Re: [Qemu-discuss] Wrap a disk partition to make a disk

[Djordje Dragic]

I've heard its not easy to add some data to a beginning of huge file, in Linux,
without a lot of copying.

Some people on internet have used .vmdk format for this. 
It enables you to have MBR and other partitions in separate files from that one 
partition.
If qemu can use .vmdk, that might be a good solution.


On Mon, 15 Sep 2014 10:30:43 -0400
address@hidden (Dale R. Worley) wrote:

> I can see situations where I have a disk partition (either a real
> partition, /dev/sdx7, or in a file) that I want to present to a
> virtual machine as a partition on a disk, but the partition isn't
> inside a disk image.
> 
> It struck me that one can straightforwardly "wrap" a partition with an
> MBR, partition table, and a few sectors of padding to make a disk
> image.  You can put the MBR, partition table, and padding in a small
> temporary file, and then use "dm" to assemble a virtual disk device
> that looks like a disk image containing the partition.  This virtual
> disk can be made available to Qemu.
> 
> Has anyone written a program to do this?
> 
> Dale
>