Using Physical Disk with OS as a Guest

[akmartinez1]

Hello everyone,

I would like to know if it's possible with Workstation Pro 16 to create a guest OS but use a physical drive and the OS that is already installed on it.

I used to have a MacBook Pro and was using Fusion 12 or maybe something earlier several years ago and was able to launch VMware in the Mac host and run Windows that was installed via Boot Camp, so I didn't have to reboot and select Windows from Boot Camp on boot if I didn't have to.

I have several SSD's on my current workstation.  One 1Tb SSD running Ubuntu, one 1Tb SSD running Windows 10, and one 1Tb SSD running Kali.  I have Workstation Pro 16 Installed on the Ubuntu and Windows drives.  I'd like to boot into Ubuntu, and when I need to launch VMware and get into the Windows OS that is physically installed on the Windows SSD.

Is this possible?  It was possible in Fusion in a previous version.

If it's possible how do I go about doing it?

Thanks,

Alan

P.S.  I'd like to be able to access the Kali SSD someday too but wanted to take one step at a time.  The Kali SSD is fully encrypted wher I need to enter the password on boot before getting to the OS login.

[louyo]

It is not clear to me what you want to do. If you are talking about a bootable Windows system on the SSD (not a Windows VM), you can not run it as a VM, you would have to convert it first. I run the same VMs on both Mac and Linux but the different file systems are problematic.

[akmartinez1]

From my Linux installation I have VMware Pro 16 installed.

I would like to create a Windows 10 guest but instead of creating a virtual disk and installing Windows on it I could use an actual physical disk that has Windows already installed on it.

Currently I have a multi-boot workstation.  Each OS is on it's own SSD.  I choose which OS i'd like to boot to physically through GRUB.

In an older version of VMware Fusion for Mac.  You can setup a separate partition for Windows through BootCamp, install and run Windows.  Then install VMware Fusion.  While in the Mac OS Host you can launch VMware Fusion and create and run a Windows Guest that accessed the BootCamp partition instead of a virtual hard drive..  Whatever you did in the Windows guest would be as if you were working in the BootCamp partition, meaning if you created a text file and saved it to the Windows desktop guest, save, closed, rebooted the Mac but booted into the Windows partition that text file would still be there.  I hope that clears wht I mean up better but let me know.

I'd like to know if what I describe is possible in Workstation Pro 16 on a Linux host running Windows as a guest but the guest is on an actual, physical SSD, so I don't have to reboot my system and select Windows from GRUB and work on the Windows SSD.

[continuum]

This is supposed to work if you keep in mind a few caveats.
A SSD you use for a guest must contain all partitions that are required to boot. And the host OS must be able to operate with no problems when this disk is not connected.
Not possible: install GRUB on sda and have a boot-entry for Windows on sdb for example.

If the harddisks are completely independant it should work.
You may need to launch Workstation as root or as admin to make this work.

If you do this and expect the same performance as with native OS you will probably dispointed.
If you do this with Windows guests - you may require a new activation.

Summary: this is often overrated - in many cases the extra work and reduced performance does not justify the effort.

Ulli

[akmartinez1]

How would I do this or would you know where the instructions are?  It's not as intuitive as it was in Fusion on a Mac.

My OS's are all independent of each other on their own separate SSD with their own boot loaders.  GRUB is only on the Ubuntu SSD and it does see the other drives with OS's, but I can change the BIOS/UEFI setting to boot into each drive separately as if they were the only drive with an OS.

I understand about the performance issues and I'm OK with it.  

I just need the instructions on how to setup the guest VM during creation.  

[continuum · Accepted solution]

1. start WS as root or admin
2. create new VM
3. assign physical disk
4. finish wizard and start the VM

It is no big deal at all.
But first start will very likely fail with driver problems .... - then finetune the virtual hardware.
Eventually use a livecd to edit the registry of the system on the SSD - or edit fstab of a Linux system ...

Ulli

[akmartinez1]

Thank you.  I will try/keep trying until I can figure it out.

At first I wasn't starting WS as admin, but when I do and go through the steps I can see a difference in setting up the hard drive.
I was able to create an guest and set it up with what made sense but when I started it hung at the VMware logo with waiting to start and I had to force quit the terminal and vmware window.

I will continue to investigate now that I have a little bit of a starting point.  I will update this thread if I find more useful info.

[iniyankanmani]

Any Updates on the process mate ?

[akmartinez1]

Sorry for the late reply.  I was bogged down with studies and work and set this aside.

I was able to upgrade VMWare to v17 and I tinkered around with this ans was able to get it to work for my Windows drives/partitions.  I run 4 operating systems on their own drives as a whole, not partitions.  So m.2 #1 runs Ubuntu, m.2 #2 runs Kali, m.2 #3 runs my Windows for gaming, SATA #1 runs Windows for my son for Gaming.  This way if one OS craps out it doesn't affect the others especially with my son's drive.  If he does something adverse it doesn't destroy what I have and we can quickly restore.

With VMW17 I was able to create the vm's accessing the 2 Windows drives from my main daily driver in Ubuntu.  I was not able to get into my Kali drive through a vm because the drive is encrypted and I can't get VMW to trigger the login to decrypt the drive on boot up.  But for now it's OK, I can get this to work.

[xrenixx]

hi, can you please describe your steps regarding the physical hdd usage?

i just installed win 11 on new m2 drive, and have the old win 10 on ssd.. still bootable if i switch the boot drive.. kind of what you had too.

the problem is, when i run as admin and create the machine with pysical disk only - it fails to run

[Terrasse]

Hi @continuum ,

I'm doing a similar thing like akmartinez1  (boot a VM from my physical Ubuntu installation, with Windows 11 running as host). I followed the instructions you provided, but it seems that VMW fails to read the ext4 partition, saying that it fails to operate file “\\.\PhysicalDrive0”. I'm wondering if there is any way to solve?

Regards.