[Solved] odd behavior, unable to write to shared folder

[MartyQ]

I am a total newbie to virtualization, so please forgive my uninformed questions.

I have a Windows 7 Pro host and a Windows XP SP3 guest. Win7 was newly-installed in a 75gb partition on bare 1tb drive, all drivers and Windoes updates d/l'd & installed. Created a 2nd partition (letter D:) on the drive of about 700gb. Took a Norton Ghost image of drive c: Loa

I then installed VirtualBox-5.2.22-126460-Win.exe. Added a WinXP guest, installed WinXP, all hardware drivers and service packs 2 and 3, Internet Explorer 8. Installed guest additions. Set up a shared folder in the host for drive D:, NO read-only, name of DData, permanent. Inside the guest there is the drive in My Computer. I can freely browse all the files on drive D: and can create, delete and rename new files. But what is odd is that I cannot modify any already-existing files on the drive. Attempts to rename or delete any preexisting files results an error that I cannot access the file. Looking at the files' properties, the read-only flag is cleared, yet the files act like they ARE read-only.

btw, when I go to My Network Places, it is empty and I'm unable to see any other machine. Internet Explorer successfully browses the internet. Please help.

[mpack]

Set up a shared folder in the host for drive D:, NO read-only, name of DData, permanent.

Ouch. Ouch. Sharing a root folder of any drive is a bad idea in principle, and Win7's security is likely to get upset about it.

Also, what kind of share are we talking about? A true SMB network share, or a Guest Additions share configured in the VM settings?

I can freely browse all the files on drive D: and can create, delete and rename new files. But what is odd is that I cannot modify any already-existing files

So you don't have modify permission. I've never seen this with GA shares, so I'll need an answer to the above question.

btw, when I go to My Network Places, it is empty and I'm unable to see any other machine.

Network discovery is another feature, and the practicality will depend on how networking was set up. E.g. NAT is easy to get going, but interaction with the host is limited. Bridged gives you full access but requires a physical NIC and an external router.

[MartyQ]

Sharing a root folder of any drive is a bad idea

Yes, I know. This share was only in place for initial testing. I also removed that share and then shared a folder on the drive; attempts to change files in this folder had the same behavior, as though they were read-only when in fact they are not.

what kind of share are we talking about? A true SMB network share, or a Guest Additions

A Guest Additions share.

Network discovery is another feature, and the practicality will depend on how networking was set up. E.g. NAT is easy to get going, but interaction with the host is limited. Bridged gives you full access but requires a physical NIC and an external router.

The guest uses NAT. When I installed VB and its guest I took all the defaults as I was working from a lack of knowledge. I did read the user guide on installation procedure. The host does have a NIC and an external router. The computer is one of three on my home network.

Another thing that I didn't mention in my original post: at one point a second hard drive was attached to the computer; modifying existing files on this drive had no error.

Before looking to this forum for help I spent two days googling the problem and - although I found many references to issues dealing with permissions, none of them mentioned being able to create new files on a share but unable to modify pre-existing files.

[socratis]

none of them mentioned being able to create new files on a share but unable to modify pre-existing files

Same here. This is as puzzling as puzzling comes. Shared Folders have two options: Read or ReadWrite, that's it. Can you provide a ZIPPED VBox.log with the VM being shut down?

[MartyQ]

Thanks for your help, Socratis. I have attached vbox.log.
To update my problem: the computer has two hard drives attached, one a 500gb drive and the other a new 1tb drive which has VB installed in partition C:, and most of the rest of the drive devoted to data (partition D:). The 500gb drive is all data, no OS, drive letter E:

I chose a folder common to both D: and E:, namely 'Movies'. It is this folder on each drive that is a Shared Folder in VB.

My testing today revealed the following: attempts to change existing files on drive D: (renaming or deleting) resulted in this error:
Error Renaming File or Folder
Cannot rename <file name>: Access is denied.
Make sure the disk is not full or write-protected
and that the file is not currently in use

However, I can create and delete new files in the above folder on drive D:.

The behavior on drive E: is different. All file operations (add, rename, delete, etc) are executed without error.

Neither the root or the Movies folder is shared in the host (Windows 7-->Computer--->D: drive--->properties--->sharing). The only sharing is done in VB.

I am truly mystified.

[socratis]

Inside the guest there is the drive in My Computer

I can create and delete new files in the above folder on drive D:

The behavior on drive E: is different.

00:00:02.783289 Host path 'D:\Movies', map name 'Movies', writable, automount=true, create_symlinks=false, missing=false

Here's what I think is going on... You're not using VirtualBox Shared Folders (VBSF), you're using the SMB folders. You only have one VBSF and that's "D:\Movies" with a map name of "Movies". It's neither "D", nor "E". You keep referring to "D" and "E", not "Movies".

I would like to see of a Windows Explorer window with the tree on the left, showing the selection of the problematic drive.

