Speaker: Mark Minasi.<\/p>\n
The session I was originally going to wasn\u2019t what I was expecting so I decided to go to Mark\u2019s VHD session instead.\u00a0 As usual, these are just highlights from the session and you should attend it if you get the opportunity.<\/p>\n
This session is all about VHD.\u00a0 Mark warns us it\u2019s nearly all command prompt.\u00a0 It also applies to Windows Server 2008 R2.\u00a0 As announced at TechEd Barcelona 2008 by Mark Russinovich, VHD is now the MS data centre image standard.<\/p>\n
Survey: half of the audience have used WAIK and WinPE.<\/p>\n
BCD\/BCDEDit replace boot.ini since Vista.\u00a0 That first 100MB volume in Windows 7 has no drive letter and is where the BCD is stored.\u00a0 You only see in in Diskpart and Disk Management.\u00a0 We also can use this for BitLocker instead of the nasty Vista (non) solution of a 1.5GB partition.\u00a0 This also allows us to boot from VHD files.<\/p>\n
Normally, on a clean build that 100MB partition is at the start of your drive.\u00a0 However there are upgrade scenarios where it can appear elsewhere on the drive (end or middle).\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t matter and don\u2019t bother to move it.<\/p>\n
Example of CompletePC backup from command prompt: <\/p>\n
wbdadmin start backup -backuptarget:m: \u2013allcritical \u2013incvlude:e:<\/p>\n
The \u2013allcritical flag includes the 100MB partition.\u00a0 Do this.<\/p>\n
CompletePC backup uses VHD as it\u2019s destination instead of tape.\u00a0 That first backup takes and age but all the folling ones are synthetic, i.e. differential with the effect of full.<\/p>\n
Note: You can use <\/em>Disk2vhd<\/em><\/a> to convert a hard disk to VHD.\u00a0 Not supported in production.<\/em><\/p>\n Notes:<\/p>\n We can mount VHD\u2019s and we can boot from them:<\/p>\n VHD is 96% efficient, i.e. runs at 96% or thereabouts the speed of the underlying physical disk.<\/p>\n So you can have drives on your machine:<\/p>\n With BCDedit you configure BCD to boot from the VHD.\u00a0 The VHD is mounted, boots up and becomes C:.<\/p>\n We will be using DISKPART \u2013 create vdisk to create the VHD.\u00a0 These slides will fly past so I won\u2019t blog them.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s a note: MS got their terminology mixed up again.\u00a0 The 3 types of VHD in DISKPART are:<\/p>\n You can also do this in Disk Management GUI.\u00a0 Note you cannot create a differencing disk in the GUI \u2013 differencing should only be used in labs.<\/p>\n You can use attach vdisk<\/em> in Diskpart to mount\/surface\/attached the VHD.<\/p>\n Now you can initialise the disk and create a volume in it in Disk Management, etc.\u00a0 It\u2019s a new volume.\u00a0 Disk Management is aware it\u2019s a VHD.\u00a0 Explorer will now present the new drive mounted (aka attached or surfaced).<\/p>\n Now you need to use BCDedit to configure a boot option for the VHD.<\/p>\n Now Mark does\u00a0 a demo of a unsupported (he warns us) scenario on VMware Workstation (Virtual PC doesn\u2019t cut it for demos).\u00a0 He\u2019s going to show how to do a empty C: drive that only contains VHD\u2019s.\u00a0 He runs Windows 7 setup.\u00a0 Then SHIFT+F10.\u00a0 He uses diskpart to create the 100MB partition and the rest of the disk as H:.\u00a0 The 100MB is primary partition and active.\u00a0 The rest of the disk is primary and marked as H:.\u00a0 He exits diskpart and shows the empty H.\u00a0 He creates a VHD folder in H: and goes back into diskpart to create his VHD (as above), selects it and attaches it.\u00a0 He exits and returns to the Windows 7 setup.\u00a0 The disk configuration now presents the H: and the VHD.\u00a0 The VHD is not a possibility for installation\u00a0 – but he can do it anyway!\u00a0 It is not supported but it\u2019s a great way to set up a lab machine.\u00a0 You will lose hibernate with this setup.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Speaker: Mark Minasi. The session I was originally going to wasn\u2019t what I was expecting so I decided to go to Mark\u2019s VHD session instead.\u00a0 As usual, these are just highlights from the session and you should attend it if you get the opportunity. This session is all about VHD.\u00a0 Mark warns us it\u2019s nearly … Continue reading “TechEd Europe 2009 Day 2: What\u2019s New In Windows Storage”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"_wpcom_ai_launchpad_first_post":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[42],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9968","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-teched-emea-it-pro"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n
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