Windows 10: How to install vhdx image onto win 10 new computer

Hello. I'm also trying to boot to a VHDX file from a USB drive.

I successfully did the steps above (for x64). However when I reboot, the VHDX is no longer attached! Is there a way to attach the VHDX prior to selecting it from the boot menu?

 

Explain where the VHD file is located
and where you wrote the boot files

You also have to be booting in Legacy mode (legacy support enabled) - if using a usb stick...
as uefi booting would require an partitioned drive

no need to pre-attach (mount) VHD in order to boot it..

 

I think the above is the cause of my issue.

First off, the VHDX file is located on a 'WD MyBook' drive which is attached via a USB port. And I do see UEFI in my boot menu (next to some, but not all, boot options).

So basically, what is UEFI and is it possible for me to enable legacy mode? (I'll do some digging around on this myself, too).

In addition, when I executed your commands my USB drive was mapped to drive W and the VHDX file (located on that same drive) was mounted to drive H.

EDIT: I can see that legacy mode is enabled for the USB drive and so I'm guessing that looks ok. Could my problem be that my VHDX was created from a 'UEFI Windows 10' install and it somehow needs to be modified to be a 'Legacy Windows Install'?

 

You could try this but be warned it might not work due to driver issues.

Copy vhdx file to say c:\vhd folder as say win10.vhdx

Then boot from a windows 10 installation usb drive

Then, select language etc, and at install now screen, press shift+f10

Then enter these commands

diskpart

select vdisk file=c:\vhd\win10.vhdx

attach vdisk

exit

exit

Remove installation usb drive and reboot. You will now be able to boot from vhdx.

With luck it will boot but you might get driver issues. If so, installing vhdx in a vm is more likely to work.

 

Thanks for the reply. I was able to attach my VHDX, but unfortunately after rebooting the VHDX is no longer attached. *Sad

Any other ideas?

 

Sorry my brain was not in gear - I forgot to mention the bcdboot commands needed

When running diskpart after attaching vhd, you have to find the volume that contains the system reserved (legacy bios) or efi partition (uefi), and assign a drive letter to it temporarily.


in diskpart still, run

list vol

and you get something like

Volume 0 C 10 Pro N NTFS Partition 195 GB Healthy Boot
Volume 1 E Data NTFS Partition 735 GB Healthy
Volume 2 FAT32 Partition 329 MB Healthy System
Volume 3 NTFS Partition 465 MB Healthy Hidden
Volume 4 F Disk 2 NTFS Partition 471 GB Healthy
Volume 5 G Disk 2 NTFS Partition 459 GB Healthy
Volume 6 D 10 Home NTFS Partition 149 GB Healthy

Here volume 2 is mine - it is the FAT32 volume

To assign drive letter still in diskpart:

select volume 2 (in my case)

assign letter=s (could be any letter but I use S for system)

Here volume 6 is my vhd attached as per earlier command and is drive D in my case

Then you exit diskpart and type

bcdboot d:\windows /s s: /f uefi (or bios as appropriate)

See step 4 in this guide.

Boot to VHD (Native Boot): Add a Virtual Hard Disk to the Boot Menu

 

Good to see you back. Hope things are going ok with you.

 

You can apply it using wbadmin command from booted winpe. Once applied, you have to set the correct os letter before attempting to boot into it. That is also better done from winpe. I have made a tool to do that. Use the fix OS drive letter section.
nt6rep.zip

 

If wbadmin can't find the vhdx, you could mount it with disk mgmt, make an image of the mounted disk ( using aomei backupper, macrium, paragon, etc - they all have fee versions). Then apply the image you just created.

That is probably easiest.

 

I tried to locate my system volume but it wasn't listed. This might be because my hard drive is going bad *Shock

So at this point I'll probably reinstall Windows to another drive.

Is there a way to take my Windows 10 VHDX file and apply it to another drive so that drive will boot?

Note: The VHDX I'm referring to was created using Disk2VHD. Is that all I needed to do to create a bootable VHDX, or were there more steps involved? This is my first time trying this so please forgive my ignorance *Huh

 

Post image from disk management.

 

Ok, I'll do that after I backup my C drive (as I'm now receiving warnings that the drive is failing).

EDIT: Here's the screenie:

 

That is as I feared - the system files are not in a separate partition, as is normal these days. This is a pretty old style setup.

I am not sure how you do this here. I think you may be able to simply use c: rather than s: in the bcdboot command.

 

OK thanks, I'll give that a try. And would the last switch on mine be /UEFI or /BIOS?

 

/bios