Cannot use USB linker file

[RegisteredUser]

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Version 4.1.4 r74291 under Windows 7x64 ultimate 

i followed instructions on booting an image that is linked to a USB device
by use of the following command

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VBoxManage internalcommands createrawvmdk -filename "%USERPROFILE%\usb.vmdk" -rawdisk \\.\PhysicalDrive1

it created the file, but does not work.

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Failed to open the hard disk C:\Users\me\usb.vmdk.

The medium 'C:\Users\me\usb.vmdk' can't be used as the requested device type.

Result Code: E_FAIL (0x80004005)
Component: Medium
Interface: IMedium {53f9cc0c-e0fd-40a5-a404-a7a5272082cd}
Callee: IVirtualBox {c28be65f-1a8f-43b4-81f1-eb60cb516e66}

here is the internals of the file.

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# Disk DescriptorFile.version=1.CID=cd6ed5f4.parentCID=ffffffff.createType="fullDevice"..# Extent description.RW 976707584 FLAT "\\.\PhysicalDrive1" 0..# The disk Data Base .#DDB..ddb.virtualHWVersion = "4".ddb.adapterType="ide".ddb.geometry.cylinders="16383".ddb.geometry.heads="16".ddb.geometry.sectors="63".ddb.uuid.image="a26e7cc5-28d8-4da9-b49a-e9f3c17f4bad".ddb.uuid.parent="00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000".ddb.uuid.modification="00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000".ddb.uuid.parentmodification="00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000".

why it not work

[stefan.becker]

Booting from USB is not supported.

[mpack]

Not quite true. If you create a VMDK descriptor for a raw drive as the OP has done then it should work fine, whether or not the host uses USB to talk to the drive.

I suspect the problem here is that the Vista host is blocking sector level write access to the USB drive. It's a known problem, discussed here several times.

[RegisteredUser]

Not quite true. If you create a VMDK descriptor for a raw drive as the OP has done then it should work fine, whether or not the host uses USB to talk to the drive.

I suspect the problem here is that the Vista host is blocking sector level write access to the USB drive. It's a known problem, discussed here several times.

It was operator error, I ran VirtualBox as standard user but needed to run it as Administrator. such simple problems sometimes escape me.

Thanks for the reply!

*edit* it does appear Windows is blocking write access to it though
*second edit* easy enough fix: use disk management to delete the partition so that Windows releases it's hold.

erm, so far so good.