Virtualbox, F14 and External USB disk

[Rafnews]

Hi,

my host is Windows 7 x64 and i have installed VirtualBox latest version.
in VirtualBox i have a guest F14 with latest updates.

when i connect my external USB disk to PC, VirtualBox detects it and make it
available for guest (F14) as Mass storage.
However, under F14 i'm not able to find this disk.
1. how can i check for sure that USB disk is available or not ?
2. how should i mount it if it is not already mounted ?

basically data on this USB disk should be recovered and transfered to new PC
(windows system).
Western Digital (WD) have their NAS bookWorld as ext.network/USB disk with
Linux partitions on it.

thank a lot for help.

[Michael Miles]

Alain Roger wrote:
> Hi,
>
> my host is Windows 7 x64 and i have installed VirtualBox latest version.
> in VirtualBox i have a guest F14 with latest updates.
>
> when i connect my external USB disk to PC, VirtualBox detects it and 
> make it available for guest (F14) as Mass storage.
> However, under F14 i'm not able to find this disk.
> how can i check for sure that USB disk is available or not ?
> how should i mount it if it is not already mounted ?
>
> basically data on this USB disk should be recovered and transfered to 
> new PC (windows system).
> Western Digital (WD) have their NAS bookWorld as ext.network/USB disk 
> with Linux partitions on it.
>
> thank a lot for help.
>
> -- 
> Alain
>
> Windows 7 x64 / Fedora 14 x64
> PostgreSQL 8.3.5 / MySQL 5
> Apache 2.2.16
> PHP 5.3.1
> C# 2005-2008

As far as I know you must have guest additions installed to use the 
shared folder between the two, host and guest

Also on Fedora Oracle VM Virtualbox is the one with usb support.

If you are using Windows as the host machine try VMware 6.5 or later and 
install Fedora under it

[Rafnews]

On Fri, Nov 26, 2010 at 12:20 AM, Michael Miles  wrote:
> Alain Roger wrote:
> > Hi,
> >
> > my host is Windows 7 x64 and i have installed VirtualBox latest version.
> > in VirtualBox i have a guest F14 with latest updates.
> >
> > when i connect my external USB disk to PC, VirtualBox detects it and make
> > it available for guest (F14) as Mass storage.
> > However, under F14 i'm not able to find this disk.
> > how can i check for sure that USB disk is available or not ?
> > how should i mount it if it is not already mounted ?
> >
> > basically data on this USB disk should be recovered and transfered to new
> > PC (windows system).
> > Western Digital (WD) have their NAS bookWorld as ext.network/USB disk with
> > Linux partitions on it.
> >
> > thank a lot for help.
> >
> > --
> > Alain
> >
> > Windows 7 x64 / Fedora 14 x64
> > PostgreSQL 8.3.5 / MySQL 5
> > Apache 2.2.16
> > PHP 5.3.1
> > C# 2005-2008
>
> As far as I know you must have guest additions installed to use the shared
> folder between the two, host and guest
>
> Also on Fedora Oracle VM Virtualbox is the one with usb support.
>
> If you are using Windows as the host machine try VMware 6.5 or later and
> install Fedora under it

it seems you didn't understand.
i do not want to share files/folder between host and guest.
i want my usb disk available under F14 and access to its data but i can not
see this USB disk. So i'm asking how can i check where is the problem under
F14.

[Richard Shaw]

On Thu, Nov 25, 2010 at 3:27 PM, Alain Roger  wrote:
> Hi,
>
> my host is Windows 7 x64 and i have installed VirtualBox latest version.
> in VirtualBox i have a guest F14 with latest updates.
>
> when i connect my external USB disk to PC, VirtualBox detects it and make it
> available for guest (F14) as Mass storage.
> However, under F14 i'm not able to find this disk.
> how can i check for sure that USB disk is available or not ?
> how should i mount it if it is not already mounted ?
>
> basically data on this USB disk should be recovered and transfered to new PC
> (windows system).
> Western Digital (WD) have their NAS bookWorld as ext.network/USB disk with
> Linux partitions on it.
>
> thank a lot for help.

I believe your disk can only be available to one system at a time. If
you have it mounted under your guest then it is not available to the
host. Unmount it in Virtualbox and it should show back up on the host.

Richard

[Patrick O'Callaghan]

On Sat, 2010-11-27 at 09:22 -0600, Richard Shaw wrote:
> On Thu, Nov 25, 2010 at 3:27 PM, Alain Roger  wrote:
> > Hi,
> >
> > my host is Windows 7 x64 and i have installed VirtualBox latest version.
> > in VirtualBox i have a guest F14 with latest updates.
> >
> > when i connect my external USB disk to PC, VirtualBox detects it and make it
> > available for guest (F14) as Mass storage.
> > However, under F14 i'm not able to find this disk.
> > how can i check for sure that USB disk is available or not ?
> > how should i mount it if it is not already mounted ?
> >
> > basically data on this USB disk should be recovered and transfered to new PC
> > (windows system).
> > Western Digital (WD) have their NAS bookWorld as ext.network/USB disk with
> > Linux partitions on it.
> >
> > thank a lot for help.
>
> I believe your disk can only be available to one system at a time. If
> you have it mounted under your guest then it is not available to the
> host. Unmount it in Virtualbox and it should show back up on the host.

