I have adopted this policy for years. My vhd (which is anyway faster than an ordinary machine deployment scenario on conventional booting) is only 5gb big. how? program files, program files (x86), program data, users and most of windows (exept for those subdirs that the system requires on c:\ (the vhd) to arrive at the desktop interface) reside elsewhere, in d: (you will have twigged it is the physical 1st disk) and are junction-linked to c:\. So, persistence is not an issue to me, unless I have to install new software, which I always do on a conventional system loading basis; nor is it preloading time an issue, as it preloads in about 6-7 secs. I also use 20gb of my ram for temp and swap (4gb (for any of those stupid programs that actually require it) with primoramdisk) and other 20gb committed to read&write cache (primocache, which speeds up disk writing after the Windows built-in caching takes care of everything). I insist on booting off a vhd-residing core as it is the best way of having it almost unchanged in size and content, as anything new practically takes place outside of it. The steady-core vhd contains what windows seems to need to find in it in order to arrive at the interface; whatever is strictly application-bound and consequently prone to change stays outside of it. I might change windows version, but the software I use is still the same, so I do not see why it should be "bundled" into that specific windows software architecture. Let us consider it an extended form of relocation. The only slight issue that I have been able to keep track of is that bootup process diagnostics shows that the system persists on looking for a couple of system files on c:\, without this being of practical hindrance to arriving at the windows interface. I perceive a less snappy initial bootup stage (the starred circle rotating underneath the logo at the beginning), though, probably due to the above glitch. Is there anything I can do to improve? So far, neither from the registry (cannot delete entries) nor from the windows events (I really do not know how to) have I managed to redirect the system to most of the files it insists on looking for (which are expected to be on the vhd and are in fact softlinked to it from the SSD). Any suggestions on how to redress the windows grievance and give it a smoother bootup?
I am looking forward to yuor learned suggestions.