4 How to boot the USB-Stick in a VirtualBox?

This is for people who would like to run the USB-stick within their normal operating system (Linux, Mac OS X, Windows). Here, we assume that the VirtualBox-software is installed on your computer and that you are familiar with the command line (the "Terminal Window") or at least know where to find it. You will also need to have administrative rights on your machine, ie. you are allowed to do "sudo somecommand".

The general procedure is as follows:

• Caution: The command line parameters are only examples and have to be adapted to your system. When doing this on a Mac you won't be able to access the filesystem on the USB-stick from the Finder.

  on Linux:

  df

  # /dev/sdb is the device with the USB-Stick

  VBoxManage internalcommands createrawvmdk -filename ~/.VirtualBox/HardDisks/usb.vmdk -rawdisk /dev/sdb -register

  # Sometimes you need to give special permissions ...

  sudo chmod 666 /dev/sdb*

  sudo chown `whoami` ~/.VirtualBox/HardDisks/usb.vdmk

  
  on Mac OS X:

  df

  # Unmount the USB-stick at device /dev/disk2s1

  sudo diskutil unmount /dev/disk2s1

  VBoxManage internalcommands createrawvmdk -filename /Users/igarten/Desktop/stickBoot.vmdk -rawdisk /dev/disk2 -register

  # The VirtualBox may complain that it cannot gain exclusive access to the disk 

  # if the Finder mounted it again automatically. Redo the last two steps!

  on Windows:

  diskmgmt.msc

  cd %programfiles%\sun\virtualbox

  VBoxManage internalcommands createrawvmdk -filename "%USERPROFILE%"\.VirtualBox\VDI\usb.vmdk -rawdisk \\.\PhysicalDrive1 -register