Can I run a virtual OS with the OS that is installed on my HDD?

[mktoater]

I'm not sure where to put this thread, but here it goes.

I have a few machines that I have double- and triple-booted -- various versions of Windows, OSX and linux.

So I was wondering if I could use a Virtual machine and run the OS that is already installed on the harddrive while on another OS. Basically I want to use all the OS' and don't want to reboot to switch and already have them all installed.

For example -- Say my machine has OSx, Ubuntu and Windows 8 installed on 3 partitions. If I am in OSx (partition 1) can I make a virtual machine to run the same installation of Ubuntu that is on partition 5?

Is this achievable? Why or why not? What program(s) would I need to do this?

 

[Ijack]

You can attach physical disks to virtual machines. However, the problem is that most, if not all, operating systems are configured to work with specific hardware. The virtual machine presents different hardware so the OS may not work in the scenario you envisage. Or, worse, it will work but will become corrupted when you switch machines.

By all means have a go, providing you have good backups. But be prepared for the possibility that you might have to re-install everything. A better solution is just to install the OSs in VMs to start with.

 

[tech01234]

why not! you can run dual OS on single PC, its possible by virtual machine software. For installation go with the link.
http/techinforum.wordpress.com/2014/08/31/how-to-install-virtual-machine-software-for-windows-8/