How to enable a USB hard drive in the OSE version of VirtualBox

October 2, 1:48 PMNY Computers ExaminerMarco Villar

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VirtualBox is one of the less well-known virtual machine programs. Although it started out with fewer features than competitors such as VMware and Parallels, this free virtual machine program has expanded to include almost the same level of features. This means that while Linux users may know it better, VirtualBox is more than ready for mainstream users on Windows or Mac.

There are two versions available, a closed source version that’s free for single users and an open source version that anyone can use. In order to use a virtual machine as a server, allowing multiple users to connect to it, it’s necessary to use the Open Source Edition (OSE). The only drawback to this edition is a lack of support for USB devices.

Depending on how the virtual machine is used this may be a deal breaker, or it might not make any difference at all. For USB hard drive users there is a simple way to enable access to the device from within the virtual machine. The OSE version does support shared folders, which means it’s possible to share all or part of a USB external hard drive with any virtual machine. This method has an additional advantage over the USB support method.

When the closed source edition of VirtualBox is used to connect a USB drive directly, that drive is unavailable to the host computer and to any other guests that might be running. However shared folders are another matter. The shared folder, whether an entire hard drive or a single folder, is available to both the host and the guest computer. As an added bonus, a folder can be shared with more than one virtual machine at a time.

VirtualBox is a free and easy to use alternative to other virtual machine programs. Whether you use the closed source version or the OSE edition it’s definitely worth a try.

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