Anyone have success booting Windows 10 raw partition as a guest in VirtualBox?

[mark.j.bobak]

Hi all,

I'm running VirtualBox 5.0.16 on Ubuntu 16.04 (beta) which is dual booting Windows 10 on a Dell Inspiron 15R.

I'm trying to boot the Windows 10 Raw Disk partition in a VM w/ Linux as the host.

I'm not having much luck. Before I get into specific details, I'm wondwering if there is any fundamental reason that this doesn't work with Windows 10? I've done it successdully in Win XP and Windows 7.

-Mark

[xtermi2]

Yes, I did it today. I have now a running RAW Windows 10 64-bit in VirtualBox 5.1.2 on Ubuntu 16.4 as host. I can boot it native and in VirtualBox.
- Ubuntu: /dev/sda*
- Windows 10: /dev/sdb1-3

I used the original MBR:

Code: Select all

sudo dd if=/dev/sdb of=Windows10RAW.mbr count=1 bs=512

And created the virtual "Disk Image" with all partitions on /des/sdb:

Code: Select all

sudo VBoxManage internalcommands createrawvmdk -filename Windows10RAW.vmdk -rawdisk /dev/sdb -mbr Windows10RAW.mbr -partitions 1,2,3

Worked exactly like on Windows 7.
I upgraded from Windows 7 to 10, but the VirtualBox configuration of Win 7 was not working. Virtualbox has frozen the whole Host during boot of Win 10. But after creating a new VirtualBox Machine and virtual "Disk Image" everything worked like a charm

Regards

[iamrhari]

I have a legacy (BIOS) dual boot of Ubuntu and Windows 10 installed on a /dev/sdb (SSD).
My user profile directory for Windows and Linux Home are mounted on /dev/sda (SATA).

My goal is to boot the installed Windows 10 as a guest on my Ubuntu 16.04 host.

My installation / configuration:
Disk 1 (SSD):

• /dev/sdb2 --> Windows 10
• /dev/sdb5 --> Ubuntu 16.04

Disk 2 (SATA):

• /dev/sda1 --> Windows Home / Profile
• /dev/sda6 --> Linux Home

I modified the command as follows to suit my installation:

Code: Select all

sudo dd if=/dev/sdb of=WXRAW.mbr count=1 bs=512
    sudo VBoxManage internalcommands createrawvmdk -filename WXRAW.vmdk -rawdisk /dev/sdb -mbr WXRAW.mbr -partitions 2 -rawdisk /dev/sda -partitions 1

This created 2 files :

1. WXRAW-pt.vmdk &
2. WXRAW.vmdk

Then I configured the following on VirtualBox GUI:

• Create Virtual Machine : Name (WXRAW) , Type (Microsoft Windows), Version (Windows 10 (64-bit)
• Memory Size : 2048 MB
• Hard Disk : Use an existing virtual hard disk file (WXRAW.vmdk (Normal, 931.51 GB))

Then I start the Virtual machine, which failed and dropped into a grub rescue prompt:

Code: Select all

error: no such device : 3e4df68b-fec1-4ea4-8083-dbc2572cd3d1.
Entering rescue mode...
grub rescue

My grub.cfg boot menu has Ubuntu, Advanced Ubuntu options _and_ finally Window 10. The UUID (3e4df68b-fec1-4ea4-8083-dbc2572cd3d1) in the above error is for the Ubuntu root, while the intent is to boot Windows 10.

I think there are some known issues with my config such as:

1. Ubuntu options from Grub menu is not removed.
2. Linux partitions are mounted on my windows and vice versa.

But are these mandatory to even get the Windows 10 VM started ?

Is there a cheat sheet for Booting Windows 10 rawdisk guest from Linux (Ubuntu) host ?

[chains]

- Ubuntu: /dev/sda*
- Windows 10: /dev/sdb1-3

I used the original MBR:

Code: Select all

sudo dd if=/dev/sdb of=Windows10RAW.mbr count=1 bs=512

And created the virtual "Disk Image" with all partitions on /des/sdb:

Code: Select all

sudo VBoxManage internalcommands createrawvmdk -filename Windows10RAW.vmdk -rawdisk /dev/sdb -mbr Windows10RAW.mbr -partitions 1,2,3

I tried following your instructions but I'm getting a black screen with an underscore/cursor. Here is what I tried:

sudo VBoxManage internalcommands createrawvmdk -filename "/home/jsmith/.config/VirtualBox/win10.vmdk" -rawdisk /dev/nvme0n1 -partitions 1,3,4 -mbr windows10raw.mbr
RAW host disk access VMDK file /home/jsmith/.config/VirtualBox/win10.vmdk created successfully.

then loaded the vmdk into virtualbox and tried to start. Anyone have any ideas?

[asenler]

sudo apt install mbr
install-mbr -e1 -p1 -T /dev/sdb windows10raw.mbr --force

Yıu can use this mbr.