25
2009
Boot your USB Drive in VirtualBox
An article by 
The GUI of VirtualBox does not have an option to boot a USB drive (Physical Drive) in a virtual machine.
However you can attach a physical drive to a virtual machine using a command line tool that is bundled with Virtual Box.You can then boot your virtual machine from the attached Physical drive.You need to use VirtualBox with Windows installed in order to use the software for a o2 mobile broadband dongle. As you are probably aware, you are unable to use it with Linux.
This is the continuation of my previous article Test bootable USB drive without restarting your computer.You can read more about bootable usb drives in that article.
Note:This tutorial has been updated for Virtualbox 4.
In this article I will show you how you can boot a bootable usb drive in Virtual Machine created by VirtualBox.You can easily test bootable USB drives within Windows or Linux and without restarting using this method.
Download and install Virtual Box and VirtualBox 4.0.2 Oracle VM VirtualBox Extension Pack from http://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Downloads
The Extension pack adds support for USB 2.0 devices.
Attaching a Physical Disk to a Virtual Machine
Section 9.6 in the VirtualBox manual contains all the details required to attach a physical disk to a virtual machine.Using the vboxmanage.exe tool you can create a tiny vmdk file which points to your real USB drive (Physical Drive/Disk).You can attach this tiny vmdk to your virtual machine.A vmdk file is a virtual hard disk file which can be used with VirtualBox and VMWare.
The vboxmanage.exe tool is bundled with VirtualBox.You don’t have to download it separately
Open Command Prompt
Navigate to your Virtual Box installation Directory.
Type the following command and press enter
Syntax of the command
You have to replace pathtousb.vmdk with the path of your choice
Example
In Windows your 1st Hard Disk will be \.PhysicalDrive0.Your 2nd Hard disk will be \.PhysicalDrive1.
Warning:Do not Attach your Primary hard disk to your Virtual Machine and Boot it in the Virtual machine
To find the correct number for your USB Drive
Right Click on My Computer-Manage-Disk Management
Here you can find the correct disk number of your USB Drive
You will have to replace \.PhysicalDrive1 with the correct drive number.
In this case there was only 1 hard disk and 1 USB disk.So the USB drive is referred by \.PhysicalDrive1
In linux you have to replace \.PhysicalDrive1 with the correct /dev/sdx reference.
Now you should have a tiny vmdk file.You can start your Virtual Machine with this tiny vmdk and boot from it.
- Start VirtualBox.
- Create a new Machine or Select an Existing Machine.
- Click on Settings
- Storage-Add Hard Disk
- Select the vmdk file that you had created.
- Make sure that usb.vmdk is your Primary Master.
- System-Boot Order.Set your Hard Disk as the first boot device.
- Now start your Virtual Machine.
Your virtual machine will boot from your bootable physical USB Drive.
In this screenshot I have used a bootable Ubuntu USB drive created using Unetbootin.
About the Author: Bharat Balegere
Bharat Balegere is a 22 year old blogger from Bengaluru. He is a technology enthusiast and loves tinkering with computers and usb drives.
Use plop bootmanager its way easier
plop did the job, thanks :)
Tried this using Ubuntu 11.04 host and Virtualbox 4.1
Virtualbox refuses to use the .vmdk file giving an error…
NS_ERROR_FAILURE (0×80004005)
Tried changing permissions, etc.
Any thoughts?
In linux you have to be root if you want to access /dev/sdfX
I wasn’t very clear…
I mean you have to be root to access /dev/sdfX, so virtualbox must be running as root (or sudo) to access your usb drive.
Your vmdk file is like a “pointer” to /dev/sdfX… at least as I undestand it…
This don’t work. Keeps flipping “Invalid parameter” in the image path. llameeeeeee
How to boot from USB in another Computer which have xp installed using virtualbox?
Works on windowsxp. I try install ubuntu 11.10. Thanks
it is a good tutorial. but in both the cases ie to create usb.vmdk and load it as hard disk in new machine, the cmd.exe and virtualbox must be run with administrator rights. this was the mistake i did at first.
DOES NOT WORK!
VB says the file is inaccessible. However, the CLI program claims to have succeeded in creating the USB.vmdk. and i checked. so why say its not accessible??? any answers?
It appears that you need to run virtualbox as admin (sudo) to access raw disks:
http : // luckyviplav.wordpress.com/2010/07/17/windows-7-on-mac-os-x-through-virtual-box/
See the comments by Marcos Vives.
Cheers,
ak.
Superb! Tested and works with VirtualBox 4.1.2 on Win7 x64 as a host. Booting a 32Gb Transcend JF V60 which was made bootable with Diablerie’s Ultimate Suite…
Hi, for me doesn’t work! :(
I give this error:
VBoxManage.exe: error: Cannot open the raw disk ‘\\.\PhysicalDrive1′: VERR_ACCESS_DENIED
VBoxManage.exe: error: The raw disk vmdk file was not created
My usb key is format with fat32 file system… in a problem?
