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VHD Virtual Disks - Tips and Tricks

vhd fixed dynamic tools for vhd

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#1 alacran

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Posted 29 November 2019 - 03:05 AM

I decided to put together some info available about virtual disks.

 

Selecting the more compatible format:

 

If you are using a Virtual Machine (VM), when creating a Virtual Disk I suggest to always select MS format (VHD), more versatile format as it is compatable with all VMs available, or (if bootable) can be booted directly from the PC without the need of a VM, applies to Windows OSs, for Linux OSs see: Ventoy vDisk Boot —— A Simple Linux vDisk(VHD/VDI/RAW) boot solution  or this older Topic: http://reboot.pro/to...rom-vhd-how-to/

 

VHDs are also easy to create and attach on Windows OSs

 

VHD vs VHDX:

 

Contrary to MS info Win 10 can be installed on a VHD, as other members of the forum and I can confirm.

 

Unless your virtual disk requires more than 2 TB, do not use the VHDX format, VHD format is always preferable, as an example: MS Azure only accepts VHDs with a single partition.

 

From: https://docs.microso...pload-vhd-image

 

Azure supports both generation 1 and generation 2 VMs that are in VHD file format and that have a fixed-size disk.

 

Grub4dos is capable to boot VHDs as filedisk, also by means of grub4dos + SvBus driver can be Rambooted, for an SvBus x64 signed version see: http://reboot.pro/to...os/#entry208348

 

Fixed Size vs Expandable:

 

This is a matter of select the option that fits best user use/desires/likes, depending on benefits and disadvantages given of each one of this options.

 

Fixed Size VHD:

 

Benefits:

  • The space for the VHD is pre-alocated on your Mass Storage Device.
  • Helps prevent fragmentation on the disk containing it.
  • Helps reduce internal fragmentation on the VHD.

Disadvantages:

  • The space used on your Mass Storage Device is always equal to the VHD pre-alocated space, even if the VHD is empty.
  • For copying big size Virtual Disk to a USB device or other media requires a big size device.
  • Longer time required to copy the Virtual Disk to a USB device or other media.

Dynamically expandable size VHD:

 

Benefits:

  • The space for the VHD is not pre-alocated on your Mass Storage Device, saving space on it.
  • The space used on your Mass Storage Device is equal to the VHD used space.
  • Requires smaller size USB device or other media to copy it.
  • It is faster to copy the Virtual Disk to a USB device or other media.

Disadvantages:

  • Increase fragmentation on the disk containing it.
  • Increase internal fragmentation on the VHD.

 

Differencing VHDs:

 

Please see this post, and following.

 

Then depending on the desired use of the VHD, we select the right option.

 

Will continue on next post

 

alacran


Edited by alacran, 07 September 2022 - 11:27 PM.

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#2 alacran

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Posted 29 November 2019 - 04:30 AM

Minimizing the space requiered for a VHD:

 

In order to save space on the creation of a VHD we have NTFS Compression and Compact options.

 

NTFS Compression vs Compact

 

NTFS Compression

 

It is available since XP, it is possible to apply it on any disk or virtual disk, helps reduce the used size but creates a very fragmented environmenent, almost all files end fragmented and also the free space, it is necessary (at least highly recommended) to defragment the drive, compression level is not very hight, it is available on all OSs from XP to 10.

 

Compact

 

This is the new compression option available since Win 10, it is possible to apply it on any disk or virtual disk, helps reduce the used size but creates a fragmented environmenent, at the end all files will be defragmented (contiguous), but not the free space (files won't be contiguous to each other).

 

Compression level is better/higher using Compact than NTFS Compression.

 

For additional info on Compact mode  installations see: http://reboot.pro/to...-mode-installs/

 

For more info and link to a Command Line tool from JFX that (can be used from 7 to 10 OSs) see: http://reboot.pro/to...for-win7-win10/

 

Also wimb made a GUI Tool on Autoit (can be used from 7 to 10 OSs): http://reboot.pro/fi...7-wof-compress/

 

Both mentioned tools let you use several Compacting options: 4K, 8K, 16K and LZX.

