virtualbox.org

I have seen several guides on how to convert an actual partition to a .vdi, but have not seen any to convert a .vdi to a real partition.

I have a Windows 7 .vdi that I would like to install on an empty partition on my hard drive, but can't seem to figure out how.

Any guides that someone can point me to?

You have the separate issues to address here:

• Getting the image to the raw partition. There is a standard command (convertfromraw)to go the other way, but you can do this by using the createrawvmdk (search forum for examples) to map the raw partition to a VMDK. You can then use a liveCD or BartPE ISO to create a temporary machine to copy the partition disk-to-disk, that is VDI-to-raw VMDK, so you will end up with the partition that you want.
• The only advantage of doing this is if you want to raw boot from the partition and Vista will get confused because your H/W config will change from the VMM to the bare H/W. You may have difficulty getting to boot.
• Vista will see this as a new installation and will want reactivating.