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Disk2vhd v1.0 now available

The SysInternals team just announced the availability of a new tool: Disk2vhd.

This is a tool that you run on a running Windows computer to create virtual hard disks copies of the physical disks that are attached.  Under the covers this tool works by taking a Windows Volume Snapshot (VSS) image of the physical hard disk – and then pouring that into a virtual hard disk. 

There are a number of cool uses for this – with a “poor mans P2V” leading the charge.  One thing that you should be aware of is that this tool does not change the drivers / HAL that is used in a system drive – so you may need to take manual steps to make the VHD actually boot in a virtual machine.

Another potential use is to allow you to move a physical installation of Windows 7 to a “boot from VHD” configuration.

You can download this tool here:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/ee656415.aspx

It is supported on Windows XP SP2 / Windows Server 2003 and higher.

Cheers,
Ben

Published Wednesday, October 07, 2009 3:28 PM by Virtual PC Guy

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# re: Disk2vhd v1.0 now available

You're not going to admit you found out about this took from a VMware guy? :)

Jas

Wednesday, October 07, 2009 6:56 PM by Jason Boche

# re: Disk2vhd v1.0 now available

Yes -

I only heard about this from a twitter from Jason.  I would try to play the "Microsoft is a large company, so sometimes I do not know what is happening" but Mark is about 30 seconds walk from my office - and I walk by his office half a dozen times a day.

Sigh... :-)

Cheers,

Ben

Wednesday, October 07, 2009 7:07 PM by Virtual PC Guy

# re: Disk2vhd v1.0 now available

Hi Ben,

RE: One thing that you should be aware of is that this tool does not change the drivers / HAL that is used in a system drive – so you may need to take manual steps to make the VHD actually boot in a virtual machine.

Any good pointers to a guide to carry out these manual steps???

Cheers

Janson

Wednesday, October 07, 2009 7:36 PM by Janson

# re: Disk2vhd v1.0 now available

@Janson,

Check out http://www.vmwareinfo.com/2009/04/testing-virtual-machines-on-hyper-v.html

There are a couple of ways to get the drivers inserted into the VM to get it to boot.

Carlo

Wednesday, October 07, 2009 10:05 PM by Carlo Costanzo

# re: Disk2vhd v1.0 now available

Carlo,

The vizioncore's vConverter went free recently, but I did not tested yet... This might be an occasion.... -:)

Great info..

Vladan

Wednesday, October 07, 2009 10:25 PM by Vladan SEGET

# re: Disk2vhd v1.0 now available

Great tool. Now we need VHD2Disk which I know isn't easy to do (V2P) but not impossible.

Wednesday, October 07, 2009 11:59 PM by Awesome

# re: Disk2vhd v1.0 now available

@Carlo

Thanks, I'll go check that out!

Cheers

Janson

Thursday, October 08, 2009 3:22 AM by Janson

# re: Disk2vhd v1.0 now available

Can anyone confirm or deny that only the Ultimate edition of Windows 7 supports boot from VHD?

Source: http://www.neowin.net/news/main/09/04/30/windows-7-whats-the-difference-between-the-editions

Thursday, October 08, 2009 9:11 AM by betterzerg

# re: Disk2vhd v1.0 now available

"Can anyone confirm or deny that only the Ultimate edition of Windows 7 supports boot from VHD? "

Yes, native VHD boot is supported only by Ultimate and Enterprise editions.

But you can run any edition in VPC or Hyper-V.

Thursday, October 08, 2009 9:19 AM by michael gotch

# re: Disk2vhd v1.0 now available

Thanks michael. I like the idea of having all the OS files neatly contained in a single file in the "topmost" filesystem, but the price difference between 3x Ultimate and the family pack is a bit much.

Thursday, October 08, 2009 9:34 AM by betterzerg

# re: Disk2vhd v1.0 now available

Any support statements from MS on the use of Disk2vhd yet?

Thursday, October 08, 2009 9:52 AM by Aidan Finn

# re: Disk2vhd v1.0 now available

I am doing a P2V and I have one model motherboard that bluescreens when it comes up, configured as an IDE drive. I noticed the system doesn't have intelide.sys which is I believe the driver Hyper-V needs to boot.

Does anybody have a list of the procedures that SCVMM or any other P2V platform uses to put in all the necessary drivers for a Hyper-V VM to boot?

Thursday, October 08, 2009 11:25 AM by Will

# re: Disk2vhd v1.0 now available

I'd like to use file generated by Disk2VHD to boot to VHD feature of Win7.

Tried adding it using bcdedit w/o success, do you know the right procedure?

