Different OS in VM

[_SNOWMAN_]

I have never tried to use a VM and don't even know how to start one but before I learn I had one question. I have a PC that has 2 boot drives. One with windows and one with Batocera. My question is can I run the Batocera drive inside Windows Virtual machine so I don't have to reboot PC to switch OSs?

Or is there a better way maybe?

[_SNOWMAN_]

Disk2vhd doesnt list the disk at all.  In disk management is says "the disk is offline because it has a signature collision with another disk that is online".

On 12/18/2022 at 10:59 AM, Grand Admiral Thrawn said:

On Windows you can run Disk2vhd and use the virtual disk file in a VM of your choice (like Hyper-V on Windows).

 

[_SNOWMAN_]

On 12/23/2022 at 2:48 AM, Grand Admiral Thrawn said:

It turns out you can attach the physical disk to the VM (at least in Hyper-V). No need for Virtual Disks.

Just create a virtual machine and as a disk choose physical.

Oh cool. I'll give it a shot. I have some learning ahead

[BasicWombat]

If you've never done VMs before, this might be a bit "deep end" and consider just building a new VM to start with.

Learn how it works and what you can do. Whether you get VMware Workstation, Hyper-V or VirtualBox do this is up to you while you're learning. 

VirtualBox is often the easiest to get started.

 

You need to check if your existing hardware is capable of running Virtual Machines before going any further.

End-user_documentation – Oracle VM VirtualBox

 

Making sure you have enough resources to run a VM will be important as if you don't have enough CPU, RAM or Storage will mean that your VM will be unusable beyond booting it. Also, you need to check that your BIOS/UEFI is configured to allow for Virtualisation. Best look up the manual for your Motherboard for this.

 

Back to your goal, VMware Workstation has this guide on booting from a Physical Drive in a Virtual Machine.

dualboot_tech_note.fm (vmware.com)

 

Virtualbox appears to be able to support this feature.

Using a Physical Hard Drive with a VirtualBox VM | ServerWatch

 

Hope this gives you a bit more of an idea.