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I have two flash drive, one with Slax installed and another for Android x86 Live installed, but they do not boot in my laptop (in my work they boot perfectly).

I can boot from some live CDs/DVDs or its ISO files using VirtualBox, but I cannot do it for live flash drives - I put the flash drives and start a VirtualBox without any virtual HD, but VirtualBox does not recognize them as boot options, as it does for CDs/DVDs.

Any ideas? Any alternatives if VirtualBox does not support it?

Edit1: I'm using Windows (Windows 7) but I would like to know how to do it in Linux (Ubuntu, for example) too.

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USB boot isn't supported in VirtualBox. – Joe Internet Aug 2 '11 at 20:59
any alternative? – kokbira Aug 3 '11 at 2:00
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You can try this boot manager... plop.at/en/bootmanager.html. If you extract the file archive, you'll find a plpbt.iso file that you can set as your boot medium. This will give a bootloader with the usb option. If your vm is correctly configured for usb (you may need to disable 2.0 support), and your usb stick is already correctly configured (ie, it has a bootable os installed, and you know that it works), then it should boot in the vm. – Joe Internet Aug 3 '11 at 4:36
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@JoeInternet: Unfortunately Plop doesn't seem to work with USB 2.0, so it'll be very slow. – Mechanical snail Aug 21 '12 at 7:59
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Related: superuser.com/questions/324996/… – Mechanical snail Aug 21 '12 at 8:00
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5 Answers

up vote 14 down vote accepted
+100

See this article : Boot your USB Drive in VirtualBox.

The approach it discusses is to attach a physical drive to a virtual machine using the VBoxManage command-line tool that comes bundled with VirtualBox. You can then boot your virtual machine from the attached Physical drive. This is for Windows, but read on for Linux.

The same approach, but for Linux, is described in How to boot from USB in virtualbox on Ubuntu.

Alternatively, and again for Windows, Linux Live USB Creator (formerly uSbuntu) is a free software for Windows that allows you to create a bootable Live USB key with a Linux on it. It offers the option of automatic virtualization using portable VirtualBox to directly run Linux in Windows without any configuration nor installation.

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You are really a superuser!!!! Thanks :) Details: in Windows 7, you have to run cmd commands and VirtualBox as administrator! – kokbira Aug 12 '11 at 16:55
I'm dreaming With a Slax bootable flashdrive +some windows portable apps +Wine. With that trick on VirtualBox I can use it without the need of rebooting computer! Thanks again! – kokbira Apr 12 '12 at 1:28
@harrymc: For Linux, the guide you linked isn't clear that you have to run VirtualBox as root (!), or alternatively add your user account to the disk group. This is of course a possible security risk. – Mechanical snail Aug 21 '12 at 7:58
@Mechanicalsnail: root is mentioned in the comments, but not the disk group. Why don't you add your own comment to the article? – harrymc Aug 21 '12 at 8:31
up vote 3 down vote

Not sure if people have found the solution, but I found this while trying to find the answer so thought id share.

In Windows 7, open a cmd prompt with admin privileges. cd to Programs, Oracle, VirtualBox.

VBoxManage internalcommands createrawvmdk -filename C:\usb.vmdk -rawdisk \\.\PhysicalDrive#

Replace the # with the disk number from disk management in computer management. Then open the vmdk within VirtualBox as an existing hard drive image.

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same solution described by @harrymc – kokbira Apr 12 '12 at 1:30
up vote 2 down vote

Yes, in Windows Vista, 7 and 8, you need to start command prompt and virtualbox program as administrator to make this work. Check the latest guide about how to boot virtual machine from bootable USB on Oracle VirtualBox.

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It isn't a answer for my question "How to boot from a flash drive OS using VirtualBox?". It appears more a comment... – kokbira Nov 22 '12 at 19:06
up vote 1 down vote

I know this question is old but I'd like to throw something in. As with other answers I recommend the VBoxManage command.

However I created a bash script for Ubuntu that simplifies the command and even offers a helpful walkthrough for less comfortable users. It'll help make any changes needed for USB mounting to work (like adding group membership). Advanced users can use flags to avoid the walkthrough.

Check it out here: Use Bootable USB Drives in a VM -- VB Bootable USB Mounter

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It isn't a answer for my question "How to boot from a flash drive OS using VirtualBox?". It appears more a comment... – kokbira Nov 22 '12 at 19:07
I'm saying about the format of a complete answer (suppose all other answers are deleted...). – kokbira Nov 22 '12 at 19:10
up vote 0 down vote

I'm sorry to break it to you, but VirtualBox does not support booting from USB.

The only thing that I can think of is creating an image of the contents of the USB drive, mounting this as a CD-Rom in VirtualBox and booting from there.

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I thought it in the past but @harrymc show me how to do it. – kokbira Apr 12 '12 at 1:29

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