Boot vista VHD

[rculver9056]

Anyone figured out how to boot Vista from a vhd yet...?

I've read snippets of info and a guide (here, I think), but have had no luck.

I am running Windows 7, and I don't want to install vista (again), then create the Windows 7 VHD, but boot Vista directly from a VHD.

I've tried running Vista in VirtualPC on Windows 7, but it runs like a bag of s*** (Only have 4 gig of RAM at the moment, and gave the Vista machine half of it)

Any help would be muchly appreciated, and my apolagies if it's already been posted and I've just missed it (highly likely )

[spacesurfer]

I don't think it's possible. However, you're welcome to try it.

A possible method of making it boot would be to sysprep you're VPC Vista VHD install. However, you need a boot manager capable of booting VHD's and only Windows 7 is capable right now. Try replace bootmgr from Win 7 to Vista and see if that makes it capable. You'll have to add it to the boot menu, which is not too difficult and you can find instructions anywhere.

Also, if Vista is running slow on your VPC, then try giving is LESS memory; like go from 2 gb to 1 gb. It seems counterintuitive but that worked for me. It seems my host was being suffocated when I gave the guest more memory.

[rculver9056]

Thanks for your reply, spacesurfer.

I'd like some more info on this sysprep idea - Any idea where I can get it?

Also, I am running windows 7, so wouldn't this boot manager support it? I did manage to get a Windows 7 vhd to boot, and the guide I was using for the vista boot idea copied the entry in bcdedit and pointed it to the Vista vhd, but when I tried to boot that, the Windows 7 boot manager (unhelpfully) 'repaired' it so that the Vista entry just booted Windows 7 as well.

As I don't want to loose the Windows 7 instalation I have now (I spent a few hours tweaking and customising it), is there a way to make my c:\ (Windows 7 system) drive into a vhd, and boot that? Then I'd do a fresh install of vista and hack the boot menu to boot Windows 7, as suggested elsewhare on this board.

Thanks again for your help

By the way is this emoticon ( ) a Taliban or what....? LOL

[Tripredacus]

By the way is this emoticon ( ) a Taliban or what....? LOL

This emote, using "ph34r" bbcode, I believe used to be :ninja

[jaclaz]

By the way is this emoticon ( ) a Taliban or what....? LOL

This emote, using "ph34r" bbcode, I believe used to be :ninja

And, just for the record, there is a "vanishing" version of it:

jaclaz

[cluberti]

The problem with booting from VHD is that the bootloader and kernel for the OS that is actually booting inside the VHD must support it and all the virtual calls made (including running with a paging file in the host OS, etc), which Vista does not. You might be able to hack in Windows 7 boot files and kernel, but at that point what is really the point - why not just run Win7?

[rculver9056]

jaclaz: Cool!

Cluberti: I am running windows 7 (installed), but just wanted to try things the other way around, ie running 7 and having vista in a VHD rather than like all the folks running Vista with 7 in a vhd. I did succesfully run Window 7 from a vhd for a while though - I liked the idea of not partitioning, and the only thing with it was that the performance rating thing would fail checking the hard drive speeds.

Didn't notice anything else with running it that way, really.

Anyway, thanks for your advice - Armed with that knowledge, I'll...Um...Stop trying :-)

I wouldn't want to go back to Vista after using 7 anyway, and I was only playing now that Microsoft gives us this Virtual Windows XP thing anyway.

One more quick question - Anyone found any caveats (other than the performance tool one I mentioned above) about running 7 in a vhd?

Your opinions will be appreciated. I can see one 'plus' - Full system backup? Copy the VHD file!

Edited August 18, 2009 by rculver9056

[spacesurfer]

You cannot enable hibernation with a VHD install. Other than the not being able to calculate the WEI score, I think there is no other difference.

And yes, you can easily backup VHD, but did you look at how well it compresses? I haven't trying compressing it to see if it compresses. That might be a disadvantage. Otherwise, it's not really a system backup. Although you can recover your VHD, you still need to repair the bootsector and boot menus if it is damaged. But that should be a hassel.

[rculver9056]

I never got my head around all this hibernation stuff - You mean it won't sleep?

[cluberti]

The problem stems from the fact that the paging file for the OS isn't actually on the OS volume, it's in the host OS. This causes problems for things that would normally use the paging or hibernation file to store contents of RAM. Due to the limitations of the design, hibernation doesn't work (although sleep still does, just not hybrid sleep).