I've heard problems with USB drives.

[jiapei100]

Yes, you are absolutely right.

After I Install VirtualBox Additions, everything seems to be OK now.

There is no point to install samba now, am I right?

In Settings->USB, make sure the western digital hard drive is not selected .


That's all

Thank you so much.


Best Regards
JIA Pei