Copy bootable CF and convert to vdi

**Wizball** · February 13th, 2013

Hi

I have been struggling with this all night.
if I use
dd if=/dev/sda1 of=/home/wizball/Desktop/access1/convert/cf.image

to copy the CF it just copies the files it seems and does nto make a boot able vdi afterwards.

If I use
dd if=/dev/sda of=/home/wizball/Desktop/access1/convert/cf-card.img

after mounting the cf to sda1 then it copies the cf and see,s to go on to the hard drive that is also mounted there.

I have looked around the Internet for solution but cannot find one.

I have managed to convert the image that is produced using
VBoxManage convertdd cf.image cf.vdi --format VDI

but it will not boot.

I am connecting the CF card to the computer via usb.

many thanks in advance
Peter

**lmarmisa** · February 14th, 2013

Hi Peter,

You are trying to create an image of a CF and then convert it to vdi format.

First step will be the copy. You do not need any virtual machine for this step. I suppose you have a physical computer running Ubuntu.

You have to be sure that the CF device is not mounted (umount it if necessary). I will suppose that CF device is /dev/sdc. Then you have to type this command:

Code:

sudo dd if=/dev/sdc of=CF.image.dd

You have to use a virtual machine with Ubuntu or other Linux distro for the second step.

Define an additional virtual disk (.vdi) with just the same size of CF. Do not initialize it. I will suppose that the device assigned to this new virtual disk will be /dev/sdb.

Copy the file CF.image.dd to a folder of the virtual machine and go to that folder.

Then type this command:

Code:

sudo dd if=CF.image.dd of=/dev/sdb

Shutdown the virtual machine.

The file vdi will contain the image of the CF converted to vdi format.

An alternative for step 2 (raw disk image to vdi conversion) would be to use the VirtualBox tools:

http://www.virtualbox.org/manual/ch08.html#idp14558704

**Wizball** · February 14th, 2013

thanks lmarmisa

but how do I find

Code:

/dev/sdc

if the drive is not mounted

many thanks

Originally Posted by lmarmisa

Hi Peter,

You are trying to create an image of a CF and then convert it to vdi format.

First step will be the copy. You do not need any virtual machine for this step. I suppose you have a physical computer running Ubuntu.

You have to be sure that the CF device is not mounted (umount it if necessary). I will suppose that CF device is /dev/sdc. Then you have to type this command:

Code:

sudo dd if=/dev/sdc of=CF.image.dd

You have to use a virtual machine with Ubuntu or other Linux distro for the second step.

Define an additional virtual disk (.vdi) with just the same size of CF. Do not initialize it. I will suppose that the device assigned to this new virtual disk will be /dev/sdb.

Copy the file CF.image.dd to a folder of the virtual machine and go to that folder.

Then type this command:

Code:

sudo dd if=CF.image.dd of=/dev/sdb

Shutdown the virtual machine.

The file vdi will contain the image of the CF converted to vdi format.

An alternative for step 2 (raw disk image to vdi conversion) would be to use the VirtualBox tools:

http://www.virtualbox.org/manual/ch08.html#idp14558704

**lmarmisa** · February 15th, 2013

Originally Posted by Wizball

thanks lmarmisa

but how do I find

Code:

/dev/sdc

if the drive is not mounted

many thanks

Use this command if you wish to list the drives detected by the system:

Code:

sudo fdisk -l

**Wizball** · February 15th, 2013

that is great thanks the the first part was a lot longer then I had seen before according to that command but seems to have worked.

QUOTE=lmarmisa;12510300]Use this command if you wish to list the drives detected by the system:

Code: