VERR_ACCESS_DENIED when using raw disk on Windows 10 host

[szx]

I created an Ubuntu 16.10 x86_64 VM and attach added raw disk to it which is an internal SATA hard drive (not the system one). I followed the procedure described in the manual for Windows hosts and successfully created a raw disk with VBoxManage.

However, during installation of the gust Ubuntu system as soon as it attempted to modify the disk the VM was paused with the following error:

The I/O cache encountered an error while updating data in medium "ahci-0-0" (rc=VERR_ACCESS_DENIED). Make sure there is enough free space on the disk and that the disk is working properly. Operation can be resumed afterwards.

Error ID: BLKCACHE_IOERR Severity: Non-Fatal Error

despite that I was running VirtualBox as admin.

[szx]

VBox.log

[szx]

This appears to be the same bug as:

https://www.virtualbox.org/ticket/14461

but it says it was fixed in 5.0.x.

[szx]

Enabling "Use host I/O cache" did not help.

[Frank Mehnert]

Are you sure that the host medium where the virtual disk is stored (your drive d:) is writable for the user who started VirtualBox? For instance if your drive is some kind of USB stick or external USB drive then it could be very well that the Windows host detected some problem and forbid writing to that drive. VERR_ACCESS_DENIED means that VirtualBox is not allowed to write to that file.

[brdeveloper]

I'm facing the same issue. I can properly boot a Ubuntu 16.04 raw vmdk from a MacOS High Sierra Host, but cannot from Windows 10. After enabling "Use host I/O cache" I get a write error and the guest system boots as read-only. It seems like a host-related issue, since MacOS can boot the raw vmdk flawlessly.

[Socratis]

Replying to brdeveloper:

It seems like a host-related issue, since MacOS can boot the raw vmdk flawlessly.

It is, but even on OSX you've got to take steps to make sure that the device is RW for everyone. For an external USB for example, I have to take its permissions from:

root# ls -al /dev/disk2
brw-r-----  1 root  operator    1,   5 23 Μαϊ 23:38 /dev/disk2

to

root# chmod go+w /dev/disk2
root# ls -al /dev/disk2
brw-rw-rw-  1 root  operator    1,   5 23 Μαϊ 23:38 /dev/disk2

otherwise, you're out of luck. Oh, and you have to "eject" it as well. This way I don't even have to be an admin on OSX. I think that for Windows you have to be an admin...

[npradeep357]

I'm trying to create a VM on USB stick using raw disk feature. in the process of installation of OS, I'm getting this error.

oracle virtualbox version : 5.2.12 r122591 (Qt5.6.2)

[Socratis]

@npradeep357

1. You didn't include the error.
2. You should definitely try first in the ​VirtualBox forums. More than 95% of the issues are resolved over there, which keeps the developers focusing on the bug fixes and enhancements.