Actual drives instead of Virtual drives?

This is for discussing general topics about how to use VirtualBox.
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EricMontgomery
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Joined: 21. Oct 2009, 00:25
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Actual drives instead of Virtual drives?

Post by EricMontgomery »

I'm new to VirtualBox, but had had a really fun time playing with it over the past few days. I'm curious. Is it possible to use an actual (empty) drive as the target for the virtual system rather than having the program create a virtual image?

In other words the VM would use the empty drive as the image and would use the VM to determine hardware and such.
Sasquatch
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Re: Actual drives instead of Virtual drives?

Post by Sasquatch »

You can use a physical disk instead of a virtual one, but the end result will be the same: an OS running in a virtual environment on virtual hardware. To get what you need, read the Manual where it's described in. Advanced topics - RAW Disk Access, chapter 12 IIRC. It's near the end, if you check the index, you will see it soon enough.
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EricMontgomery
Posts: 9
Joined: 21. Oct 2009, 00:25
Primary OS: Fedora other
VBox Version: OSE Fedora
Guest OSses: Windows Vista

Re: Actual drives instead of Virtual drives?

Post by EricMontgomery »

RAW access. THAT'S the term I was looking for. Thanks! I'll check it out!
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