Is there a way to partition a VirtualBox drive?

<Bill>

On 6/2/22 14:23, this is what Bill Bradshaw wrote:
> Is there a way to partition a VirtualBox drive?
>
> <Bill>
>
>
How would you do it on a standard PC. You put in a drive, then a boot dvd or usb, then boot to something that lets you
partition. Windows and Linux (the two I know) will let you define how much you want to allocate for the OS. The
remainder is unallocated and can later be partitioned once the OS comes up.

Al

On 6/2/2022 2:23 PM, Bill Bradshaw wrote:
> Is there a way to partition a VirtualBox drive?
>
> <Bill>

1) Boot Linux LiveDVD and use

sudo apt install gparted
sudo gparted /dev/sda # If you only want to work on one disk
sudo gparted # Or use menu to select sda, sdb, sdc...

2) Boot Windows Installer DVD, select Troubleshooting,
select Command Prompt. The Command Prompt is administrator level...

diskpart
list disk
select disk 1 # like selecting sda in Linux
... # There are commands for the rest of it.
# You can create blank labeled partitions for everything

When a disk is blank (like a new VirtualBox disk), you need to
tell the disk whether it is to be MBR (legacy partitioning) or GPT
(suited to later Windows). Then you can define partitions.

When OS installers do their thing, they may re-format a volume
and screw up your carefully curated "label". Which will have to be
put back later via "Properties" or similar.

*******

Usually the OS installer has a "Custom" selector, and there is
a mini-partitioning tool offered to you there. Only the MacOS
is arcane enough to have a separate human-aided disk setup step.

*******

Windows Disk Management, if you "click" the left-most box in
any disk row, the "Attach VHD" commands in the menu will be enabled.
You can attach a .vhd file as a disk drive, and work on it in
host Disk Management. When done, you select Detach for the item in question,
as Disk Management cannot have a .vhd attached at the same time VirtualBox
is writing to it :-) I don't generally start with completely blank
..vhd files and do the entire setup that way. But I do attach .vhd files
for other types of operations, such as sdelete64 -z Q: to
zero out the white space on VHD volume Q: .

The diskpart command (analogous to the GUI Disk Management diskmgmt.msc
application), it also can interact with .vhd files. And I "compact"
VHD files there (shrink down the zeroed out space from the previous
sdelete64 step).

diskpart
select vdisk FILE=F:\WIN10.vhd
compact vdisk

When you make a brand-new dynamic VHD, it is already shrunk as
much as it will go.

VHDs also come in static flavor, where the
file starts out 40GB in size, and neither
shrinks nor grows. But that is a horrible waste of space.

The other container formats, have even crazier options. One of the
containers can be segmented, so your 40GB drive can consist of
ten 4GB files. And if you lose one... etc.

Paul

Paul wrote:
> On 6/2/2022 2:23 PM, Bill Bradshaw wrote:
>> Is there a way to partition a VirtualBox drive?
>>
>> <Bill>
>
> 1) Boot Linux LiveDVD and use
>
> sudo apt install gparted
> sudo gparted /dev/sda # If you only want to work on one disk
> sudo gparted # Or use menu to select sda, sdb, sdc...
>
> 2) Boot Windows Installer DVD, select Troubleshooting,
> select Command Prompt. The Command Prompt is administrator level...
>
> diskpart
> list disk
> select disk 1 # like selecting sda in Linux
> ... # There are commands for the rest of it.
> # You can create blank labeled
> partitions for everything
> When a disk is blank (like a new VirtualBox disk), you need to
> tell the disk whether it is to be MBR (legacy partitioning) or GPT
> (suited to later Windows). Then you can define partitions.
>
> When OS installers do their thing, they may re-format a volume
> and screw up your carefully curated "label". Which will have to be
> put back later via "Properties" or similar.
>
> *******
>
> Usually the OS installer has a "Custom" selector, and there is
> a mini-partitioning tool offered to you there. Only the MacOS
> is arcane enough to have a separate human-aided disk setup step.
>
> *******
>
> Windows Disk Management, if you "click" the left-most box in
> any disk row, the "Attach VHD" commands in the menu will be enabled.
> You can attach a .vhd file as a disk drive, and work on it in
> host Disk Management. When done, you select Detach for the item in
> question, as Disk Management cannot have a .vhd attached at the same time
> VirtualBox is writing to it :-) I don't generally start with completely
> blank
> .vhd files and do the entire setup that way. But I do attach .vhd
> files for other types of operations, such as sdelete64 -z Q: to
> zero out the white space on VHD volume Q: .
>
> The diskpart command (analogous to the GUI Disk Management
> diskmgmt.msc application), it also can interact with .vhd files. And I
> "compact"
> VHD files there (shrink down the zeroed out space from the previous
> sdelete64 step).
>
> diskpart
> select vdisk FILE=F:\WIN10.vhd
> compact vdisk
>
> When you make a brand-new dynamic VHD, it is already shrunk as
> much as it will go.
>
> VHDs also come in static flavor, where the
> file starts out 40GB in size, and neither
> shrinks nor grows. But that is a horrible waste of space.
>
> The other container formats, have even crazier options. One of the
> containers can be segmented, so your 40GB drive can consist of
> ten 4GB files. And if you lose one... etc.
>
> Paul

Thanks. I should have given more information. It is a VDI disk running 32
bit WinXP. The VDI was created at 10 Gigs and I assume is MBR. I want to
create a 500MB fat partition on it for an old DOS program that does not like
anything but fat.

