Start Virtualbox machine from usb pendrive

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boxino
Posts: 135
Joined: 24. Nov 2016, 12:04

Start Virtualbox machine from usb pendrive

Post by boxino »

Is there a way to be able to start a virtual machine via a USB pendrive :?:
Thank you.
mpack
Site Moderator
Posts: 39156
Joined: 4. Sep 2008, 17:09
Primary OS: MS Windows 10
VBox Version: PUEL
Guest OSses: Mostly XP

Re: Start Virtualbox machine from usb pendrive

Post by mpack »

You can locate a VM on any host drive, VirtualBox doesn't care how the host accesses that drive.

In practice however, if "pendrive" means a USB flash drive then those are not usually designed for continuous write access, they would very quickly overheat and die.

There is also the practical matter than pendrives are liable to be removed without warning, which is likely to corrupt the VM.

Finally, pen drives are usually a lot slower than ssd and even mechanical drives, especially on write. I'm assuming that the drive supports is USB3, since USB2 would be impractical.
mpack
Site Moderator
Posts: 39156
Joined: 4. Sep 2008, 17:09
Primary OS: MS Windows 10
VBox Version: PUEL
Guest OSses: Mostly XP

Re: Start Virtualbox machine from usb pendrive

Post by mpack »

If the question is: how do I boot from a USB drive formatted like a bootable CD?

There are allegedly ways to do that, but they are complex and I don't suggest that you try them. Personally I would just use a CD imaging tool to create a bootable CD image, copy the USB files to there, then save the image as an ISO. Now you can discard the USB stick and boot the VM from the ISO.
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