I have Visual SVN setup on a Virtual Machine so I'll try and help as best as I can. I used subversion for a bunch of university projects so I have a pretty good idea of how Visual SVN works. You don't create a repository from a local folder. It's all done through Visual SVN.
Here is what you will have to do:
- On Visual SVN, right-click on Repositories and choose the Create New Repository option.
- Choose a suitable name (e.g. "MyRepository") for the repository, remembering to not include any spaces.
- Once that is done, create a folder anywhere on your computer. If you have Tortoise SVN installed correctly, your context menu should have a bunch of new options. The one you need is titled SVN Checkout.
- Right-click on the newly created folder and select SVN Checkout. A Dialog should appear prompting you to enter the details required to connect to a repository.
- To connect to your repository (Step 2) you'll need to use HTTPS, followed by the local IP address of the computer (your computer in this case) Visual SVN is hosted on, followed by
/svn/NameOfYourRepository. - For example: If the local IP address of your computer is
192.168.0.somethingand the name of your repository isMyRepository, to connect to that repository you'll have to type:https://192.168.0.something/svn/MyRepositoryin the URL of repository field. You shouldn't have to change anything else on the Dialog that appears after following Step 4. - If you have entered the correct details, an "Authentication" dialog should appear prompting you to enter a Username and Password combination. Enter your local username and password, which should successfully connect you to your repository. If you're using an Administrator account you shouldn't have any issues connecting.
- If you're successful, the Checked Out folder will appear with a Green Tick indicating that it is under version control. Any files/folders you place within there will be put under version control, but not by default.
- To place them under version control, you'll have to Right-click on the files/folders and select Tortoise SVN - Add - and then on the Root folder you'll have to select SVN Commit.
Additional Notes: When working on the files, it would be a good idea to use the Get Lock and Release Lock options. However, it would be even better if you set specific working times for each user as someone may forget to release the files.
This is by no means a comprehensive guide. If you have any questions, I'll be happy to answer them.