Fedora 10 vdi does not show up in Windows 7 boot menu

[jcjimz]

I have installed Fedora Core 10 from an ISO on my Widows 7 machine and successfully created the vdi file on the second partition of my hard drive. During install I was never given any boot options and and Fedora does not show up in my boot menu when starting Windows 7. This is my first time using a virtual machine, any suggestions? I'm studying Linux in college and need to get this installed without wiping out my Windows.
I am running a new Dell laptop Insperon 1536 with an i3 processor and 4 gigs of ram and have allocated 20 gig to the vdi file.

[Perryg]

Did you install VirtualBox before all of the other installing?
Did you start VirtualBox and then do the Fedora install within VirtualBox?
If so then Fedora will not show on the Windows boot menu as it is installed in a file within VirtualBox.
Start the VirtualBox program and see if Fedora shows there.

[jcjimz]

Yes, I installed the virtual box abd created the 20 vhd with virtual box. It does see the fedora iso and I went through the Fedora installation to the vhd but got no boot options during install and it does not show up in the dual boot menu. Thank You for responding, any ideas?

[dmcgraw]

You are going to have to give more details about what you did. Installing a guest OS in a VM in VirtualBox has nothing at all to do with the dual boot menu.

[jcjimz]

I am sorry, as I said I am brand new to these virtual machines. Thanks for the help. I thought, or was led to understand, that installing an OS in a virtual machine gave me access to the other operating system and expected it to show up in the boot menu. I followed the directions I found online, from several places, and the virtualbox install of Fedora 10 seemed to go just fine except it never gave me any boot options.
I was expecting it to give me the option for the Linux Boot loader or Windows boot and assumed that if I chose Windows it would show up in the boot options. Obviously I was very wrong and what I had been told by other students was wrong.
The virtualbox is on my computer and seems to be working fine. I created the vdi file and set it as fixed for 20 gig on my D drive. I went through the process of installing Fedora 10 to it through Virtualbox and it seemed to install. I can't open the vdi file so I cant see if anything is there. It seems like maybe I should be able to run Fedora with Windows from what I have been reading. If so how do I get it to start? When I open the Virtualbox it gives me the same screen I used to install it.

[Perryg]

Now that it is installed uncheck the CD/DVD in the guest settings save and then click start. It should finish the install and you will have Fedora.
There are more things that you will need to do but this is the first step. Let us know when you have achieved this and we will point you to the next step.

[jcjimz]

I went into settings, under system was the only cd I saw and I unchecked it. Floppy and hard drive are checked now. I hove no floppy so that wont matter. Is this the guest settings you are talking about? There is no save but I clicked OK.

[jcjimz]

When I click start it says failed to open vdi. It worked before.

[Perryg]

So it sounds like you have the LiveCD and have not actually installed it.
Put the check mark back in and start the guest.
When it gets done with the loading process, look on the desktop for the install icon and run it.
You may even have the chance to select install to HD when you boot the CD/DVD. Look at the screen closely.

[jcjimz]

No, I do have a live CD and that is not what it is looking at. I have a normal installation iso. I will try it with the live CD but I'm almost sure it installed before. Will let you know what happens. When I do start the live CD which I have done in the past it does give me an install link on the desktop but this won't go through the virtual machine will it? I can't take a chance and wipe this hard drive.

[jcjimz]

I put the live CD in, checked the CD box and clicked start. Same error, can't open fedora vdi.

[Perryg]

If you start the install inside VirtualBox. by clicking the start in the VirtualBox program, It will not install on the host hard drive.
It will create a file *.vdi on the host drive and install the program there. The only thing that you need to be careful of is to start it (the install) inside of VirtualBox.

[jcjimz]

It is not recognizing the cd anyway. It is still looking for my .vdi file. However in the machine settings it shows an IDE controller that says Fedora-10-i386-DVD.iso
and it also shows a SATA controller that shows Fedora.vdi with an exclamation point next to it.

[jcjimz]

I'm not sure, maybe I messed up from the beginning. Maybe I should just remove it and stard over. I read something about installing Guest Additions before or during the install and you told me about un-mounting the CD. I have an installation iso on my computer and I guess the CD needs to be checked so it will run it in a virtual iso mode, I don't know. Then I guess I have to un-mount it. Is there any directions I can download and do this correctly from the start. The help files are not very helpful.

[Perryg]

The exclamation means it is not accessible.
Usually meaning that it has been unregistered. What you should at that point is to delete the guest. Then open the VirtualBox media manager and remove it deleting the VDI (HDD). Remember as long as you do everything from inside the VirtualBox program you will not be actually touching the host.

Then create the guest again and be careful to follows the steps carefully in your VirtualBox users manual. Chapter 1.6. Creating your first virtual machine