Not so. I see my external disk as available under VBox Windows (guest)
even while it's already mounted under F14 (host). I don't use it of
course, that would be crazy, but it's certainly there. Same happens if I
plugin a pendrive or iPhone. They show up under both systems.

To the OP: my memory is hazy on this, but I think you need to a)
shutdown the guest (not just pause it), b) go to the "add disk" dialogue
under VBox, possibly under the Machine menu, c) add the disk as a new
attachment to IDE or SATA and note its device name, d) fire up the guest
system and try to mount the device. Something along those lines in any
case.

And as a last resort, you could always read the manual :-)

poc

[Richard Shaw]

On Sat, Nov 27, 2010 at 12:26 PM, Patrick O'Callaghan
 wrote:
> On Sat, 2010-11-27 at 09:22 -0600, Richard Shaw wrote:
> > On Thu, Nov 25, 2010 at 3:27 PM, Alain Roger  wrote:
> > > Hi,
> > >
> > > my host is Windows 7 x64 and i have installed VirtualBox latest version.
> > > in VirtualBox i have a guest F14 with latest updates.
> > >
> > > when i connect my external USB disk to PC, VirtualBox detects it and make it
> > > available for guest (F14) as Mass storage.
> > > However, under F14 i'm not able to find this disk.
> > > how can i check for sure that USB disk is available or not ?
> > > how should i mount it if it is not already mounted ?
> > >
> > > basically data on this USB disk should be recovered and transfered to new PC
> > > (windows system).
> > > Western Digital (WD) have their NAS bookWorld as ext.network/USB disk with
> > > Linux partitions on it.
> > >
> > > thank a lot for help.
> >
> > I believe your disk can only be available to one system at a time. If
> > you have it mounted under your guest then it is not available to the
> > host. Unmount it in Virtualbox and it should show back up on the host.
>
> Not so. I see my external disk as available under VBox Windows (guest)
> even while it's already mounted under F14 (host). I don't use it of
> course, that would be crazy, but it's certainly there. Same happens if I
> plugin a pendrive or iPhone. They show up under both systems.

I have to disagree with your here. I just tried it to confirm and when
I plugged in my USB flash drive it showed up on my desktop and opened
in Nautilus as I expected. When I right-clicked on the USB icon in VB
and checked the flash drive it disappeared from my desktop and was no
longer listed in /media and was accessible from Windows XP. When I
unplugged it from XP (virtually) it reappeared on my F14 desktop.
> To the OP: my memory is hazy on this, but I think you need to a)
> shutdown the guest (not just pause it), b) go to the "add disk" dialogue
> under VBox, possibly under the Machine menu, c) add the disk as a new
> attachment to IDE or SATA and note its device name, d) fire up the guest
> system and try to mount the device. Something along those lines in any
> case.

As far as I can tell the OP is wanting to use a USB disk like a USB
disk, not raw disk access. If you do that, then yes, it is available
on both systems, but that would be necessary and potentially
dangerous.

RIchard

[Patrick O'Callaghan]

On Sat, 2010-11-27 at 18:04 -0600, Richard Shaw wrote:
> > To the OP: my memory is hazy on this, but I think you need to a)
> > shutdown the guest (not just pause it), b) go to the "add disk"
>
> dialogue
> > under VBox, possibly under the Machine menu, c) add the disk as a
>
> new
> > attachment to IDE or SATA and note its device name, d) fire up the
>
> guest
> > system and try to mount the device. Something along those lines in
>
> any
> > case.
>
> As far as I can tell the OP is wanting to use a USB disk like a USB
> disk, not raw disk access.

If you mean he was asking about USB rather than IDE or SATA, then yes,
though I wouldn't characterize it as a "USB disk" vs. "raw disk access".
You can access USB disks in raw mode too.
> If you do that, then yes, it is available
> on both systems, but that would be necessary and potentially
> dangerous.

As I think I said or implied, but no matter.

Anyway, there's an additional point which Michael Miles brought up but
the OP seems not to have noticed, i.e. you can only access USB devices
with the non-free version of VBox. That's the main limitation of the
open source version from the Fedora repos and the reason I can't use it.

poc

[Richard Shaw]

On Thu, Nov 25, 2010 at 3:27 PM, Alain Roger  wrote:
> Hi,
>
> my host is Windows 7 x64 and i have installed VirtualBox latest version.
> in VirtualBox i have a guest F14 with latest updates.
>
> when i connect my external USB disk to PC, VirtualBox detects it and make it
> available for guest (F14) as Mass storage.
> However, under F14 i'm not able to find this disk.
> how can i check for sure that USB disk is available or not ?

I'm running Windows under F14 while you're doing the opposite so I'm
not sure if it would be the same, but when you boot the F14 guest if
you right-click on the USB icon in the bottom right of the VB window,
does it list your usb device? If so, what happens when you left-click
on it? Does it get a check mark?
> how should i mount it if it is not already mounted ?

If it can be actively connected to your F14 guest then I would think
it would auto-mount assuming you're using Gnome/KDE...

Richard