Installing Windows 7 from USB stick in VirtualBox in Windows 7 Host

[Keyser]

Hi

Has anyone been able to actually do this?

I tried three different methods to boot from USB, but unfortunately, none worked. The boot part was easy (except in one case). In the other two cases the virtual machine booted just fin. It's the Windows installer that had some problems. Here what happened:

Method 1: Boot using "VBoxManage internalcommands createrawvmdk -filename C:\usb.vmdk -rawdisk \\.\PhysicalDrive#"

Boot failed with an error message (can't recall) about some ACCESS DENIED


Method 2: Boot using ploplinux Live CD (ISO)

The virtual machine boots OK from USB, but after pressing "Install Now" button in Windows installer, it prompts for the location of a lacking CD/DVD controller and doesn't proceed.


Method 3: Boot using DavidB's Virtual Machine USB Boot

Again the virtual machine boot just fine, but when selecting the destination drive in Windows installer - although it shows 25 GB free - when I click next, it shows a message saying there isn't enough free space to install Windows.


So, once again I ask. Has anyone done it and how?

Thank you.

P.S.: I am trying to do this because I want to test my Windows installation pen drive and I don't have access to a physical machine.

[Cauptain]

Download Vmware Player. Its free and will work for your tests.

Link: Vmware Workstation Player 12


Claudio

[racer-x]

I installed Win7x64 in Linux/VitualBox without issues. Try making an ISO image of Win7 And use that, or use a Win7 dvd media.

[Keyser]

@Cauptain

I'm gonna try VMWare and will report back. Thanks.


@racer-x

Thank you for your suggestion, but I want to test the USB stick media for installation of Windows. I already installed from an ISO image and I know that it works perfectly.

[racer-x]

You'll need to install the "Extension Pack" in order to use USB drives in VirtualBox. Here are the directions for Linux: https://sites.google.com/site/easylinuxtipsproject/oldgrub

[Keyser]

Download Vmware Player. Its free and will work for your tests.

Link: Vmware Workstation Player 12


Claudio

Same as VirtualBox. After booting from USB and executing Windows setup, I select the destination drive which shows 30GB free, but when I click "Next", setup shows a message saying it cannot use that drive because there's not enough space to install Windows. Go figure!

I'm starting to believe this is an impossible task!

EDIT: Just to inform that the ISO file that was used to prepare the USB media, installs Windows in VirtualBox with no trouble at all. In case you were wondering.

[ackboo]

I guess you followed a tutorial, is it this one ?
http://www.howtogeek.com/187721/how-to-boot-from-a-usb-drive-in-virtualbox
For method 1, the boot failed with "access denied" makes me think that you didn't run virtualbox as an administrator or that you selected the wrong physical drive.

[Cornucopia]

30GB has been known to fit a copy of WindowsOS, but that may not mean that it is enough DURING installation (lots of temp files, etc). 30GB is awfully small these days, whether HDD or SSD, and even for CF/SD/USB it is far from the ceiling. But if you're installing into a Virtual drive (as I thought), why not just make it larger to begin with?

Scott

[Keyser]

I guess you followed a tutorial, is it this one ?
http://www.howtogeek.com/187721/how-to-boot-from-a-usb-drive-in-virtualbox
For method 1, the boot failed with "access denied" makes me think that you didn't run virtualbox as an administrator or that you selected the wrong physical drive.

Yes I followed that tutorial and I selected the right physical drive and I did run VirtualBox as Administrator. I'm absolutely sure of that.

[Keyser]

30GB has been known to fit a copy of WindowsOS, but that may not mean that it is enough DURING installation (lots of temp files, etc). 30GB is awfully small these days, whether HDD or SSD, and even for CF/SD/USB it is far from the ceiling. But if you're installing into a Virtual drive (as I thought), why not just make it larger to begin with?

Scott

I installed Windows 7 in VirtualBox usibg the ISO that I copied to the USB stick, and I had no trouble installing it in a 25GB virtual disk. As a matter of fact, that's the size recommended by the VirtualBox "New Machine Wizard" and it's quite enough.

And there is this small detail: Usually, if the destination drive doesn't have enough space, the moment you click on it to select it, windows setup shows imediately a message giving you that information, whereas in this case, it only shows the message after clicking "Next". This makes me think that the problem is not really little disk space, but something else. And also, if I try to create a partition manually, it fails without giving any message at all.

[Cornucopia]

Hmm..OK.
What is the Filesystem of your drive? NTFS (w/R-W admin privileges)?

Scott

[Keyser]

Now I'm reaaaaally confused

I copied an unmodified Windows 7 installation ISO to the USB stick and... it worked. It didn't bitch about the lack of space in the destination drive.

So. The original ISO copied to the USB works, but my custom ISO - although it works as an ISO mounted in the virtual machine and as a DVD burned from that ISO - doesn't work if copied to the USB stick, it thinks there's not enough space. And this time I even setup a 100GB virtual drive, just in case.

I guess I'm giving up for now.