Boot from hardware USB devices in Virtual Machines

Boot from hardware USB devices in Virtual Machines
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Virtualization software allows a wide variety of boot options, like ISO files, etc. If you would like to boot from hardware USB devices, you may run into problems. Here is how it works.

Introduction

If you would like to boot a virtual machine, the boot media must be available before starting the machine. This may be a problem, when mapping real USB devices, because they are not.

Boot from ISO to boot from USB

The Plop Boot Manager is available as a small ISO file and is able to provide a boot redirect to usb.

Screenshot

So all you have to do is:

  • Create a VM you would like to boot from real USB hardware
  • Download Plop Boot Manager ISO
  • Boot a VM from Plop ISO
  • Make the USB device available in the VM
  • Select “USB” from the boot menu
  • Voilá - it boots from USB!

BTW: This is very powerful when combined with Ventoy ;-)

Andreas Fuhrich avatar
About Andreas Fuhrich
I’m a professional software developer and tech enthusiast from Germany. On this website I share my personal notes and side project details. If you like it, you could support me on github - if not, feel free to file an issue :-)