New hardware, before I get started...

[Cottage Farmer]

Hi, new to Virtualbox. I bought a new machine to learn this technology and was curious as to how you would run.

I have an Intel I7 -6700 CPU @ 3.4GHz with 32 GB of RAM, a 128 GB SSD running the core OS, and then two Raid 1 disks for available total storage of 1.7 TB.

The OS that came on the machine is Windows 7, so "before I get started"...

Would you recommend I upgrade to Windows 10, or 8 first?

Any recommendations on partitioning? In other words since this is a new hardware system I'm open to setting it up different from the start.

Thank you!
Patrick

[mpack]

Windows 7 is a supported host OS, so it shouldn't make any difference. Certainly if it was me I'd get all of the upgrade upheavals I intend to do out of the way now, rather than later. Win10 host issues have largely stablised I think.

[Cottage Farmer]

thanks mpack. Follow-up if you don't mind (relating back to first post).
-

Say I choose to upgrade to Windows 10 then.

Given that I have the 128 GB SSD and two storage Disks in Raid (1.7 TB available total from 2 TB disks),

Would you install the Windows 10 on the 128 GB SSD?

Also,

Where would you install Virtual Box?

I realize there's all kinds of support and choices available and that it's documented, but since I'm starting from scratch I'm asking about best option given the hardware I have.

Thanks,
Patrick

[mpack]

You would install Windows 10 on the SSD I assume.

You would also install VirtualBox on the SSD, in fact I guess you install all applications on the SSD as a matter of course.

Once installed I would configure VirtualBox to use the Raid drive for data: hence that is where VMs will be created.

[Cottage Farmer]

perfect mpack, that's exactly what I needed. Then one more (sorry if I'm wearing you out): When you say configure Virtual Box to use the Raid disks for data, does that mean it will install the guest VMs there or just the data that the guest VM OS utilize?

This is really a key question because one of my core goals is to be able to recover on a system crash. Let's say that 128 GB SSD with Virtual Box crashes, but of course the two Raid disks are just fine. I'd replace, rebuild the SSD with Windows 10 and with Virtual Box. Then when that's done I'd want it to be able to read the guest OS and VMs on the Raid disks.

So given that context hopefully you'll see why I want to get this right from the beginning!

Thanks,
Patrick

[mpack]

When you say configure Virtual Box to use the Raid disks for data, does that mean it will install the guest VMs there or just the data that the guest VM OS utilize?

As far as the host is concerned, VMs are data files for VirtualBox. So when I say you will use the secondary drives for data, I mean that VMs will be stored there, in their entirety. Use File|Preferences|General|Default_Machine_Folder to select the drive/folder for VMs.

[Cottage Farmer]

Thanks very much!
Patrick