 

Using Compact on a VHD:

 

Of course it is possible to apply it after creating a VHD, but if we are going to install an OS to a VHD it is better to do it during the install, to do this easily use WinNTSetup from JFX, or using any the tools from our forum member and very good friend  Retokener: DismMountService  or   wimlib-clc

 

In my experience I have found a reduction of about 2 GB or more when installing Win 10 using Compact 4K (default level of Dism), according to MS using 4K any new file added to the drive will be 4k Compacted, this applies also to moddified files.  Of couse it depends of OS version size installed, and after installing the OS of the compresivility of new files added (like drivers, programs, documents, etc).

 

EDIT: In accordance with new findings starting from 10 1903 new default level is Compact 8K, see: http://reboot.pro/to...e-2#entry215932  and  http://reboot.pro/in...e=3#entry216201

 

It is possible to use a higer Compact level but then files will NOT be automatically compacted, you will have to do it manually if you want.

 

EDIT: Only valid for files under OS Directory, when running Compact /compactos:always, directly on the running OS. http://reboot.pro/to...e-7#entry215505

 

Of course the Compact mode install apply to fixed and expandable VHDs.

 

Example of a Compact 4k Win10 install on a expandable VHD, 7 GB max. size, from my post

Spoiler

 

Example of a Compact LZX Win10 install on a fixed size VHD, 5.5 GB, from my post

Spoiler

 

Will continue on next post

 

alacran


Edited by alacran, 10 June 2021 - 08:21 PM.


#3 alacran

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Posted 29 November 2019 - 05:35 AM

Wimboot install on VHD

 

On Win10 this install mode is deprecated and replaced by Compact, Win10 Dism has some issues when using a moded WimBootCompress.ini, but wimlib works very fine to make Wimboot installs of Win 10.

 

This install mode appeared with 8.1 update 1, basically it creates as much as possible Pointers (we can say it is a kind of links) to the source WIM file and only those files that need to be uncompressed to let the OS funtion properly are extracted to the target drive or virtual drive.

 

This install mode requires the install drive + the source WIM file to boot, but we can load to ram only the VHD where pointers are located in order to Ramboot.

 

This install mode is capable to allow the user to create a full Windows instal on a 512 MB VHD, after testing more depply this approach I found it is better to increase the size and by testing found a 1.5 GB VHD is a good size capable to run from a PC having at least 4 GB of Ram.

 

For additional info of this see:

 

Making the smallest Win10 install (Wimboot mode) on 512 MB VHD.

 

Latter it was the turn to reduce as much as possible the size of the source WIM file and of the coupled Wimboot VHD, see:

 

Reducing wimboot source wim file using LZX Compression, and VHD using gzip or LZ4 Compression, to save room, and also load faster on RAM.

 

LZ4 compression is a very good tool to let us reduce the size of the FIXED size Wimboot VHDs to let us load them faster on Ram during Ramboot, see on first post tools/programs required, not applicable to expandable VHDs. 

 

This is a link for the GUI lz4_compressor (also decompressor) applicable to VHDs or any other file: http://reboot.pro/fi...lz4-compressor/

 

Our fellow wimb made a program with all integrated to let the users create Wimboot VHDs:

 

VHD_WIMBOOT - Apply and Capture of WIM Files for OS in VHD: http://reboot.pro/to...-for-os-in-vhd/

Only thing not available on VHD_WIMBOOT is LZ4 compression of VHD.

 

Also from wimb a very good program to create multi-boot USB devices capables to boot on CSM/MBR and on UEFI PCs without the need to enable CSM and/or dissable Secure Boot, with it is possible to boot from WimPE, Wimboot VHD and also several Linux distros, good for Linux users and also good to bypass all Windows restrictions on certain files/folders during copy/moddify them, also many repair tools for Windows are based on Linux.

