VirtualBox one more time

[huffman]

I have Win 7 installed and working fine.

I installed VirtualBox-3.2.4-62467-Win and after creating the virtual space with 512mb ram and set the size of the virtual space to 15 GB, the instructions I had were:

After creating the virtual machine, including the virtual hard disk, insert the Windows XP Professional CD ROM into the optical drive. Next click on the CD/DVD-ROM entry of the Details tab in the Sun xVM VirtualBox main window.

The tools I have available are:
Win XP Pro/sp3 install disk (created with nlite)
Win XP Pro/sp3 iso file on a CD created using nlite (file name is "WinLite.iso).
VBoxGuestAdditions_2.2.0.iso

When I created VB before(on another PC) I only used the install disk to install XP Pro, but for some ungodly reason this time VB does not see the install disk.

Also at this time I can not see to add Guest Additions?

Any suggestions where I go from here?

 

[strollin]

When you look at the Storage settings for the VM, does it list the Host's DVD drive there? If so, you should only need to put the install disk in the drive and start the VM.

If you would rather use the .ISO file, you can press Ctrl-D to open the Virtual Media Manager, then go to CD/DVD Images. There you can add the .ISO image file (the VboxGuestAdditions.iso should already be listed). You will need to go to Storage settings and add a new drive and assign the .ISO to a drive. In System settings you can set the Boot order.

You can't install GuestAdditions until after your VM is running.

 

[huffman]

When you look at the Storage settings for the VM, does it list the Host's DVD drive there?

As you can see it shows Host Drive "G". Drive "G" is the same when only Win 7 is running.

With VB still open I place the install CD in the drive and get this:



There I selected "Run setup.exe and I get this:



Notice the Install Windows XP is NOT available as an option. I even tried selecting "Open Folder to view files" then ran the setup.exe with the same results.

NOW I am really confused. Can not see anyway to installed Win XP into VB.

As far as USB Filter this is what I see:





I don't see any reason to set any filters since everything seems to be work. I will however listen to any advice on this matter.

Thank you

 

[strollin]

You should cancel the autoplay dialog and let the VM boot from that disk. That dialog is from your main machine, not the VM. After you cancel that dialog, click on the green Start arrow to start the VM, it should boot from the CD. You shouldn't be running setup.exe.

It's really no different than if you were wanting to install on a physical machine, you put the disk in the drive and power up the machine.

 

[huffman]

Thank you strollin, that worked fantastically.

I now have XP Pro installed and activated. It is fully updated and have Microsoft Security Essentials installed for the antivirus.

I installed guest additions and went to full screen mode.

There is one more question (maybe not the last):
XP sees my dvd drive which is good, but I often use usb memory sticks and XP does not see them. How do I get it to see those?

Thank you

 

[strollin]

Look under Devices-->USB, you should be able to select your USB thumb drive there and it should show up as an additional drive in Win Explorer.

 

[huffman]

Let me say this before I continue, thank you strollin for the help, but right now I am one flustrated old man. I just had to take a long walk (not even daylight yet) just to keep from giving this pc to the trash man.

I guess I should be happy that Win 7 Pro works great. The only reason I wanted VB to work is I need or want to use Paintshop Pro 7.04 and it does not work properly in Win 7.

The first issue I had this morning was in full view I do NOT have the Menues:
Machine, Devices and Help. What I did I started VB but when I said to switch to full screen I closed it. It then opened VB in what I would refer to a 3/4 screen.




Note with this view I have top Menues but I do NOT have a taskbar in XP.



Here under Devices it shows the thumb drive. Now I closed and reopened VB again in full screen. Now in XP in Windows Explore I still do not see the Thumb drive and also do not see DVD drive (I was seeing this before).

I went back to XP settings (USB Storage) and the DVD drive was not showing so I reset it to show like this:



I restarted the pc then loaded VB in full screen mode. Still can not see either the DVD drive or the Thumb drive.

I guess I should let it go for a few days then come back to it. I may then put an Acronis Image back to when I could at least see the DVD drive. I can live with that. Or even say "screw it" and put an image back before I even installed VB.

I will check back in a day or so to see if there are any further suggestions.

Thank you for patience.

 

[strollin]

I'm not sure how to help you at this point but I'll through out a couple of thoughts. Before starting VB, is another program using your DVD drive for anything? In your stotage settings, it shows your drives attached to a secondary Master, is that accurate? What's attached to the primary Master?

I'm not clear, were you able to get your XP taskbar back by going to Full Screen? I would check the display settings to ensure the resolution that was set was OK, you may have the height of your VM display set to larger than the host system can accommodate.

 

[huffman]

Before starting VB, is another program using your DVD drive for anything?

I have done this two ways:
Turned on the external DVD before opening VB in which case Win7 is using it.
Turned on the external DVD after VB started. I don't know but undoubtably Win 7 is still using it.

These were done with and without a disk in the DVD drive. Win7 does not see the DVD until a disk is put in. I assume the same would be true in VB. The DVD works fine in Win 7 but NOT in VB. I hope gives you an idea.

I'm not clear, were you able to get your XP taskbar back by going to Full Screen?

I can get both the Win 7 and VB Taskbars by clicking 'Host + Home' when Win XP is running. I changed resolutions in XP and all that does is change the size of XP on the screen.

While I was playing around in VB I took several screen shoots that I hope will help.

The first is icons at the bottom of VB. To me it looks like three are greyed out including the DVD drive.



The next screenshot is of the menu Devices CD/DVD Devices. As you can see it shows "Host Drive 'G'. That is why I don't understand why I can not see the G drive in Windows Explorer. I don't have a clue what VBoxGuestAdditions.iso and More CD/DVD Images are for. It also shows "Install Guest Additions" which has already been done.



The next screen shot is the menu Devices USB Devices. I assume the USB 2.0 External Mass Storage Device [0610] is the external DVD. It also shows my usb memory stick as Verbatim STore N Go [0010]. The Logitech is for my wireless mouse and keyboard. I have no idea what the Generic USB2.0-CRW [5887] is unless that is my USB Hub. One thing I failed to mention is that there are NO ide devices in this pc, everything is usb.



Here is what I see in XP Windows Explorer with the DVD drive on and a disk in it.



It shows CD Drive D that does not exist as such but does not show Drive G. It shows 'New Volume (E) which is the second partition I made when I installed XP.

The next screenshot is Machine Options.



That just gives you an idea of what options are available.

If I cannot get this going soon then I have 6 Acronis Images going back to when I first installed Win 7. I know there is one image where XP was seeing the DVD drive. These are always options.

It maybe I have screwed this up so bad it can not be fixed. I will wait to see if you have any comments before going back to previous images.

 

[huffman]

A bright light dawned on me. My objective was to get programs into VB Win XP to install. I happen to lease webspace. So on another PC I uploaded the programs I wanted to run in XP to that server.

I then went online and downloaded a free ftp client to xp and installed it. From there I was able to connect to my server and download the files I wanted.

I installed the programs and it doing well.

I would like VB to see my DVD but it is not all that important now.

 

[strollin]

On the Devices menu where your DVD drive is shown as drive 'G', click on it to select it. It needs to show a checkmark next to it before you can access it in VB.

The VBoxGuestAdditions.iso and More CD/DVD Images are so you can use the .iso image file of a DVD/CD in lieu of a physical disk. You can also use image files of floppy disks as well.

 

[huffman]

I'll give that a try and let you if it works.