How To: Run Windows 7 (Bootcamp) in VirtualBox

Bootcamp is great and all, but… the fact that we have to reboot is not !

Sometimes you want to do a little task that really has to be run on Windows or there’s no alternative software for Mac, but you don’t want to reboot into Bootcamp to do it. And you want to keep Bootcamp, since it lets you run Windows to its potential. Well, VirtualBox can certainly help you ! It’s a great piece of freeware that I recently fell in love with.

It lets you startup Windows 7 that you have on Bootcamp as a virtual machine (VM) relatively easy. So the data stays in sync whether you boot up from Bootcamp or VBox inside Mac OS (since it’s really the same installation). Instead of creating a virtual hard disk file like normal virtual machine, it uses a small special file that essential let the VM access the real physical disk.

Step-by-step guide:

1. Install VirtualBox in Mac OS X.
2. Create New Virtual Machine, follow the step until you have to select Virtual Hard Disk, leave it like that. The steps are,
   • Name your VM, select Windows 7, click Continue (I name mine “Bootcamp”)
   • Allocate Memory (Ram) for the VM (essentially, you should give at least 1 GB, 1024 MB), press Continue
   • Virtual Hard Disk, leave it like that for now, don’t close it or anything, we’ll do something else before continue.
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3. Open Finder, go to Home Directory, look for folder named “VirtualBox VMs”, make sure it contains your VM folder (mine is Bootcamp).
4. Open Terminal (Applications > Utilities > Terminal) and type these commands,

   • diskutil list

     press Enter/Return, then look under “/dev/disk0″ find the partition number associate with your VM (Bootcamp). It should be 4.

   • diskutil unmount /dev/disk0s4

     If your number from previous command is not 4, replace it N with yours, in disk0sN. (Do the same in the next command)

   • sudo chmod 777 /dev/disk0s4

   • sudo vboxmanage internalcommands listpartitions -rawdisk /dev/disk0

     Type it all in one line, and press Enter/Return

     • Type your Admin password (should be your own password). Nothing will show while you’re typing the password, and it’s normal, keep typing and make sure you type correctly. Then press Enter.
     • It will show a Partitions List. This time you’ll not see their names. So make your paritition 4 (or whatever yours is) is the Bootcamp partition. (Compare the size)
       .

   • cd VirtualBox VMs/Bootcamp/

     Type cd, space, then Virt and press tab, Terminal will automatically complete the folder name for you. Type Bootcamp (VM name) and press Enter.

   • sudo vboxmanage internalcommands createrawvmdk -rawdisk /dev/disk0 -filename "win7.vmdk" -partitions 4

     Type it all in one line, and press Enter/Return

     • If the process is successful. It will show “RAW host disk access VMDK file win7.vmdk created successfully.”
     • Go back to Finder, look inside Bootcamp Folder (or your VM folder) that win7.vmdk and win7-pt.vmdk are there.
       .

   • sudo chown (username) win7*.vmdk

     • Replace (username) with your Account name (If you’re not sure, type whoami in Terminal and press Enter).
     • Press Enter and type your password.
       .
5. Go back to VirtualBox. Select Use existing hard disk and click yellow folder on the right side to find and select the created win7.vmdk, and click Continue.
6. VirtualBox will present you a Summary page, click Done.
7. Open up Settings of the created VM, configure the settings to your liking.
   • Network: you should select Bridge Adaptor, and the network interface you use to connect to the Internet.
   • Shared Folders: select a folder, so you can share files between Mac and Windows while running the VM. Don’t forget to tick Auto-mount.
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8. Start up the VM.
   • Install Guest Additions (Select from Menu Bar in Mac while running the VM) Device > Install Guest Additions, then in Windows 7, a virtual CD will be there. Install and restart the VM.
   • After restart, if the Shared Folder does not show up in Computer, click Map network drive in Toolbar and look for your Shared Folder and tick Reconnect at login.
   • If you use VBox’s Seamless Mode, it’ll be like Windows app is running on Mac natively (of course not truly natively), pretty cool.
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9. Back to Mac OS, this is what you need to know.
   • Before starting up Bootcamp in VM, you’ll always have to unmount Bootcamp partition first. Also you have to grant permission to access the data on the disk. (2nd and 3rd Termianl commands in step 4)
   • If you want this to happen automatically after you login to Mac account, open up Terminal and follow the steps,


     1. sudo nano /etc/rc.local

     2. Type your password, Enter. Teminal will show a relatively blank page.
     3. Type these lines in (change N number in /dev/disk0sN to match your Bootcamp disk)

        # grant VBox permissions to Bootcamp
        sudo chmod 777 /dev/disk0s4
        diskutil unmount /dev/disk0s4

     4. Press Control+O , and Enter to save chanegs.
     5. Press Control+X to exit.
        .
10. End of Story

Note: I did this long time ago, and followed various tutorials, which I didn’t keep the links. So the credit goes to people out there who originally wrote the tutorials, and you can also check out VirtualBox Manual section 9 for more technical details.