[Workaround] Win10 failure to install on external drive; boot configuration error

[RJDan]

Hi all
I'm trying to install windows 10 (64 bit) on an external HDD (Maxtor) on an NTFS partition. The installation goes through but then aborts at the last minute with the error : windows could not update the computers boot configuration (imaged attached).

Win10Error

Screenshot from 2019-11-25 16-46-00.png (29.39 KiB) Viewed 1612 times

I'm struggling to figure out what could be the issue. Any advice would be appreciated.

Host:
LSB Version: core-9.20170808ubuntu1-noarch:security-9.20170808ubuntu1-noarch
Distributor ID: Ubuntu
Description: Ubuntu 18.04.3 LTS
Release: 18.04
Codename: bionic
More details:

I've 'manually' created the drive image:

Code: Select all

 VBoxManage internalcommands createrawvmdk -filename /path/to/file.vmdk -rawdisk /dev/sdb -partitions 3 -relative 

and manually added the ISO image to the virtual CD drive before booting.

Attached is the log from the last attempt.

[scottgus1]

In your rawdisk command you're setting to just use Partition 3. Windows makes multiple partitions when it installs, 3 at least. It probably can't make three partitions where it only has access to one that's already made. The boot partition is very likely going to be in Partition 1, which the installer cannot access. I would try this with a completely empty disk.

[socratis]

I'm trying to install windows 10 (64 bit) on an external HDD (Maxtor) on an NTFS partition

1. Why on a partition only?
2. How exactly are you trying to do it?
3. What exactly are you trying to achieve?
4. Where does VirtualBox come into play? And why?

[RJDan]

Hi

Why on a partition only?

My laptop has a very small SSD and my external has backup data that I cannot move to my laptop SSD. I've created a 500 GB partition on the external to install the windows OS so that I can run windows-specific software that cannot be run on ubuntu.

How exactly are you trying to do it?

I was following the information in the manual : section 9.8.1.2. Access to Individual Physical Hard Disk Partitions from the virtualbox manual/ch09.html

I've installed the latest Virtualbox on my computer. It was up and running without many issues.
I've created a ~500gb partition on the external, then formatted it as NFTS in prep for installing windows (using GParted in Ubuntu).

I used :

Code: Select all

 VBoxManage internalcommands createrawvmdk -filename /path/to/file.vmdk -rawdisk /dev/sdb -partitions 3 -relative 

To allow Virtualbox to boot from the external and I manually added the ISO image to the virtual CD drive before booting.
I was under the impression that the partition would be presented as the entire drive so that windows could create partitions within the sdb3 partition as needed without accessing the other partitions. I thought this was favourable as i didn't want to have windows accidentally write over my other data. (i.e. I wanted write permission to be restricted to the sdb3 partition).

What exactly are you trying to achieve?

I would like to have virtual box (installed on the laptop) run a Windows OS with the bulk of the OS and other files located on the external HDD. That way I can run Windows without needing to shunt my laptop files onto the harddrive to free up space for the Windows installation.

[scottgus1]

You can achieve these things:

I would like to have virtual box (installed on the laptop) run a Windows OS with the bulk of the OS and other files located on the external HDD.

I've created a 500 GB partition on the external to install the windows OS so that I can run windows-specific software that cannot be run on ubuntu.

i didn't want to have windows accidentally write over my other data

with a basic standard virtual-disk-file-based Virtualbox guest, not using raw disk. Set the main Virtualbox window's File Menu > Preferences > General > Default Machine Folder to the external drive partition, then make a new Windows guest saved in that partition. The guest's "drive" will be a file on that partition and not grow out of it. Set the guest drive to Dynamic and not sized larger than the partition, minus a dozen GB or so to allow for save-stating.

Just be sure that the USB drive does not come loose while the guest is running, that's pretty bad for a n OS to lose its drive while running. And USB3 will be much better than USB2 for speed.

[socratis]

+1 to what 'scottgus1' said!

The reason that I asked "why on a partition" is that it's tough enough to do in the real world, let alone in the virtual, with a direct-HD-access option. Unless you were planning for that partition to be somehow bootable, there's no reason to do it like that. Just use that space to store your VM and you're done...

[RJDan]

Hi
I've tried what you've suggested. Everything seems to be working.
I guess I had skipped over the simple solution. It seems I didn't even need the NTFS format as I've created the vdi on an ext4 partition.
Thanks for all the help!

[socratis]

Sometimes the simplest of solutions is right before our eyes, a discussion can often open our eyes...

Marking as [Workaround].