Thankyou
Please run the command with admin privileges.
Right click on Command Prompt and choose Run as Administrator.
Thankyou worked for me once i:
ran cmd prompt as administrator
ran virtualbox as administrator
ticked the “solid state drive” box under storage in VB
and finally unchecked the usb drive filter under “USB” in VB
…although the os is still trying to load…
I forgot to run virtualbox as admin so it wouldn’t load the usb vmdk. many thanks to the comment you made
worked really fine, just had to run CMD as ADMIN but also VirtualBox, and it worked like a charm thanx a lot dude!
After I ran the programs as admin it worked like a charm! Many thanks…
Much of the instruction is almost clear, but just enough unclear to make it confusing and create a situation where steps have to be executed several times. Learn better English.
I am success making usb.vmdk, but i can’t insert usb.vmdk on existing Virtual Machine.
i found message error :
Failed to open the hard disk D:\New MyData\VBOX\USB\usbFreenas.vmdk.
The medium ‘D:\New MyData\VBOX\USB\usbFreenas.vmdk’ can’t be used as the requested device type.
Result Code: E_FAIL (0×80004005)
Component: Medium
Interface: IMedium {53f9cc0c-e0fd-40a5-a404-a7a5272082cd}
Callee: IVirtualBox {c28be65f-1a8f-43b4-81f1-eb60cb516e66}
can you help me ???
thank you before
Run VirtualBox as administrator. If it install something after the run then wait and when it finish the installation close VirtualBox and run it as administrator again.
I had the same issue using Windows 7 x64 & I am trying to install Windows 8 x64 RTM.
Issue resolved.
Plop is ok but this is much easier and once it’s done you can reuse it anytime as long as you plug any bootable USB into the same USB port. I D\L the latest VBOX for windows and works on my 64bit Win7 on an AMD quad core as well as my 32bit AMD dualcore Laptop.
Thanks heaps re-booting my laptop for testing grub and syslinux scheme’s was getting old and hadn’t found QEMU this is even better Kudos Mate !!
Work’s fine :D thanks
example for you
my disk named “disk2″
add new folder USB
run cmd in admin mode
VBoxManage internalcommands createrawvmdk -filename “\usb\usb.vmdk” -rawdisk \\.\PhysicalDrive2
run virtualbox in admin mode
and do what he said, mount it in VB all works, you shouldn’t get any error in mount if you run in admin mode.
Windows 7 Pro V6.1 (Build 7601: Service Pack 1)
VirtualBox 4.2.4 r81684
Following instructions explicitly. Running CMD as Administrator:
Microsoft Windows [Version 6.1.7601]
Copyright (c) 2009 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
C:\Windows\system32>cd “c:\Program Files\Oracle\VirtualBox”
c:\Program Files\Oracle\VirtualBox>VBoxManage internalcommands createrawvmdk -fi
lename “%USERPROFILE%\usb.vmdk” -rawdisk \\.\PhysicalDrive1
VBoxManage.exe: error: Failed to create the VirtualBox object!
VBoxManage.exe: error: Code CO_E_SERVER_EXEC_FAILURE (0×80080005) – Server execu
tion failed (extended info not available)
VBoxManage.exe: error: Most likely, the VirtualBox COM server is not running or
failed to start.
c:\Program Files\Oracle\VirtualBox>
I got same error – then it worked. Try closing virtualbox before running the commands.
have exactly the same problem
C:\Program Files\Oracle\VirtualBox>VBoxManage internalcommands createrawvmdk -fi
lename output_usb.vmdk -rawdisk \.\PhysicalDrive4
VBoxManage.exe: error: Failed to create the VirtualBox object!
VBoxManage.exe: error: Code CO_E_SERVER_EXEC_FAILURE (0×80080005) – Server execu
tion failed (extended info not available)
VBoxManage.exe: error: Most likely, the VirtualBox COM server is not running or
failed to start.
For those receiving the error
VBoxManage.exe: error: Most likely, the VirtualBox COM server is not running or failed to start.
Try putting this into your path
set VBOX_USER_HOME=path\to\portablevbox\data\.VirtualBox
Worked for me.
Also I had to run the command prompt as administrator as well as load VB as administrator.
Works fine. XBMCBuntu.
Thanks for the post!
Deer GOD WTF !!! Do you reinvent the wheel every day to drive and maybe Cut your toe Nails WITH A Blow Torch to?
Step 1 Download and install Virtual Box and VirtualBox 4.0.2 Oracle VM VirtualBox Extension Pack from http://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Downloads
Step 2 plpbt-5.0.14.zip download http://www.plop.at/en/bootmanager/download.html extract
mount the plpbt.iso in Virtual Box
Done
No need to hurt your self any more!!!
Thanks. Works great on win 7 pro and VB 4.2.6
hey! i’m thinking this could also work for a second windows installed on a different hard drive or I can attach a hard drive of a different computer using an enclosure. Is it possible?
Worked 100% for me.
Win 7 Pro x32 VB 4.2.12