Updating a VHD to the latest released Win10 this is my first post on this site, and I wanted to start a new thread, but couldn't see how, so forgive me if this is off topic I like to run my working environment in a VHD(x). I cant find a way to update the VHD to the latest spring April update. the installer says " cant update a Virtual drive" I have googled for hours, and it doesnt seem possible. any ideas ?
thank you for stating the bleedin obvious. the Installation software tells me that. my hope was that there is a way to circumvent the restriction.
Your question was answered, yet you said the answer was obvious. Thank you for acknowledging the bleedin obvious answer. Being an ass to those trying to help you is going to get you nowhere.
@mike555 You may attach the VHD(X) to a temporary Hyper-V VM, do the upgrade, delete the VM, reattach and correct the BCD if required.
Indeed, this is a great solution. Never used Hyper-V but installed Windows 10 in a Oracle Virtualbox, choosing vhd for the disk format (instead of vhi). Attached the vhd using disk management and creating a boot entry with EasyBCD. Booting the vhd for the first time is time consuming since windows replaces the virtualbox drivers with the drivers compatible with your real hardware.
i, too, have some installations inside of VHDX containers. my solution to this is: clone the VHDX installation to a real disk, boot from the real disk, do the upgrade, clone the real disk back into the VHDX container. -andy-
there is another easy way. create a windows 10 virtual pc in hyper-v. add your vhd file as hard drive. upgrade it.
@pf100 I am old enough (69) not to get into a futile fight with you or rpo. I merely stated that MS wont allow a VHD update. The experts on this site have many tricks and ways of circumventing ( look it up ) that restriction. I have tried vhd to physical methods, but my VHD doesnt have the 500MB boot partition, and so wont boot. windows seem unable to repair it, so still stuck
Au contraire, I wasn't trying to start an argument or fight at all. I was just saying that it usually works out better to be nice to those offering help. Your words appeared to be provocative ("thank you for stating the bleedin obvious" ) and I was just trying to be helpful to you in the future if you need help with something on a forum by responding to you in a tone that your post was in to maybe let you see how that sounded. In any case, I wish you well my friend.
that is correct. you should not try to boot from the cloned real disk directly, but add the real disk into the bcd of your host disk, from which you boot your VHDX files. -andy-
@AndyMutz - is there no way to make that HDD bootable on its own ? Also, @pf100 - I am sorry that my tone was not polite, but If Microsoft say "you cant install to a virtual drive" and a reply comes back " its true MS says you cant install to a Virtual drive" how is that helpful ?
@mike555 i am sure that you can make the cloned disk bootable somehow, but i haven't tried it, because adding the clone to the host bcd takes only one minute (i use easybcd for this). -andy-
@Andy, Yes I do understand that I could add it as a boot menu item using easybcd ( which I use) I like to have flexibilty. I do thank you for your knowledge and grasp of the situation. I just bought a Dell 5570 laptop ( upgraded it to 32GB RAM) Its a behemoth at 17.3". So, am moving from the previous Dell laptop, to the new one, and want to keep the installed programs ( I hate the phrase "apps") The really nice thing is it has 3 SATA bays ( I replaced the DVD drive with a SATA HDD bay ) So now In have SATA 1. M.2 256GB SSD SATA 2. 1TB SSD SATA 3. 2TB HDD ( easily removable) in the BIOS, its easy to enable/disable individual sata ports. So I can boot from the M.2 SSD then easybcd to any VHD ( or physical) Its beautiful flexibility. So, I want to be able to disable sata1&2, and native boot the converted vhd to physical in sata3
It seems you just run in circles unnecessarily and could very well skip VHDs all together. You can clone a partition / copy files directly just as well as a vhd file. And there are far less issues such as this upgrade thing, plus more hdd performance.