Having only very recently migrated from Windows XP/Vista toUbuntu I'm having
a few teething problems. Slowly but surely I'm getting things working, but
this problem has me stumped.

Im Currently running 8.04 (Hardy Heron 32bit), and have windows XP running
as a guest OS under virtualbox in seamless mode. (virtualbox version 1.6
from the sun website).

In my PC I have 3 Hard drives, 1 for the Ubuntu OS (and XP's virtual drive),
1 for various media files and one for my vector and vinyl graphics (the only
reason I have XP is so I can run my vinyl cutter).

I cannot for the life of me figure out how to access the data drives from
within virtualbox. In "my computer" I only have the DVD-RW and a single
60Gb drive available. If I try to drag and drop the files from the data
drive into the virtual drive they just "fly" back to the original data
drive. The only way I have found is to copy the files needed to a USB key
in ubuntu, then mount the USB key in virtualbox. Although this works it is
far from ideal.

If anyone can explain how to access the data drives directly from virtualbox
I'd be greatful, as I'm fast running out of hair, and sanity!


Many thanks in advance

On Mon, 21 Jul 2008 17:52:24 +0100, CaptainMAD wrote:

> If anyone can explain how to access the data drives directly from virtualbox

I think I can.

> I'd be greatful, as I'm fast running out of hair, and sanity!


bring up VirtualBox
stop the guest machine,
click Shared folders,
click Add folder icon
enter Folder Path /wherever/data_partition/to_be_shared (ie, /local/spare)
enter Folder Name s_data_partition (ie. s_spare
click OK.

Click CD/DVD-ROM
Click Mount CD/DVD Drive
Click ISO Image File
locate/pick your VBoxGuestAdditions.iso
CLick OK

Start up your guest.
Assuming you have kernel development tools/headers installed
it should compile the VB modules/drivers.

As root, cd wherever you mounted it and do a
../VBoxLinuxAdditions.run

Reboot your guest when modules compile
create data partition mount point (ie. mkdir /spare)
mount -t vboxsf s_data_partition /data_mount_point.
(ie. mount -t vboxsf s_spare /spare)

For extra points:
man mkdir <==== hint, used to create mount points
man mount
man fstab

On Mon, 21 Jul 2008 17:24:27 +0000 (UTC), Bit Twister wrote:
> On Mon, 21 Jul 2008 17:52:24 +0100, CaptainMAD wrote:
>
>> If anyone can explain how to access the data drives directly from virtualbox
>
> I think I can.
>
>> I'd be greatful, as I'm fast running out of hair, and sanity!
>
>
> bring up VirtualBox
> stop the guest machine,
> click Shared folders,
> click Add folder icon
> enter Folder Path /wherever/data_partition/to_be_shared (ie, /local/spare)
> enter Folder Name s_data_partition (ie. s_spare
> click OK.
>
> Click CD/DVD-ROM
> Click Mount CD/DVD Drive
> Click ISO Image File
> locate/pick your VBoxGuestAdditions.iso
> CLick OK
>
> Start up your guest.
> Assuming you have kernel development tools/headers installed
> it should compile the VB modules/drivers.
>
> As root, cd wherever you mounted it and do a
> ./VBoxLinuxAdditions.run

Frap, for XP doze, you execute ./VBoxLinuxAdditions.exe


> Reboot your guest when modules compile
> create data partition mount point (ie. mkdir /spare)
> mount -t vboxsf s_data_partition /data_mount_point.
> (ie. mount -t vboxsf s_spare /spare)
>
> For extra points:
> man mkdir <==== hint, used to create mount points
> man mount
> man fstab

On Mon, 21 Jul 2008 17:26:32 +0000, Bit Twister wrote:

> Frap, for XP doze, you execute ./VBoxLinuxAdditions.exe

But with a backslash ;-)

(the filing system is happy with either slash but the command interpreter
(cmd.exe) will expect only "\" for pathnames)

But then again, selecting "Install Additions" from the menu will probably
do it automatically as the CD image will AutoRun.


--
A Freudian slip is when you say one thing but mean your mother.

On 2008-07-21, CaptainMAD <CaptainMAD@gmail.com> wrote:
> Having only very recently migrated from Windows XP/Vista toUbuntu I'm having
> a few teething problems. Slowly but surely I'm getting things working, but
> this problem has me stumped.
>
> Im Currently running 8.04 (Hardy Heron 32bit), and have windows XP running
> as a guest OS under virtualbox in seamless mode. (virtualbox version 1.6
> from the sun website).
>
> In my PC I have 3 Hard drives, 1 for the Ubuntu OS (and XP's virtual drive),
> 1 for various media files and one for my vector and vinyl graphics (the only
> reason I have XP is so I can run my vinyl cutter).
>
> I cannot for the life of me figure out how to access the data drives from
> within virtualbox. In "my computer" I only have the DVD-RW and a single
> 60Gb drive available. If I try to drag and drop the files from the data
> drive into the virtual drive they just "fly" back to the original data
> drive. The only way I have found is to copy the files needed to a USB key
> in ubuntu, then mount the USB key in virtualbox. Although this works it is
> far from ideal.
>
> If anyone can explain how to access the data drives directly from virtualbox
> I'd be greatful, as I'm fast running out of hair, and sanity!
>
>
> Many thanks in advance

There are a couple of options...

1) In the VM Settings for the machine, there is a "Shared Folders"
option. Add a location on your physical machine to make that folder
available to the VM.

2) Use a network share from the VM to connect to a Samba share on your
local machine.

1 is the easy way...


--
Joe - Linux User #449481/Ubuntu User #19733
joe at hits - buffalo dot com
"Hate is baggage, life is too short to go around pissed off all the
time..." - Danny, American History X