virtualbox.org

OK. I'm kinda stuck [but still going to search some more] at this step.

My computer boots off my SSD, containing Windows 10, but has the option to boot off the HDD containing Windows 7 right now.

I set up the VMDK, but there is no MBR on the HDD, and I'm not sure how to fix that.

I have made backups of all partitions on the computer, and not to worried about having to rebuild them if I had to.

How do I build the MBR for the Win7 partition?

Where do VirtualBox and a .vmdk come into the equation? It sounds like a straight-forward Windows question to me. Dual boot is controlled by the boot loader which you can see by running bcdedit /enum from an elevated command prompt. Google will list plenty of ways to add an entry to it.

If you want to run Windows 7 in a vm, dual boot is not involved. The Windows 7 vm would run in VirtualBox installed under the Windows 10 OS on the SSD. No multiboot required. The virtual disk could be stored there or on the HDD.

I assume he's trying to set up a "both native and virtual" scenario, but neglected to say so.

Technical point: there is always an MBR on a drive, even UEFI drives. I assume you mean that the drive isn't bootable. The MBR can be fixed, but your next problem would be that Win7 is expecting to be booted by a Win7 boot manager, and I assume there isn't one on the drive.

At this point I lose interest. That scenario is tricky at the best of times when it involves a Win7 guest. When it also involves an unsupported host OS - forget about it.

Yes, I am trying to set up a native and virtual scenario, I did fail at stating that.

As far as an unsupported host OS, I say pish-posh! When I'm looking for drivers, I simply look for Windows 8 versions. If it's a driver with any type of UI, I look for Windows 7 versions.

IF my host was a Windows 8 machine, could you tell me what I would need to do to get the VM to boot the Win7 drive that will not native boot PLEASE?

Joe's Morgue wrote:As far as an unsupported host OS, I say pish-posh! When I'm looking for drivers, I simply look for Windows 8 versions.

I wish people would look up the meaning of terms such as "unsupported" before posting such comments. Unsupported means you will get no support. It does not mean that you can't get it to work.

I'm not really a Windows person but if the OP really wanted to recreate his physical setup wouldn't a VM with 2 .vdis, one with W10 on it and one with W7 on it be in order?

Or just one .vdi large enough to create 2 partitions, one for W10 and one for W7.

mpack wrote:

Joe's Morgue wrote:As far as an unsupported host OS, I say pish-posh! When I'm looking for drivers, I simply look for Windows 8 versions.

I wish people would look up the meaning of terms such as "unsupported" before posting such comments. Unsupported means you will get no support. It does not mean that you can't get it to work.

You ignored the entire point that was written in the next statement, in which I asked what would I do if I was using Windows 8.

The fact that I'm using Windows 10 is pretty much irrelevant. A far as I'm concerned, it is 99% a new UI, and 1% new methods underneath. I fully expect anything that can be done in Windows 8 [or 7 for that matter] to give the same results if I did it on Windows 8, and if it does not, I will accept the consequences.

All my research results required a *nix host, of which I do not have.

There is also Disk2VHD which would image his entire computer including the boot manager. I don't know if Disk2VHD treats two drives as separate partitions or creates two VHDs however.

Joe's Morgue wrote: How do I build the MBR for the Win7 partition?

FWIW this is not a VirtualBox question but a Windows OS question which no one mentioned.

loukingjr wrote:

Joe's Morgue wrote: How do I build the MBR for the Win7 partition?

FWIW this is not a VirtualBox question but a Windows OS question which no one mentioned.

I only need the MBR for booting Windows 7 within the VM, When I do a native boot, it is handled by Windows 10

I did a little research and the only way I saw one can rebuild or repair the MBR is from a Windows 7 install disk. I'm guessing but you might be able to attach it to the VM and run repair.

What you don't want to do is damage the MBR of the physical drive. Instead you use the -mbr option to tell VBox to provide a virtual MBR (see section 9.9 of the user manual). You can get a template MBR by dumping sector 0 from just about any VM, with a hex editor. A bit of hacking with the same hex editor gives it the correct contents.

mpack wrote:What you don't want to do is damage the MBR of the physical drive. Instead you use the -mbr option to tell VBox to provide a virtual MBR (see section 9.9 of the user manual). You can get a template MBR by dumping sector 0 from just about any VM, with a hex editor. A bit of hacking with the same hex editor gives it the correct contents.

Ahhh! I see!

Is there a page that you know of [and possibly provide me a link] that tells me how to do that within Windows? All my results tell me how to do it in *nix...

Joe's Morgue wrote:Is there a page that you know of [and possibly provide me a link] that tells me how to do that within Windows? All my results tell me how to do it in *nix...

Section 9.9 explains how-to for Mac OS X, Windows xxx and Lunix. Engage your eyeball-to-brain connection.

The format of the MBR is described on Wikipedia.