Oops lol
Did you know you can download trial versions of 32bit windows as a vm image (vmx instead of iso)

I've got the full version of Win7 working inside VirtualBox now..... but believe it or not I'm struggling with it a bit!
I've got it set to transfer files bidirectionally but I can't seem to do it.... I can't even access USB from inside it, just keeps saying it's in use by something else (presumably Win 8?)
All I wanna do is transfer a setup file from Win8 desktop into the Win7 desktop in VB.

Space Bandit wrote:
Go to Settings of the Virtual Machine and then select: Shared Folders.
Click on Add Shared Folder button. Specify folder path and folder name.
In Virtual Machine you go to \\vboxsrv\

Et voila.

You can also setup 'bridged network adapter' and your vm will have a separate IP to your host and you can do network sharing between the two.

andyh wrote:
Cheers.... I've selected the shared folder. Where do I access \\vboxsrv\ ? Is it in VB or in Win7?

At the run line or at the top of an explorer window just like a folder address the two backslashes tell it to look for a shared drive.

(It should be mapped with that name on both the vm and the host machines)

Windows cannot find the folder - check it is spelt correctly or check for problems with the network.

I'm having a couple of problems with it... firstly, it's a little bit 'sticky'. I've tried altering the amount of ram assigned to it but it's still happening.
Also I'm unsure this is the road I should go down as the application I want to install on it is very processor intensive & requires a minimum of 4GB plus its own dedicated drive. I suspect running it through VM may be unworkable since it has to cope with 2 OS at the same time.

Space Bandit wrote:
Sorry..I should have added that the 'specify folder path and name' bit should be the folder on the host machine that you want to map.

Eg make a folder on C drive such as c:/vboxsrv

Then specify in vbox the mapping as \\vboxsrv for c:/vboxsrv

Or..just make the vm have a bridged network adapter like I said, you should then be able to find out what ip addy the vm and host have by running ipconfig on each machine from cmd line.

Then just \\192.168.0.X or whatever LAN ip you might have for each machine in explorer window and you'll see network shares.
Just pop stuff in network shares on either machine to move files across vice versa.

You will ofc have to define network shares and permissions on each machine before network shares will work, otherwise you'll just see the default public shares.

I should add btw that if you want to use USB with the vm then you will need to install the extension pack-
www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Downloads

Look a bit down the page there where it mentions the extension pack.

Ok I've installed the service pack as USB sounds the easiest way to go.... but it's still not recognising the drive. Along the bottom of the VB window are a few small icons, one of which is USB. It sees 2 devices there (but only 1 usb is plugged in?) but it won't open them there and it doesn't appear in mycomputer.
Another little icon there is the shared folder thing.... says file sharing will not work without Guest Additions... please install Guest Editions.
Everything is so much fannying about!

Computers eh?

Try this-

I've installed the extra do-dah.... so where do I access the contents of the USB?

Space Bandit wrote:
After installing and rebooting the guest OS, you should see the USB drive as an extra in explorer or 'my computer' as a new drive letter.

If it doesn't show there then the USB drive might need formatting? Check it works with a separate windows pc first.

andyh wrote:
I thought I might just need a quick full reboot so I did that and the USB shows up in the host OS but when I start up VB it's knocking them out of both the host and the guest.
I tried looking at the host only networking but I aint got a clue what I'm doing!
Still can't find how to access the shared folder.
I give up...... for now!
Ta 4 your patience anyway....

Heh, have a read later of the vb docs or better still try and find some youtube guides because you can actually see where to click etc.

Its the same principle as doing a network share between 2 pc's..admittedly its not normally something most home users do.
Basically you right click a folder and choose 'share with' and then set permissions. 'Everybody' with read/write access would allow anyone on the network to access it without a password, not very secure but fine so long as its behind a firewall and just across a LAN.
You then type in the computer name or ip addy and network share name into explorer- such as \\192.168.0.3\sharename to open the network share, assuming 192.168.0.3 is the ip addy of the machine hosting the share for example and it will open the folder.

So reading up on basic microsoft network folder sharing is a good idea. They've tried to make things simpler with windows8 and in the process of trying to make it dumbed down have had an epic fail and made it ridiculously stupid imho.

Also as a final tip...ffs make sure you have any software firewall on either the vm or the host turned off, lol

yeh I've known about network sharing for a while but just never go around to looking into doing it.....
then I actually came across a network folder the other night in Linux under FTP that had the name of my Mac in it and allowed me to start transferring some files which was very handy. Think I set it up on the mac at some point when I was trying to sync 2 computers then shrugged it off.
Is there an easy way to do it so that I can just set everything to share between everything on the network or is it a case of having to set what gets shared and what doesn't? I'll have a read up on it anyway.

Space Bandit wrote:
Well as you mentioned FTP it is a simple way of doing things.
You could just install filezilla server on one machine and filezilla client on the other and away ya go.
Again you would need firewall disabling for ftp (windows has firewall enabled by default) and you would need to know the ip addy of each machine.

andyh wrote:
So that would mean I could share files but couldn't go on the internet at the same time without risk?
Isn't there a way of making Windows have exceptions or allowing content while still maintaining a firewall? Not necessary, just curious!
Being able to freely share files will make my life much easier.... that fecking HD docking station thing I got broke.... cheap shite!

Space Bandit wrote:
You can go on the internet no problem at all...I'm assuming you connect to a router with a firewall and not directly to a modem to the internet without a firewall on it.
Hardware firewalls are there to do the job of protecting pc's, software firewalls are a joke.
I can hundreds of pc's with all sorts of open ports and services on a LAN for example, I have a hardware firewall as the internet gateway, I don't run software firewalls on a business LAN for example

I've no idea if the router has a firewall or not...... I thought it was just done by software on each PC.
So basically, install filezilla and disable windows firewall & it'll be reet?

Space Bandit wrote:
Yep should be fine, 99% of all internet routers have a firewall set to discard unsolicited incoming packets (data your pc did not specifically ask for first) if you have an adsl router from BT or Sky for example then they're all like that.