Edit: Seems to work in Parallels.
Edit 2: Boots in Parallels but is not very usable. Hangs very often, Parallels Tools do not work. Now trying in VirtualBox.
Edit 3: VirtualBox works as good or bad as Parallels. Native install seems to be the best option. Did someone try to install onto an external drive?
It does seem to hang up rather a lot, but it clears after a minute or two and keeps going. No panics yet.
I only did that, since I didn't have any DL DVDs, and no Windows install to make a bootable USB.
Did you tell VBox it's Windows 7? And what version of VBox are you using, please?
Anyways, I ended up downloading the make usb key utility from MS, making a bootable install on the key, then installing on a spare HD on my box. aside from having to slip it all the drivers at start of install, the experience running on the metal is a lot better.
Maybe this helps for VirtualBox
""" You need to have hardware virtualization enabled if you want to run Windows 8 in Virtual Box """
Unknown error creating VM - VERR_VMX_MSR_LOCKED_OR_DISABLED
Thanks anyway!