BSD install kept on windows? reddit / BSD ---------------------------------------------------------------------- SaratogaCx · 2010-07-02 01:25 I've been playing with Linux for a while and have mainly been using tools like wubi to install the OS into an image file on my ntfs drive (Win7 host). this setup a dual boot in which the linux side treated the file as a drive. I'd like to build the same setup for a BSD but have not found any tools or instructions on how to accomplish this. My questions are; does a method exist to set this up using bsd, and where would one find how to do this. Thanks! ---------------------------------------------------------------------- rz2000 · 2010-07-02 02:52 I am not aware of a similar configuration for BSD. It will not be as resource efficient, but VirtualBox works really well, and the shared folders will give you a lot of the same functionality you're used to. [Here is VirtualBox](http://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Downloads), and [here are some pre-configured images](http://sourceforge.net/projects/virtualboximage/files/), though installing anything from standard installation images is simple, too. Also, [Devio.us](https://devio.us/signup) offers free BSD shell accounts if you want to experiment with something that is always online. edit: Click on the [listings here for the credentials](http://virtualboxes.org/images/). ---------------------------------------------------------------------- SaratogaCx · 2010-07-02 03:58 I wanted to avoid Virtualbox because I wanted to utilize my hardware fully (graphics card and such). Also Devio.us doesn't consider "learning about bsd" to be a valid reason to get an account. I was already rejected for that and don't feel that I need to try again. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- square_cubed · 2010-07-02 05:09 Is there a reason why you can't just create a separate partition? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- rz2000 · 2010-07-02 05:27 Devio.us may be somewhat of a lottery since I essentially said the same thing. If you're interested primarily in learning, some of the paravirtualization options like Xen might be interesting even though Windows doesn't play that well. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- SaratogaCx · 2010-07-02 05:40 Mainly the reason I don't want to repartition is that it is easier to handle system resources if I don't have to deal with resizing partitions. Especially if I want to grow the bsd drive after install. I'm only planning on starting with about 30 gb but I want to be able to extend it to 100+ if I find more stuff to do with it. The process was easy with Wubi as it was only needed to extend that partition's allocation. Shrinking ntfs partitions and growing Zfs (or whichever fs I end up using) partitions seems a bit riskier to both OS's ---------------------------------------------------------------------- SaratogaCx · 2010-07-02 05:41 VirtualBox does proper virtualization. I just don't want to have my windows os being a huge chunk of overhead. If I can't find another option I'll end up going this route. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- rz2000 · 2010-07-02 06:09 I use VirtualBox frequently and the overhead seems pretty minimal, though I don't do anything that relies heavily on 3D acceleration. [Paravirtualization](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paravirtualization) would allow you to achieve the type of performance you want while running multiple operating systems that is difficult with full virtualization. However, you may need Citrix's help to get as much performance from Windows. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- fishbot · 2010-07-02 06:39 As far as I know, the answer to your question is no. There is no software to write a NTFS file(that will shrink and grow) that will appear to Windows as an arbitrary binary data file, but appear to BSD as an actual drive. With that said, go buy a new hard drive. For under 50 dollars, you can get around 250GB worth of storage. And if you find you don't like BSD, you can reformat it to NTFS/EXT3/4 and have some backup storage.