A while back, I had used Microsoft Virtual Server to create an image of a hard drive (piece by piece, every detail of it) as a .vhd, and then mounted it in windows as if it were a real hard drive.

It's been so long though I don't remember how to. Can someone please jog my memory? I'm using MS Virtual server 2005 R2 SP1.

I use Virtual PC 2007, but I guess the procedure is much the same.

1st you start the virtual console

then you should see the available virtual HD's

yeshuas wrote:

I use Virtual PC 2007, but I guess the procedure is much the same. 1st you start the virtual console then you should see the available virtual HD's

Um....................... That's not going to solve anything. Also, Virtual PC and Virtual SERVER are two different things.

What I wanted to do:
1. Create a .vhd image of my D: drive and put the image on the C: drive.
2. Mount the .vhd image in windows as if it were a real drive.

I did this a while back with Virtual Server but it's been quite a while.

They both use .vhd files, Virtual PC 2007 has a console that apparently automates some of the processes.
They aren't two different things in that they both create a virtual harddrive, how you access/mount that virtual harddrive is the difference, Virtual PC 2007 is just simpler to use obviously

yeshuas wrote:

They both use .vhd files, Virtual PC 2007 has a console that apparently automates some of the processes. They aren't two different things in that they both create a virtual harddrive, how you access/mount that virtual harddrive is the difference, Virtual PC 2007 is just simpler to use obviously

Well, then please tell me how I can create an image of my hard drive with Virtual PC.

EDIT: Actually I believe you are misunderstanding what I wish to do.
This is what the computer looks like now:


After (I know the drive letter should be E: but it was just a quick gimp):

I'm sorry, I stand corrected. I thought Virtual PC 2007, was a newer version of Virtual Server 2005.

With Virtual PC 2007, you download and save an OS as an ISO, say from Technet.
Then you start the console, then create VHD's based on what OS you want to host i.e Server 2008 you create one with around 65GB HD, 1GB Ram etc.
Then once it is created you highlite the saved vhd in the window on the console, click the start button, then in the window that opens, select CD on the menu at the top, then from the menu select "capture the ISO image" it goes thru the install process as it normally would. Once it is installed the next time it simply starts it like when you boot your computer.

I downloaded Virtual Server 2005 R2 and was going to install it, but I don't have IIS-Metabase installed so it wouldn't install. I thought I could use Virtual PC to run it but it just sat there.

All that to say I am sorry, Vitual PC won't do what you want.

yeshuas wrote:

I'm sorry, I stand corrected. I thought Virtual PC 2007, was a newer version of Virtual Server 2005. With Virtual PC 2007, you download and save an OS as an ISO, say from Technet. Then you start the console, then create VHD's based on what OS you want to host i.e Server 2008 you create one with around 65GB HD, 1GB Ram etc. Then once it is created you highlite the saved vhd in the window on the console, click the start button, then in the window that opens, select CD on the menu at the top, then from the menu select "capture the ISO image" it goes thru the install process as it normally would. Once it is installed the next time it simply starts it like when you boot your computer. I downloaded Virtual Server 2005 R2 and was going to install it, but I don't have IIS-Metabase installed so it wouldn't install. I thought I could use Virtual PC to run it but it just sat there. All that to say I am sorry, Vitual PC won't do what you want.

Thanks for your help anyway. Is there anyone else here who knows their way around Virtual Server?

Cheers.

There should be a folder called Vhdmount under the %programfiles%\Microsoft Virtual Server\ directory. In there is a command line utility called vhdmount. You need to run it using the following syntax

either
vhdmount /p vhdpath
or
vhdmount /m vhdpath drive

where vhdpath is the full path of the .vhd image you wish to mount, including the filename and drive is the letter you wish to assign. The /p switch tells vhdmount to "plug in" the drive and your OS should automatically mount the drive and assign it a letter, whereas the /m option allows you to manually assign a letter of your choice.

Absolute-Zero wrote:

There should be a folder called Vhdmount under the %programfiles%\Microsoft Virtual Server\ directory. In there is a command line utility called vhdmount. You need to run it using the following syntax either vhdmount /p vhdpath or vhdmount /m vhdpath drive where vhdpath is the full path of the .vhd image you wish to mount, including the filename and drive is the letter you wish to assign. The /p switch tells vhdmount to "plug in" the drive and your OS should automatically mount the drive and assign it a letter, whereas the /m option allows you to manually assign a letter of your choice.

Thank you! But that's only half of the equasion. How do I make a .vhd image of an existing hard drive? You know, clone D:?

never mind I'll keep checking

Ok how about this

http://agramont.net/blogs/conrad/archive/2007/01/04/Copy_2F00_Increase-a-VHD-using-VHDMount.aspx