 

UEFI MULTI - Make Multi-Boot USB Drive: http://reboot.pro/li...boot-usb-drive/

 

Will continue on next post.

 

alacran



#4 alacran

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Posted 29 November 2019 - 06:44 AM

Shrinking expandable VHDs

 

When working with expandable VHDs, during its use the internal size of the used space starts growing as any other Win OS does and when unmounted this increase in size is also noticiable on the VHD size.

 

Sometimes the unmounted VHD size is bigger than the internally used space, this is due to all writes made to the drive by Windows itself + the user, even if we run CCleaner into the VHD, we erase many garbage created by the OS and files deleted by the user, if we have selected on CCleaner on Options >>> Config:  Fast erasing (one pass), Clean free space of drive and Clean free space of MFT, the program will write Zeros to all free space.

 

Also defragmenting the VHD will liberate some space too, specially when followed by a new CCleaner run.

 

This tool recomended by cdob on this post can be used too:

Spoiler

 

But this is not enough to make the unmounted VHD size shrink to occupy on the disk only the used space, to make this happend we can do the following:

 

On elevated prompt, type:

 

DiskPart

Select vdisk file = D:\10x64-EC4.vhd
attach vdisk readonly
Compact vdisk

Detach disk
exit

 

On this example my D:\10x64-EC4.vhd is my expandable VHD.

 

I invite all member of the forum to share here any tips and/or tricks or free programs usefull when dealing with VHDs.

 

alacran



#5 alacran

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Posted 29 November 2019 - 07:30 AM

Cloning VHDs

 

If we want to make an image of a Wimboot VHD to apply it to another VHD and keep a compressed copy, best and fastest free GUI tool we can use is DismMountService from Retokener: http://reboot.pro/to...ount-service/  

Warning this program overwrites the full target disk.

 

If we are cloning a Wimboot or a non Wimboot VHD to another VHD or to a DISK use: HDD Raw Copy: https://hddguru.com/...-Raw-Copy-Tool/

Warning this program overwrites the full target disk.

 

If we are cloning a VHD or a partition into it to a formated partition on a disk or on a VHD use:

PartitionGuru Free: 4.9.5.508:  https://www.eassos.c...onguru-free.php

Warning this program overwrites the full target disk or partition.

 

If we are cloning a VHD or a partition into it to a unformated/unalocated/free space on a disk or on a VHD use:

MiniTool Partition Wizard Free v11.5:  https://www.partitio...on-manager.html

This program is safe as the target space needs to be unformated.

 

I invite all member of the forum to share here any tips and/or tricks or free programs usefull when dealing with VHDs.

 

alacran



#6 alacran

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Posted 08 December 2019 - 10:29 PM

Expand a VHD

 

 A VHD can be expanded this way:  (the VHD on following example was before 1024 MB fixed size, and was expanded to 1280 MB)

DiskPart
Select vdisk file = D:\W81ESP1x86-WB.vhd
expand vdisk maximum=1280      >>> Final Size, Always on MB.
exit

 

Later we need to expand the drive contained into the virtual disk:

DiskPart
Select vdisk file = D:\W81ESP1x86-WB.vhd
attach vdisk
list vol    >>> here we make note of volume letter assigned, to use on next step.

DiskPart
select vol X     >>> Where X is the volume letter contained into the virtual disk.
extend
exit

 

Or easier, having the VHD mounted after expanding it, open Disk Management on Win, select the volume/drive and just expand it in GUI.

 

After expanding and unmount, don't forget to defragment the VHD file, usually it is required.

 

alacran



#7 antonino61

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Posted 08 December 2019 - 11:19 PM

As I already posted in other threads (VHD_WIMBOOT - Apply and Capture of WIM Files for OS in VHD and Ultimately Stop c:\ used space bulging from torquois...), I can confirm (nothing personal with anyone, let alone wimb the flying dutchman, whom I am an admirer of) that I have found the best (most faithful to the source) capturer in dism tool and the best wimboot capturer in wimboot tool. As for the read-only vhd that alacran suggested, I have not tried it yet.  

