Virtual Usb Drive Mac

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Jul 18, 2015 VirtualBox USB Transfer Speeds. The inclusion of USB 3.0 support in VirtualBox 5.0 is a great improvement. While I was able to access USB drive in VirtualBox guest OS, I was a bit disappointed with the USB 3.0 speeds. The maximum write speeds hovered around 21 MB per second as shown in the picture below. You may be thinking whether this is not possible to create bootable USB drive for MacOS with Virtual machine, But Yes, we can create a bootable USB for Mac in Windows with Virtual Machine. Doesn’t matter if you are using VirtualBox or VMware Workstation Pro. All I know is that we can Create Bootable USB for mac with Virtual Machine.

How to boot from a USB Flash Drive in VirtualBox. This process will allow you to run your Portable Linux from the USB Flash Drive or external hard drive while still running from a Windows, Linux, or Mac OS X Host. By default VirtualBox does not support USB Boot. However, this is easily attainable by mapping a virtual machine (.vmdk file) to the USB Drive.

VirtualBox Website: https://www.virtualbox.org

Updated: 11/14/2020 – Simplified steps, corrected paths, added sudo.

Boot a USB Flash Drive from VirtualBox (Windows Host)

  1. Download and run VirtualBox (Installing to the default path).
  2. You'll need to use the command line to perform steps 3-6,
    To open a command prompt;
    1.) From the Windows '⌕ Type here to search' box, type cmd.exe
    2.) Then click Run as administrator
  3. At the command prompt, type diskmgmt.msc and press Enter to open the Windows Disk Management Tool.

    diskmgmt.msc

    Then, Identify your USB Disk #

  4. Now, back at the command line, type

    cd %programfiles%oraclevirtualbox

  5. Replacing # with your USB Disk number from step 3, type

    VBoxManage internalcommands createrawvmdk -filename '%USERPROFILE%'.VirtualBoxusb.vmdk -rawdisk .PhysicalDrive#

  6. To start VirtualBox as Admin, type

    start virtualbox

  7. Click New, and then proceed to Create a New Virtual Machine.
  8. When prompted for a Virtual Hard Disk, tick use existing hard disk. Then, browse to your %USERPROFILE%.VirtualBox folder, and select the usb.vmdk file.
  9. Once done creating your New Virtual Machine, click Start.

If all goes well, VirtualBox should now be emulating, booting, and running your USB device from within Windows.

Getting Persistence to work in VirtualBox (Windows)

At first the USB flash drive might not work exactly like it does when booted natively. Things like Ubuntu's casper persistent feature won't work. Some distributions might not even boot, or will boot with errors. This is because the volumes on the device are mounted by Windows, preventing VirtualBox from gaining full access. In order to fix these issues, you can use a tool called LockDismount. Then simply run the tool (using the following steps), prior to starting the Virtual Machine that is tied to your USB.

1. Download the LockDismount tool

2. Launch the tool right before starting your VirtualBox VM

3. Select your USB from the drop-list, then Press Lock it!

(optionally you can check Force Dismount)

Now your flash drive should be able to boot in VirtualBox exactly as it does when booted natively on a physical machine. 😉

Boot from a USB Flash Drive in VirtualBox (Linux Host)

The following was performed from a running Ubuntu Operating environment. The same should work for most Debian/Ubuntu Linux based environments.

  1. Open a Terminal and type sudo apt install virtualbox

    sudo apt install virtualbox

  2. Next, Type sudo fdisk -l

    sudo fdisk -l

    (note which device is your USB drive I.E. /dev/sdx)

  3. Replacing x with your actual device letter found from step 2, type

    sudo vboxmanage internalcommands createrawvmdk -filename ~/usb.vmdk -rawdisk /dev/sdx

  4. Type sudo virtualbox to start the program, and proceed create a New Virtual Machine.
  5. When prompted for a Virtual Hard Disk, tick use existing hard disk, then browse to your Home directory and select usb.vmdk.
  6. Once you've finished creating your New Virtual Machine, click Start.

If all went smoothly, you should now be running your USB flash drive from VirtualBox on the Linux Host.

Boot from a USB Flash Drive in VirtualBox (Mac OS X)

  1. Download and install VirtualBox for OS X Hosts via the .dmg file.
  2. Open a Terminal and type diskutil list

    diskutil list

    (make note of which disk is your USB drive I.E. /dev/disk#)

  3. Replacing # with the disk number of your USB drive, type

    diskutil unmountDisk /dev/disk#

  4. Again, replacing # with your actual disk number, type

    vboxmanage internalcommands createrawvmdk -filename ~/usb.vmdk -rawdisk /dev/disk#

  5. Once more, replacing # with the disk number, type

    diskutil unmountDisk /dev/disk#

  6. Finally, to start the program with root access, type

    sudo virtualbox

  7. Next, Proceed to create a New Virtual Machine.
    When prompted for a Virtual Hard Disk, tick use existing hard disk.
    Then, browse to your Home directory and select usb.vmdk.
  8. Once finished creating your New Virtual Machine, click Start.

