Boot from USB and install an OS

[Andreas Killer]

Hello.

I'm trying to boot from an USB drive with VirtualBox and install an OS on a virtual drive. I found this side
http://www.howtogeek.com/187721/how-to- ... irtualbox/

I have added also a virtual disk within the setup for that machine, setup.png is attached.

When I start the VM I can see that it boot from my USB, the OS installer runs.

But then it get an error, see also error.png

The I/O cache encountered an error while updating data in medium "ahci-0-0" (rc=VERR_ACCESS_DENIED). Make sure there is enough free space on the disk and that the disk is working properly. Operation can be resumed afterwards.
Fehler ID: BLKCACHE_IOERR
Dringlichkeit:Normaler Fehler

How can I boot from my USB drive and install the OS on the virtual hard disk? Is there a "how to do" guidance?

Andreas.

[Martin]

The Vbox virtual BIOS doesn't support USB boot.
The "hack" you found attaches the USB stick as a standard IDE/ATA harddisk. If the boot process tries to look for the USB stick there is none.

[mpack]

Booting from USB is not supported in VirtualBox. If you follow someone elses blog and have questions then you really need to ask the author of the blog.

Otherwise, my suggestion is to image the USB drive using Disk2VHD, then build a VM around the VHD. That way there is no need to fall foul of Win8 security features.

[Andreas Killer]

Otherwise, my suggestion is to image the USB drive using Disk2VHD, then build a VM around the VHD. That way there is no need to fall foul of Win8 security features.

Thank you for the suggestion, but I need to create VMs with different OS (and different versions of Office) to test AddIn (macro code) under miscellaneous situations.

An installation from USB 3.0 sticks is very fast, just a few minutes, that is the reason why I want to do this also with VirtualBox.
What would you recommend me, or what is the usual way to create multiple VM's fast?

Andreas.

[mpack]

I don't see the conflict between your goal and my suggestion.

An installation from USB 3.0 sticks is very fast, just a few minutes, that is the reason why I want to do this also with VirtualBox.
What would you recommend me, or what is the usual way to create multiple VM's fast?

Create one VM per guest OS as I suggested above, then clone it as many times as you need.

I'm struggling to see why you think that installing from USB is any faster then installing from e.g. an ISO. In fact I would expect the contrary.

[Andreas Killer]

I'm struggling to see why you think that installing from USB is any faster then installing from e.g. an ISO. In fact I would expect the contrary.

When you install an OS on a real PC, installing from USB 3.0 is very fast, faster as from CD resp. DVD.

Yes, you're right! I can get also ISO files from Microsoft with the OS I need, I will try this way. Thanks a lot.

Andreas.

[mpack]

Just another note for the future: VirtualBox at the present time (4.3.20) doesn't support USB3 drives, as it currently implements a virtual USB2 controller. So even if you got it to boot, it still wouldn't have given you USB3 speeds.

OTOH, you can of course locate the ISO on any host drive, including your USB3 drive. And since that means it is connected to a host USB3 support which will of course allow full speed.

[Andreas Killer]

OTOH, you can of course locate the ISO on any host drive, including your USB3 drive. And since that means it is connected to a host USB3 support which will of course allow full speed.

I completely underestimated the speed! When I put the ISO file on my SSD, I can take a coffee break and the installation is done. Thanks a ton for that idea.

Andreas.