Virtualization :: Convert Current 8.1 (retail) Into VHDX And Boot From It Using Boot Loader
Jul 1, 2014
Can I (correctly) convert my current 8.1 (retail) into VHDX and boot from it using the same 8.1 boot loader or not?
I honestly don't know if I would be running two instances. Would it work if I deleted the C:/ partition and booted the VHD from another disk or partition? Would that be OK? Seems to me it would be two instances but I don't know.
I'm not interested in VMware or VirtualBox - just Hyper-V or some similar bare metal solution. Hyper-V server I could not make work really - it is not what it is designed for - I want wifi, bluetooth etc. Windows server would work but I can not afford it.
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Jul 30, 2014
I need steps to reinstall windows boot loader over grub preferably from command prompt.
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Feb 8, 2014
My Boot loader on my Desktop crashed so i formatted the drive as it was my only option. I'm attempting to reinstall windows...
-so i downloaded windows from: Upgrade Windows with only a product key as i was instructed to by the 1800 Microsoft support staff.
-made a usb installation media and used my Original Product Key. i did this on my laptop. and then once the installation media was finished i plugged it in to my desktop. it didn't work it said the product key was invalid and to please try again.
-so i called them back and the ended up giving me a new product key. i tried that with them still on the line and it didn't work their suggestion was to recreate the installation media.
- i did that this morning because i was irritated enough for one night. any way it didn't work, i noticed one thing. at the end of the creation of the installation media it keeps giving me my old product key to use.
Just to be clear because I tend to ramble a lot. this old product key is the one that i got from Microsoft when i purchased windows 8 pro. i purchased it online at microsoft.com when windows 8 first came out. i have no original installation disk because i originally downloaded some software from their site.
I dont want to buy a new copy of windows because in my opinion i shouldn't have to. What i would like to figure out is how do i create instalation media with the new product key that they gave me? every time i reinstall the install windows 8 file from Microsoft.com it for some strange reason keeps giving me my old product key and i cant seem to be able to change that.
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Dec 10, 2012
Does Win 8 also come in retail and volume channel versions?
How can I convert retail channel to volume (as I fear I have downloaded a retail version) from the torrent link in the Win 8 repository listed in MDL forum.
Can a lkink to volume version of win 8 be posted here (or PMed) to me?
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Mar 14, 2014
About this topic [URL]...
What I need to know is that: Is that possible to integrate a loader onto Windows 8 boot loader to reset the activation to trial period and then activate the system with an offline key (activate as offline only)?
This way we could make somekind of loader to set activation status as OK as far as online is not intented. And we can continue to have an trial adventure for life with Windows 8. Is that possible or no one tried it yet?
One more question, does the dev who made that topic has the tool for his method so we can try it on any win8 machine? If so, download link?
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Sep 15, 2014
I got Hyper V setup (I think). The GUI client starts and I can go to the server. I could not get the continuous page after page setup to work unless I first set up a virtual hard drive. I think there was an option to install the OS if I set up the Vm and the VHd at the same time. I am now starting the VM and connecting to it and trying to install the OS using my original OS disk in the CD/DVD drive. It went to drive/DVD and I got the usual promtp: what do you want to do, including "run setup" which is what I selected.
When I do that it takes a long time to setup/copy files and when it gets tot he screen as to what partition to install to, it only shows the system reserved, my boot partition, my data partition (which has the VHDX) and my MBR (BootIt Bare Metal main boot record) partitions. At this point I stopped the OS installation by powering down as while I had these all imaged/backed up I did not want to overwrite any of them. it did not show the VHDX as an option to which to install.
as for other options like install over a network, my network adapter doesn't show and even if I made an ISO image of my OS disk, i don't know how I would get access to it.
In setting up Hyper V I ran the following in a supershell:
enable-WindowsOptionalFeature -Online -FeatureName Microsoft-Hyper-V -All
I tried to run the following in a command prompt:
Dism /online /enable-feature /featurename:Microsoft-Hyper-V All
but got an error that it did not recognize " -all "
I then ran it without the dash or maybe with a slash in front of it (I can't remember).
I don't even know what this command does and whether it could have an effect on installing an OS to a VHD.
I am running Win 8.1 Pro on an x220 with 8Gb RAM and a 500Gb SSD. I am trying to install Win 7 Ultimate on the VHD. How to install the OS to a virtual hard drive.
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Feb 12, 2014
Goal: run both windows 7 and windows 8.1 native from VHDX (currently only success with Windows 8.1 on vhdx and win7 vhd)
I have a windows 8.1 installed in the system and rebooted into a command prompt, created a vhdx image, converted to GPT, and then install windows 7 on this vhdx (both with and without KB982018 integrated). The install went through (copying files etc) and it then rebooted itself and finish off the reset of the installation. After it rebooted it the boot menu is the old style black and white (which is fine), and choose win7 vhdx to finish off the installation. However an error comes up - An unexpected error has occurred.
Having no luck therefore instead of installing to a VHDX I now boot up with the win7SP1 USB and install onto a VHD instead. Everything went well and booted into windows 7 (expected). I then install KB980218 and then it rebooted itself, again everything is ok. I then booted back into windows 8, converted the windows 7 from VHD to VHDX and set the sector size to 4096 as per How to Convert a VHD File into VHDX. Boot entry has also been updated to vhdx instead of vhd.
