Can I Install Win7ULTx64 to a VHD on a Laptop with Win7HPx86 ??

Kaktussoft said:

Brink said:

Hello cyberbiker,

Sorry but no to the VHD. Only an installed Windows 7 Ultimate and Enterprise edition supports booting from a VHD. Your Win7HPx86 doesn't.

https://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/2953-virtual-hard-drive-vhd-file-create-start-boot.html

You may not need to format your currently installed Win7HPx86 to be able to dual boot it with Win7ULTx64. If you like, post back with a screenshot showing the full layout of your Disk Management (diskmgmt.msc) window to see what your options may be.

Brink,

Is this really true?????

WIN7HP compared to WIN7 ULTIMATE

• Volume boot sector is the same
• BOOTMGR is the same
• BCD is the same structure

From there it can load win7 x86 (all versions), win7 x64 (all versions), vista, winxp, other bootloaders etc. Even VHD!


But win7HP cannot start if loaded from VHD
Ulitimate can, so I think it should work.

Hello Ron,

I'm afraid so. You must have Windows 8 Pro or Enterprise, or Windows 7 Ultimate or Enterprise installed on the computer to be able to boot from any VHD you like.

Brink said:

Hello Ron,

I'm afraid so. You must have Windows 8 Pro or Enterprise, or Windows 7 Ultimate or Enterprise installed on the computer to be able to boot from any VHD you like.

Now I understand (I hope). It's bootmgr that allows or disallows the boot from vhd. Correct?

So win7ultimate bootmgr file is different.... never noticed that

I'm not exactly sure what allows or disallows it, but those are the only two editions that support booting from a VHD.

Thanks for the suggestions, all. I went with primary drives rather than VHD using a free (for home use) disk utility named Minitool Partition Wizard. It was great! It deleted the D drive, unhid the Fat32 restore partition and moved it, increased the C drive to 223GB then recreated a 59.44GB D drive for OS experimentation. It even performed its own reboot to fix the C drive. never seen that before- an amazing disk utility.
MiniTool Partition Wizard Home Edition - CNET Download.com

Here is the new disk layout:

You're most welcome cyberbiker. I'm glad that we could help. :)

Brink said:

I'm not exactly sure what allows or disallows it, but those are the only two editions that support booting from a VHD.

Read this fully Native VHD Boot is available in all versions of Windows 7 | TechRepublic

Kaktussoft said:

Brink said:

I'm not exactly sure what allows or disallows it, but those are the only two editions that support booting from a VHD.

Read this fully Native VHD Boot is available in all versions of Windows 7 | TechRepublic

Some misunderstandings here? I have always understood it so that you can boot from vhd on any Windows 7 edition except Starter but the OS on that vhd must be Ultimate or Enterprise?

Kaktussoft said:

Brink said:

I'm not exactly sure what allows or disallows it, but those are the only two editions that support booting from a VHD.

Read this fully Native VHD Boot is available in all versions of Windows 7 | TechRepublic

Interesting. I'll have to do some more testing again myself since I'm not so sure about that. I have always thought that all Windows 7 editions can create and attach a VHD, but only the Windows 7 Ultimate and Windows 7 Enterprise editions support booting from a VHD.

Brink said:

Kaktussoft said:

Brink said:

I'm not exactly sure what allows or disallows it, but those are the only two editions that support booting from a VHD.

Read this fully Native VHD Boot is available in all versions of Windows 7 | TechRepublic

Interesting. I'll have to do some more testing again myself since I'm not so sure about that. I have always thought that all Windows 7 editions can create and attach a VHD, but only the Windows 7 Ultimate and Windows 7 Enterprise editions support booting from a VHD.

Virtual Hard Drive VHD File - Create and Start with at Boot

To be able to NATIVE boot from vhd you need :

• have the win7 bootmgr (that can boot from vhd)
• have win7 bcdedit

That's all you need let it boot from vhd.

But if bootmgr loads, the native vhd must know how to access "itself". All win7 versions are capable to do it... it's not a driver issue!

only Windows 7 Enterprise and Windows 7 Ultimate can boot from VHD... all other win7 have blocked it.

Sure vista works as native boot from vhd???? Never tried it

Ok, here are my findings. :)

All Vista, Windows 7, and Windows 8 (except Windows 8 RT) editions support booting from a VHD.

You must have either Windows 7 Ultimate, Windows 7 Enterprise, Windows 8 Pro, or Windows 8 Enterprise installed on the VHD to be able to boot from the VHD natively.