"Newbie-New Users Quick Start" area

[MPN]

Hi everyone,

I'm completely new (a newbie) to Virtual Box, as well as other Virtual Machine software, and am completely clueless to it's ins and outs. After looking around the board, I thought a "Newbie-New Users Quick Start" area might keeps us "know nothings" from getting in the way of serious discussion amongst experienced Virtual Box users.

I kinda get the basic gist of what Virtual Machines are about, and was wanting info about setting up hard drive partitions prior to installing Guest operating systems. Are separate hard drive partition required, or recommended, for each Guest Operating System running within Virtual Box?

Virtual Box could really use a Quick Start section in their User Manual, listing the basics to get us started, and a "Newbie-New Users Quick Start" area here on the board that would be a great place for the basics to get us started, if not already posted or easily located in the user manual, to get us up and on our way . . .

Thanks for your consideration,
Mike

[noteirak]

About the User Manual, what is wrong with the Section 1.5 and ownards of the user manual? I find it pretty clear and comprehensive myself.

[MPN]

Hello, and thanks for your reply.

There's alotta detail about RAM in the manual, but I need to know about hard drive partitions, as I'm running Windows 8.1 which has a UEFI bios image on the hard drive that I do not want to corrupt. I have over a half TB of unallocated space on my HDD, so adding an additional partition or two is not a problem if needed.

Keep in mind that I'm totally ignorant to virtualization, not wanting to crash my computer by doing something wrong.

What I really need to know is regarding hard drive partitions, and if I need to create a separate partition for each guest OS that I plan on running. I'm planning to run Windows versions: 7, XP, 98 and maybe 3.1, so how should I approach hard drive partitioning?

Thanks in advance for any help,
Mike

[noteirak]

Moving this to "Using Virtualbox".

You don't need to create any partition on your physical machine for a guest. Its hard drive will be a regular file for the host and you can create whatever partition system you want INSIDE the VM, on the virtual disk, not on the real one.
Your VM will be just regular files on your real computer. This is also explained in the User Manual, and if you search a bit of google, you would find more info about Virtualization in general.

[MPN]

Hi Noteirak,

Thanks for pointing me in the right direction; I need to begin thinking "Virtual" instead of physical.

I now understand that guest operating system files install within the Virtual Machine program file directory structure; what I'd also like to know is if all of the guest operating system files install as in a normal installation directly to the physical hard drive, or just a portion of the total installation file set?

If the Virtual Box file size on the C: drive including various guest operating systems would be in excess of 5GB, would it be possible to create a dedicated partition for installing Virtual Box and associated files?

I'm asking as I just finished setting up my new Windows 8.1 Pro machine. On the recommendation of the data recovery specialist who recovered my old WinXP machine's hard drive two years ago, I'm running three additional partitions in order to safeguard data from the C: drive in the event of another Windows crash, as I don't trust Windows 8 or 8.1 thus far.

I don't mean to beat a dead horse but I'd like to keep the C: Windows system partition as slim as possible, as I do not want a 100GB C: drive. But, if it's mandatory that Virtual Box be installed to the C: (bootable) drive, I'll do so.

I'm the first to admit that I'm wet behind the ears regarding virtual computing environments, but once I get things up n' running I'll continue to be a fly on the wall here until I absorb enough knowledge to contribute useful content to the forum. This is not like learning a new language at a young age; it's not easy as I'm old : -(~

Thanks again for helping me get the train up on the tracks.
Mike

[mpack]

Without explicit intervention by you, a virtual machine can only write to virtual disks. The emulation works at a sector level, so questions about which files it applies to are misplaced.

[MPN]

Hi mpack,

So, you're saying that everything related to Virtual Box and it's guest operating systems resides within the VB file directory at a sector level on the physical hard drive, and additional hard drive partitioning the guest operating systems is fruitless.

However, is it possible to install Virtual Box (and all it's associated guest OS files) to a partition other than C: in order to minimize the C: partition's size, and safeguard it's data in the event of a Windows crash on the C: partition?

Thanks for your help and patients with my novice questions.
Mike

[mpack]

No, I didn't say that. You install the VirtualBox software on the host, so obviously that's on the host. Everything the VM writes is restricted to the VM.

[MPN]

No, I didn't say that. You install the VirtualBox software on the host, so obviously that's on the host. Everything the VM writes is restricted to the VM.

I guess my post edit crossed your reply.

Is it possible to install VB on a drive other than C: in order to isolate data from Windows in the event of a Windows crash?

Thanks again for your patients,
Mike

[mpack]

You are mixing up subjects.

You install the VirtualBox software on the host, and who cares if the host crashes? You can install the VBox software again, somewhere else.

The data (your VMs) can be located wherever you choose, just like data from every other application. In practice there's usually a lot of I/O, so VMs will run most efficiently from your local hard drive, but you can keep backups on slower drives.

[MPN]

You are mixing up subjects.

You install the VirtualBox software on the host, and who cares if the host crashes? You can install the VBox software again, somewhere else.

The data (your VMs) can be located wherever you choose, just like data from every other application. In practice there's usually a lot of I/O, so VMs will run most efficiently from your local hard drive, but you can keep backups on slower drives.

Please excuse my ignorance, as this is all very new and different to me.

What I was wanting was to be able to run older version Windows operating systems on my new Windows 8.1 Pro laptop, so I could run older software on this same computer. I was told that I could do this, or do guest operating systems need to be installed on other networked computers with the specific operating systems installed.

Thank you for your help and patients,
Mike

[MykRian]

mpack;
The question is: Can VB be installed, and run from a drive other than C: ?
Can it be installed to D:, E:, or even Z: drive?
It is understood that the VM resides in a file. Can that file be somewhere besides C: drive?

[MPN]

Thank you MykRian; your wording better states what I'd like to do than mine.

I've read through the VB manual, but there are a few things that I could not find there.

What I'd like to do is create a separate drive partition to install the VB Host, for simplicity sake let's call it Partition V: for "Virtual".

1. Can I install VB on drive partition V:, or does the VB Host mandatorily have to be installed within the C: drive?
2. Are Guest operating systems mandatorily installed within the VB Host, or can they each reside on a separate drive partition, let's say drive partition O: for "Operating Systems"?

Thanks again for your help,
Mike

[Perryg]

VirtualBox uses the Windows installer & works like any other Windows program. You have a choice of location at install. You can also set the VirtualBox VMs folder to be where ever you want. That setting is in the preference section.

[BillG]

I am afraid you have still not grasped what a virtual machine is or what it does and does not do.

VirtualBox is one of a number of programs which allows you to run virtual machines. It is just that - a computer program. You install it on your machine jut as you would install Word or Powerpoint. It is installed where all other programs are installed by default.

A virtual machine is a different matter. You can create a virtual machine and specify what characteristics it has - how much RAM, how much disc space etc and you can then install an operating system into this vm. It will share the memory and processor of the host machine but it is still just an application running under the host OS. It cannot function without the host OS and VirtualBox. It does not run in a disc partition - its virtual hard disc is simply a file on your host's file system which you can store anywhere that you host OS can find it, but it will work best on a fast disc (just as your host OS runs faster if its system disc is on a fast drive.

You can run more than one vm at a time, but remember that they are sharing the physical machine's memory and processor. There is no free lunch.

There is no way to isolate the vm from the host and the host OS as you suggest because it does not exist without them. It is just a data structure and a virtual hard disc file.