Boot Snow Leopard Guest From Its HD (Mavericks Host)

[Kurt Todoroff]

My system configuration is:

iMac 27-inch, Late 2009
Quad-Core i7, 2.8GHz
16GB memory
1TB internal hard drive (partitioned into two volumes: 970GB and 30GB)
OS X 10.9.2 (on the 970GB volume)
OS X 10.6.8 (on the 30GB volume)

Infrequently, I boot from the Snow Leopard partition to use a couple of applications that require Rosetta.

I would like to install VirtualBox on the 970GB Mavericks internal volume, and then make a virtual machine guest boot Snow Leopard from the 30GB internal volume. Does VirtualBox support this operation? If so, can you suggest a method to accomplish this?

Alternatively, can you suggest a method to install the contents of the 30GB volume (OS X 10.6. into a VB virtual machine guest?

I am aware that implementing either of these scenarios would constitute a violation of Apple’s EULA.

Thank you.

Kurt

[socratis]

It's tough already to implement a Physical to Virtual (P2V) setup that works in a Windows case for which most of the tools are written for. In your case (Mac) it's way worse. Not that it can't be done. But...

What if (my 0.02€) you built a 10.6 VM (which would include Rosetta) from scratch on your 970GB partition and transfer your "stuff" from the 30GB partition to the VM?

a virtual machine guest boot Snow Leopard from the 30GB internal volume. Does VirtualBox support this operation? If so, can you suggest a method to accomplish this?

Yes. In theory. It's called raw disk access. See Chapter 9.9.1. Using a raw host hard disk from a guest. Be aware that you can permanently corrupt your hard drive. I do not recall anyone using this technique with a Mac (I could be wrong; didn't search it).

[ChipMcK]

Be aware that you can permanently corrupt your hard drive. I do not recall anyone using this technique with a Mac (I could be wrong; didn't search it).

If the Guest OS is a Windows, it is called Boot Camp.
And yes, some . . . have done it.

[socratis]

Oh, no, no.... I meant using an HFS+ partition accessed via rawdisk, not a BootCamp one. The latter is doable, the first one, I don't know of someone that's done it. Or tried it for that matter...

[ChipMcK]

Oh, yes, yes.

[socratis]

"Yes, yes" means that A) yes, you've tried it and B) yes, it works? Nice to know.

[ChipMcK]

"Yes, yes" means that A) yes, you've tried it and B) yes, it works? Nice to know.

Tsk, tsk. There you go making assumptions! Try reading my post carefully; maybe you will understand it.

[socratis]

I thought I did read your post carefully. Maybe if we switch to Greek it would be easier for me to understand (native language and all ), but without any explanation, I'm afraid I'm lost. The "question" that I had was if you were able to access (via the rawdisk mechanism) a secondary installation of OSX in a VirtualBox VM or if it's been done in the past by someone else.

[ChipMcK]

And yes, some . . . have done it.

some [expletives deleted] have done it, according to several hackintosh sites.