Windows 10: Macrium viBoot - Create Virtual Machine using Macrium Image

Tried the viiBoot. I used the 14366 image that I want to upgrade to 14367. Problem is, the upgrade isn't showing up in viiBoot.

 

This link (year old) says virtualbox and vmware support is coming response to a question) but I could not find anything on Macrium site to support this. It would be a really major enhancement if this was true.....

Introducing Macrium viBoot (Technology Preview)

 

Just an idea, this might or might not work.

I am a Hyper-V fan and have not used any version of VMware or VirtualBox in years. That being said, don't they also support creating a vm using an existing VHD?

If so, have you tried opening an image in Macrium Reflect and converting it to a VHD:

 

@Part Four of your tutorial where you apply changes to the image and extract the new image. What I did was quite very simple and it worked, too. After applying the changes, I ran Macrium Reflect inside the VM and created a new image within and wrote the new image directly to my NAS where I can readily access the new updated image from a physical machine.




This way, I didn't have to delete the VM and create it again after. I grabbed the new image from the NAS and restored it and it was flawless. All the changes I made are there. You may want to add this method as an optional way of extracting updated image via Hyper-V/viiBoot.

By the way, I selected NAS as the destination for the new image because I can't figure out how to directly access my physical drives from inside Hyper-V.
To access the NAS, I had to go to Virtual Switch Manager, highlighted the network switch and ticked "Enable virtual LAN identification...." (see image below). However, by doing this, I temporarily lost internet connection on my physical machine but it didn't affect any process within Hyper-V while creating a new image to the NAS. When the new image is done, I just unticked the VLAN ID and I got network connection on the physical machine again.





EDIT:

Sorry, forget what I said about ticking VLAN ID to get access to NAS. That was last night.

This morning I don't have it ticked but somehow I can still access my NAS.

 

Excellent idea, thanks! I will add that to tutorial.

A "mini tut", using Hyper-V Enhanced Mode (works on Windows 8 and later, Windows Server 2012 R2 and later virtual machines, requires vm Windows user account to have a password set):

In Virtual Machine Connection, select View > Enhanced session:



Select your preferred resolution, select Show Options:



Local Resources tab, click More:



Select Drives, click OK:



Click Connect:



Sign in, each and every host drive (yellow highlight) is shown and available in This PC as network drives:

 

There you go..easy-peasy-lemon-squeezy.... thanks very much @Kari !

 

Here a viBoot Hyper-V vm from build 14342 image, upgrade downloaded, Windows preparing it:



Ready to restart and upgrade:



Over two hours later (I forgot that vm was running in the background *Wink), upgraded and ready to go:

 

Thanks Kari. I will try again on the next build. I hope there will be one before I fly this Friday to Asia for a 4-week vacation.

 

@Kari , I just found out last night that if you accidentally close the Macrium viiBoot or Hyper-V (without properly turning it off) or messed up with it in any way, it can corrupt the image and render it useless. This is going to be the case for newbies. I tried restoring my 14367 machine last night with Macrium image (which I used with viiBoot) but the restoration process won't even start because of the reportedly corrupt image.
Somewhere along your tutorial, there should be a warning about this by making a separate copy of the image for viiBoot and keep the original one as backup.
Not a problem for me because I have other images to work with. *Smile

 

Good point. I will do some tests and edit tutorial accordingly.

 

Thanks, YMMV though. But that's the only thing I can remember that might have corrupted the image. This is the first time I had a corrupted image and using it with viiBoot is the only reason I can think of why it got messed up.
Don't get me wrong Kari. I am in no way blaming you or your tutorial. Just giving you some feedback. *Smile

EDIT.

One question @Kari , does the viiBoot Hyper-V vm had to be activated to get the windows insider build upgrade to show up?

 

No, I've successfully upgraded mine several times, normal Hyper-V virtual machines as well as viBoot machines. Because my PCs have digital entitlement, I always get an activation error with viBoot virtual machines. It's of course logical, the digital entitlement of the machine image was created from cannot be transferred to vm.

 

I see. I know the digital entitlement stays with the physical machine. That's why I tried to activate the viBoot vm with my multi-activation key from my MSDN account. Just because I thought it's necessary to activate viiBoot vm first to get the upgrade to show up. So, okay. No need to activate. Thanks.

 

@Kari , I can see the update now inside viiBoot vm.. *Thumbs

 

Good! Sometimes you just have to wait. Build 14371 from yesterday, took hours yesterday for it to appear for me on other editions than PRO, still early this morning my PRO setups haven't received it.