I envisaged the following options:

1) both capture and apply with dism tool: the best (smallest and most faithful to the source) - only possible if u want an integral version vhd (no wimboot);

2) capture with dism tool and apply with wimboot tool: possible for integral version vhd, problematic, erratic and sometimes even impossible for wimboot vhd (most of the time it cannot find addresses, the vhd sorta looses the wim, or viceversa, during the booting);

3) both capture and apply with wimboot tool: the only possible scenario without issues for wimboot vhd - this last time I have tried it (about 5 minutes ago) it went spick&span in terms of faithfulness to the source (what u see in the source is also what u get in the target wimboot vhd.

4) reverse 2): have not tried it out.

N.B.: all tests were made with the same wimbootcompress.ini, which, in my case, as was already posted, is almost bare.



#8 alacran

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Posted 09 December 2019 - 02:05 AM

I think you didn't understood clearly the idea in post No. 4, it was about shinking an expandable VHD that as an example has grown several GBs its used size after some time of use, with some files/folders added by the OS, the Browser and the AV, and also by the user, then if the user deletes those files/folders, the internal used espace on the VHD is reduced, but the size of the VHD used on the HD, do not shink automatically to its previous original size on the HD, and there I mentioned a way to do it, to liberate all those GBs on the user physical HD too.

 

First we need to write zeros to all the previously used espace where the deleted files/folders were, by means of CCleaner or using sdelete as suggested by cdob on his quoted post:

 

 

This tool recomended by cdob on this post can be used too:

Spoiler

Did you 'Zero free space (good for virtual disk optimization)' first?

https://docs.microso...wnloads/sdelete

 

 

But as said this is not enough to make the unmounted VHD size shrink to occupy on the HD only the used space, to make this happend we need to do the following: (I will use another example to make things more clear).

 

On elevated prompt, type:

 

DiskPart
Select vdisk file = L:\10x64.vhd
attach vdisk readonly
Compact vdisk
Detach disk
exit

 

In this case this is not a Wimboot VHD this is a full Win 10 install including all drivers, programs, AV, etc. on an Expandable VHD 50 GB max. size. And the user erased about 5 GB with CCleaner, (and ran also on CCleaner >>> Tools >>> Erase free espace of disk) and want to recover that free espace on his/her internal HD.

 

The command "attach vdisk readonly" on dispart  will mount the VHD as read only to protect all the files/folders from any change during running the next command.

The command "Compact vdisk" on dispart will shrink the space occupied on HD by the VHD, and make it same as the used espace into the VHD again. Whithout affecting the files/folders located on the drive into it. Let's say the VHD will stop using, and will liberate all espace that contain only zeros.

After this the user types exit to close diskpart and also same to close Command Prompt

 

So as you can see Dism, wimlib or VHD_WIMBOOT do not have anything in common with this, because we are not Capturing a VHD and/or Creating a new VHD an/or Applying anything to another VHD.

 

Using this commands to shrink the Expandable VHD size is faster than the procedure to Capture the VHD to a image file and latter Apply it to a new VHD.  And as you can imaginate as bigger and full the VHD the longer time to Capture it to a image file and latter Re-Apply it, always NOT as wimboot as this image is going to be loaded on Azure, and Azure do not admit wimboot VHDs.

 

alacran


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#9 antonino61

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Posted 09 December 2019 - 08:38 AM

ok even though I dont have azure, I will take ur tip and experiment on expandable vhds.



#10 alacran

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Posted 11 December 2019 - 09:40 PM

Control the expansion of Expandable VHDs and VHDXs when booting from them.

 

Thanks to test made by Retokener on Post: http://reboot.pro/to...ve/#entry213549

 

Interesting is, by setting "VirtualDiskExpandOnMount"=dword:4 the vdisk size might increase only if data is written to it.

 

And on Post: http://reboot.pro/to...ve/#entry213550

 

 

Just tested setting: "VirtualDiskExpandOnMount"=dword:4

Yes, it works as expected, you can watch the vDisk size increase while data is written.

