how to start linux virtual machine on windows host using raw drives 1. open cmd.exe as administrator cd "C:\Program Files\Oracle\Virtualbox" c:\Program Files\Oracle\VirtualBox>VBoxManage.exe internalcommands createrawvmdk -filename "C:\Users\afx\skyblue-disk0.vmdk" -rawdisk \\.\PHYSICALDRIVE0 RAW host disk access VMDK file C:\Users\afx\skyblue-disk0.vmdk created successfully. c:\Program Files\Oracle\VirtualBox>VBoxManage.exe internalcommands createrawvmdk -filename "C:\Users\afx\skyblue-disk1.vmdk" -rawdisk \\.\PHYSICALDRIVE1 RAW host disk access VMDK file C:\Users\afx\skyblue-disk1.vmdk created successfully. c:\Program Files\Oracle\VirtualBox>VBoxManage.exe storageattach skyblue --storagectl "SATA" --port 0 --device 0 --type hdd --medium "C:\Users\afx\Documents\skyblue-disk0.vmdk" c:\Program Files\Oracle\VirtualBox>VBoxManage.exe storageattach skyblue --storagectl "SATA" --port 1 --device 0 --type hdd --medium "C:\Users\afx\Documents\skyblue-disk1.vmdk" 2. start virtualbox as administrator 3. done