<Bill>

On 6/3/2022 11:53 AM, Bill Bradshaw wrote:
> Paul wrote:
>> On 6/2/2022 2:23 PM, Bill Bradshaw wrote:
>>> Is there a way to partition a VirtualBox drive?
>>>
>>> <Bill>
>>
>> 1) Boot Linux LiveDVD and use
>>
>> sudo apt install gparted
>> sudo gparted /dev/sda # If you only want to work on one disk
>> sudo gparted # Or use menu to select sda, sdb, sdc...
>>
>> 2) Boot Windows Installer DVD, select Troubleshooting,
>> select Command Prompt. The Command Prompt is administrator level...
>>
>> diskpart
>> list disk
>> select disk 1 # like selecting sda in Linux
>> ... # There are commands for the rest of it.
>> # You can create blank labeled
>> partitions for everything
>> When a disk is blank (like a new VirtualBox disk), you need to
>> tell the disk whether it is to be MBR (legacy partitioning) or GPT
>> (suited to later Windows). Then you can define partitions.
>>
>> When OS installers do their thing, they may re-format a volume
>> and screw up your carefully curated "label". Which will have to be
>> put back later via "Properties" or similar.
>>
>> *******
>>
>> Usually the OS installer has a "Custom" selector, and there is
>> a mini-partitioning tool offered to you there. Only the MacOS
>> is arcane enough to have a separate human-aided disk setup step.
>>
>> *******
>>
>> Windows Disk Management, if you "click" the left-most box in
>> any disk row, the "Attach VHD" commands in the menu will be enabled.
>> You can attach a .vhd file as a disk drive, and work on it in
>> host Disk Management. When done, you select Detach for the item in
>> question, as Disk Management cannot have a .vhd attached at the same time
>> VirtualBox is writing to it :-) I don't generally start with completely
>> blank
>> .vhd files and do the entire setup that way. But I do attach .vhd
>> files for other types of operations, such as sdelete64 -z Q: to
>> zero out the white space on VHD volume Q: .
>>
>> The diskpart command (analogous to the GUI Disk Management
>> diskmgmt.msc application), it also can interact with .vhd files. And I
>> "compact"
>> VHD files there (shrink down the zeroed out space from the previous
>> sdelete64 step).
>>
>> diskpart
>> select vdisk FILE=F:\WIN10.vhd
>> compact vdisk
>>
>> When you make a brand-new dynamic VHD, it is already shrunk as
>> much as it will go.
>>
>> VHDs also come in static flavor, where the
>> file starts out 40GB in size, and neither
>> shrinks nor grows. But that is a horrible waste of space.
>>
>> The other container formats, have even crazier options. One of the
>> containers can be segmented, so your 40GB drive can consist of
>> ten 4GB files. And if you lose one... etc.
>>
>> Paul
>
> Thanks. I should have given more information. It is a VDI disk running 32
> bit WinXP. The VDI was created at 10 Gigs and I assume is MBR. I want to
> create a 500MB fat partition on it for an old DOS program that does not like
> anything but fat.
>
> <Bill>

In the Wikipedia article, there is FAT12, FAT16, and FAT32.

I think there is some size dependency. I seem to remember using
the "HP Formatter" for a relatively small USB stick.

But some of this is pretty old topic material. Even in 2004,
people were having trouble remembering what to do :-)

https://msfn.org/board/topic/34410-fat12-format-tool-needed/

FAT32 can be done with the Ridgecrop Formatter.

The HP Formatter was used for small USB sticks, and
that's either FAT12 or FAT16. This is probably not the
version I used back then. The URLs for HP stuff kept changing,
so I don't know how easy it will be to track one down.

https://download.cnet.com/HP-USB-Disk-Storage-Format-Tool/3000-2094_4-10974082.html

Using a P2V tool is one way to take a formatted physical device
and make a virtual volume out of it. For example disk2vhd from
sysinternals, could do that. But then you'd need a VHD to VDI tool.
And it's always a royal pain figuring out how to chain together
enough odd crusty tools to do some of those. Like, VBoxManage does
not have a full matrix of functions. Some of the from-to combinations
are missing.

Paul

On 6/3/2022 11:53 AM, Bill Bradshaw wrote:

>
> Thanks. I should have given more information. It is a VDI disk running 32
> bit WinXP. The VDI was created at 10 Gigs and I assume is MBR. I want to
> create a 500MB fat partition on it for an old DOS program that does not like
> anything but fat.
>
> <Bill>

There's nothing particularly special about the GParted CD.
It is even tough to get it to boot in VirtualBox.

But it can be used to make FAT12 or FAT16, can take two separate programs.

https://i.postimg.cc/KYtFLk16/adventures-in-FAT.gif

mkdosfs -F 12 /dev/sda1

Paul

Bill Bradshaw wrote:

> I should have given more information. It is a VDI disk running 32
> bit WinXP. The VDI was created at 10 Gigs and I assume is MBR. I want to
> create a 500MB fat partition on it for an old DOS program that does not like
> anything but fat.

I'd do exactly the same as I would if it was a physical disk, instead of virtual.

Boot a vbox VM from a .iso of partedmagic and use it to shrink/move your 10GB to
make space for a 500MB FAT partition ...