How do I get a virtual machine to use a REAL hard drive?

Question

I've got a Kubuntu 6.10/Windows XP dual-boot set up. But I was wondering, is it possible to access Windows from Kubuntu and use the Windows hard drive? I know that I can turn the hard drive into a virtual hard drive, but I don't want to do that. Basically, everytime I make a difference in the virtual machine, I want the change to also change in the Windows partition. Is it possible?

Answer 1

if your vm were to use physical harddisk, this volume or partition must not be mounted on the host machine. your best bet is to share the common drive and use the LAN to transfer data.

when you talkin about dual booting, that means no virtual PC is involved. for this case it's best that you use a common filesystem for both OSes, which is FAT32 (note that it has 4gb file limitation).
for ubuntu to write on NTFS is also possible with a little effort. but be careful not to touch windows system file, otherwise you'll ruin your XP installation.

Answer 2

you can install vm over kubuntu and then install windows xp in vm you have two windows installations then but what the heck you have a two boots as well