Boot from a VHD using Windows 7

How to Boot from a VHD using Windows 7 and Windows 8​

   Information

Windows 7 and Windows 8 includes support for creating, mounting and booting from VHD images but not many seem to know how to use this functionality to boot VHDs at boot time... I will detail the steps required to have another OS bootable using Windows 7...

This tutorial will show you how to setup Windows 7 or Windows 8 to boot from an existing VHD (Virtual Hard Disk).

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.

   Warning

If you do not have a good knowledge of how to reset your VirtualOS configuration like HAL type and driver configuration then your VHD will fail to boot. It must be cleaned of VirtualOS configuration correctly before Windows can boot your VHD!!

Step 1: If you have not already, create or attach an existing a VHD using the tutorial below.
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/566-virtual-hard-disk-create-attach-vhd.html


Step 2: Open an elevated command prompt.


Step 3: Copy and Paste this command below and press Enter.
NOTE: Substitute VHD_Boot in the command below for what you want to be displayed as the name in Windows Boot Manager.
bcdedit /copy {current} /d "VHD_Boot"

If the command succeeds, BCDEdit displays a message similar to the following:


The entry was successfully copied to {CLSID_Number}

Take note of the CLSID number as you will need this during the next step

Step 4: Then type this command below and press Enter.
NOTE: Substitute C with the drive letter your VHD is on, and substitute disk1 with the name of your VHD file.
bcdedit /set {CLSID_Number} osdevice vhd=[C:]\disk1.vhd

Step 5: Thats it, You can now boot VHDs using Windows 7
To confirm the settings simply type bcdedit

If your VHD is configured correctly You can reboot and select the extra boot-option to boot from your VHD

   Warning

VirtualPC VHDs can not be used for booting with Windows because VirtualPC uses a Pentium 3 HAL and this prevents them from being used as boot media, You can however use this Tutorial: http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/566-virtual-hard-disk-create-attach-vhd.html and create then mount a VHD for use with VMWare Workstation....

You simply set VMWare workstation to use a Physical Disk, you can then Install a separate OS onto this mounted VHD for use with Windows.​

   Tip

You Must reset your VHD VirtualOS configuration like HAL type and driver configuration or your VHD will fail to boot!!! It must be cleaned of VirtualOS configuration correctly before windows 7 can boot your VHD!!

   Note

There are still many bugs associated with VHD booting with Windows 7 at this time, I suspect Microsoft will be releasing a new Version of VirtualPC that's able to manage this entire process of creating, installing and booting separate VHDs at boot-time easily and without so many problems

Related Tutorials

---

• How to Create a Windows 7 VHD at Boot to Start with from Boot
• How to Create a Windows 8 VHD at Boot to Dual Boot with Windows 7 or Vista
• How to Unattach and Delete a Virtual Hard Disk in Windows 7
• How to Create and Attach a Virtual Hard Disk in Windows 7
• How to Fix Missing Vista Hard Disk Partition Letter in Windows 7
• How to Use Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor
• How to Convert a VHD File to a ISO File
• How to make Windows Boot Manager Boot an ISO from your Hard Drive
• How to Create a Bootable ISO from an Older ISO
• How to Create a VHD of a Physical Hard Disk in Windows 7
• How to multi boot with Partition or VHD using WIM ImageX

 

[Flex]

Network boot VHD's?

Is it possible set a path inside the boot manager to a VHD located on another computer?

 

[Night Hawk]

Welcome to SF! Flex

I seriously doubt anyone will be answering that question so I'll make this brief. Any VHD first has to be attached in the Disk Management tool on the local machine it will be booted from before the BCD entry for it is made.

For a vhd located on a totally separate machine from a host you would some other networking configuration in order to start up a virtual machine on the second machine itself by remote access.

One other question regarding booting 7 from a vhd regards the change of editions from the Ultimate 32/64bit beta at the time this guide was first written until now where one blog points out a problem when trying something like this with the Professional not Ultimate edition.

The blog at the link shows this limited to the Ultimate and Enterprise editions only unless making a few changes? Windows 7 – Booting from a VHD – Gotcha

 

[Flex]

Thanks for going out of your way to answer that. I've been looking into other methods. Experimenting with MDOP 2009 on XP and waiting for MDOP 2009 R2 to be released to start experimenting on 7. Appreciate the info. Thanks again.