You should now be booting from your USB flash drive on the Mac OS X host using VirtualBox, while retaining the ability to boot from the drive natively as well.

How to Boot From a USB Flash Drive in VirtualBox published under USB Virtual Machine Emulation

You system may have been suffering from a Malware attack or you may have to reset your system since you have forgotten the admin account's password. Are you looking for the best way to burn ISO to USB for Mac? The process to burn ISO to USB Mac is not a simple task at all.

Since ISO is not a native Mac file type, you would have to work around a few methods or even make use of a third party tool in order to perform this operation.This article will talk about a few ways in which you can get this done for free. Some methods are pretty easy while some may seem a bit more complicated and may not deliver the required results.

Way 1: Burn ISO to USB Mac Using Terminal

You can make use of the default command line interface on your Mac system to perform the task of burning ISO to USB. Follow the outlined steps given below to burn ISO to USB Mac.

Virtual Usb Drive Mac To Pc

Virtual Usb Drive Mac

Step 1: On your Mac system, insert a USB flash drive.

Step 2: Launch Terminal by selecting Applications > Utilities > Terminal.

Step 3: Here, enter 'diskutil list' and hit the Enter key.

Step 4: All the drives will be listed out so that it becomes easier for you to locate the correct identifier for the USB flash drive. Make a note of it and unmount the drive by keying in 'sudo unmount/dev/driveidentifier which you noted down.

Virtual Machine Usb Drive

Step 5: If prompted, enter the Admin password and enter the following command and hit the Enter key:
dd if=/path/toimage.iso of=/dev/driveidentifier

The above command will burn the ISO to USB to the drive specified by you. However, this method may seem complicated to some users. You can move ahead to the next solution if you find it complicated.

Way 2: Write ISO to USB Mac Using UNetbootin

You can make use of this utility for burning ISO to USB on Mac only when you have access to Linux distributions like Ubuntu. Once you have made sure that the utility is installed on your Mac, follow the steps below to burn ISO or DMG to USB.

Step 1: From the 'Distribution' section at the top of the software, choose the required Linux distribution. You can even provide the ISO file by clicking on the Diskimage radio button and then using the ellipsis icon to choose the ISO file.

Step 2: Specify the target drive and click on 'OK' and the bootable drive would be created.

This method is possible only if you have a Linux distribution like Ubuntu.

Way 3: Cretae ISO to USB on Mac Using Virtualbox

If none of the above suggested methods work, this method would surely help you in burning ISO to USB for free. Refer the steps mentioned below to do so.

Step 1: Install the Virtualbox client on your Mac system.

Step 2: Make a guest OS on Windows and load this Windows ISO to the system.

Step 3: Leave the other settings in the default state if you are not aware of how you can change them.

Step 4: Follow the on screen instructions carefully and then boot your system in Windows OS.

Step 5: Download the ISO burning tool once system is booted in Windows and insert the USB flash drive. Now you can burn the ISO image to USB.

Although this method is pretty effective, it takes a long time and some amount of technical expertise is required in order to get satisfactory results.

Extra Tips: How to Burn ISO to USB on Windows

If you just want to burn ISO to USB on Windows 10/8.1/8/7 system, then PassFab for ISO is your best option. This is a prfoessional program which enabled you to burn bootable ISO to USB on any Windows-based computer. You can either download Windows System ISO or Import Local ISO from it. You can even burn CD or DVD if there's no USB in your hand.

Conclusion

Virtual Usb Drive Image

Through this article you can get to know different ways in which you can burn ISO or DMG to bootable USB. While some methods are easy, some are way too complicated. If you are looking for a tool to carry out this process for free, you can do that but most of the methods involved in such solutions would be pretty complicated for a novice user and also they end up consuming a lot of your time as well. Instead, you can choose PassFab for ISO tool to carry out the process of burning ISO to USB on Windows. This method is highly recommended as it is very simple and can be completed quickly without any hassles.

  • Support Windows 10, Windows 8.1, Windows 8, Windows 7, etc.
  • Support USB of various brands, such as SanDisk, Kingston, etc.
  • Support burning ISO to USB flash drive, CD or DVD-ROM
  • Support GPT and MBR partition types