You will have a question like can i boot my Windows XP or Vista inside Ubuntu of any Linux when they all reside in the same hard disk. The answer is here. The first step for that is you should create a virtual image of your hard drive.

Step 1: Creating Virtual hard drive.

$sudo VBoxManage internalcommands createrawvmdk -filename ./WinXP.vmdk -rawdisk /dev/sda -relative -register

You will get a “RAW host disk access VMDK file ./WinXP.vmdk created successfully.”

Step 2: Adding the Virtual disk file to the Virtual Box.

Open VirtualBox and choose the menu File->Virtual Disk Manager and in the window that opens click on the Add option and choose the recently created vmdk file (WinXp.vmdk)

Step 3: Creating a New Virtual Machine

Click on the New option and in the Create New Virtual Machine wizard, click Next

Enter the OS Name as WinXP and OS Type as Windows XP, and Click Next

Select the Memory based on the availabilty. In my case i have 2 gb Ram and so i selest 330 mb. And Click Next

Here comes to select the Virtual Hard drive file. Click on Existing option

Select the recently created vmdk file. (WinXP.vmdk)

Click Next and then Finish option.

Step 4: Editting the Settings of the Virtual Machine

Select the recently created virtual machine (WinXp) and Click on the Settings page. And enable Audio, Serial Ports, USB ports, CD/DVD drive as host cd/dvd drive, etc

Goto Shared Folders option and select a shared folder created some where previously (here i have selected /tmp/VirtualBox/SharedXP, which i created previously)

Now select you Start option, and for your surprice you will see your grub menu…

Note: Here in grub, the first option is the ubuntu which iam already in, its not adviced to select it again, select the Virtual OS type you have choosed already.

Applications, Ubuntu, Virtualisation Ubuntu, VirtualBox

Here is my encounter with Virtual Box. You may download the iso file the operating system from internet, if you wish to boot them with out burning them to a cd or if you have your iso file in pendrive or external harddrive, and if you want to boot them from the drive directly, the answer is here.

Virtual box is a project developed by SUN. Download VirtualBox software from the link below, for your favourite operating system you are using and boot any operating system from any.

Here in my encounter, i have booted Ubuntu Ultimate Edition, that is as an downloaded ISO file in my home directory. Download the Virtual Box deb package from,

And then install it just by double clicking the deb file. You can start the Virtual Box software from the menu Applications->System Tools->Sun xVM Virtual Box. As Virtual Box requires some write permissions, its better to start in the command using su. So, move to the terminal and give the command

rosarioarun@ros-lap:~$ sudo VirtualBox

In the Virtual Box Window,

1. Click New Buttom, a Wizard appears
2. Click Next,
3. Type a Name you wish to give and select the OS u wish to boot (In my case name is Ultimate and type is Ubuntu) and click Next
4. Select the Base memory size, based on you the RAM u have, if you select more the Virtual box will boot the OS soon.(My case 900 MB) Click Next
5. Then click Next and in the confirmation Window Click Continue
6. Now Click Finish

Now the Virtual Box Main Window will appear back.

The ISO that i wish to boot is in the location

/home/rosarioarun/Desktop/ultimate-edition-1.8-x86/ultimate-edition-1.8-x86.iso

Click on the Name you just created (Ultimate) and click Start. Read the Capture info and click ok.A wizard will appear.

Virtual Box Software with Inserted Bootlist

1. Click Next
2. In the Media Source below, Select the path of the Image File  (In my case /home/rosarioarun/Desktop/ultimate-edition-1.8-x86/ultimate-edition-1.8-x86.iso)
3. Click Next and then Finish

The OS will be booted as a separate window, you can capture and uncapture to go inside and come out the new OS booted.

OR, Select the Name and click Settings,->CD/DVD-ROM-> ImageFile and select the Image file u wish to boot. And click Ok.

Now click Start to boot the new OS.

After Booting Ubuntu Ultimate

Inside Ultimate with VirtualBox

Applications, Ubuntu, Virtualisation Ubuntu, VirtualBox

Virtual Box is a community delovped project, by SUN for the purpose of OS Virtualisation. That is, any other operating systems can be booted inside other operating systems inside a virtualisation window. The Virtual box software will manage the resources required for the newly booted software and the currently running software. It will allocate the free resources within itself, to boot the new operating system virtually.

Presently, VirtualBox runs on Windows, Linux, Macintosh and OpenSolaris and many other guest operating systems. So this includes almost all most frequently used operating systems.

With Virtual box you can boot Guest operating systems in USB, Portable hard drive, or ISO images of operating systems in any host operating system. That is you can boot the downloaded iso images of opertaing systems(linux) in live -cd mode without burning them to a cd.

Applications, Ubuntu, Virtualisation Ubuntu, VirtualBox