VirtualBox OSE - transferring files from host to guest

[Hb_Kai]

Hey.

Has anyone ever tried VirtualBox OSE and been able to transfer files from your host to guest? I'm running it on Ubuntu Karmic at the minute and have an XP guest as well as 2003 but I can't figure out how to transfer the files from Ubuntu to either Windows operating system. I've already set the shared folders setting to my home folder and then thought there may be a setting to mount the drive but can't find that anywhere either.

Is it possible to transfer the files rather than using external memory devices?

Thanks

[eyeCpc]

I can give you one answer being yes and that most virtual machines run without integration for direct access to internal drives. I use a program called Gladinet "Cloud Desktop" that mounts a virtual folder on your main C drive and another on the virtual HD in order to first upload to the Windows Live SkyDrive folders. Once any files are stored in the Live Hotmail folder you can then download them to the virtual disk while running the VM machine itself.

With the MS Virtual PC 2007 and now the Windows Virtual PC for 7 the XP Mode now offers direct access even to usb flash drives. But a custom install of Windows to a VHD there still lacks access. The SUN Portable Virtual Box as well as the standard VBox simply require an online file host of some sort.

The main page for the Cloud Desktop is seen at http://www.gladinet.com/

Note that there's a free Starter edition as well as the full Pro version available. This also sees both 32bit and 64bit versions on the download page. But all this is strictly Windows there.

When running ubuntu live from a cd you can copy files from one drive to another without worry if one is a Windows drive. On a VM however you need something similar to SkyDrive or a cloud setup both Linux and Windows can access.

[Hb_Kai]

I don't use Windows unless it's on a virtual machine... and I've figured it out now anyway. Just had to download an essentials.iso.

[eyeCpc]

Glad to see you have that worked out! :)

The method for Windows would also apply to Linux only with the suitable program. For Ubuntu that would be the private cloud while that is still geared more for the server type application. http://www.ubuntu.com/cloud

Here I have both Windows and Linux set up on virtual machines as well as having a few distros installed on usb flash drives. They make excellent data recovery sticks for machines that support booting from them.

[Hb_Kai]

Yeah. Ever since I found the PLoP Boot Manager, Live USB drives have been invaluable to me. :)

[eyeCpc]

I have one flash drive set up as a boot device for the ubuntu install on that as well as 3 separate Windows installations on 3 separate drives using Grub. Just by setting the flash drive as the default boot device you have a choice of OSs making that very convenient! :D

Even want Knoppix on a flash drive? Unlike ubuntu and other live distros like Puppy or Zenwalk you don't see any Knoppix install option available. For Windows users that want to try that distro out on a flash a guide titled "Install Knoppix 5.3.1 to a Flash Drive using Windows" can be looked at http://www.pendrivelinux.com/usb-knoppix-531-install-using-windows/

The advantage of having a distro on a flash drive compared to a virtual HD is obvious there since once you are booted from that you can simply copy files back and forth between drives. That solves one file transfer problem.