Connecting a flash drive to Virtualbox

Often, those who like to experiment have a need to use a USB device in a virtual machine. Trivial connection through the main menu implies repeated actions every time the VM starts, so in this article we will figure out how to connect the USB flash drive to the Virtualbox virtual machine by adding a filter that allows us to use the drive without a permanent connection at startup.

An external usb drive can be connected to the virtual machine.

Installing an Extensions Package

First of all, you need to find out which version of Virtualbox we use. Make it easy. Open the manager, click on the button "Help", select the item "About the program." From the bottom, the required information will be displayed in the corresponding field. In my case it is 4.3.12.

Go to the official website of Virtualbox and look for your version of the program. If you are not using the latest, then you need to go down and find a link to the old version of Virtualbox older builds. In the details, you need to find the Extension Pack for all platforms. Pay attention to this point, you can not make a mistake here, otherwise the plugin will not work for our program. Download it.

In the Manager Virtualbox go to the menu "File" and "Settings." Go to the plugins section, click on the "Add Plug-in" icon and look for our downloaded file. Select, click "Open". We are warned that plug-ins can lead to crashes, the usual pugalka, if you agree, then click "Install". Accept the license agreement, move the slider to the bottom, activate the "I agree" button, click on it. The plugin has been successfully installed, double-click on the "Ok" button.

Add a filter

Now select our machine in the list, click “Configure”, go to the “USB” section, in order to edit these settings, it should be turned off. Check the checkbox "Enable USB 2.0 controller", if you have a newer version, 3.0 will be available. We press on the button "Add filter", look for your device in the list. Filter added, click "OK". We start our car.

Permanent setting and one-time connection

The flash drive will be available only in the created system while it is on. When the machine is turned off - the flash drive is available in real. This method is suitable if you do not want to connect the device every time already inside a running machine, although this can be done.

How to open a flash drive in a virtual machine? In the main Virtualbox window there is the “Properties” item, click on it and select the “USB Devices” item, then just select the desired device, then the manager will transfer the drive control from the operating system of the real machine to the created one.

Conclusion

So, we figured out how to connect a USB flash drive in Virtualbox. The process itself is quite simple and will take you only a few minutes, if we want to disable the automatic connection, then we will only need to remove the filter, that's all. With each new article about virtual machines, we gain more and more skills when working with them, practice, experiment, and in some time they will become your main weapon when working with new applications or utilities.

If you have any questions - ask them in the comments!