virtualbox.org

I am running embroidery software on a VM and it only allows the digitized project to be saved on a removable disk.

I have created an USB HDD and set the properties to be removable and partitioned and formatted the drive as FAT32 in the Windows 7 VM.

The software does not see the drive as an USB drive.

Is there another way of setting up an virtual USB removable drive, please?

Are you sure it only allows removable disk? Being able to save to a network (shared) folder would seem like an obvious feature for it to have.

The only alternative to a virtual USB would be an actual USB.

I confess that I don't quite understand the purpose of the USB controller option in the VirtualBox VM storage settings. I thought the object was to provide a writable ejectable media other than floppy, e.g. like a writable version of .ISO (except less convenient since no third party tools a la ImgBurn exist to create VDI images for me): but this doesn't seem to be the case, as the drive doesn't appear in the Media menu like CD images do (I expected to see a branch for "Virtual USB Media>"). The only purpose mentioned in the manual is to provide a simpler / higher performance alternative interface for legacy guests that don't understand SATA. Note however that these legacy guests can't boot from the virtual USB drive, so that seems to limit the domain somewhat.

Yes it only allows for a USB removable disk because the USB removable disk must be inserted into the embroidery machine to use the digitized picture.

Perhaps I miss something but mpack is right:

• use the same media as on your embroidery machine
  plug it into the host
  let the guest take control

no need to "create an USB HDD ..." etc.

I need this when I do digitizing for other people and I need to zip the files and then email it.

You can zip files that are on a physical USB drive. No problem there...