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Boot Win 7 VHD on Bare Metal PC from Empty Drive

vhd bare metal boot win 7 grub4dos

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Poll: Are you interested in booting Windows from VHD? (86 member(s) have cast votes)

Would you try to install OS to and boot from a single portable VHD file (virtual disk) instead of hard drive?

  1. Yes (83 votes [96.51%])

    Percentage of vote: 96.51%

  2. No (3 votes [3.49%])

    Percentage of vote: 3.49%

Would you be interested to copy that VHD file to an empty USB Thumb or HD and boot from it on real PC?

  1. Yes (82 votes [97.62%])

    Percentage of vote: 97.62%

  2. No (2 votes [2.38%])

    Percentage of vote: 2.38%

Did you try to boot OS from VHD on real PC instead of Virtual Machine?

  1. Yes, I usually boot VHDs saved on an internal hard drive (36 votes [38.30%])

    Percentage of vote: 38.30%

  2. Yes, I usually boot VHDs saved on a USB drive or thumb (11 votes [11.70%])

    Percentage of vote: 11.70%

  3. Yes, I boot VHDs saved on drives of any type (13 votes [13.83%])

    Percentage of vote: 13.83%

  4. Not yet (34 votes [36.17%])

    Percentage of vote: 36.17%

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#301 Wonko the Sane

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Posted 05 January 2012 - 01:03 PM

I will have to check the source code for boot time defrag - am very curious whether it "cheats" (avoid the usage of API).

since vhd is always "preboot" when not attached, might be a lesson in there.

Welcome to the world of Native API (and Native applications):
http://en.wikipedia....wiki/Native_API

:cheers:
Wonko

#302 sfinktah

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Posted 06 January 2012 - 12:57 AM

Progress has been slow as I have been building in error handling for the various twisted and bizarre things that can go wrong with a VHD file..

Posted Image

#303 sfinktah

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Posted 06 January 2012 - 12:59 AM

Welcome to the world of Native API (and Native applications):
http://en.wikipedia....wiki/Native_API


Thanks Wonkipedia! This is all news to me. Good stuff.

#304 Wonko the Sane

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Posted 06 January 2012 - 10:20 AM

BTW, we have at least one Native App (unrelated to .vhd) with Source code and (I think) some hopefully useful comments for a programmer:
http://reboot.pro/3782/

This might also be of interest to you if you need/want to go that way:
http://reboot.pro/3537/

:cheers:
Wonko

#305 sfinktah

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Posted 09 January 2012 - 06:04 PM

Thank for those links.

What exactly do they mean by "native"... Especially the regedit... ?

Never mind, I wasn't putting it in context with regards you previous post. *duh*.

BTW, VHD Director is open source, the source code can be obtained from reboot.nt4.com/vhddirector :) But it's defaintely not native. Not unless native come with dotnet 3.5

#306 sambul61

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Posted 09 January 2012 - 07:16 PM

What features are available and really working in VHD Director by now? :dubbio:

#307 Richie086

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Posted 16 February 2012 - 12:09 AM

4. Copy boot environment and configuration files from the VHD to the new partition:
cd v:windowssystem32

bootsect /nt60 c: /force /mbr

bcdboot v:windows /s c:


When I get to the bcdboot v:windows /s c: part, i get the following error message


E:>bcdboot v:windows /s c:

Failure when attmepting to copy boot files.


Any ideas?

My setup is as follows

x1 32 GB USB Thumbdrive (contains the Win 7 VHD)
x1 8 GB USB Thumbdrive (Contains Windows 7 Install, used to enter Command Prompt mode during setup)
x1 128 GB Intel SSD (this is where i want the VHD to reside)

here is the output from diskpart

DISKPART > list disk

DISK ####    Status	  Size	      Free   Dyn   Gpt

Disk 0		   Online	  74	 GB   0B  

Disk 1		   Online	  7643 MB   0B

Disk 2		   Online	  29	 GB   0B  


tell me what info you need to help me out. Is that command neccesary in order for everything to work?

thanks

Richie

#308 sambul61

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Posted 16 February 2012 - 06:45 AM

Hi Richie,

Pls boot to Win7 PE or ISO, attach the VHD as V: and run the following commands in Console (assuming your Mobo is BIOS-based rather than UEFI):

diskpart

list vdisk

list volume

exit

cd v:windowssystem32

bcdboot v:windows /s c:

dir v:windowsbootPCAT

Extend the Console Window, make and save a single (not multiple) screenshot of the Console total output, reboot to Win7, upload the screenshot to ImageShack and post the link to it here. :)

Or, simply copy boot environment files to your empty drive from Win7 install instead of the VHD (i.e. change drive letter in bcdboot command), as at times required boot environment files are missing on a VHD depending on how and from what source it was created. You'll need to add the correct VHD boot entry to the host's Boot Menu after that.

