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Can a Linux installation be run as a VM in Windows?
(lemmy.dbzer0.com)
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this post was submitted on 20 Aug 2024
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Didn't misunderstand at all, you just used different wording.
You want to utilize an existing partition on the drive, as a VM image and boot it while you're in Windows.
The answer is yes, you can. Again, the VM part isn't the problem here. Virtualbox can do it, but they require some major workarounds in order to do.
https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/784138-howto-boot-existing-ubuntu-partition-using-virtualbox-inside-windows/
This is just one example out of many out there on Google. Understand that the commands here are NOT making a new drive image. They are making a drive image FILE that is specially formatted with the tools to point to the existing partition on the drive. VMWare can do this, QEMU can do this, Virtualbox can do this... you're just making a VM image, where the data points to an actual hard existing partition on the drive.
Once again -- This is NOT making a new VM with its own drive, even though the command looks similar. I'm sure HyperV can do it as well, I'm simply not familiar enough with its packaging.
Apologies, yes, I did misunderstand you.
I got VMware to recognise the partition, but it couldn't boot it. Everything I found said that the distro needed to be on a separate drive with its own boot partition. I found threads saying that VirtualBox couldn't do it either, but I'd be happy to be wrong :)
I'm not at my computer now, so won't get a chance to try it for at least a few hours.
Thanks for the link and the information :)