Windows – Booting into a Virtual Machine from a physical installation

Ubuntuvirtual machinevirtualizationvmware-workstationwindows

In Mac OSX, you can create a Boot Camp partition, install Windows on it, and then later by using Parallels you can boot into that OS virtually in OS X! Its awesome, I've been using it on my macbook.

So, what I want to do now is, on my desktop running Windows 7 and Ubuntu 9.04, I want to virtualize my Windows 7 OS in Ubuntu. I have a copy of VMware Workstation, but I can't figure out how to do it that way. The only thing I've figured out is to convert a physical installation into a virtual, and boot from that. However, that doesn't mean I'm booting from that physical drive, meaning no changes are retained. Once I convert the installation to a virtual machine, it becomes a separate entity.

What I want to do is be able to dual boot and also have Ubuntu boot my physical Windows installation virtually when I want to. Can this be done through VMware Workstation? If not, how can I do this?

Best Answer

I know that VMWare Server can do this when you create the virtual machine.

I'd guess that Workstation is similar. If you create a new VM, when creating the virtual disk, choose instead to use a physical disk. Note: You have to run this process as an administrator, so launch VMWare with sudo or gksudo.

If Workstation doesn't help you, then VMWare server will do this, and it's free.

Caveats:

  1. VMWare server, I THINK, doesn't support USB 2.0.
  2. Now, you should also note that when you start the system as a VM, it's going to start looking all over the place for drivers, and every time you switch it back between guest OS and native OS, you'll confuse it. MIGHT even cause some "Activation" issues.
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