Windows 10: Macrium Reflect viBoot - Can't delete large *.diff.vhdx

Hi there,

I have successfully installed free Macrium Reflect on Windows 10, do scheduled full and differential images, and have used viBoot to create VM's and logged in to check images.

The VM's end up in a default location on my C: drive. I only created the VM's to make sure they are bootable so now I want to delete them all because my scheduled backup included them and they are big.

I used the viBoot interface to delete the VM's, but in looking thru the folders, their are still 4 vhdx files including a 34GB vhdx here:

C:\ProgramData\Macrium\viBoot\{ADF5F206-A8A6-4AF4-9D7FA789318AFFC6}\B282C9EC150E06B5.0009AB86.diff.vhdx

No VM's show up in the viBoot interface. Can I just delete these 4 vhdx files or are they part of the software?

BTW, I started up Hyper-V Manager and I see one VM there, but it has a different name than the above vhdx.





Thanks,
Ric

:)

 

Macrium Reflect viBoot - Can't delete large *.diff.vhdx

Hi there,

I have successfully installed free Macrium Reflect on Windows 10, do scheduled full and differential images, and have used viBoot to create VM's and logged in to check images.

The VM's end up in a default location on my C: drive. I only created the VM's to make sure they are bootable so now I want to delete them all because my scheduled backup included them and they are big.

I used the viBoot interface to delete the VM's, but in looking thru the folders, their are still 4 vhdx files including a 34GB vhdx here:

C:\ProgramData\Macrium\viBoot\{ADF5F206-A8A6-4AF4-9D7FA789318AFFC6}\B282C9EC150E06B5.0009AB86.diff.vhdx

No VM's show up in the viBoot interface. Can I just delete these 4 vhdx files or are they part of the software?

BTW, I started up Hyper-V Manager and I see one VM there, but it has a different name than the above vhdx.





Thanks,
Ric

 

Macrium Reflect viBoot - Can't delete large *.diff.vhdx

Congratulations, viBoot is a very useful way to check that an image is complete and useable.

Macrium viBoot should have deleted all the *.vhdx files when you deleted its VMs.

There is a issue with viBoot and Hyper-V checkpoints, once a checkpoint has been created the VM will disappear from the list of VMs in viBoot. It is still visible in Hyper-V Manager and should still run, but you loose the ability to manage or delete the VM properly from within viBoot.

Annoyance with ViBoot Losing VHD's, Visible but not Usable in Hyper-V


Automatic checkpoints when enabled create a checkpoint every time a VM shuts down. The solution to use in the future is, as soon as your viBoot VM starts for the first time, to click File > Settings and disable automatic checkpoints, or just turn off checkpoints completely.






I can see from your screenshot that your VM's have checkpoints. The *.avhdx files in your screenshot are the checkpoint files. This probably explains how you lost track of the VMs in viBoot and have not been able to delete them successfully. If you delete the checkpoints in Hyper-V Manager you may find the VMs reappear in viBoot, from where you may be able to delete them properly. If so, delete all the VMs that are in viBoot.

If any VMs still remain in in Hyper-V Manager delete those too. Make sure you then exit viBoot, not just close it. Closing viBoot leaves it running in the background and it may block you from deleting any leftover files.

It is perfectly safe to delete any or all the folders and files in your C:\ProgramData\Macrium\viBoot folder, they were only needed for the VMs and would not normally have been left behind when the VMs were deleted.

 

Sysprep and viboot


You need of course set a viBoot vm to use an existing virtual switch when setting it up. Extract from Ten Forums Macrium viBoot tutorial, see #4 in step 2.6 and in screenshot:

By default no switch is selected, hence no network connection.