 

[ence51]

Upgrading XP to Windows 7 on Fusion 3

I am running 32-bit XP as a virtual machine through Fusion 3. As a student I purchased 64-bit Windows 7 upgrade download and hard disk copy. I am unable to open the disk in XP because it is 64-bit. If I create a new 64-bit virtual machine then the disk boots but then tells me that I must install from a valid existing copy of windows (which makes sense since I only purchase the upgrade, not a full copy?). I didn't get far with the download because of the error you mentioned "We are unable to create or save new files in the folder in which this application was downloaded. Please check the folder properties to make sure that you have security permission on the folder to write files and that the folder is not read-only."

Can you help me?

 

[t00ls]

just got this going in 30 min

I followed the tutorial .....and was lost, because I named my vhd something other than disk1

Step 4: Then type this command bcdedit /set {CLSID_Number} osdevice vhd=[C:]\disk1.vhd

that was my mistake...I was in a hurry and didnt read

but how I got this sytem to boot so quick is I opened the windows install dvd's .wim file with 7zip and extracted it to the drive, rebooted ..........voila , setup takes over (rather quickly) and with one reboot.....windows 7 running on a file in a file

oops did I mention I'm on a linux computer running virtualbox windows 7,windows7

 

[techmonkey]

Has MS given other versions of Win7 the ability to boot from VHD besides Ultimate and Server? I have professional.

 

[Kaktussoft]

What is native VHD boot?

Native VHD boot enables a physical computer to be booted directly from a virtual hard disk (VHD) with no requirement for virtualization software (such as Microsoft® Virtual PC or Hyper-V™). Native VHD boot is made possible with the addition of a mini-port driver that is responsible for all input/output (IO) operations to and from the disk. Earlier versions of Windows (such as Windows Vista®, Windows XP, and Windows 2000) do not support native VHD boot, and therefore, you cannot use them to implement the functionality described in this document.

Source: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg318048(v=ws.10).aspx

So no VISTA I assume(?) In tutorial you say VISTA is possible, but is it?

 

[Brink]

Hello Ron,

Yes, you could can boot from a Vista VHD since Windows 7 Ultimate or Enterprise supports booting from a VHD. You just cannot boot from a VHD if your installed OS is anything other than Windows 7 Ultimate or Enterprise.

Since you have Windows 7 Home Premium, you will not be able to boot from a VHD though.

 

[Kaktussoft]

Hello Ron,

Yes, you could can boot from a Vista VHD since Windows 7 Ultimate or Enterprise supports booting from a VHD. You just cannot boot from a VHD if your installed OS is anything other than Windows 7 Ultimate or Enterprise.

Since you have Windows 7 Home Premium, you will not be able to boot from a VHD though.

I already knew it wasn't working in WIN7 HP. So website I referred to is wrong?

 

[Brink]

No, it's not wrong. It doesn't matter what OS the VHD file is. What matters is what OS you have installed to be able to boot from the VHD. That's all it's saying.

 

[shellexecutor]

While all Windows 7 editions can create and attach a VHD, only the Windows 7 Ultimate and Enterprise editions support booting from a VHD.

What if I have a windows 7 Home Premium but I use EasyBCD to boot into VHD?
Is it going to work?

 

[Brink]

Hello ShellExecutor, and welcome to Seven Forums.

Sorry, but no. Only the Windows 7 Ultimate and Enterprise editions support booting from a VHD.

 

[jonnyhotchkiss]

Hi guys,

I'm running Windows 7 (native VHD ) Ultimate x64 on Dell l502x (currently 1 internal drive)
It looks like the MS VHD HBA (Storage Controller) and the HD - ST9750420AS ATA Device (Disk Drive) use the same driver, but the version# is the OS version...

IS THIS NORMAL?

Attempts to update the driver fail (not sure if it's cause the drive is in use, being natively virtualised, or if it's the wrong one...)

Is there a way of updating this driver?

Thanks

 

[pippox0]

Hi,
i have used VirtualBox to install Windows 7 Ultimate on VHD, then i have created Boot menu with EasyBCD.

So i have Copied \boot folder and bootmgr and Windows7.vhd on a new PC with a formatted NTFS harddisk
Then i make it bootable with Bootsect /nt60 i.e C:

Voilà !! A virtualized Windows7 Ultimate on a cleaned and real PC.

PRO
I have a small footprint of Bootmanager
Backup is copy VHD on another Disk
if some goes wrong i can restore /copy the VHD back.
All is inside a fixed/dinamic VHD
I can access my data on real partition NTFS
i Can create/attach another VHD for data

CONS
i cannot easily change the size of VHD
If i want change the pc which is hosting my VHD , i have to reset HAL layer inside VHD to get new hardware updated.

Cheers

PippoX0