Thanks

Sunday, October 11, 2009 5:59 AM by Corrado Cavalli

# re: Disk2vhd v1.0 now available

What's the difference, if any, between the vhd created disk2vhd and the vhd created by Windows Server Backup/Windows Backup?

Monday, October 12, 2009 6:47 AM by Sejong

# re: Disk2vhd v1.0 now available

1 -I tried Disk2vhd v1.0 from vista sp2 to vhd in hyper-v and worked ok.

2- I tried Disk2vhd v1.0 from Windows 2003 server sp1 to vhd in hyper-v but it doesn't work (error loading operating system).

Any idea for make this vhd bootable ?

Paolo

Monday, October 12, 2009 12:40 PM by Paolo

# re: Disk2vhd v1.0 now available

Paolo, its not so easy.

But look here:

http://www.vmwareinfo.com/2008/06/extending-bartpe-fix-vmscsi-plugin.html

Tuesday, October 13, 2009 6:59 AM by Meitzi

# re: Disk2vhd v1.0 now available

All -

I do have notes (somewhere around here) on what you need to do to make a system compatible post migration.  I will try to dig them up and write it out.  In the mean time - if you search my blog for "Tips for Migrating" you will find a series that I posted a while ago on migrating XP using a disk copy.

Aidan Finn -

The tool is "unsupported", but the VHDs generated by it are supported (if you can follow that logic).

Corrado Cavalli -

Check: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd799299(WS.10).aspx

Sejong -

Windows backup does not preserve partition / boot sector / other disk information that is preserved by this tool.

Cheers,

Ben

Tuesday, October 13, 2009 1:53 PM by Virtual PC Guy

# re: Disk2vhd v1.0 now available

Re: Injecting files & making registry changes to allow a P2V to boot. would this work?

On W7, copy vhd to local drive, then

Diskpart

select vdisk file="path to .vhd"

attach vdisk

[seems to auto assign drive letters]

Then copy files to mounted .vhd in appropriate locations.

Regedit -> load hive -> [edit registry] -> unload hive

DISKPART> detach vdisk

Wednesday, October 14, 2009 12:10 PM by john kelly

# re: Disk2vhd v1.0 now available

I am having the EXACT same problem as Paolo above . . .

# re: Disk2vhd v1.0 now available

1 -I tried Disk2vhd v1.0 from vista sp2 to vhd in hyper-v and worked ok.

2- I tried Disk2vhd v1.0 from Windows 2003 server sp1 to vhd in hyper-v but it doesn't work (error loading operating system).

Any idea for make this vhd bootable ?

any ideas?

-David

Wednesday, October 14, 2009 3:15 PM by David

# re: Disk2vhd v1.0 now available

I'm having the same problem as Paolo and David but with Windows Server 2003 R2 x64 (with SP2) - "error loading operating system" and the repair option of the setup kit did not make any difference... any "hack"/workaround?

Friday, October 16, 2009 12:51 AM by Luke

# re: Disk2vhd v1.0 now available

Windows Server 2003 R2 x64 (with SP2) - "error loading operating system"  <= same error here :(

Tuesday, October 20, 2009 1:55 AM by Jan Hendrik

# re: Disk2vhd v1.0 now available

If you have problems when moving Windows Server 2003 (SCSI hard drives) physical server to virtual, check this:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314082 (yes, this also applies to Windows Server 2003)

You need add IDE drivers. Easiest way to do this is before "virtualing" but of course it is possible to modify offline reg file if you need to.

Friday, October 23, 2009 5:37 AM by Meitzi

# re: Disk2vhd v1.0 now available

Why can't you just create the new VM, and attach the vhd to a SCSI interface?

Friday, October 30, 2009 10:47 AM by JD

# re: Disk2vhd v1.0 now available

Is it also possible to use a image created with Disk2VHD on Virtual PC 2007?

Monday, November 02, 2009 2:36 AM by Gooner85

# re: Disk2vhd v1.0 now available

I have installed Disk2vhd in Vista utltimate o/s.we have 3 dirves c,d and e .Each 40GB size.

I have added 15 files (Size 100 MB) in E:Drive  and Disk2vhd application is in D:Drive. I have made .VHD snapshot of E Drive and store this file (Test.vhd) in my D Drive.

When i check size of this created vhd file , it seems to be 3.74 GB.I surprized because my E:Drive space required size is 100MB.

And my C:Drive size is 16 GB.

Can you plz let me know how it is possible ..??

Wednesday, December 09, 2009 7:44 AM by Rajesh Vankayala

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