Score:1

Pass through SATA drive to VirtualBox VM

ng flag

I have a SanDisk 1TB SSD SATA drive. There are firmware updates available via SanDisk SSD Dashboard. The dashboard is only available on Windows.

I have a Windows 10 VM in VirtualBox. I want to know if it's possible to pass thorugh the SATA drive so I can do the firmware updates?

I think it's not enough to connect /dev/sda to the VM because the firmware update commands won't reach the SSD.

Is it possible?

ChanganAuto avatar
us flag
No, not possible. Either use a bare metal installation of Windows or, if available, the firmware update project may provide the same firmware update via Linux.
N0rbert avatar
zw flag
You can try to use [createrawvmdk method](https://www.virtualbox.org/manual/ch09.html#rawdisk), but it is unlkely that low-level commands will reach the drive.
in flag
If this 1TB SSD is where `/` is mounted, then ChanganAuto is correct in stating it is not possible. If this device is an auxiliary used for non `/` or `/home` purposes, then you can pass it through to the VM with the understanding that doing so will make the device unavailable to the host OS. Be sure to properly unmount the device beforehand.
somega avatar
ng flag
It is not my primary partition. I don't need it in my host OS so it's no problem if it is unavailable. @N0rbert I think this will not work because low-level commands won't be passed through.
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