{"id":1920,"date":"2016-11-30T17:01:20","date_gmt":"2016-11-30T22:01:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/swildow.darktech.org\/wp\/?p=1920"},"modified":"2016-11-30T17:01:20","modified_gmt":"2016-11-30T22:01:20","slug":"how-to-turn-a-physical-disk-to-a-bootable-vhd","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.wildow.com\/blog\/?p=1920","title":{"rendered":"How to turn a physical disk to a bootable VHD"},"content":{"rendered":"
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How to turn a physical disk to a bootable VHD<\/a><\/h1>\n
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October 31, 2010 at 10:05 am<\/span>mark<\/a><\/span>Comments off<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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My 160GB hard disk is running out of free space. Seriously low\u2026 It\u2019s amazing that I\u2019ve managed to fill it up with so much stuff and it\u2019s all work stuff too. Now normally I rebuild my laptop every 4 months or so (yes I really do) but this time, I don\u2019t necessarily have the luxury of spending a couple of days because I\u2019m up to my armpits on a project.<\/p>\n

\"My<\/p>\n

So my normal setup is to have my one physical disk partitioned into two: one for the native operating system and the other for my data. I\u2019ve always favoured split partitions, since configuration means that if I ever need to do a rebuild, I don\u2019t have to spend overnight backing up all my work data before the drive gets obliterated. Even though it only takes about 45-60minutes to reinstall Windows 7, it does take a while to install Microsoft Office, Visual Studio, SQL Server and a plethora of other programs and tools. It\u2019s probably a couple of days before I\u2019m comfortably back into a situation where everything is back to how I want it to be.<\/p>\n

Thing is, I don\u2019t have a couple of days and ultimately it\u2019s not going to solve my space issue. So I have a cunning plan with Windows 7 because I\u2019ve discovered that it\u2019s now got the inbuilt capability that allows it to mount and boot <\/strong>from Virtual Hard Disks (VHDs). Effectively a portable, logical disk that runs natively<\/strong> on the hardware \u2013 not in a virtual machine.<\/p>\n

\"Where<\/p>\n

Basically, a VHD is a large contiguous file structure that can be recognised as a hard disk, yet it\u2019s a virtual one sitting on your physical hard disk. I can backup my existing physical disk partitions to a VHD but it has to sit on a larger disk than the original, because there is an amount of hidden space used by the operating system to host the file. VHD\u2019s are a bit clever in that they can be setup as \u201cdynamic\u201d and expand as necessary when data is added to it \u2013 there is no compression involved, but the free space is squeezed out in an attempt to minimise the overall footprint of the VHD \u2013 a 160GB partition with 50% free space will result in a VHD file with a 80GB footprint. Alternatively, VHDs can be set to \u201cfixed\u201d and remain that size regardless of its mounted state \u2013 a 160GB VHD remains 160GB. If you want faster performance then select \u201cfixed\u201d, if you are scrimping on space then select \u201cdynamic\u201d but beware that someday you\u2019ll need that full expanded space available if you fill it up!<\/p>\n

\"SeagateSo, after crooning after a range of Solid State Disks (SSDs) which are blisteringly fast, very expensive but ultimately too small in capacity, I decided to try a 500GB Seagate Momentus XT Solid State Hybrid Drive<\/a>. Best of both worlds really, optimised for speed, not so expensive and big capacity. Rather ironic, that EMC is one of the largest disk suppliers yet we don\u2019t put high performance disks in our consultancy laptops!<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

DISCLAIMER:
\n<\/strong>THIS IS MY JOURNEY FROM DISK TO VHD.
\nIF YOU FOLLOW ANY OF THESE STEPS, THEN YOU DO IT AT YOUR OWN RISK!<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

Creating your VHD<\/h3>\n

First thing to get your hands on is Disk2VHD<\/a>. This is a neat little SysInternals<\/a> tool from Microsoft<\/a> (just recently had a revamp) which will create you a VHD file for use in Microsoft Virtual PC or for an Hyper-V virtual machine. Unlike some other tools out there, Disk2VHD<\/a> can backup a disk\/volume that is currently operational. YES, that means that you can transpose that disk\/volume that you\u2019ve currently booted from!<\/p>\n

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  1. Download and install<\/li>\n
  2. Run \u201cDisk to VHD converter\u201d as administrator.<\/li>\n
  3. The following dialog will pop up, telling you what you can convert and how much space you need to complete the operation.<\/li>\n
  4. Specify a destination file name for your VHD.<\/li>\n
  5. Tick the partitions that you want to include into the VHD.<\/li>\n
  6. Click \u201cCreate\u201d and the tool will take a snapshot and proceed to transfer data.<\/li>\n
  7. Depending on the sizes of the partitions you clicked, wait\u2026.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    \"DISK2VHD\"<\/p>\n

    Couple of things to note:<\/p>\n