Virtualization Question

[khiloa]

According to a few different sources something like

VBoxManage internalcommands createrawvmdk -filename ./WinXP.vmdk -rawdisk /dev/sda

creates a virtual drive which points to the actual windows partition.

http://mesbalivernes.blogspot.com/2008/01/virtual-box-booting-from-existing.html

 

[Shelnutt2]

Is it possible to make Virtualbox work off an existing Windows partition, or is one forced to create a virtual disk? I was hoping it could just read my other partition.

Remember the big thing is to create two hardware profiles, and have it so you select at startup, this will prevent you from running both native and VM drivers, in one setup.

 

[MRD]

Well, I got it to install and work, but it crashes every couple minutes. I mean CRASHES. Linux, Windows, everything. I have no idea why.

 

[Cheator]

Well, I got it to install and work, but it crashes every couple minutes. I mean CRASHES. Linux, Windows, everything. I have no idea why.

Thats odd. you're running gentoo right? did you emerge it or compile it from scratch?

 

[MRD]

I emerged it but using the bin version, as that's needed to work off existing partitions (the fully open source edition is semi-crippled).

 

[Cheator]

I emerged it but using the bin version, as that's needed to work off existing partitions (the fully open source edition is semi-crippled).

It could be the fact that is is directly interacting with the disk. My virtual installs work great.

 

[MRD]

I can't do that though, I only have a license for one install, and I'm not buying another copy of MS anything. I don't want to wipe my main Windows install either.

 

[Cheator]

I can't do that though, I only have a license for one install, and I'm not buying another copy of MS anything. I don't want to wipe my main Windows install either.

I beleive this is aleviated (and this is the excuse we were given at college when using vmware to make many installs of 1 OS with 1 license) is that you can have as many installs of the license as you want, on 1 PC, as long as only 1 is in use. We did this with Win2k3, Win XP (pre SP, SP1, SP2), Win2k, WinNT, and a few others.

 

[MRD]

In any case, I'm not really interested in creating a separate install of Win 2K. I want it to work with my partition. Also, I have no reason to believe that is what is causing the freezing.