#309 TheHive

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Posted 03 April 2012 - 09:02 AM

Thank for those links.

What exactly do they mean by "native"... Especially the regedit... ?

Never mind, I wasn't putting it in context with regards you previous post. *duh*.

BTW, VHD Director is open source, the source code can be obtained from reboot.nt4.com/vhddirector :) But it's defaintely not native. Not unless native come with dotnet 3.5


Thanks for the release. Will try to test it sometime this week. Then post impressions.
Wherer is sambul61?

#310 TheHive

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Posted 05 April 2012 - 03:25 AM

is VHD Director suppose to work with WIndows XP or is it for Windows 7 and up?
Starting Testing:
Will update this post more while testing in a bit.


Testing in Windows XP Professional with Service Pack 3
1 error when starting
Attached File  1.jpg   50.73KB   9 downloads

Main Interface.
What can be Draged and droped?
Attached File  2 Drag and drop.jpg   18.68KB   6 downloads

File
What is the "Search" option for?
"Open" = Open vhd
What is the "Save" for?
What Can we "Print" ?
"Exit" = Exit program
Attached File  3.jpg   24.86KB   3 downloads

File-New
Attached File  4.jpg   36.18KB   5 downloads

to something like
Attached File  6.jpg   54.33KB   7 downloads

Text from picture

Fixed hard disk image:
a vhd file that is allocated to the size of the actual vhd disk size selected above.
Example: A 200GB Vhd file = 200GB RAW VHD File on the actual Harddrive

Dynamic hard disk image:
a VHD file that at any given time is as large as the actual data written to the vhd Disk.
Example: A 200GB Vhd file = A small vhd fille that expand as data is added.

Caution:
Try not to create a dynamic disk that can grow to be larger than the physical volume that
holds the VHD file disk.
When creating large GB Vhd drives it migh take seconds for a small 1Gb file to be created,
but the bigger the size in GB, the longer the time to create a larger Size vhd. Depends on hardware.



So far its looking good.

#311 sfinktah

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Posted 28 July 2012 - 03:38 PM

Sorry, turns out I had a day job, and it started taking up 100% of my time and hasn't yet stopped. I think I've forgotten almost everything I ever learned.

I did order (and it arrive) a very interesting product though.

https://www.kanguru....irtual-os/rocit

It's an encrypted (FIPS-2 certified) 32gb USB stick, that boots into a Linux pre-boot to get your password, then loads windows (or alledgedly *any* operating system). I tried it out briefly, and was very surprised to see that there was a little status bar that would pop up while loading Windows, as if it were a remote terminal or virtual machine. (It comes with Windows XP installed).

I hope to have more time to investigate it further.

#312 RoyM

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Posted 29 July 2012 - 01:31 AM

Sorry, turns out I had a day job, and it started taking up 100% of my time and hasn't yet stopped.


I hate when that happens, it always seems to interfere with my plans for fishing.

This is such a nice little find, it should have it's own thread.
It's certainly going to get lost under This topic.

Thanks for sharing.

#313 sfinktah

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Posted 10 August 2012 - 07:21 AM

Everything in this thread has it's own thread.

Most importantly, this is where I come, when I can't remember how to boot Windows 7 from USB. Right back to post #1. :)

Which bit you were referring to Roy?

"This topic"... my my.. this is the best topic ever!

#314 RoyM

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Posted 11 August 2012 - 04:00 AM

This Topic:
Boot Win 7 VHD on Bare Metal PC from Empty Drive


and This Product:
https://www.kanguru....irtual-os/rocit


The RocIT Defender Elite is just a little different than,
"Boot Win 7 VHD on Bare Metal PC from Empty Drive"


The RocIt is a different beast than topic describes. But then I read the
prior posts and now see how it fits into this thread. It seems to have
evolved into more than just Topic Title describes.


I certainly didn't expect to find links to FIPS 140-2 Certified, hardware encrypted
USB flash drive which contains a bootable, Virtual Machine Manager onboard.
under this Topic Title. I agree that your post #311 is the best topic ever!,
and I was very impressed by the products offered for sale on the website www.kanguru.com,
I would surely like to hear the investigations of your new purchase.


I was simply implying that more people could benefit from your post and the links within it,
if it were to be placed under a more descriptive Topic Title.
(i.e) "BEST Topic Title EVER! (RocIT Defender Elite) Review and Usage via sfinktah"
as many people may miss it under this Topic Title.


