virtualbox.org

Greetings,

I have an old computer that is running windows 7 home premium, I recently built a new computer that is running windows 10 professional.
I want to run a backup of my old windows 7 computer on a virtual box installed on my new windows 10 computer. This backup is on a new USB 3.0 external SSD.
I have installed the latest version of virtual box and have installed the correct extension pack allowing for the additional USB support and the guest additions.
I have my external SSD with the windows 7 backup plugged in and accessible to my new windows 10 computer.

Virtual Box Version 6.1
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Things I have attempted:
I have created a windows 7 virtual box and got it up and running correctly however my external hard drive plugged in over USB does not show up on the virtual box. It shows that it is being captured and I don't get an error message however it doesn't show in the windows 7 virtual box. This prevents me from pulling over the windows 7 backup system image and restoring from there.

Using the same windows 7 virtual box, I mapped my storage server on the network and pulled the windows 7 backup system image from there. This method is long and tedious so I would like to avoid it. The backup files corrupted as they were transferred so this method failed.

I reinstalled virtual box and created a new windows 7 virtual box however instead of installing windows 7 normally, I attempted to restore from backup through the windows 7 installation process "repair my pc". This would work however due to the fact that virtual box does not see my external hard disk connected over USB, I cannot access the windows 7 backup system image. It does show my other disk drives but it does not show "captured" USB devices.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Any advice on solutions to my problem or suggestions on how I can accomplish my original goal would be much appreciated.
I am willing to provide as much information as I can and I am inexperienced with Virtual Machines, thank you in advance!

If you have enabled the Windows 7 guest to use USB3, which is good, Windows 7 itself needs drivers to use USB3. See USB basics and troubleshooting.

If you have further trouble with getting the external USB drive to appear, carefully post the outputs of the commands in step 8 of the tutorial, as text in

Since Windows 7 can't use USB3 natively, obviously the Win7 installer won't be able to see a USB3 drive.

You might try plugging the drive into a USB2 port - yes, that will take a lot longer.

Or, you might have more luck accessing the USB3 drive as a network share - which I would do anyway, rather than mess with simulated USB hardware. Since the "share" is a locally connected USB3 drive, it should run at full speed. Make sure to delete any USB filters before you do this - we don't want the share to be robbed when the VM starts.

SOLVED

Thank you for your assistance scott and mpack, I switched the external hard drive to a USB2 and it seems to be working so far.
I really appreciate your time.

Great! Glad you're up and running.