 

From: http://reboot.pro/to...ve/#entry213552

 

 

Then when creating an expandable VHD and applyng to it a WIM (index: X) image file by means of WinNTSetup, to control the expansion of the VHD, only thing we need to do is on WinNTSetup  >>> Tricks select a folder with the attached reg file located into it.  And WinNTSetup will take care to apply it to the registry of the OS into the VHD.

 

alacran

Attached Thumbnails
  • post-26560-0-91194600-1576099107_thumb.p
Attached Files unknown.gif  Controlled-Expansion-VHD.reg   322bytes

 

Or if the VHD is already created just run the reg file when booting it.

In case the VHD can't boot you will need to mount it and mount its registry and add that setting in the registry manually.

 

EDIT: Recently just  found WinNTSetup already has integrated this feature, for more info see: http://reboot.pro/to...ve/#entry213572

 

alacran


Edited by alacran, 13 December 2019 - 04:43 PM.

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#11 antonino61

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Posted 12 December 2019 - 05:18 AM

it would be interesting to check if it works on fixed vhds too, as well as checking with wimb would he add it to his wimboot tool. thanx for the applets anyway. they are very very handy.



#12 alacran

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Posted 12 December 2019 - 10:23 AM

it would be interesting to check if it works on fixed vhds too, as well as checking with wimb would he add it to his wimboot tool. thanx for the applets anyway. they are very very handy.

 

Also will be interesting to check if your shoes work on your head and if your hat works on your feet. HA, HA, HA.

 

Each thing has its own specific use since it was developed or designed.

 

Your friend

 

alacran


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#13 Wonko the Sane

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Posted 12 December 2019 - 11:00 AM

Well, a Controlled Expansion Fixed VHD :w00t: is an interesting concept, in a quantistic view it would probably :dubbio: come up as being 1 GB and 2.78 TB at the same time. 

https://www.technolo...ective-reality/

 

:duff:

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#14 antonino61

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Posted 12 December 2019 - 12:49 PM

jokes apart, after testing it myself, I can state that the reg file does not work on a fixed vhd, but it does work like a charm on an expandable vhd: what I did was shrink it to the full with lzh.bat or cmd and then cut it with vhd resizer 50mb greater than shrunk ---> still good, so far so good. as for alacrán's statement, I beg to differ totally and thoroughly from him - I am a Stochastic Iconoclastic Erasmist, so I cannot be against the concoction and integration of efforts and results and things.



#15 Rootman

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Posted 12 December 2019 - 03:02 PM

Thanks for this.  It's tangential to this but I got motivated to mess around with booting a VHD from the Windows boot menu,

 

I've booted WIMs before but not a VHD. I have a VirtualBox Win 10 VM that was on a VHD and decided just to try it.  Booted up fine, found a bunch of new hardware and ran great.  I tried it again in Virtualbox and it still ran fine there too.  So now I can use the same VHD to boot to from cold iron or as a VM using Virtualbox.  We have Win 10 Enterprise, so no activation to worry about. It was fun to mess around with and just may come in handy one of these days. 


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#16 Wonko the Sane

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Posted 12 December 2019 - 03:47 PM

jokes apart, after testing it myself, I can state that the reg file does not work on a fixed vhd, but it does work like a charm on an expandable vhd:

You see the difference, I could have stated that even without testing it.

 

:duff:

Wonko


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#17 antonino61

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Posted 12 December 2019 - 08:31 PM

because u r good wonko, not everybody is as good as u



#18 alacran

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Posted 13 December 2019 - 11:10 PM

vDisk2

 

A tool from my good friend Retokener: http://reboot.pro/topic/22205-vdisk2/

 

This is a little program to add some options to handle VHD or VHDX from the context menu on Windows Explorer (right click).

 

Particularly usefull for all of us still using Win 7 as our main OS.

