Using a Boot to VHD file in a Hyper-V Server VM

Question

I have a file win7.vhd that I've been using in a Boot to VHD scenario. Now I want to run that Windows 7 instance within Hyper-V Server alongside a few other VMs I have. I sysprepped win7.vhd and copied it over to the the Hyper-V Server and tried creating a new VM using that .vhd file. I get the "Boot failure. Reboot and Select proper Boot device or Insert Boot Media in selected Boot device" error. Any suggestions?

Answer 1

When you boot (physically) from a VHD, the boot loader and a few other files reside not within the VHD but on the hosting volume, thus the VHD is incomplete when it stands alone (virtually, within a VM.)

You can probably fix it up by booting the VM from the Windows 7 installation CD and telling it to repair the boot volume.

Answer 2

I was able to successfully boot my vhd in Hyper-V Server using the sequence of commands found at http://www.ravichaganti.com/blog/?p=317

• Boot into a Windows 7 Installation disc. When the wizard begins, open a command prompt by pressing Shift+F10
• Open Diskpart
• Select vdisk file=D:\Win7.VHD
• Attach Vdisk
• select part 1
• active
• Assign letter=Z
• exit
• Now, at the command prompt, change to Z:\Windows\System32
• Run, BCDboot.exe Z:\Windows /s Z:\
• Run, BCDedit /store Z:\boot\BCD /set {bootmgr} device boot
• Run, BCDedit /store Z:\boot\BCD /set {default} device boot
• Run, BCDedit /store Z:\boot\BCD /set {default} osdevice boot
• Change directory to C:\
• open Diskpart again and run
• Select vdisk file=D:\Win7.VHD
• detach vDISK
• Exit