i recently installed virtualbox on my ubuntu 8.10, hoping to run windows xp in it to make it easier to completely switch over. my question is is there a way to make USB drives, or even my hard drive, appear inside of the virtualbox?

you can share folders from your host to your guest os...

its in the settings...
this should be inputted on your windows command line or run...

See if this thread will help you out:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=6090383

Absolutely, but you need to install the PUEL (Personal Use/Evaluation License) version of VirtualBox. The OSE (Open Source Edition) version of VirtualBox, that you get from the Ubuntu repository, does not have USB support at all.

card_ace,
Absolutley, but USB is NOT supported in the OSE version, so you will
have to go to www.virtualbox.org and download the version for your
distro.

Then there is a nice tutorial on the www.pclinuxos.com website, in
the October 2008 issue of the PCLinuxOS Magazine. You might want to
read through it.

lkraemer

i'm not sure which version i have. my ubuntu doesn't have internet access so what i've been doing is downloading updates through Keryx by creating a project and then downloading the updates on a windows machine with high speed. so whichever version you get from keryx is the version i have, but to make sure i'll go to the virtualbox site and download it. thanks for the tutorial too!

Just add the repository for Virtualbox to your sources.list in your Keryx project and download the latest package lists then you should be able to download "virtualbox-2.1" with Keryx which does support USB devices.

i was wondering if someone could help me with windows xp. i want to run it in virtualbox, and i got it installed, but i can't seem to find out how to access my shared folders. in the tutorial that i downloaded in the issue of PCLinuxOS Magazine, it details how to access shared folders when running another linux version, but not how to access them on windows xp.

Use the Map Network Drive option in My Computer (in the Tools menu i think) and map your network shares as a drive such as the Z drive and you can easily access them.

You will also want to follow these directions on the www.VirtualBox.org site

Note: Ubuntu users might want to install the dkms package (not available on Debian) to ensure that the VirtualBox host kernel modules (vboxdrv and vboxnetflt) are properly updated if the linux kernel version changes during the next apt-get upgrade.

Also, you will need to install the GuestAdditions.ISO, along with reading
the information here:
http://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/User_FAQ
on Windows Shared Folders with a Windows GUEST VDI.

And don't forget the HOWTO's and TUTORIALS.

lkraemer