 

 

wimlib_Property_Switch

 

Also even if this tool is not to be used directly on VHDs, it is very usefull to make some quick editions on the WIM or ESD files, and it deserves to be mentioned in this compilation of tools for VHDs.

 

Another tool from my good friend Retokener: http://reboot.pro/to...roperty-switch/

 

wimlib_Property_Switch is a tool to change properties of a wimfile in batch mode.
It is capable to save and apply property templates to windows images and make it easy to modify an updated image with new descriptions / properties.

 

It has proven to be very useful to me, to add/edit some details to a captured image file without having to rebuild it.

 

Also it is the fastest way to veryfy our WIM files contents, even faster than loading them on wimlib-clc.

 

 

alacran


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#19 alacran

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Posted 14 December 2019 - 12:00 AM

Hyper-V

 

Win 10 has a Virtual Machine called Hyper-V, it does not come activated by default but it is easy to do it on Programs and Features >> Activate or desactivate Windows Features, just go down the list and find it, open its options and activate all, later just acept and in a few minutes it will be available for you.

Even if there is recomended to use VHDX format, I don't recommend using it unless your virtual disk requires more than 2 TB, even on MS Azure only VHD disks with a single partition are accepted. Also Win 10 runs on VHD as it usually does on your internal disk, (I can't say fine as it doesn't run free of troubles on internal disks).

 

Be carefull with the default size of new created virtual disks, it is 128 GB, better select some size in acordance with your needs, remember it is easier to increase the size of a virtual disk than shink it.

 

More info about increase the size of a virtual disk and also to shink it by means of PowerShell on following post.

 

alacran


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#20 alacran

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Posted 18 December 2019 - 04:51 PM

Convert, Resize, and Optimize VHD and VHDX files with PowerShell

 

See this page, I think it is better explained than I can do it:

 

https://mikefrobbins...ith-powershell/

 

alacran


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#21 alacran

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Posted 08 June 2021 - 08:40 PM

WinPEs versus Mini-VHDs:

 

We can run a 2 to 2.3 GB Mini-VHDs on RAM having a PC with 4 GB of Ram or make 1 GB or 760 MB Wimboot VHDs or Mini-VHDs that can Ramboot on a PC with 2 GB of Ram (consuming even less Ram than a Win10XPE_x64), this allow us to boot from a full OS with many advantages that a WinPE does not have.

 

Mini-VHDs are a good option, but so far we were able to do certain tasks better if booting from a Win10XPE (that usually boots as TrustedInstaller).

 

Windows OSs (not Win10XPEs) by design do not allow in any way to run Windows explorer as TrustedInstaller, but we can avoid this limitation if we launch an alternative (GUI) explorer like Explorer++ as TrustedInstaller + System by means of PowerRun (when need arise).

 

Then I can conclude that PowerRun + Explorer++ makes a VHD or a Mini-VHD capables to work better than a Win10XPE in all scenarios

 

For more info please see this Post: PowerRun + Explorer++ (a perfect couple)

 

alacran


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#22 antonino61

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Posted 08 June 2021 - 10:17 PM

I would like to congratulate u on ur generous interesting accounting of vhd's and vhdx's


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#23 alacran

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Posted 08 June 2021 - 10:26 PM

Thanks my friend, comments like that make the people feel the time invested in writing a Topic or a Post was well invested.

 

alacran



#24 antonino61

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Posted 08 June 2021 - 11:04 PM

can we track the percentage of those who have drifted to reduced windows (as wimboot, wimramboot and the like) from conventional windows over the decade? it would be very useful, both in the short run and in the long run. I know I am a visionary bumping against ur realistic pessimism, or pessimistic realism, but u ppl have turned the tininess of linux into a mere truism, which must be reckoned with! Pls, let us take it as a romantic challenge, which it is!



