Possible to run Win 7 bootloader from USB stick and boot a VHD?

[zeroid]

I'm looking for a way to dual boot my work laptop which currently has Windows XP on it, but I want to do by making as little change as possible to the existing installation.

Win 7 on a VHD sounds ideal for this, but I want to do it without touching the XP bootloader/boot sector. I thought this might be possible if you could run the windows 7 boot manager from a USB stick, but point it at the VHD on the hard drive (therefore the dual boot option is only available when I insert the USB stick). Is this possible?

As a secondary option I would consider creating a new partition for Windows 7 to live on, but again get it to boot by using a boot manager running from a USB stick without touching the boot loader on the hard drive. Not sure if this is any more possible... I have a boot manager on one of my USB sticks that will boot XP from any hard drive partition, but never tried it with anything else.

If there is no way I'll have to buy an eSata drive and install to that instead...

Thanks in advance for any ideas...

Edited September 13, 2009 by zeroid

[dosworld]

Okay, so I might be completely crazy, BUT:

if you could install windows 7 to the usb drive, and then just change the boot.ini file to point to the VHD...it should work...

You could always delete the Widnows 7 install off the flashdrive once your done, and just keep the bootloader parts.

you would need a boot.ini file from someone who had previously installed windows 7 to a vhd...

Again, Just throwing the idea around.

Vinny

[jaclaz]

Read the stickies here:

http://www.boot-land.net/forums/index.php?showforum=77

particularly this one:

http://www.boot-land.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=9201

AND if needed this thread:

http://www.boot-land.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=9051

jaclaz

[Krish_jayaratne]

Just a little note - Windows 7 has a utility called bcdboot.exe. This is in system32 folder. bcdboot.exe is very similar to good old DOS sys command. It copies the boot files to the given destination and creates a BCD store to boot the given Windows installation. Very useful when trying to fiddle around the booting process. Just run it with /? to get more info and examples.

Krish

Edited October 29, 2009 by Krish_jayaratne