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Native boot: search for a way for mount early more than the single bootable VHD

native boot vhd vhdx

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#1 LevT

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Posted 23 April 2020 - 11:11 PM

I see no technical reason to constrain the windows native boot capability with a single boot vhdx early mounted

A registry key must exist or a BCD kernel parameter to mount additional VHDX

 

There is no one interested in documenting this broadly, but I suppose here is the right place to find someone who has the clue and knows the key.

 

For example, I see the following use case:

 

I have my parent volume deduplicated, having system+boot VHDX placed into an excluded directory, it works for me like a charm.

 

I consider it would be helpful to move most of the windows boot volume contents

    out of this tiny file into one or more additional VHDX outside of the dedup excluded folders

 

 

Any thoughts

Thanks in advance 


Edited by LevT, 23 April 2020 - 11:31 PM.


#2 antonino61

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Posted 24 April 2020 - 12:43 AM

UEFI?



#3 wimb

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Posted 24 April 2020 - 05:42 AM

I have several Win10x64 VHD's in use located on internal SSD next to each other and selectable in Windows Boot Manager Menu.

UEFI_MULTI is used to Add VHD in Boot Manager Menu for booting from internal SSD 

 

After booting with VHD located on internal SSD:

- On separate Data partition Create 5x empty folder for Documents, Pictures, Downloads, Music and Videos     

- In My Computer use R-mouse on icon > Properties > tab Location > Move ... Select the Created folder to change the User Data location 

In this way the User Data are located outside VHD so that they don't use space inside VHD.

 

More Info:

 

See section

How to use WinNTSetup x64 and ISO file for Installation of Windows 10 x64 in VHD or partition of SSD harddisk



#4 LevT

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Posted 24 April 2020 - 06:54 AM

I have several Win10x64 VHD's in use located on internal SSD next to each other and selectable in Windows Boot Manager Menu.

UEFI_MULTI is used to Add VHD in Boot Manager Menu for booting from internal SSD 

 

 

I have also been using this setup for a decade. That's not what I am exploring for now

 

 

UEFI_MULTI

Thank you, I have been using bootice and/or bcdboot to add boot entries

 

 

- On separate Data partition Create 5x empty folder for Documents, Pictures, Downloads, Music and Videos     

- In My Computer use R-mouse on icon > Properties > tab Location > Move ... Select the Created folder to change the User Data location 

In this way the User Data are located outside VHD so that they don't use space inside VHD.

Thank you for reminding of this but as I switch my primary systems frequently, I need an automated way of doing it
And I asked about more advanced stuff
 

 

UEFI?

I have also expected some tribal knowledge on the internet exist to premount virtual disks created with UEFI
Can you elaborate this setup?


Edited by LevT, 24 April 2020 - 07:05 AM.

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#5 wimb

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Posted 24 April 2020 - 07:26 AM

I have also been using this setup for a decade. That's not what I am exploring for now

 

 

Can you elaborate on the configuration that you are interested in, since I fail to understand what you are after.

May be you can give screenshot of your configuration ....

 

Booting with a very small VHD mostly containing pointers to WIM archive has been realised in VHD_WIMBOOT

But I suppose that is not what you want ....

 



#6 antonino61

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Posted 24 April 2020 - 07:39 AM

I was thinking exactly of the same thing



#7 LevT

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Posted 24 April 2020 - 08:24 AM

Can you elaborate on the configuration that you are interested in, since I fail to understand what you are after.

May be you can give screenshot of your configuration ....

 

Booting with a very small VHD mostly containing pointers to WIM archive has been realised in VHD_WIMBOOT

But I suppose that is not what you want ....

 

 

 

I am aware of Wimboot and VHD_WIMBOOT and was using it during a couple of years

I would like to get additional virtual drives mounted really early, at the same time as the boot VHD is mounted during the boot process

Or just after the primary VHD.
I see no technical reason to constrain this type of mount with a single virtual drive

As an altenative I expect UEFI-mounted virtual drives may tackle the problem

But I haven't seen yet any working example


Edited by LevT, 24 April 2020 - 08:30 AM.


#8 Wonko the Sane

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Posted 24 April 2020 - 08:46 AM

If I get this right, you are looking for a way to do either of these:

https://www.tenforum...ndows-10-a.html

https://www.eightfor...indows-8.20342/

 

BUT in an earlier moment of the booting, right?

