I'm afraid there's no way to have it both ways. Or, go with the shared folder idea if you want convenience. That means you need to live with the limitations: don't plug the USB drive in until the guest VM is active and has the focus. Plus, we have the fact that if VBox simply yanked the device away from the host OS then it would result in lost data, so that isn't an option.
There is simply no way around the fact that USB devices need some host OS to be in charge of managing it, running drivers etc, and by definition you can't have two OS's in charge at the same time. There are things you can do with a local drive that you cannot do with a mapped drive. That means that the guest owns the USB drive. However, I am trying to setup as close as possile, a Windows 圆4 environment. Dec 2009, 00:32 Primary OS: MS Windows 10 VBox Version: PUEL Guest OSses: Windows XP, 7, 8.1, 10 Is there something else I need to do to make the USB drive available to the guest? saberman Posts: 281 Joined: 21. I have physically disconnected and reconnected the USB drive after using Safely Remove Hardware. If the guest is not running in full screen mode and put the mouse over the USB Icon in the bottom right corner it says No USB devices attached. In full screen mode, if I click on Devices, USB devices and move the mouse over the device it says it is captured. I boot the guest and the drive does not show up. The drive does not have a drive letter assigned in the host. I have checked the USB 2.0 box and set the USB filter to select the drive. I am trying to connect an external USB drive to the guest. Running as the administrator on the guest. Device: External Western Digital My Book USB Drive - 750GB