📎 AI Summary:
The forum thread discusses a user's challenge with booting from a virtual hard drive (VHD) containing Windows 7. The user has set up a VHD on their D: drive but doesn't see a boot manager prompt at startup, only entering the boot menu manually. Respondents suggest using tools like bcdboot and bcdedit to create a proper boot manager entry and inquire about the Windows 7 edition, as booting VHDs may be limited to certain versions like Ultimate or Enterprise. The overall tone is helpful, with users offering guidance and clarifying possible limitations.

voirin

New Member
Joined
Jan 31, 2014
Messages
1
Thread Author #1
Hi, I hope someone can help me.

I required a second copy of win7 for testing purposes. I created a bootable virtual hard drive with win7 installed on it. However when I restart my pc, there is no boot manager present. I always have to press F11 to enter into the boot menu and then choose the drive to boot from.

My configuration is:
a) C: drive with win7
b) D drive with other data on it (this is also the drive where the virtual hard drive sits on)

What I did to configure a virtual drive was:
1) boot from my win7 dvd
2) went to startup recovery
3) diskpart > create vdisk file=D:\VHD-Windows7.vhd maximum=40960
4) diskpart > select vdisk file=D:\VHD-Windows7.vhd
5) diskpart > attach vdisk
6) diskpart > exit
7) then went through the rest of the win7 install

When i check on my normal win7 install:
1) system > adv system settings > advanced > startup and recovery: there is only one entry (i guess the present win7 install)
2) disk management doesnt show the any attached vhd.
3) easybcd also shows a single entry

my questions are:
1) Is there any way to get a boot manager appearing?
2) I also need to move the location of the virtual hard drive without breakign the boot process. How can I achieve this?

Any help would really be appreciated. I am worn out with this as I have spent hours searching and trying to find out how to do the above.

Thanks
Peter
 

Joe S

Excellent Member
Joined
Jan 12, 2009
Messages
3,781
I believe the bootable VHD only works in Windows 7 Ultimate and Enterprise editions. Which version do you have?
Joe