VirtualBox Windows 10 64 bit question

[Liam Proven]

On Wed, 10 Nov 2021 at 21:56, Phil <phillor9 at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > Pick the VM's virtual optical drive, browse to an ISO file, use it.
> > Job done. 10× quicker, 10× easier.
> >
> Modern laptops don't have optical drives and I'm not sure that the
> ThinkPad T-420 will read dual layer DVDs but I will check if this is so.
> What then, install from the internal hard disk?

I don't understand the question.

Create a new VM. When you do, the first time you try to boot, it will
ask for a boot medium. It offers a file browser. Click the big [+]
button to add a new medium. Browse to and select your ISO file.

This "inserts" the ISO into the VM's virtual optical drive. As far as
the VM is concerned, you now have a DVD in the drive with the contents
of that ISO. The OS in the VM doesn't "know" it's in a VM, it "thinks"
it is on a real machine, with a real optical drive, and in that drive
is a disk, but in actual fact the disk is an ISO file.

You still need to honour the system requirements of Windows 10,
though. It really needs about 8GB of RAM and about 64GB of hard disk
space to install into, or it won't work. I also suggest giving it 2
CPU cores.

You can't run a VM bigger than your host OS has. You can't fit a quart
into a pint pot.

If you don't have enough RAM and disk space, you can't run big VMs. If
that is the case, I suggest a much smaller guest OS, such as TinyXP:

https://archive.org/details/TinyXPRev11MultiInclTinyBIIAndMicroXP086EXPerience2010

> Five minutes! I attempted to install Windows from the iso file on the
> internal SSD twice yesterday. A total of six hours and the installation
> never finished! It starts off well and starts going haywire somewhere
> after I confirm my account details. The installer displays a message
> that reads "something went wrong" and then displays a retry button and
> sometimes a skip button. I'm then left with the very familiar spinning
> dots and text that reads "just a moment".

What are the specs of your VM?
>
> Just select the hard drive in "settings" where the iso file resides?

No. Select the ISO file.


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