Ubuntu – Using already installed Windows from Ubuntu

14.04dual-bootvirtualboxvmwarewindows

I have both Ubuntu 14.04 and Windows 7 installed on my system. I want to access Windows7 while I am logged in Ubuntu. One possible way what people are suggesting is to access Windows using VirtualBox or VMWare. But the online manual explains about installing Windows inside the virtual machine and then using it. But I need to access the already installed one. Can this be done in any other way? (if not using VMWare)

Best Answer

It can done by using your physical drive as disk image. But i am not encourage to do it. it may cause some data loss or system crash. i am not responsible for any of the damage cause by using this method

  1. make a virtual drive of your physical the below code

    VBoxManage internalcommands createrawvmdk -filename "hdd.vmdk" -rawdisk /dev/sda

    assuming your physical drive is /dev/sda

  2. open virtualbox with root access 

    sudo virtualbox

  3. create a new virtual machine by clicking new, enter a name and in harddisk selection section select 'use an existing virtual hard disk file' browse to your home directory and select hdd.vmdk . press create

if there were no errors you will see grub. select windows. now you can user windows inside ubuntu. it has limited usage.

if you are looking for running windows application install wine (use this ppa for installing latest version)

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