Windows 2008R2 boot VHD

I was in need of a faster SharePoint 2010 development environment and saw some posts on booting from a vhd and decided to give it a try. I'm running Windows 7 ultimate on my laptop and will install Windows 2008 R2 on the vhd. The first thing I tried was converting my virtualbox hard drive. Big waste of time, the conversion from vdi to vhd just didn't work. So, it was time to create a new vhd and install everything all over again. In this post I'll go thorough the steps to create a new vhd and install Windows 2008R2 on to it.

Change the bios settings on your machine so the dvd will boot before the hard drive.

Boot your machine from the install dvd. Oh, you don't have an install dvd, you have an iso file don't you? So you need to create an install dvd from the iso file. It's not so bad. Use a utility like ImgBurn to unpack the image file to disk, you'll see all the setup files when your done. 

Boot your machine from the install dvd. Select your language and click next.


Go to the command prompt  - enter shift+F10
x:\sources > diskpart
diskpart > create vdisk file=c:\win2008r2.vhd maximum=40000 type=expandable
diskpart > select vdisk file=c:\win2008r2.vhd
diskpart > attach vdisk
diskpart > exit
x:\sources > exit

Install the operating system - you will be able to select your new vhd later.

Select the disk you just created, there will be more than one to choose from. Choose carefully. Ignore the warning that you can't use the disk.

Continue with the installation. 

When the installation is finished, remove the dvd from the drive and restart your machine. You will be able to choose between Windows 7 and Windows 2008R2.