Attaching to a backed up Windows 8 VHD

[mwpowellhtx]

Hello,

Seems like over a year since there were any Windows 8 concerns (2011?) TBD whether I can do a full Windows 8 system backup to a VHD. Provided I can, I should think I could just attach this to a VM of its own? Does this sound at all doable?

Regards,

Michael

[BillG]

No. Just because Windows backup uses .vhd format does not mean that a Windows backup .vhd will boot as a virtual machine. A backup .vdi is not an image file, it is a backup file. Windows backup cannot restore from a image file.

You need to use p2v software to create a bootable image of your Windows system to be able to boot a vm from the .vhd file.

You didn't notice the Windows 8 sticky at the top of the forum?

[bobthesungeek]

I used sysinternals Disk2VHD and made a backup of my Windoze 8 system. When I try to boot it in VBox it says there is no bootable media. I did notice there was an unlabled partition that showed up in Disk2VHD and I could not select it and make a successful run. I had to de-select it and only select C: and D: to create the .VHD file. Is the boot record on a different partition in Windoze 8? Is there a way to recreate that with what I have?

[mpack]

I've not actually looked at Win8, but I'm sure it'll be the same as Win7. There will be the MBR of course on the first sector of the disk, which boots a small hidden partition containing the Windows boot manager. A large (not directly bootable) partition contains the OS proper.

Successful disk imaging requires that you image the entire system disk, not just this and that partition. C: and D: refer to the "OS proper" type partitions (in fact there isn't normally a D - I can't tell you what that is from here).

Note that a Win8 image will require to be reactivated if you launch it inside a VM, because the virtual hardware differs from the physical PC the image was taken from. If you intend to continue using both the VM and the physical install then you need to be sure your Win8 license allows that, otherwise activation might be tricky.

[bobthesungeek]

For the life of me I can't find the "entire disk" option in disk2vhd.... It just shows a list of partitions....

[mpack]

Ah, sorry for the confusion, I was remembering Acronis. I just ran Disk2VHD and I also get what you describe, i.e. C: and D: are offered to me because my PC has two local drives. I guess then that Disk2VHD does use drive letters to identify drives after all. None of my drives have multiple partitions, so I can't be sure what it would display if you did - perhaps just the primary partition on each drive in leiu of a proper drive ID.

In the meantime I'm sure that imaging "C:" would have the desired result.

[bobthesungeek]

I did get the C: partition. Is there a way to add a boot record to the disk I have? I have a Windoze 7 VM that I can mount the .VHD inside. Is it as simple as "format c: /mbr" like the good ol' days?

[mpack]

If (?) you used Disk2VHD then, as you yourself noticed, there is no option given for whole disk vs partition image. It's always a whole disk image therefore there should be no need to add a boot record. In any case Win7 and Win8 will require considerably more than an MBR to make a working disk. If you are back to talking about Windows Backup then the first answer is unchanged: a backup is not a disk image. It's just a container that the backup tool threw files into.