Jan252012

How can I boot an existing Windows 7 partition as a virtual machine in Fedora?

Nicholas Pellizzari asks:

I’d like to be able to dual-boot Fedora and Windows, and be able to run my existing Windows 7 partition in Virtual Box on Fedora. Is there any way to do this? If so, how? Thanks in advance.


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System: Windows
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  • Chris Hoffman January 25, 2012

    I’ve used hardware profiles to boot a physical Windows partition in Linux, but that was back in the Windows XP days: 
    http://support.microsoft.com/kb/308577

    It appears Microsoft removed hardware profiles in Vista, so you can’t do this anymore. Making an image, as Richard recommends, is probably the closest you can get.

  • Anonymous January 25, 2012

    Well, Yes and No.

    You can make a image of your hard drive like it is right now and use that in VirtualBox in Fedora. (Unsure of licensing as this probably violates Microsoft License agreement). The easiest way to do this is Disk2VHD, 
    A added bonus is it also makes a great back of your windows partition.

    Disk2VHD: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/ee656415

    Basically once installed, you tell it were what your image to be. Then select your Windows C partition and then wait. 

    The best thing to do is to make the VHD and then putting it on a external drive or thumb drive. 

    Two Problems: (Three counting the EULA Issues…) 

    One. This is not constantly updated, If you install a program in regular Windows, it will not show up in VirtualBox under Fedora.

    Two. This is a Huge file, depending on how much your  space your Windows partition will take up.

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