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

I think you are confusing creating a virtual machine with what VIBOOT does. If you have PRO, follow this tutorial

Hyper-V virtualization - Setup and Use in Windows 10 Windows 10 Tutorials

What VIBOOT does is opens an existing image as a virtual machine

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

 

Hi all - I would like to give a big thanks (from us all of course) to @Kari for the excellent sessions with Macrium.

Participating in these is a joy, especially hearing other people's experiences, and getting to know our regulars who all have a great sense of humour.

It was a pity I could not join the evening session (amber nectar time in UK) but I look forward to watching the recording, and hope we get some good feedback here as well.

 

Oh...thanks, but I have read through those and I was hoping that I could open a Macrium backup image as a VM and try different programs inside it and even try a windows skip ahead version, within it (to test it out) without effecting the original backup.

Is that not correct?

 

That is clearer now what you want. It does exactly that. The original backup is not affected. Once you have made changes in VM, you can save that as a new image file.

One thing to bear in mind that if you ONLY have one drive, it is a bit tricky as the image file is set up to reflect (no pun intended) the size of the drive you imaged (not just the partitions you choose).

Suppose you have a 200 GB drive, and it is only using 50GB.

When you use viboot, it requires 200GB spare space even the partitions only require 50GB.
What you have to do is a bit of a faff.

1) create a virtual hard drive from disk management say 75 GB (to give you some space), and mount as a drive.

2) restore image to that virtual hard drive using drag and drop - the key thing is C drive is the right hand most partition)

3)Make another backup image from the virtual hard drive.

Now viboot only requires 75 GB spare space (150 free in example here). You obviously need some spare space as well to backup any changes.

I do not know any way to do it on a single drive if the drive is more that 50% full (more realistically 40% if you want to save changes as well), other than using a second hard drive with enough spare space.

 

No problem @cereberus. I have three external discs so lots of room. While I was waiting for a reply I found the answer here Many thanks

 

In yesterday's video forum, @Kari correctly said you need to put the Viboot VM depository on a different drive.


Suppose you have a 200 GB drive, and it is only using 50GB.

When you use viboot, it requires 200GB spare space even if the partitions only require 50GB, so as you only have 150GB spare, it will not fit. You can use a different drive with 200GB spare

So what do you do if you only have one drive (or less spare space on a other drive)?

You can use external drives but that is not always convenient and can be slow.

Here are some screen dumps showing how to use viboot if you only have one drive
Picture 1 shows my disk. I shrank the C drive as below fist and then backed up drive




Picture 2 shows backup image. Note "reserved space" of 166.74 GB. This is what causes problem in using viboot on same drive as viboot thinks it needs that space as well as partitions, and then there is not enough space on hard drive.






Picture 3 shows solution.

Basically you restore above image to a virtual hard drive sized for the actual partitions, using drag and drop. You have to use type expandable for the VHD as it only uses a few MB when empty.





Now you image backup the virtual hard drive, and Viboot only needs 60 GB space. and will work on same drive.

Note - if you save and create new image, when you restore it, you need to re-expand C drive (and move partition 6). You could of course have dragged partition 6 to left of 4 and then images so 4 is on the right.

Note: this method will not work if the existing drive is more than 50% full (40% realistically). to allow for saving a new image. You have to use a second drive in this case. You can still use above to decrease space needed on another drive.




A good change to Macrium Reflect would be an option to ignore unallocated spaces when creating the image backup i.e. do what I did above in effect during the initial imaging automatically, in effect the disk size would be just be the sum of all allocated partitions.

 

As a real newbie to ViBoot (and VM's) I do have a few questions.

1) I noticed that the VM did not see my external drives...is that correct?
2) The VM said that Windows 10 had not been activated (although it has on my 'real' drive) should I activate it again?
3) The audio card is missing and a default sound could only be used.

Are these 'normal'? If are not, there ways to resolve them?

I like the concept for sure and everything else is working perfectly. But if I did a future Windows 10 build upgrade (Skip Ahead), the above issues would not give me confidence to save the VM then overwrite my main system drive with the new version.

 

This is not a viboot issue but a HyperV issue.

In order to get sound and see usb drives, the guest OS in the HyperV virtual machine has to be in enhanced mode. It will only run in enhanced mode if Remote Desktop is switched on in settings, system, remote desktop in the guest settings. 10 Home cannot run in enhanced mode (without a "fix").

It will be unactivated in vm as vms count as a separate device. You will not be able to change personalisation settings unless you provide a new licence. Restoring images back to Host pc will not affect host activation.

 

I am running Windows Pro and have Enhanced Session Mode Switched On. I'll try again.

I had Enhanced Session Mode Switched On switched on both my PC & Guest VM, but still did not see external drives or sound cards. I think I need some training on VM's *Smile

 

Failed at first attempt. Nothing shows as an empty folder on an external drive. New folder nor empty new partition.

 

Create a folder, for instance Macrium_viBoot on your M: drive. In viBoot options, unselect Logging. Change the repository to M:\Macrium_viBoot. Select Logging, click OK to save settings.

Should work now.

 

Will have a go, thanks.