Writes on raw partition not persistent

[ilo]

Created a vmdk disk for only my linux partition with vboxmanage internalcommands createrawvmdk. Virtualbox sees the disk correctly and I can successfully boot and access the partition and OS without any issues. However writes don't get commited to the physical disk, so when you reboot the changes you made are lost.

If you copy in too much data, if you are lucky only the guest will crash. If you aren't lucky then virtualbox crashes and either takes the host with it or just lingers there unable to be killed. Never installed virtualbox before so no old drivers hanging around. Host is windows 7.

I tried using the 4 controllers available through the gui and didn't make a difference. I tried marking the hd as writethrough (rather than normal) and didn't make a difference either.

[Klaus Espenlaub]

That's totally insufficient information. You need to provide partitioning information, and the created raw partition vmdk file. Without that no one can tell what's going wrong.

[ilo]

VMDK was fine so i did not attach it, and log files apparently didn't have anything of interest either.

What did "fix" it was uninstalliing the ext2fs driver that, while not started or having any mount points configured, was still interferring. I'm going to see if they want to add a note to their faq about it.

[Klaus Espenlaub]

If "they" = Sun, then don't hold your breath. The manual already clearly says that you must not use/mount the same partition from the guest and the host simultaneously.