#25 alacran

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Posted 10 June 2021 - 06:14 PM

From Post No. 21

 

Then I can conclude that PowerRun + Explorer++ makes a VHD or a Mini-VHD capables to work better than a Win10XPE in all scenarios

 

For more info please see this Post: PowerRun + Explorer++ (a perfect couple)

 

So it is time to make a review of certaing ways to make use of Portable Programs on our Wimboot VHDs or Mini-VHDs, (also valid for WinPEs):

 

I know for some advanced users this could be a little boring, but I think it is good for non so advanced users to read following info to know better several alternatives, and let them select one that fits better their preferences.

 

Create SFX (self extractable) files to run Portable Programs:

 

See: Free portable programs executable from PE

 

At the time that Topic was created (2017) I was using this option to save espace and share all my Portable Programs collection with all my WinPEs, basically it works this way: the Programs is extracted to a temporary folder, and run automatically from it, and after run it when we close the program that folder is automatically deleted, this approach works very fine for WinPEs that by design are running in RAM, so no writes to the internal drive or USB drive are made.

 

Pros:

 

Easy to copy to other internal or USB drives.

 

This option remains valid for Rambooting VHDs.

 

Inconvenients:

 

It has the inconvinient of repetitive write and delete to the internal drive or USB drive with the associated wear to the device if booting the VHD as filedisk.

Also sometimes because of limited Ram the user needs to make his/hers VHD the smaller possible in order to Ramboot from it, and then the remaining free espace on the VHD (even loaded on Ram) is limited and some big portables will not fit in available espace as an example LibreOfficePortable.

 

Creating a compressed drive or folder (on Compact mode [file by file]) using Wof_compress:

 

I'm going to mention here the general procedure, for detailed info see this Post.

 

To save space on NTFS drives and avoid repetitive write and delete, we can compress our Portables drive/folder using Wof_Compress by wimb to save space and latter defragment the drive or folder using Deffragler or Winconting, this may be a long procedure if this drive/folder is very big.

 

NOTE: It is necessary to remember any compressed info using Wof_Compress or wimlib-clc can not be read by 7, 8.0 and 8.1, unless the OS accesing the info has the wof.sys or wofadk.sys installed. Win 8.1 Update 1 already has the first version of wof.sys but it is not capable to read files compressed in Compact mode (that starded with 10), 10 already have newr versions of wof.sys integrated and capable to read files compressed in Compact mode.

 

You can follow the info on this Posts to install wofadk.sys on 7 and 8.x:

 

From my old post: http://reboot.pro/to...10/#entry210893

Quote

 

If for some reason, we want to install the wofadk.sys driver without installing WinNTSetup, it can be downloaded with GetWaikTools from JFX and to install it, it is just put it into Windows\System32\drivers folder and run the attached reg file and reboot the OS.

 

alacran

Attached Files

Get WAIK Tools w/o downloading the huge ISO's by JFX

 

Script to include wofadk.sys on your ChrisPEs: http://reboot.pro/fi...-wofadk-script/

To add wofadk.sys to your old WinPEs see: http://reboot.pro/to...-sd-or-microsd/

 

This approach works very fine for WinPEs and also for VHDs but it also has some inconvenients.

 

Inconvenients:

 

If we copy latter the compressed Portables drive/folder to another drive, it will be copied but UNcompressed.

 

To avoid this we can use following approach.

 

Creating a compressed folder or drive (on Compact mode [file by file]) using wimlib:

 

I remembered some time ago a not very well known/used option of wimlib-imagex, by Eric Biggers, also available on its unoficial GUI wimlib-clc, (by retokener), both let us make a WIM image (compressed or uncompressed) of the content of a drive or a folder too, and latter extract the info into the WIM file, to another drive or to an existing target Folder, with our selected compression. This way we can apply the content allready compressed to any NTFS folder or drive.

 

NOTE: if the folder doesn't exist, we need to create the folder first.

 

Inconvenients are:

  • We need to keep our WIM image file.
  • Every time we update some Portable Program we need to rebuild or update the WIM image file to install the updated folder or drive to other internal or USB drives.

On following post I will  let you know the new approach I'm recently using to avoid the inconvenients of previous procedures.

 

alacran







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