[Update 15 August 2009 – Tested with Windows 7 RTM final version] <\/P>\n
The most important thing to keep in mind is that we currently (prior to Windows 7) cannot natively boot from any kind of .VHD. <\/P>\n
Actually, I have just managed to boot from a Windows 7 installed on a new .VHD, and I installed it right from the Windows 7 DVD. We can do a similar process with “Windows Server 2008 R2 (beta)” installed on a .VHD file, as well.<\/P>\n
If you’d use Virtual PC 2007 to install the Virtual image, the produced .VHD wouldn’t work when trying to boot from the .VHD. <\/B><\/P>\n
A.- Creating the .VHD file and Windows 7 installation on that .VHD file<\/B><\/P>\n
UPDATED: When using Windows 7 RC1 “plain vanilla” installed, it usually creates a small initial partition (about 100Mb), and then, when you do the following steps, you have to specify d: drive instead c: drive. If you try with c: and you get an error message sying something like “You don’t have space enough”, try specifying d: drive. <\/B><\/P>\n
1. Boot the machine using the Windows 7 DVD
2. Choose Windows Repair
3. start CMD
4. Run Diskpart
5. Type: Create vdisk file=c:\\Windows7.vhd maximum=40000 type=expandable
6. Type: select vdisk file=c:\\Windows7.vhd
7. Type: attach vdisk (in previous Betas, it was ‘surface’ instead of ‘attach’)
8. Type: ‘exit’ (you exit Windows Repair, but<\/B> Do Not Reboot<\/U>)
9. Install Windows 7 to this attached .VHD (From Win7 installation, you now have to ‘see’ another Hard Drive, you’ll need to create a partition & format it, first<\/U>. You might get an error\/warning saying that your computer hardware might not support this disk, just ignore it..).
10. Reboot, and you got it!!!!<\/B><\/P>\n
—<\/B><\/P>\n
B.- Configure boot options<\/B><\/P>\n
You might want to chenge dual boot options, options string name, etc. <\/P>\n
When you want to configure the boot options of windows you can use bcdedit.exe<\/B> or EasyBCD<\/B> to modify the boot settings.<\/P>\n
Be careful if you use EasyBCD, as current version might not have new Windows 7 options, yet… <\/P>\n
So, bcdedit.exe<\/B> is harder to use, as it is a console app, but it will work ok for sure! \ud83d\ude42<\/P>\n
For instance, once you have booted in Windows 7 (any boot, you might have 2 ‘Windows 7’ option strings… ;-)), you might want to change those boot options strings. In order to do so, start a CMD prompt and run bcdedit.exe (in \\Windows\\System32) to see the GUID of your boot options:<\/P>\n
bcdedit \/v<\/B><\/P>\n
Remember\/copy the GUID of your VHD installation and type the following line, of course, changing my ‘xxxxxxxx’ stuff to your GUID.<\/P>\n
bcdedit \/set {xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx} description “Windows 7 .VHD Image”<\/B><\/P>\n
You can put the description you like, but the above line will change the description for your VHD installation boot option.<\/P>\n
You can also change the order of the boot options typing the following:<\/P>\n
bcdedit \/displayorder {xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx} \/addlast<\/B><\/P>\n
—<\/P>\n
Finally, once you have these kind of .VHD images, you can copy it and have as many BOOT options as you want.<\/P>\n
The easiest way is to copy an originall boot menu option, like:<\/P>\n
bcdedit \/copy {Original_GUID_Number} \/d “my new description”<\/B>
or
bcdedit \/copy {current} \/d “my new description”
<\/B>or
bcdedit \/copy {default} \/d “my new description”<\/B>
<\/P>\n
Type again the following to see the new GUID for your new copied boot option:<\/P>\n
bcdedit \/v<\/B><\/P>\n
Copy that GUID to a notepad or a paper… <\/P>\n
After that, you must change the 2 pointers within the menu option, so they point to the new\/right .VHD file:
<\/B><\/P>\n
bcdedit \/set {My_new_GUID_Number} device vhd=[C:]\\MyNewVpcFile.vhd<\/SPAN> <\/P>\n bcdedit \/set {My_new_GUID_Number} osdevice vhd=[C:]\\MyNewVpcFile.vhd<\/B><\/P>\n —<\/P>\n So! ,this kind of natively booting is great when you have many Virtual PC images and you want to run it the fastest possible way, I mean, almost like a native installation (We might have a slight delay because everything is stored within a single file, but, it must be a very small difference). In any case, we’re not running a virtual environment nor 2 operating systems at the same time, it must be much faster than using Virtual PC<\/B> or VMware<\/B>. \ud83d\ude42<\/P>\n Btw, if you need more detailed info because you don’t really know Windows 7 setup, neither bcdedit.exe, check the following post. It is a STEP BY STEP procedure with pictures, etc.:<\/P>\n