1

I have to read data from WD Red Pro Hard Drive (BTRFS file system) connected to Windows PC via USB 3.0 Docking station.

I read that it is not possible from Windows level. That's why i've created Virtual Machine with Ubuntu 12.06 32 bit. The problem is, I totally don't know how to read this drive on virtual machine. What is more, virtual machine is created in Virtual Box ( ver 5.1 ).

Any ideas ?

Improve this question
1
  • It depends on the hypervisor that you're using. If you're using Microsoft's Hyper-V, then it won't work as they've actively made a decision to NOT allow the use of USB devices in their system. If you're using VMware, Xenserver, VirtualBox, or any of the others, then you've got a good chance of being able to use the USB device. Please update your question with the hypervisor that you're using and we can help you better.
    – Blerg
    Commented Jul 14, 2016 at 9:38

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
1

If you use the open source version of VirtualBox, you have to install the "Oracle VM VirtualBox Extension Pack" which can be downloaded from the Oracle Website. It enables VirtualBox to pass-thru the USB connection to the virtual machine.

After launching the virtual machine, you can then press the small USB plug logo on the status line at the bottom of the screen. It should then list your harddrive there. You can select it to "connect" it to the virtual machine.

If connected, Ubuntu should mount the external USB drive by itself. A file manager window for the top level directorty may pop up by itself or you have to click the drive in the sidebar of another directory window, or in the "Places" menu. However, Ubuntu 12.06 is quite old and I am not sure if it would support automounting of btrfs drives. Current Ubuntu releases do.

Improve this answer
2
  • Thank you for your answer. Do you think it might work on newest Fedora release ?
    – fanarek
    Commented Jul 14, 2016 at 20:47
  • Most likely yes.
    – dronus
    Commented Jul 14, 2016 at 20:51
1

There is a Windows Driver out there that enables Windows to read and write to BTRFS. You might need to compile it yourself.

https://github.com/maharmstone/btrfs

This might be interesting if you need to do this more often. If you only do this once or twice a month, it is not worth the effort.

Improve this answer

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .