Booting a Windows EFI (dual-boot) as a guest with a VMDK

[arash2018]

I have a dual boots of Win10 and Ubuntu18.04.
I'm trying to use VMbox to point to the partition where Win is located so that I can access Win in linux without creating a new image.
I created a vmdk:

VBoxManage internalcommands createrawvmdk -filename /home/user/win10.vmdk -rawdisk /dev/nvme0n1

it does not work. Here is the result of fdisk -l:

Disk /dev/nvme0n1: 477 GiB, 512110190592 bytes, 1000215216 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: gpt
Disk identifier: xxxxx

Device             Start        End   Sectors   Size Type
/dev/nvme0n1p1      2048     534527    532480   260M EFI System
/dev/nvme0n1p2    534528     567295     32768    16M Microsoft reserved
/dev/nvme0n1p3    567296  205367295 204800000  97.7G Microsoft basic data
/dev/nvme0n1p4 205367296  246327295  40960000  19.5G Microsoft basic data
/dev/nvme0n1p5 246327296  451127295 204800000  97.7G Microsoft basic data
/dev/nvme0n1p6 451127296  998166527 547039232 260.9G Microsoft basic data
/dev/nvme0n1p7 998166528 1000214527   2048000  1000M Windows recovery environmen

Ubuntu is on p5. and Win is on p3
I used a partition version of the command:

VBoxManage internalcommands createrawvmdk -filename /home/user/win10.vmdk -rawdisk /dev/sda -partitions 1,2,3,7

also tried these partitions: -partitions 1
-partitions 1,3
-partitions 1,2,3
-partitions 1,2,3,6,7

In all cases after running the virtual machine I get the massage :

"FATAL: no bootable medium found! System halted!"

Any idea how I can fix it?

[JuliuszJusz]

Hello there,
Today I've been setting up my laptop over again after few years of usage and I've made my decission to split my SSD drive into two main partitions.
How I have divided the space You can check in a screenshot that I have attached somewhere down there. Also my hardware specifications are to be found there as well.
The case is that I've wanted to be able to boot my Windows 10 installation that exists on the same ssd drive from within Linux Mint installation.
I've followed the tutorial from here: could not include link.
Everything went fine until first boot with partitions I've chosen to include in .vmdk file.
I've tried all possible combinations and once (when included 1st partition) ended up booting into my host again , then when included 2nd partition I've landed in a grub command line where I was unable to do anything. When including only 4th partition - i end up with black screen and information:

FATAL: INT18: BOOT FAILURE

Please guide me where should I look and what shall I do to make it usable (bootable).
Thanks.

[JuliuszJusz]

Hey m8, I'm in the same situation here. My topic is posted in Linux Hosts, but maybe it should have been moved by OPs. Let me know if You achieve anything in that matter.
Good luck - for us both.

[socratis]

My topic is posted in Linux Hosts, but maybe it should have been moved by OPs.

Your wish is my command!
Topics merged, you both are having exactly the same issue. I also took the liberty to change the original title from "Running VirtualBox with an existing Windows" to "Booting a Windows EFI (dual-boot) as a guest with a VMDK" to better reflect the situation.

Unfortunately, I do not have anything more to offer at this point. I do have a rawdisk booting with a Win10 EFI as a VM and as a standalone boot, but it's the whole disk (external USB3 HD), not specific partitions. Note that the EFI part makes it a ton more difficult to get it right, if at all, that's why I thought that it should be part of the title of the thread.

[nron]

Same exact error here one drive - dual boot - pointing to windows partition and...
FATAL: INT18: BOOT FAILURE

Would appreciate any assistant here...

[socratis]

As luck would have it, I talked to a compadre of mine over at the IRC, and he successfully performed the same task. Dual-booting Ubuntu and Win10, with EFI. I asked for his setup details and this is what I got. Don't ask me for any more details, that's all I have...

Hard disk info

Model: ATA WDC WD10EZEX-08M (scsi)
Disk /dev/sda: 1000GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/4096B
Partition Table: gpt
Disk Flags: 

Number  Start   End     Size    File system     Name    Flags
 1      1049kB  538MB   537MB   fat32           Efi     boot, esp
 2      538MB   539MB   1049kB                  Grub    bios_grub
 3      539MB   5369MB  4830MB  linux-swap(v1)  Swap
 4      5369MB  107GB   102GB   ntfs            Win10   msftdata
 5      107GB   161GB   53,7GB  ext4            Ubuntu
 6      161GB   483GB   322GB   ext4            Home
 7      483GB   1000GB  517GB   ext4            Shared

VMDK creation

Code: Select all

sudo VBoxManage internalcommands createrawvmdk -filename win10.vmdk -rawdisk /dev/sda -partitions 1,4

VMDK contents

# Disk DescriptorFile
version=1
CID=926f30bd
parentCID=ffffffff
createType="partitionedDevice"

# Extent description
RW 63 FLAT "win10-pt.vmdk" 0
RW 1985 ZERO 
RW 1048576 FLAT "/dev/sda" 2048
RW 2048 ZERO 
RW 9433088 ZERO 
RW 199229440 FLAT "/dev/sda" 10485760
RW 104857600 ZERO 
RW 629145600 ZERO 
RW 1009805312 ZERO 
RW 1423 ZERO 
RW 33 FLAT "win10-pt.vmdk" 63

# The disk Data Base 
#DDB

ddb.virtualHWVersion = "4"
ddb.adapterType="ide"
ddb.geometry.cylinders="16383"
ddb.geometry.heads="16"
ddb.geometry.sectors="63"
ddb.uuid.image="de6bf67d-7fdf-4311-9920-76b65e27fc23"
ddb.uuid.parent="00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000"
ddb.uuid.modification="eb573575-14b9-4d12-9794-c16e9a6434f2"
ddb.uuid.parentmodification="00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000"