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I have VirtualBox running on my Win7. The guest system is a Win2000.

Now I want to test a DVD I got for Christmas with a software collection on it. Since I'm aware of autorun and other self-installing stuff I figured I should test the DVD in the guest system first and see what it does.

In order to do this I thought it would be best to lock the DVD-drive to the guest system so that the host system doesn't even see the new DVD. I just want to make 100% sure that nothing changes on the host system.

In another question somebody's drive disappeared on the host system when using the guest system, but he used Unix. If I could do the same in Windows this might solve it.

In short: Is there a way I can lock the drive to the guest system and hide it from the host system?

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  • in vmware you can do it easily but in virtual box i'm not sure
    – Arash
    Jan 3, 2013 at 14:02
  • If autorun is the big concern, you can temporarily disable autorun by holding down the shift key: "Users can manually suppress AutoRun by holding down the SHIFT key when they insert the CD-ROM. However, it is usually preferable to handle this operation programmatically rather than depending on the user." msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/…
    – Goyuix
    Jan 3, 2013 at 14:27
  • @Goyuix An even better way is to use group policies to turn it off in general. However, I was wondering if it's something I could configure in VirtualBox.
    – sjngm
    Jan 3, 2013 at 16:47

2 Answers 2

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At least with VirtualBox 4.2.6, this isn't possible on a Windows host unless the CD/DVD drive is attached through USB, and you can use USB capture to allow the guest exclusive access to the device. A more common SATA or IDE drive will be shared with the guest, even if you select the "Passthrough" option on the virtual storage configuration.

More info is available here: https://www.virtualbox.org/manual/ch05.html#storage-cds

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Oops, I forgot about this question...

I forgot to mention that I use VirtualBox 4.2.6.

Let me tell you what I did as the behaviour is inconsistent (which is why I asked the question in the first place):

  1. I boot the guest system without a DVD in the drive and allow the guest system access to the drive
  2. I insert the DVD:
    • the host system recognises the DVD, but I can't access it: the file explorer shows a DVD-symbol, but the name of the DVD doesn't appear
    • the guest system allows full access
  3. I eject the DVD and the DVD is gone on both systems
  4. I insert the DVD again and get the same result as above
  5. I eject the DVD and again the DVD is gone on both systems
  6. now I disallow and immediately allow the guest system access to the drive on the host system
  7. I insert the DVD again and get the same result as above
  8. I eject the DVD and again the DVD is gone on both systems
  9. now I only disallow the guest system access to the drive on the host system
  10. I insert the DVD again and only the host system recognises the DVD with full access
  11. I eject the DVD and again the DVD is gone on both systems
  12. now I allow the guest system access to the drive on the host system
  13. I insert the DVD again and both system behave as in step 2.

In other words as long as there is no DVD in the drive when settings are changed the guest system takes control over the DVD whenever it is allowed to access it. This is a cool auto-feature.

Now:

  1. with the DVD still in the drive I disallow the guest system access:
    • the host system now has full access to the DVD
    • the DVD is gone on the guest system
  2. I allow the guest system to access the drive again:
    • both systems now have full access to the DVD (oops?)
  3. I eject the DVD and the DVD is gone on both systems
  4. I insert the DVD again and both system behave as in step 2.

I guess it's obvious where my confusion comes from.

Conclusion: In case you don't mess around with the drive control the guest system grabs control of the DVD when it's allowed to have access to it.

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