Raw Hard drive relative not allowed

[dasaint80]

So I tried to make a raw hard disk, i was able to make a VMDK no problem but virtualbox wouldnt let me use it. I tried to use the "-relative" but i get this error.

Code: Select all

macosx:disks dasaint80$sudo VBoxManage internalcommands createrawvmdk -filename windows7.vmdk -rawdisk /dev/disk1 -partitions 2 -relative
Oracle VM VirtualBox Command Line Management Interface Version 4.2.10
(C) 2005-2013 Oracle Corporation
All rights reserved.

Usage: VBoxManage internalcommands <command> [command arguments]

Commands:

  createrawvmdk -filename <filename> -rawdisk <diskname>
                [-partitions <list of partition numbers> [-mbr <filename>] ]
                [-relative]
       Creates a new VMDK image which gives access to an entite host disk (if
       the parameter -partitions is not specified) or some partitions of a
       host disk. If access to individual partitions is granted, then the
       parameter -mbr can be used to specify an alternative MBR to be used
       (the partitioning information in the MBR file is ignored).
       The diskname is on Linux e.g. /dev/sda, and on Windows e.g.
       \\.\PhysicalDrive0).
       On Linux or FreeBSD host the parameter -relative causes a VMDK file to
       be created which refers to individual partitions instead to the entire
       disk.
       The necessary partition numbers can be queried with
         VBoxManage internalcommands listpartitions

WARNING: This is a development tool and shall only be used to analyse
         problems. It is completely unsupported and will change in
         incompatible ways without warning.

Syntax error: Invalid parameter '-relative'
Macosx:disks dasaint80$ 

Thanks

Steve

[JimBushWhack]

From what it says in the manual, the -relative argument is only available on Linux hosts. I have been able to use the following command to create a VMDK file for a Bootcamp partition on my main Hard disk (but I have not tried it on an external disk):
sudo vboxmanage internalcommands createrawvmdk -rawdisk /dev/disk0 -filename BC7.vmdk -partitions 4

[dasaint80]

i was able to create a VMDK from the physical hard drive but i have to unmount the disk to use it. is the a way for me to boot into this hard drive after install?

[JimBushWhack]

You have not stated what your intended usage will be. But, from what I can surmise, you would like to boot your Macintosh from and external drive containing Windows. This is the wrong forum for this subject. But I can tell you that the MacOS X dual boot mechanism known as Bootcamp does not support external drives. You can only populate a Bootcamp partition taken out of your internal drive. I would suggest you google Bootcamp to learn more.