Problem loading Win10 in Virtualbox

The checksum I got was 0d56669ba4388d8b68c18221827f1c89ceaa49091437eb04f78ecfd1ef45b436 *Win10_21H1_EnglishInternational_x64.iso.

This is the file from the Microsoft site.

I just downloaded an ISO from Microsloth (100% legit*) and installed in VirtualBox (running on Ubuntu 20.04) and had no problems whatsoever, apart from it slowing my Linux to a crawl (I have 16 GB RAM and 8 cores in Ubuntu - I gave the VM 8 GB of RAM and 4 cores)…

I’d forgotten how much I hate (that’s putting it mildly) installing Windows…

Apparently “We’re getting everything ready for you…” and “This might take several minutes…” yeah right… and then the old “Leave everything to us.”…

I don’t have an activation code, yet… I don’t care… probably won’t use it… I’ve got various 2012 / 2016 / 2019 Windows servers I can RDP to, or Citrix…

Got the ISO from here :

https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/software-download/windows10ISO

2 Likes

That differs from what I read in the table…

Judging by the length of that sum I’d guess you used sha256?

I just ran both md5 and sha256 and got a very different checksum (and the filename is the same as quoted by you) than you’ve quoted :

╭─x@titan ~/BNZ/ISO/Windows  
╰─➤  md5sum Win10_21H1_EnglishInternational_x64.iso
b51e1111832c42b5917947d8ca1d611b  Win10_21H1_EnglishInternational_x64.iso
╭─x@titan ~/BNZ/ISO/Windows  
╰─➤  sha256sum Win10_21H1_EnglishInternational_x64.iso
cb8731a17350b2f61ad1c059fc16fd6348530c25e43f631f2691768f767f75c3  Win10_21H1_EnglishInternational_x64.iso
╭─x@titan ~/BNZ/ISO/Windows  
╰─➤  ls -al Win10_21H1_EnglishInternational_x64.iso
-rwxrwxr-x 1 x family 5832765440 Oct  1 14:18 Win10_21H1_EnglishInternational_x64.iso

Now - I can’t get a checksum from Microsoft so I can’t verify the “source” - but - I was successfully able to install Windows 10 from that ISO image file in VirtualBox (desktop version running on Ubuntu 20.04).

Note : I also ran sha512sum (overkill) on it - and that’s still very different from the result you got.

Back in the olden days, I used to sometimes use plain vanilla “UNIX” cksum to compare two files - but it can be used in this case, although it’s nowhere near as rigorous as md5 or sha :

╭─x@titan ~/BNZ/ISO/Windows  
╰─➤  cksum Win10_21H1_EnglishInternational_x64.iso
3611003494 5832765440 Win10_21H1_EnglishInternational_x64.iso

Yes, you can :slight_smile:


On the actual download page expand “Verify download”, and get the table.
At a first glance you got the correct result… :smiley:

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so you can, so you can, I stand (actually, I’m sitting down) corrected :smiley:

Microsoft :

CB8731A17350B2F61AD1C059FC16FD6348530C25E43F631F2691768F767F75C3

Me (sha256) :

cb8731a17350b2f61ad1c059fc16fd6348530c25e43f631f2691768f767f75c3

And NOT a SINGLE one starts with 0d5… per @asharpham original post… So - NONE of them match :

0d56669ba4388d8b68c18221827f1c89ceaa49091437eb04f78ecfd1ef45b436

So to me - it looks like you got yourself a dud, mate… Try again?

Maybe use a resumable download manager, to be sure, to be sure? I find Brave’s default downloader does a reasonable job as “download manager” - but if it’s something I really want/need - I usually use wget as my download manager…

2 Likes

I’ll download the same file again and let you know the result.

By the way, I’m downloading from Download Windows 10 Disc Image (ISO File).

Interestingly, the ISO file I just downloaded is 5.8Gb whereas the ‘same file’ I downloaded last time was 4.3Gb. The only difference is the new file came from ‘en-gb’ instead of ‘en-au’.

A friend finally got it working for me. It appears the missing step was to create another optical drive. I was selecting the existing (physical) CD drive. He also provided a different ISO file.

╭─x@titan ~/BNZ/ISO/Windows  
╰─➤  ls -al Win10_21H1_EnglishInternational_x64.iso
-rwxrwxr-x 1 x family 5832765440 Oct  1 14:18 Win10_21H1_EnglishInternational_x64.iso

So yeah - you got a dud file…

Setting VirtualBox to use a downloaded ISO file aint rocket science, and, is exactly the same process as on a Windows machine or a Mac running VirtualBox…

1 Like

Weird. I got it from the Microsoft Australia site.

Thought I would share what I had to do to get W10 Home Edition to install in VirtualBox.


It is updating now, but that is the easy part.
I tried several times and with several ISO’s to boot W10, but VirtualBox would have nothing to
do with that. I finally downloaded a W10 Home iso, which is about 4.3GB and burned it to a
4.7GB DVD-RW disc. I was then able to use the host dvd drive and boot W10.
I also have a W7 Home Premium product key that I used for activation.
W10 sure takes up a lot of drive space to install, compared to Linux. I did a 100GB vdi for
VirtualBox, and the last time I checked it was over 30GB and still getting updates.
I now have Gentoo and W10 running as guests with a W10 host.