Virtual Machines are great options for using other Operating Systems inside your usual ones. TheVirtual Machineswork separately from your system, so they can’t access your files directly.
However, If you need to work on both your host computer and the guest OS, you likely need to transfer files between them. But there’s no need to worry yet. The fact that you may’t directly access the files doesn’t mean that there’s no way to transfer files between the systems.
In this article, you may find multiple methods to transfer files to a Virtual Machine.
How To Transfer Files To Virtual Machine
Below are some ways to transfer files to a Virtual Machine. They provide different options for the file transfer, so read carefully and pick one according to your need:
Transfer from USB External Storage
Using a USB drive is likely the first method users think of when they want to transfer files to a Virtual Machine. It is possible, but depending on thedifferent VM software, you need to take a few additional steps first.
On VMware Workstation
You need to enable USB controllers on VMware Workstation to use such devices. To do so,
Now, your VM can detect a USB device when the VM is active.
But your normal system stops detecting it at the same time. So, to copy files from your PC, unplug the USB device, minimize the VM, and reinsert the USB.
Similarly, to paste the files to the VM, unplug the USB device, maximize the VM, and reinsert the USB so that the VM detects it.
you may also reverse this process to transfer files from the VM to the host PC. Also, ensure to safely remove the USB device from all active VMs and the host computer before disconnecting it.
You need to have theVirtualBox Extension Packto get support for USB devices. So ensure to install it first. Then, follow the steps below to enable access to USB devices on your Virtual Machine:
The device will be available whenever you launch the Virtual Machine, so you may directly use it to transfer files.
