Vista: Boot on USB key

[gregseth]

Hi,

I made a vmdk file to use my bootable USB key as a raw disk, using the command:

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VBoxManage internalcommands createrawvmdk -filename usb.vmdk -rawdisk \\.\PhysicalDrive2

When I start the virtual machine I have the bootloading screen, then a freeze. The log says, repeatedly:

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PIIX3 ATA: LUN#0: disk write error (rc=VERR_ACCESS_DENIED iSector=0x966434 cSectors=0x6)

I've seen many forum posts telling to set the disk offline with DISKPART, but when I try, I get an error saying that the operation is not supported for removable drives.
What can I do?

Host : Windows Vista 32bits
Guset: Ubuntu 12.10 32bits

[mpack]

Your Vista host disables raw (sector level) access to all drives. AFAIK there was no workaround prior to Win7, however I may be wrong, in which case you may wish to read:-

Enabling raw access to Win7 / Win2k8 disks.
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=38914#p175089

[gregseth]

Yeah, I saw that one, it didn't work.

Thanks anyway.