"Newbie-New Users Quick Start" area

[MPN]

Hi Perry & Bill,

I'm learning little by little thanks to you forum members.

From what members here have indicated is VB is ACTUAL (not Virtual) HOST PLATFORM SOFTWARE that GUEST (Virtual) operating systems run within.

That said; what I'm asking is:
1. Bill stated that VB installs in the C: drive partition by default, so is it possible to install the VB HOST on a DEDICATED drive partition away from the C: (Windows) partition, such as a created drive partition V: for "Virtual"?

2. Do the GUEST operating system files mandatorily install within the VB file directory structure, or can they be installed elsewhere such as on another drive partition?

Thanks again for your help,
Mike

[Perryg]

The guests are built inside a container file by default *.vdi This single file has the entire guest in it. These days by default the location will be in the folder VirtualBox VMs. Each guest has a folder in the previous folder labeled the same as the name you gave the guest. The VirtualBox VMs folder can reside anywhere you want, but keep in mind that some storage containers are slower than others. USB drives are the slowest and I avoid them. I use eSata removable drives and they are the same speed as native.

[MPN]

Hi Perry,

My Windows 8.1 Pro machine has a 1TB hard drive, which I currently have over 500GB available.

What I'd like to do is install the VB HOST software on a partition on that same physical hard drive that I'll create, let's say drive partition V: for "Virtual".

I'd be OK with the Virtual Guest OS System Files defaulting to the *.vdi directory within the Host, as long as I can save non-system data (my work) away from any of the Guest OSs contained in the *.vdi directory to directories that exist on other drive partitions.

I want to isolate my data files away from all versions of Windows OSs, so I don't lose data as result of a Windows crash as I did 2-years ago.

Thanks again for helping me understand this new technology to me,
Mike

[Perryg]

Then create the partition and format to ntfs. Install the VirtualBox program in V:\ ( watch and read closely when you install )
The default location for the storage folders will need to be set before you install any guest and that is done in the preferences section as soon as you start VirtualBox.
I would set the environmental variable to the location of VirtualBox as well to make your life easier should you need to run VBoxManage.

[MPN]

Perry,

I'll install the VB Host Software in partition V: that I'll create.

What I'm not clear on is your second sentence where you refer to "storage folders". Are these "storage folders" for Guest OS System Files, or for non-system such as my work files?

Am I to assume that I also have the option to store Guest OS System Files at locations outside the VB Host file directory, such as a remote location on another DEDICATED hard drive partition?

You've explained a lot, which puts me really close to getting VB up n' running.

Thanks again for all your help,
Mike

[Perryg]

What I'm not clear on is your second sentence where you refer to "storage folders". Are these "storage folders" for Guest OS System Files, or for non-system such as my work files?

Create two guests and the structure will look like the following. ( If you create the storage location to V:\VirtualBox VMs )

Code: Select all

V:\VirtualBox VMs\Windows\
                    Windows.vdi
                    Windows.vbox
V:VirtualBox VMs\Linux_Mint\
                    Linux_Mint.vdi
                    Linux_Mint.vbox

Each new guest will create the new folders inside of the master storage folder you set in the preferences.
As for your data files you put them where ever you want. Our only concern is VirtualBox.

[MPN]

OK, we're getting close . . .

"Each new guest will create the new folders inside of the master storage folder you set in the preferences."

Can the "Master Storage Folder" you speak of be set (in the preferences) to another location such as a separate drive partition let's say drive O: for Operating Systems?

Thanks again,
Mike

[Perryg]

Any where you like.

[MPN]

Perry,
Thank you for hangin' in there with me; you've answered all my questions to get me on my way.
Mike

[MPN]

Hi everyone,

I just received an email back from the data recovery specialist I'd previously spoken of. A few days ago I'd asked him where I should install the Virtual Box HOST software. He just got back to me as he was away for a few days.

Apparently when I'd spoken with him last week I didn't fully understand what he was saying about installing the Virtual Box HOST software within the physical computer's Windows 8.1 Pro operating system.

This is due to his opinion of Windows 8 (8.1) not being a favorable one. What he'd actually told me to do was create additional partitions to save my work files to. What he was unsure of was if the Virtual Box Host software has any known compatibility issues with Windows 8 (8.1) that's prone to causing system crashes thus losing all data on that same drive partition. If there were, he suggested possibly installing VB on a DEDICATED hard drive partition.

In closing, he told me to ask you experienced Virtual Box users on this forum if there have been any known issues in allowing Virtual Box to install the Host software to the default C: drive location within Windows 8 (8.1) operating systems.

Sorry for any inconvenience, and thank you to all who helped me.
Mike

[MPN]

Hi everyone,

First off, I want to apologize for my previous inconcise posts.

The data recovery specialist who's been helping me is Chinese, and his English is kinda sketchy at times. I finally figured out what he meant for me to ask here on the forum.

After previously wiping out the UEFI Bios image partition on the physical hard drive with a slightly outdated version of EaseUS Partition Master, he told me I should ask if any forum members here are running the Virtual Box HOST on drive C: on a Windows 8 Pro 64-bit (8.1 Pro 64-bit) computer successfully?

His concern stems from UEFI Bios hard drive image vulnerability, which he refers to it as walking on eggshells.

Again, thank all of you who've been offering their help, and a great deal of patience with me.

Mike

[noteirak]

I personally am doing that, but I must say what you (or your technician) say don't make much sense.
Virtualbox is only a program to read & manipulate data - like Word, like a browser, like a zip program.
The program doesn't include your data. YOU create your own data, and you locate it wherever you want.

Why would install your applications somewhere else than on the C:? What would be the purpose? The data you create is important, not the program that created it (since you can just reinstall it).
Your preferences and your data, on the other hand, are what you care about, and you should put them on another partition yes. You can do that with your Virtual Machines data.

[MPN]

Hi noteirak,

It took awhile, but now I understand whats what. Kinda like learning a new language, you sometimes have to re-think your thinking.

Thanks again,
Mike

[MykRian]

Mike:
During the installation of Virtualbox, point the installation to whatever drive you want it to go on.
It is just another program, like your browser, or a game.
In the settings for VB, point the virtual machines to reside on the same drive as you installed the VB to.
If you want to partition the hard drive, go ahead. It doesn't matter if you install everything relating to the VB - VM on that partition.

Myk

[mpack]

In the settings for VB, point the virtual machines to reside on the same drive as you installed the VB to.

That suggestion fails to address the OPs concern, which is lack of space on the system drive.

The VirtualBox software occupies no disk space (to within a tolerable error margin) so there's no reason not to install this on the system drive. The VirtualBox main preferences file and VM register (VirtualBox.xml) again occupies almost nothing, so it too can remain on the system drive.

Only the VMs themselves occupy significant space. If you prefer those to be located on a secondary drive, then first create a container folder on that other drive, e.g. on my Windows host I created a folder called "D:\VirtualBoxVMs", and then set the preference field File|Preferences|General|Default Machine Folder to point to that folder.

In my case "D:" is a huge second internal drive with bucketloads of free space. While it would also be possible to use a USB2 drive or a network drive, performance with either would probably be poor. An eSATA external drive might be ok, but you would still have the danger of accidentally unplugging the drive while the VM was running.