Virtualization Native Boot Windows 11 Virtual Hard Disk (VHDX)

jimbo45 said:

Thanks -- !! I missed that one

BTW on your other post - I think London to Aberdeen is less than 700 Miles (round trip maybe !!!! )

Cheers
jimbo

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actually 550 miles as crow flies, 600 miles by road - I meant 600 - typo.

Hello to all. i want to make a windows 10 VHDX so that i can dual boot. i have read about it but cannot find tutorial on how to make the file itself....
i suppose i should download windows iso...but then how to i make the "instalation" on vhdx file?
thanks

See if this helps.

mclaudio said:

Hello to all. i want to make a windows 10 VHDX so that i can dual boot. i have read about it but cannot find tutorial on how to make the file itself....
i suppose i should download windows iso...but then how to i make the "instalation" on vhdx file?
thanks

Click to expand...

Hello,

In addition, you could use the method in the tutorial below to create the VHDX file at boot while setting up the dual boot.

In post #1 it says....

The Windows 11 VHDX file used in this tutorial was created with a Hyper-V Windows 11 virtual machine, and copied to the OS to dual boot with.

I did just that, and it worked very well. Then I tried a .vhdx from a different Hyper-V virtual machine and it gave a BSOD when I tried to boot from it. In both cases the .vhdx files were dynamically expanding, the default option when creating a new Hyper-V virtual machine.



The only difference between them was that the one that worked one had a maximum size of 64GB and the one that BSOD'd was 127GB.

What caught me out was that while you are running the OS from the .vhdx the file physically occupies the maximum size allocated to the .vhdx even if most of its contents is free space. Once you shut down the .vhdx file shrinks back down again to just the size of the used space. So in order to be able to boot a .vhdx you must have enough free space on the drive holding it to allow it to expand like this. I didn't, and that's what caught me out.




It's an easy trap to fall in to, and I don't recall seeing this 'gotcha' documented any where.

Oh, and I fixed it by reducing the maximum size of the .vhdx down to 64GB. It's not as if it needed that big a virtual drive anyway, most of it was unused space.

There is no restriction native booting VHDX files in Windows 10 Home.

cereberus said:

There is no restriction native booting VHDX files in Windows 10 Home.

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No, none whatsoever. In fact, you can create you .vhdx and put an OS on it in Home too.

Disk Management can make the .vhdx, and when mounted you could restore a Macrium image to it.

Bree said:

In post #1 it says....

The Windows 11 VHDX file used in this tutorial was created with a Hyper-V Windows 11 virtual machine, and copied to the OS to dual boot with.

I did just that, and it worked very well. Then I tried a .vhdx from a different Hyper-V virtual machine and it gave a BSOD when I tried to boot from it. In both cases the .vhdx files were dynamically expanding, the default option when creating a new Hyper-V virtual machine.

View attachment 25585

The only difference between them was that the one that worked one had a maximum size of 64GB and the one that BSOD'd was 127GB.

What caught me out was that while you are running the OS from the .vhdx the file physically occupies the maximum size allocated to the .vhdx even if most of its contents is free space. Once you shut down the .vhdx file shrinks back down again to just the size of the used space. So in order to be able to boot a .vhdx you must have enough free space on the drive holding it to allow it to expand like this. I didn't, and that's what caught me out.

View attachment 25588


It's an easy trap to fall in to, and I don't recall seeing this 'gotcha' documented any where.

Oh, and I fixed it by reducing the maximum size of the .vhdx down to 64GB. It's not as if it needed that big a virtual drive anyway, most of it was unused space.

Click to expand...

Yeah - it is one of these "you just have to know" things.

One other thing you need to know is if you are using expanding disks, they of course grow as you add things e.g. if you add 10GB of data, vhdx grows by 10 GB.

You then delete the 10 GB data and when booted natively Windows shows the data as deleted BUT of you look at size of the VHD file when booting from host, the VHD HAS NOT reduced in size.

Bssically the space os not freed up from host pc perspective.

It does not really affect anything in terms of running vhd natively booted but you use more space on host than needed.

