You can use VBoxManage, it comes with VirtualBox.

This'll create "transparent" virtual disk, which gives you direct access to specified device. VBoxManage internalcommands createrawvmdk -filename mydrive.vmdk -rawdisk \\.\PhysicalDrive0

Look here for more examples: http://www.sysprobs.com/access-physical-disk-virtualbox-desktop-virtualization-software


for those wanting to convert the drive instead of using a transparent virtual disk, or link... (took me around 20 minutes to convert a 32GB USB drive to vmdk)

VBoxManage convertfromraw \\.\PhysicalDrive2 D:\VirtualMachines.vmdk --format vmdk
  • *\.\PhysicalDrive = number of your USB drive found in Disk Management
  • *D:\VirtualMachines = this is the path I used. can be anywhere.
  • *.vmdk / --format vmdk = the extension and chosen format should match.