Access Windows 8 partition via virtualbox

Question

I have an Asus K55a laptop which is currently dual booting Windows 8 and Ubuntu 13.10.

I'm trying to access my windows 8 partition without restarting, with VirtualBox.

To clarify:

• Windows 8 installed
• The partition that has Win8 installed "OS" is mounted under /dev/sda3
• Ubuntu is installed and currently running
• I want to be able to use my windows 8 partition through virtualbox

Let me know if what I want to do is possible.

Thanks!

Answer 1

Unfortunately there isn't a way to do that.

Now if you don't actually need to boot to your Windows partition for anything but you still want to use your Windows apps on occasion, there are ways to convert windows to a virtual machine. Then you can have Ubuntu solely installed on your machine while spinning up Windows when needed.

First download the VMware Converter and follow the instructions to convert your machine to a vmware image. Then you can convert it to a Virtualbox image.

This will work fine with software like office, but it will not work if you use Windows to play games.

Answer 2

This is how to quickly gain access to a Windows folder on the host machine:

• Install Guest Additions in Virtual Box to have "Shared Folders" access.

• Mount the Windows partition on the host.

• Define a "Shared Folder" from Virtual Box Manager (Devices > Shared Folders...)

  

• Mount the shared folder in the guest OS (for Windows guests use Network settings).

Note: booting an existing Windows from a physical hard drive is not recommended in Virtual Box.

Answer 3

take a look at this thread, someone had a similar issue. it is possible, however you must do this with caution:

https://superuser.com/questions/392601/virtualbox-using-physical-partition-as-virtual-drive