Comments on: Sharing files between a Windows guest and Ubuntu host using VMware and Samba

By: Dan

Dan — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 23:06:31 +0000

I’m using VM Workstation 6.5 on a Win 7 Host with Ubuntu 11.11 guest. The VMWare vmtools sharing method breaks with every single kernel update and often has trouble recompiling with the new headers.

Using a samba share is more robust across kernel updates. The instructions here for a “Ubuntu host / windows guest” work exactly the same for the other way around (win host/ubuntu guest). The only difference is the files are stored on the virtual drive.

By: vishwanath

vishwanath — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 09:36:01 +0000

Great Guide! Was struggling to transfer data from Ubuntu to Windows.
Thanks a lot!

By: Vineeth

Vineeth — Sun, 28 Aug 2011 09:09:12 +0000

Thanks man!!

U are a life saver!!

By: toto

toto — Tue, 03 May 2011 10:03:56 +0000

thank you. very complete tutorial. I can connect my host and my virtual system operation now

By: Kishore rn

Kishore rn — Wed, 22 Dec 2010 05:03:42 +0000

Good Step-by-Step Guidelines. Great Heal and Thanks a ton

By: azzurra

azzurra — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 17:36:31 +0000

thank for your post ..really useful…

By: CazRt

CazRt — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 19:02:13 +0000

Hi – thanks for this amazing tutorial.

I am not a tech person, but someone installed ubuntu on my pc’s at work and I really love it and the software that they installed for us. Unfortunately some things still don’t work nicely with ubuntu.

So I installed windows using VM, and then found your tutorial how to share folders.

Everything seemed to go well, I have no idea really why I do the things I do and what I am supposed to see afterwards, but everything went well, I even pinged from within windows and it worked fine.

I esablished I have to use NAT.

So when I went to make the map drive, it keeps on asking me to login.

But I checked the folders, they appear on the ubuntu pc.

I rechecked the password and restarted samba as per the instructions.

So I really don’t know what to do next. I would appreciate any help.

Thank you
CazRt

By: Sam Ammons

Sam Ammons — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 14:09:03 +0000

You are the man!

I have heard it said that, “Nothing in Linux is easy.” and even though I got a good book and had enough time on my hands, I fumbled around for a day with vsftp and then decide to try Samba. Well, as usual, Linux wouldnt play nice (always that one little thing…). A search on the web and your little tutorial really helped out. With just a few changes it worked just stellar on Ubuntu 8.1 and a Winders XP pro box. I have 2 network cards in a dedicated Linux file server, each card goes to an XP box and they do their backups on the Linux over 10/100/10000 cards. I get 200mbps transfer speeds with my mongo sized files and all the other features of Linux. So thanks to your tutorial you saved me lots of time and renewed my faith in linux. I am going to print this out and make a few additional notes and keep it as a reference. Thanks again to you and all the others who suggested the minor changes.

By: Alexandre

Alexandre — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 00:22:48 +0000

Hi, your tutorial used to work for me, but now, with vmplayer 2.5.0, ubuntu 8.04 (server), the windows xp guest keeps telling me this:
“The mapped network drive could not be created because the following error has ocured:
The specified server cannot perform the requested operation.”

What can I do (I’ve also tried to change from NAT to Bridge, but it didn’t work too)?

By: Charlie

Charlie — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 23:41:50 +0000

First, thanks. Thanks a lot. Thank You. Your instructions are well written, clear, thorough and concise. I am not experienced or naturally gifted on a computer. But by shear effort I got to the point of having winxp working within Ubuntu 8.1 on an ibm t23. I do this so I can stay with Ubuntu, but I want to use a windows-only music player. I like Ubuntu very much and the people like you who help folks like me, but I like the music player also. I discovered I could not get file sharing on the virtual winxp. I bumbled and stumbled. You explanation worked for me. I don’t have much comphrehension of what I’ve done but I can now share with a folder of the Ubuntu desktop. On Ubuntu I access my main music file accessed through a network that accesses an external drive on a windows xp desktop.

Question: can my virtual win xp inside Ubuntu access the external drive?? If so could I humbly ask how? It is a large file and I do not want to load my laptop drive down.