use installed system as virtual system on virtualbox [duplicate]

Possible Duplicate:
Create Virtualbox image of a physical partition

I have two operating system installed on my PC (dual boot), I use both a lot and sometimes I restart my PC two times to do some work.

Is it possible to run one of them in VirtualBox as it stands, so that I don't have to restart if some work has to be done on the other non-running operating system?

thanks in advance .

Solution 1:

Yes, it is possible. But the system on virtualbox will have worst performance, and limited resources.

Not to mention that both operative systems will take resources at the same time

EDIT: As i commented: Here is how to convert a partition to a virtual hard disk image.

Now, as you said, there is a separated /boot partition.

Can you reinstall GRUB? Relocating /boot to the new drive? If you can, then is the easiest solution. (I don't know how to do it, but is the easiest, because it only takes a couple commands, a google search may help you, as it may vary from distro to distro)

If you don't know, then you need to also make the old /boot avaliable.

If you also convert the old /boot into a virtual disk image, then you just need to set it in virtualbox settings.

Once ready, you need to boot the virtual machine (that you created) with a live CD.

Mount your "/" and go to the file "/etc/fstab" with your favourite editor.

You should know that the fstab files, says where are partitions mounted, so tell it to mount your boot partition on /boot.(You learn how to do it here, if you don't know what is your /boot disk, write "df" in the shell, and you should recognise it.)

Sorry if i didn't explained enough, but english is not my mother language. I tried the best i could.