Windows 7 Booting

Windows 7 - Booting from a .VHD file

If you want to boot from a Windows 7 (Windows Server 2008 R2) installed on a new .VHD do the following steps:

A.-  Creating the .VHD file and Windows 7 installation on that .VHD file

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:\Windows7Build7000.vhd maximum=40000
6. Type: select vdisk file=c:\Windows7Build7000.vhd
7. Type: attach vdisk (in previous Betas, it was ’surface’ instead of ‘attach’)
8. Type: ‘exit’ (you exit Windows Repair, but Do Not Reboot)
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. You might get an error/warning saying that your computer hardware might not support this disk, just ignore it..).
10. Reboot, and you ready to go!