The following is a collection of notes I made whilst doing some experiments with installing and running Windows 7 in a "native-boot" Virtual Hard Disk environment - native-boot is the term MS uses in the WAIK documentation. This is not a walkthrough and should not be treated as one as following it could result in losing existing data and boot entries if windows is already installed on your system. If you want to follow it then ensure you understand the risks and back up any important data (and consider imaging your hard disk) before proceeding. Also ensure that you know how to restore any back ups made.
A few notes about my system setup before proceeding. My hard disk was split into two primary partitions using XP's disk management console (executed from a Windows XP based PE). The first partition (referred to as (hd0,0) throughout this post) was set as ACTIVE. The second partition (referred to as (hd0,1)) was used for the vhd files. I decided to create (hd0,0) as a 10GB partition as this would also contain Windows 7 setup/install files and OS image backups.
Installing to a .vhd
A few notes about my system setup before proceeding. My hard disk was split into two primary partitions using XP's disk management console (executed from a Windows XP based PE). The first partition (referred to as (hd0,0) throughout this post) was set as ACTIVE. The second partition (referred to as (hd0,1)) was used for the vhd files. I decided to create (hd0,0) as a 10GB partition as this would also contain Windows 7 setup/install files and OS image backups.
Installing to a .vhd
1] Created a bootable Windows PE disc – this must be built using the Windows 7 beta version of the Windows Automated Installation Kit (download here).
2] Copied Windows 7 files from DVD source to "(hd0,0)\Win7" directory (beta build 7000 used)
3] Booted into WinPE and identified (hd0,0) as c: drive and (hd0,1) as d: drive
4] Started diskpart and entered the following commands to create a 10GB .vhd file -Windows Boot Manager--------------------identifier {9dea862c-5cdd-4e70-acc1-f32b344d4795}device partition=C:description Windows Boot Managerlocale en-USinherit {7ea2e1ac-2e61-4728-aaa3-896d9d0a9f0e}default {f4b899d5-0f9a-11de-bffa-bb5aec14052c}resumeobject {f4b899d4-0f9a-11de-bffa-bb5aec14052c}displayorder {f4b899d5-0f9a-11de-bffa-bb5aec14052c}toolsdisplayorder {b2721d73-1db4-4c62-bf78-c548a880142d}timeout 30Windows Boot Loader-------------------identifier {f4b899d5-0f9a-11de-bffa-bb5aec14052c}device file=[D:]\win7.vhdpath \Windows\system32\winload.exedescription Windows 7locale en-USinherit {6efb52bf-1766-41db-a6b3-0ee5eff72bd7}recoverysequence {f4b899d6-0f9a-11de-bffa-bb5aec14052c}recoveryenabled Yesosdevice file=[D:]\win7.vhdsystemroot \Windowsresumeobject {f4b899d4-0f9a-11de-bffa-bb5aec14052c}nx OptIn