[MartyQ]

Thank you for your reply. In examining the log file I noted these 6 lines:

00:00:02.783264 SharedFolders host service: Adding host mapping
00:00:02.783289 Host path 'D:\Movies', map name 'Movies', writable, automount=true, create_symlinks=false, missing=false

00:07:06.055029 SharedFolders host service: Adding host mapping
00:07:06.055069 Host path 'E:\Movies', map name 'EMovies', writable, automount=true, create_symlinks=false, missing=false

00:08:27.445584 Host path 'D:\Movies', map name 'DMovies', writable, automount=true, create_symlinks=false, missing=false
00:08:27.448523 SharedFolders host service: Removing host mapping 'Movies'

From inside the XP VM, Explorer showed only 'DMovies' and 'EMovies', the last four lines above, and not 'Movies', the first two lines.

An update: today I added a new 'Movie' folder on the C: drive as a way to test permissions, and put some files in it. From within XP I could modify these files at will. Just out of curiosity, I tries the D:\Movies folder (shared as DMovies), which yesterday exhibited the bizarre behavior, and surprise! the file changes went without error. Again, I'm mystified, but the problem is gone.

The problem I have to overcome is that I'm using an ancient 16-bit version of Clarion for Windows (SoftVelocity) for program development, which will not run under Win7, although it does created 32-bit exe's which run just fine. The upgrade to the latest version of Clarion is near $1,000, so I keep using the old version. Now I can maintain the movie database program that I'm writing with Clarion (I have over 2,000 dvd titles).

If you wouldn't mind, and if you have any idea what's going on with another problem, I'd like to turn your attention to the inability to see my other networked computers in My Network Places. Otherwise, I'd like to thank you for your help; it means a lot to me.
Grady Bradley

[socratis]

I noted these 6 lines

For the love of bytes! Are you adding them on-the-fly? And then you remove the permanent one? Are you trying on purpose to confuse me or what?

Do you mind adding the shares as permanent ones, from the shares panel? I told you that I want a clean log. That means start, login, observe the problem, shutdown. I don't want CDs inserted, shares added or modified or reboots. If you're doing things on the fly and you're not disclosing the information, there's not that much I can do. Because I'm willing to devote so much time, I'm not going to become Hercules Poirot...

[mpack]

00:00:02.783264 SharedFolders host service: Adding host mapping
00:00:02.783289 Host path 'D:\Movies', map name 'Movies', writable, automount=true, create_symlinks=false, missing=false

00:08:27.445584 Host path 'D:\Movies', map name 'DMovies', writable, automount=true, create_symlinks=false, missing=false
00:08:27.448523 SharedFolders host service: Removing host mapping 'Movies'

I don't know the precise effect of sharing the same host folder twice in one VM, but I doubt it would be good one. You should remove one of these if you haven't already done so.

[MartyQ]

Do you mind adding the shares as permanent ones, from the shares panel? I told you that I want a clean log. That means start, login, observe the problem, shutdown. I don't want CDs inserted, shares added or modified or reboots. If you're doing things on the fly and you're not disclosing the information, there's not that much I can do. Because I'm willing to devote so much time, I'm not going to become Hercules Poirot...

I apologize for confusing you. I was just continuing my efforts to make the VM work. The only things I did were adding & deleting Shared Folders. At one point in this process, the VM began working ok; i.e., I could modify existing files in the shared folders. I now have the VM set up for the two folders that I must have read/write access to, and it is working fine. Just now I started the VM, checked that I have r/w access to existing files, then shut it down. The log file is attached.

Thanks again for your help.

I tried going to the forum control panel to configure it to send me an email whenever I got a reply to the post, and I thought I had done so, but no emails have arrived.

I am a huge fan of both the Hercule Poirot books (I've read nearly all of them) and the tv shows (I have all of them). Glad to see that the name is familiar to you too.

[MartyQ]

I tried going to the forum control panel to configure it to send me an email whenever I got a reply to the post, and I thought I had done so, but no emails have arrived.

Fixed. Realized I had to subscribe to this topic before I'd be notified of replies, and I've done so.

[socratis]

At one point in this process, the VM began working ok

Just now I started the VM, checked that I have r/w access to existing files

So, it's ... working now? All of a sudden? What changed? What did you do? Did you re-create the shares by any chance?

The log file is attached.

I'll compare it to the previous one and see if I can find the needle in the haystack. Like Hercules...

I am a huge fan of both the Hercule Poirot books (I've read nearly all of them)

When I was a kid, we used to prefer camping for our holidays, i.e. no TV. Plenty of summers with Agatha...

[MartyQ]

So, it's ... working now? All of a sudden? What changed? What did you do? Did you re-create the shares by any chance?

Yes, I re-created the shares. Something I did numerous times without effect until...suddenly...the shares worked.

My current problem is trying to get a usb flash drive working in the VM. I haven't read the user guide thoroughly about USB, which is my next stop. I did d/l & install the usb extension pack.

[socratis]

OK, since you got that part going, I'm going to mark the thread as [Solved].

My current problem is trying to get a usb flash drive working in the VM.

You'll need to open a new thread for that. One issue per thread, one thread per issue.

However, just to get you started, read the following thread: USB basics and troubleshooting, all of the posts. If you have any questions after that, please open a new thread.