 

:duff:

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#9 wimb

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Posted 24 April 2020 - 09:39 AM

I would like to get additional virtual drives mounted really early, at the same time as the boot VHD is mounted during the boot process
 

 

What is the use Or the need of such early auto-mounted VHD ?

Is it for some Tools Or for having Access to User Data ?



#10 Wonko the Sane

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Posted 24 April 2020 - 10:34 AM

NOT what you are asking for, but there is the VHD Attach that runs as a service, so it can be rather early (before login):

https://www.medo64.com/vhdattach/

 

:duff:

Wonko



#11 Hunter23071985

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Posted 26 April 2020 - 01:55 AM

I think that LevT wants to create a container with block/bit deduplication and LZX/stronger compression with a set of OS from XP to 10:
a. in bulk (the container file system can be only NTFS); or
b. in VHD/X (the container file system can be any and user can use ready-made VHD/X).
The profit seems to be clear - disk space saving, etc.
Is it possible to do this?

Edited by Hunter23071985, 26 April 2020 - 01:56 AM.


#12 Hunter23071985

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Posted 26 April 2020 - 07:57 PM

By the way, the question is really interesting!
I have all the OSs (XP, Vista, 7, 8, 8.1, 10) in VHD-containers in 128Gb-SSD.
All of them are written into BCD (in fact many are loaded via Grub4Dos) and used to test scripts and software.
In theory I can deduplicate VHDs up to 20:1 (!), and boot them in VirtualBox.
But I'd like to use OSs "directly" without VirtualBox and reduce their size at least 2 times.
Although 4-8 GB instead of 79.6 GB would be much better! ))) Any ideas how to do this?


#13 Darkr

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Posted 15 September 2022 - 07:05 PM

My primary boot loader is Refind I have installed in efi shell i also install Grub2FM
(A1ive file manager) and clover in efi shell
I have able to boot Windows VHDS (11,10,8.1,7,xp,me,98) natively Via grub 2 file manager
Also chain load via Refind in Any directory also boot iso,bin,IMG,Linux kernel,

or You are boot from flashdrive via Grub2fm or refind

My boot menu...

QOCwkR.png




1st icon windows 11 boots from my 1st partition
2nd icon Grub2FM boots from Efi Directory
3rd icon Nvh boot from vhd chain load Refind
4th icon clover from efi directory
5th icon deepin 20.4 from Local disk partition
6th icon windows iso from from vhd chain load Refind

my others vhds boot via Grub2FM Grubfm is gr8

Edited by Darkr, 15 September 2022 - 07:10 PM.


#14 alacran

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Posted 16 September 2022 - 04:07 AM

@ Darkr

 

First, welcome to the forum, hope you enjoy your time here.

 

Your multiboot environment looks nice but that doesn't answer the (by the way old) question of LevT.

 

 

I am aware of Wimboot and VHD_WIMBOOT and was using it during a couple of years

I would like to get additional virtual drives mounted really early, at the same time as the boot VHD is mounted during the boot process

Or just after the primary VHD.
I see no technical reason to constrain this type of mount with a single virtual drive

As an altenative I expect UEFI-mounted virtual drives may tackle the problem

But I haven't seen yet any working example

 

 

So, no the aswer is not what boot loader to use, or editing the BCDs as he was thinking in first post.

 

He was asking to boot from a first VHD and when arriving to desktop have a second VHD (or more), already attached and ready to use.

 

This two options are useful to answer his request:

VHD to fixed drive   or   Load_RamDisk

 

VHD to fixed Drive creates a service to run a little program that finds and runs from any drive a secondary EXE file that in turm attachs/mounts our desired VHD to fixed drive letter Y, I could replicate this program to mount as many VHD files as required, each one to a designated drive letter, but there is no need as Load_Ramdisk is already capable to do that.

 

Load_Ramdisk uses also a service to run a little program that finds and runs from any drive an editable CMD file that in turm attachs/mounts one or several VHDs as Filedisk or on RAM, each one to the desired drive letter by means of ImDisk by Olof Lagerkvist, of course the loading to Ram process consumes certain time depending of the VHD(s) size(s) and the PC performance, and this may increase the booting time, it is always faster attach/mount the VHD(s) as Filedisk.

 

Only in case the path to the VHDs don't change, then my old post is a very good alternative too.

 

 

alacran


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