Apologies for any misunderstandings
RoyM

#315 sfinktah

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Posted 17 August 2012 - 06:19 AM

No apologies needed, and you're right - this thread has gone way off topic. But since the only required knowledge was in the first post, I feel that's okay.

I just noticed this about 20 minutes ago, which is oddly (and very accidentally) entirely on-topic!

Posted Image

I'm still on the fence about RocIT... I bought 4 of their little 4gb FIPS drives, since they fairly cheap... but I can't help but notice that every-time I stick it in the USB slot, it contacts the mothership on port 443 to (hopefully) check for updates.

That's not very cool.

Part of security is obscurity, if you have something worth keeping secret, you certainly don't want your ISP, and every law enforcement agency in the country to be be able to tap your net and know that you are just about to log in to that secure drive.

Or even worse, maybe they tap into RocIT's servers, and just get every user's IP address, and come visit you to find out what you're hiding :P

Other than that, it's quite a nice system. You have the option of making the drive administered remotely (such that you can override/disable lost drive).

Now, the bootable one is a wierd thing. It really is loading Windows XP in a virtual machine. That's certainly not mentioned anywhere in the documentation. It's not necessary a bad thing, ... for instance, it would probably protect you from that nasty firewire memory-read exploit.

BTW, FIPS 140-2 Level 2 isn't all it's cracked up to be. Google "FIPS 140-2 USB cracked" and you'll that

Kingston, SanDisk and Verbatim all sell quite similar USB Flash drives with AES 256-bit hardware encryption that supposedly meet the highest security standards. This is emphasised by the FIPS 140-2 Level 2 certificate issued by the US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), which validates the USB drives for use with sensitive government data.


... all got cracked... worse still, it was possible to crack them, because they actually stored an encrypted, unhashed copy of your password! If you know anything about encryption, you know that is just not done.

IronKey is where i'd put my money, although I dislike any system which relies on keyboard authentication, so I hedge my bets by using a DataLocker...

If nothing else, it certainly looks the part.

#316 sfinktah

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Posted 17 August 2012 - 06:51 AM

hmmm....


INTERCEPTED REQUEST: https://kcs.kanguru.com/online.php/liveupdate/check/vid/1E1D/pid/5111/sn/0MYSERIALNUMBERDELETED/ver/2.4.0.0 - 2


Not impressed Jan.

#317 sfinktah

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Posted 20 September 2012 - 11:14 AM

and getting less impressed, the more I look.

Posted Image

#318 Wonko the Sane

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Posted 20 September 2012 - 11:54 AM

and getting less impressed, the more I look.

So it's a "normal" Phison stick at it's core?

:cheers:
Wonko

#319 sfinktah

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Posted 13 October 2012 - 01:12 PM

Ahhh.... well it is, and it isn't. i have spent a few weeks reflashing various Phison USB sticks of different models, and that particular Phison chip is notable for providing onboard AES. If you google it "just right", you'll find that there are at least 3 other FIPS certified USB encrypted sticks using that exact chip.

I've not come across any other Phison chips in my travels that support AES. And interestingly, there is no information at all on Phison's web site about that particular chip.

Dissapointing, I know.

However, I have discovered other fun things to do with Phison chips... like make virtual floppy (these are a bit sketchy, IMHO), or virtual CD/DVD ROMs (these appear super genuine to my Mac... I'm about to do some boot testing on them both).

The virtual floppies are good because you can write to them... so having to run some BIOS upgrade nonsense can be done super fast. Haven't attempted making super-size floppies yet.

#320 JonnyHotkeys

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Posted 23 January 2014 - 05:47 PM

re-posted with image (below)


Edited by JonnyHotkeys, 23 January 2014 - 05:52 PM.


#321 JonnyHotkeys

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Posted 23 January 2014 - 05:51 PM

I've just found VHD Director, as I'd like to see if my VHD is fixed or dynamic - is dynamic the same as expandable?

 

I also wanted to check if it's safe to open the VHD with VHD Director whilst it's mounted, ie from within the VHD itself - I have only one OS, only one VHD, mounted and in use as I type... currently defragging (perfect disk, contig. free space 1st, reading this) before rebooting from win disk to access recovery console to diskpart shrink the VHD, then defrag the partition that the VHD resides on.

 

How's my logic?

 

Thanks

 

7KaV2kA.png



#322 crashnburn

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Posted 13 August 2014 - 08:37 AM

How does this tutorial CHANGE for UEFI booting systems?







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