There is a compact function you can use but it does not work well.

Easiest solution is to create a new expandable vhd and clone vhd to that.

You can get compact option to work but you have to go through some hoops and loops

1) mount vhd as drive

2) shrink C partition to minimum using minitool partition wizard (assumes no partions after C drive)

3) dismount vhdx

4) select vhdx from Hyper-V "edit disk" menu.

5) select compact option

6) select vhdx from Hyper-V "edit disk" menu again.

7) select shrink option and shrink vhdx to minimum.

8) select vhdx from Hyper-V "edit disk" menu again and select compact again.

9) select vhdx from Hyper-V "edit disk" menu again and select expand option and expand to desired size.

10) mount vhdx as drive again

11) expand c drive to fill all of drive.

You are now using minimum space on host. Simply easier to clone.

Bree said:

No, none whatsoever. In fact, you can create you .vhdx and put an OS on it in Home too.

Disk Management can make the .vhdx, and when mounted you could restore a Macrium image to it.

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You can also just do a clean install to a .vhdx file. You could start with a completely blank HDD/SDD. Boot the computer from a Windows 10/11 installation USB flash drive. Partition and format the "host" HDD/SSD. Create the .vhdx and mount it with diskpart. Then continue with the normal clean install routine. You would have to leave unallocated space on the "host" HDD/SSD, though, for the system partition the computer would boot from.

NavyLCDR said:

You can also just do a clean install to a .vhdx file. You could start with a completely blank HDD/SDD. Boot the computer from a Windows 10/11 installation USB flash drive. Partition and format the "host" HDD/SSD. Create the .vhdx and mount it with diskpart. Then continue with the normal clean install routine. You would have to leave unallocated space on the "host" HDD/SSD, though, for the system partition the computer would boot from.

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NavyLCDR said:

You can also just do a clean install to a .vhdx file. You could start with a completely blank HDD/SDD. Boot the computer from a Windows 10/11 installation USB flash drive. Partition and format the "host" HDD/SSD. Create the .vhdx and mount it with diskpart. Then continue with the normal clean install routine. You would have to leave unallocated space on the "host" HDD/SSD, though, for the system partition the computer would boot from.

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Sure this is true, but only problem is if you ever need to upgrade the OS, as you cannot upgrade OS in natively booted vhds.

I always clean install to a vm im Hyper-V first, so vhd has all the boot files as well.

I cannot think of an easy way to clean install to a vhd, and include boot files in a vhd, without a Host OS.

Simplest way I can think of would be to have WTG drive, mount iso in a vm, install OS, then boot from Windows installation drive and create boot entry on host pc.

You can manually create a system partition on the .vhdx and put boot files in it using the bcdboot command.

NavyLCDR said:

You can manually create a system partition on the .vhdx and put boot files in it using the bcdboot command.

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How - won't the bcdboot command add boot entry to Host bcd, not bcd in vhd?

edit: is it this command

bcdboot c:\windows /s h: /f UEFI

where h: is set to c: as well (assuming c is drive letter assigned to vhd)?

cereberus said:

How - won't the bcdboot command add boot entry to Host bcd, not bcd in vhd?

edit: is it this command

bcdboot c:\windows /s h: /f UEFI

where h: is set to c: as well (assuming c is drive letter assigned to vhd)?

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A .vhdx file is a virtual hard drive. It can have any of the same partitions as a regular hard drive. So let's say I am booted into the OS on my .vhdx virtual hard drive. Just like a real hard drive, I can shrink the OS partition by 100 MB. Create a new system partition in the 100 MB unallocated space. Either mark it as Active if it is an MBR virtual hard drive, or create it as an EFI System Partition if it is a GPT virtual hard drive. Assign the new system partition drive letter S:. Then bcdboot C:\Windows /s S: /f <UEFI or BIOS or ALL>. Just like I would on a physical HDD. Now I can boot the .vhdx file in a VM if I want to.

With this dual-boot approach, does the Win 11 vhdx get activated with the same key that 10 is using? Does it allow both OSs to have the key or will one be lost?

rick99 said:

With this dual-boot approach, does the Win 11 vhdx get activated with the same key that 10 is using? Does it allow both OSs to have the key or will one be lost?

