I was having trouble viewing a shared folder from the host operating system (Mac OSX in my case) on the guest operating system (Vista). Here’s how to make it happen.
Firstly, create a shared folder on your OSX machine (right-click on the folder you want to share/see in Vista choose ‘Get Info’ from the menu and then tick ‘Shared Folder’)
Now start your guest machine (Vista in this instance) and choose Devices from the VirtualBox top bar menu.
Choose ‘Shared Folders…’ and click the plus button on the right of the resultant window and browse to the shared folder you just made. I added this under both Transient and Machine folders.
Now in Vista, open Computer from the start menu and click the ‘Map network drive’ button.
Now for the bit none of the documentation tells you! Choose a drive letter for the shared drive but instead of browsing for the drive (as you would normally) you need to enter this in the folder field: \\vboxsvr\YOUR SHARED FOLDER NAME
Obviously you need to replace YOUR SHARED FOLDER NAME with whatever the name of your shared folder is, in my case the entry looked like this: \\vboxsvr\Virtual_Shared
Then just click return and the drive should show. 
I’m using latest version of VirtualBox and I am having issues with sharing folders.
The host is Windows Vista Ultimate, and the guest is Windows 7 RC. I am attempting to share some photos on the host (Vista) in the Public > Public Pictures folder (network path of: \\KEVIN-PC\Pictures ).
I open up SunBox (Win 7 – guest) and map a drive to the public pictures folder on the host (P), and then enter in the following \\KEVIN-PC\Pictures as the folder I want to map to. But I keep getting errors saying that it can’t locate that folder.
What gives? Your help in this matter would be greatly appreciated.
Kevin
Hi Kevin, my illustration above was using OSX as a host however, have you tried doing this part in the post above once you have created the folder you want to share on your host (in your case a folder called ‘pictures’):
Start your guest machine (Windows 7 RC in your case) within VirtualBox and when it’s loaded choose ‘Devices’ from the VirtualBox top bar menu.
Now choose ‘Shared Folders…’ and click the plus button on the right of the resultant window and browse to the shared folder you just made (the ‘pictures’ one on your Vista host). Add this under both Transient and Machine folders.
Now actually in Windows 7, open Computer from the start menu and click the ‘Map network drive’ button.
Choose a drive letter for the shared drive but instead of browsing for the drive (as you would normally) you need to enter this in the folder field: \\vboxsvr\YOUR SHARED FOLDER NAME. So in your case it would be ‘\\vboxsvr\Pictures’
That work?
Ben,
THANK YOU!!!
I’ve been reading and struggling to get this working and at last I came upon your instructions above…. simple and straight to the point. My shared folder is now working perfectly.
You are welcome Nicholas – glad it helped – drove me crazy till I figured it out too!
Thanks, it works now!
Thank you. Worked great.
Thanks a lot!!! Been looking for this! =]
Awesome! Works great, thanks!
Followed your instructions, running OSX as my host and trying to access a shared folder in Windows 7 (guest), but i still get a message saying that the folder cant be found. I haven’t installed Guest Additions yet, is that required prior to all of your instructions? Thanks
Hi Sam, yes, you’ll need the Guest Additions – they add all the network drivers etc
Strange, my folder doesn’t need to be shared for it to work. I’m using Mac OS X 10.6 host, with WinXP guest.
I came across this page because I couldn’t figure out why my folder wasn’t being accepted at the “Add Share” page. Two hours later I finally stumbled onto the fact that it doesn’t accept spaces in my folder name.
Thx everyone. I have same problem and now i can use shaded folders
thx a lot
Man, I was starting to get a migraine trying to figure out how to enable my share folder. You helped me out alot and I just wanna tell you how grateful I am. THANKS.
No problem Ed, glad it helped.
Thanks so much for that – clear and easy, and I wish it had been in the documentation. Though it took me a while to work out that it needed no spaces in the name, too..
Thank you so much for this – it’s missing from everywhere else I’ve looked and was driving me crazy.
Thank you.