How to add VirtualBox shared folder in Windows Server 2008 as guest OS

I need to develop an ASP.net and ASP websites recently but I decided not to install IIS7 on my Win7 OS due to this is my gaming machine as well (since IIS7 will run a lot of other services in background even when I am gaming or doing nothing related to webserver task). Therefore, with the power of virtualization software (virtualbox, free of charge), AMD Hyper-V (from phenom 955 BE) and Windows Server 2008 free for 8 months (grace period), I think running Windows Server 2008 in Virtual Environment is not a bad idea. Furthermore, beside IIS7, I could use other stuff as well especially DNS. And the best thing is, virtual OS could be moved from one machine to other machine (read: from my PC to my laptop, for demonstration purpose) without much headache of redeployment.

 

Host OS : Windows 7 x64 (to fully utilize 4 GB ram)

Guess OS : Windows Server 2008 (x86 to minimize size of memory need to allocate to this guess OS)

Software used : VirtualBox (v3.08)

 

The Problem

Unlike Windows XP, adding shared folder in Windows Server 2008 as guess really pain in the arse. The networking (search) feature seem to be, errr… not working for my setup. I simply can’t find my shared folder.

 

Solution

@ VirtualBox software menu bar à Devices àShared Folders

Note : It is highly recommended that you install Guest Addition to improve your guess OS performance and capability

 

Click on button

 

Add the folder that you wanna share from your host OS (PC) @ ‘Folder Path’ à Chose Other

 

Choose your shared folder (this folder exist on your host OS)

The Click OK.

Note : VirtualBox Disks folder is created by me in my storage partition. Yours one might has different name.

 

Then name your shared folder name @ ‘Folder Name :”. Any name will do. In this example, I choose MyShare

Click Make Permanent Checkbox

 

‘MyShare’ shared folder now exists (actually, now I have 2 shared folders, one is the one we just created, and the other one is my actual shared folder that I use for work)

Click Ok

 

All screenshot below this text is taken from virtual os aka guess OS (in this case, my WinServer 08)

Now logon on your Windows Server 2008 (guess OS).

 

From Windows Server 2008 explorer (or run windows), type net use Z:\vboxsvr\MyShare

Z is your map drive (you can change to any letter as well, as long as it will not conflict with your current Windows Server 08 drive letter)

MyShare is my logical shared folder name.

 

And..tadaaa…

 

From now on, I can access my shared folder by using Z drive.

 

Done.