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If you already have Windows 10 installed and activated on same computer, then when you do a VHDX install of Windows 11 also on same computer, the OS will get activated automatically using a digital license even if you did not enter any key at all. All you need to do is having an internet connection, which is a requirement for any activation in the first place. And OFC Windows 10 and 11 editions (Home/Pro/Enterprise...) much match...

Brink said:

Native Boot allows you to create a virtual hard disk (VHDX), install Windows to it, and then boot it up, either on your PC side-by-side with your existing installation, or on a new device.

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Are we saying here that W11 can be copied to another machine? Surely not - this would be piracy

BrianS said:

Are we saying here that W11 can be copied to another machine? Surely not - this would be piracy

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Hello Brian,

Each Windows 11 installation would still require its own unique valid product key or digital license to activate it.

If moved or coped to another computer, that would be considered a separate installation due to the hardware change, and would require activation.

Brink said:

Hello Brian,

Each Windows 11 installation would still require its own unique valid product key or digital license to activate it.

If moved or coped to another computer, that would be considered a separate installation do to the hardware change, and would require activation.

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Thnx @Brink I didnt think it was right. The Virtual HDD tutorial descended into a Nerdy playground arguing over quotes vs double quotes Jeez . As Baldric said "I have a cunning plan". No more Nerdy nonesense and its sssssooooo simple. Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!

WOW. I just read this thread and am shaking my head in disbelief. You've all made it so incredibly complicated to do such an easy task. First off. The VHD / VHDX file must be created FIRST in order to even install any OS. 2nd. And most importantly ALL THIS can be done booting off a USB drive and using the WinPE environment and the Shift + F10 command prompt during init. You do NOT need any "installed" or "pre-existing" OS whatsoever to create a VM out of thin blue sky. You simply need to know how to run a FEW SIMPLE COMMANDS in a cmd prompt. Boot the USB pen. When it stops at the partition drive window. Stop. If you are on a system that is BARE METAL fresh. Manually create a "system" drive to host Windows using the nifty GUI Microsoft has provided. Simply tell the partitioner to create you a "Windows" drive that is Blah Blah Blah in size. We don't want the drive. We only want the EFI partition that gets created during this automatic process. After it finishes you will have 3 devices. EFI, Recovery, and your Windows Blah Blah Blah drive. DELETE the recovery and the Windows device. Click "Create" and make your Storage volume to hold your newly created VM's. Don't forget to format it after creation. Press Shift + F10. Then create your vdisk and place it ANYWHERE on the newly formatted device you'd like. I use "X:\VM". Preferably on your fastest device M.2 or SSD. Another great choice is ANY USB 3.2 Gen 2 device. Also it does NOT matter whether you use VHD or VHDX. One is simply a dynamic disk that fills up "as you use it" while the other creates a "full volume" VHD from the get go using all of the space you intially create. Windows will update on either version. Trust me. Then after creation you leave your new VHD mounted. Then, break out dism command and image whatever flavor of windows you want on your new VHD using the existing "install.vim" in "sources" on your USB pen drive. After this finishes you then use bcdboot and finish getting the VHD into a bootable state. The benefit of this is that it will use the UUID and PATH of the new VHD volume as the boot identifier allowing you to literally store the volume anywhere. As long as your EFI loader knows the UUID you're all set it will boot every time. Anyway ... dismount your new VHD device. Now simply CTL - ALT - DEL ... or exit setup. System reboots. Menu displays. Choose the new VM. It will boot and run the usual setup routine. DONE. The ONLY thing required is that somewhere on the system you've got a workable 50+MB FAT32 EFI partition setup as the active device in bios and of course NTFS / exFat drive with a crapload of space for all your 100GB VM's. I have created over a dozen VM's and all boot flawlessly without ANY host OS whatsoever. All you need is a bootable USB pen device and a system with a workable EFI system partition enabled and a storage device capable of holding your new VM's. The rest is cake. I hope this helps.