I now try to boot to this new win7 vhdx, and instead of getting an unexpected error, it booted into a graphical screen and ask for repairing the window. (which means it's unsuccessful).
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Nov 26, 2013
I am looking into setting up a type 1, native hypervisor on my desktop (Xen, specifically). Would it be possible for me to load my current install into a VM? The hypervisor can be run from a live disk.
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Aug 1, 2014
I've now optimized my remaining Windows XP system --removed all the junk and duplicate programs which run on later versions of Windows so I've got a nice small tidy XP system -- basically Scanner (old canon photo scanner N1240), some VINYL editing and cutting software, OCR software, Minidisc software (still great for portable RECORDING !!) and an HP plotter and one or two odd programs. I don't need Photoshop or office any more in the XP system nor Ms Office, and I don't bother with the Internet on it either so no security problems there.
I've kept connectivity for printing (Epson 1400 printer) - the whole OS is 12 GB and it boots up in about 2 Secs (a VM running from a Linux host) --I've allocated it 1 GB - I'm sure I could run it in 768 MB too.
On my 8GB laptop it runs fine concurrently with a Windows 8.1 VM (allocated 4GB RAM for that) both on a Linux Host.
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Aug 2, 2014
I had an image of my disk and I tried to boot it up from my VM workstation but it failed. I added in the line firmware = "efi". I used to be able to boot up without a problem in VM with my disk images before I changed to a new Win 8 laptop. So I was wondering does the secure boot somehow affects it?
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Dec 11, 2013
I cloned my existing Windows installation (8.1 pro, 32 bit) onto my new SSD. I got everything up and running, and I still have my old Windows installation on one of the partitions of my HDD.
Can I turn this setup into a dual boot?
I think this could be useful, in case the new installation gets borked, or in order to run an effective malware scan on the SSD, etc.
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Dec 15, 2013
I just got a refurbished ASUS K75DE laptop, and it came with Windows 8 on it. I am wanting to run a dual boot with Win7, so I disabled fast-boot just fine, and went into the UEFI BIOS and disabled the secure boot.
While I was there, I did like I have always done and set a BIOS boot-up password. I then proceed to boot to my Win7 installer USB Flash drive, but I was running low on battery power so I aborted the install and shut the computer down to try again later.
Now however when I get into BIOS to select boot priority, all options are grayed out except for system time and a few other non-essentials. At the bottom of the first BIOS screen it says "User Level : User" and I can't seem to find a way to reverse this issue. So now I'm stuck, can't boot to anything but the HDD because it is first by default.
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Aug 21, 2013
First, some context: I have a Dell Inspiron 15R SE that came with Windows 8.
I've managed to get a working dual-boot system with Ubuntu 12.10. I can't remember exactly how I done that, but I remember that I had to disable secure boot. I think that the boot configuration those days was:
Secure boot: DisabledLoad legacy option rom: EnabledBoot list option: Legacy
This "configuration" worked perfectly for 6-7 months.
Then, one day (last week, can't remember the exact day), when I was using Windows 8 the computer crashed. I hard-rebooted and got this screen:
After executed boot-repair from a Ubuntu LiveCD dozens of times I've decided to eliminate Ubuntu temporarily and focus to get a system with Windows 8 working nice.
Then I used my recovery DVDs to recover the system. Yup, Windows has booted. But when I restarted first time I got the same error. Then I, digging a solution, pressed F12 after a reboot and got here:
The highlighted option allows me to boot into Windows 8. So I went to boot options (F2) and changed the following configuration:
Load legacy option rom: DisabledBoot list option: UEFI
Now I can boot directly to Windows without need to press F12.
But my objective isn't complete. I want to erase all Ubuntu entries from the seconds image and restore the legacy boot from the first imagem (because they worked before).
I did two things:
I erased all partitions related to Ubuntu (root partition and home partition).I created a Windows recovery disk (not a system recovery disk).
I used the recovery disk to run the automatic recovery procedure (I forgot the exactly name). I've runned it at least 10 times with no success. Then I went to command prompt to try the famous triad: bootrec /fixmbr, bootrec /fixboot and bootrec /rebuildbcd. Still, no solution.
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Mar 24, 2014
After creating a UEFI bootable USB thumb drive with Rufus (using Windows 8.1 Enterprise ISO x64), for a Dell Optiplex 3010 (configured as UEFI only, no CSM, latest firmware version, Windows 8 installed), I didn't see a USB boot option, so I tried to add one manually. Unfortunately I erased the existing boot option (boot manager) by mistake. Although there were two boot options for PXE booting, the machine will not start anymore, even when there is an active WDS server on the network.
I also see Led's 2 and 3 lighting up, meaning according to the manual 'hardware ok but bios possibly damaged/corrupt'.
I understand I cannot start the machine from a bios boot disk because of GPT partitioning, and the UEFI USB boot disk I made might be corrupt (as it didn't show up as a boot option), however I don't understand why it won't boot from the PXE network card, as these boot options are still there.
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Jun 28, 2013
I have installed Blue 8.1 on a separate drive in my system along side 8.0. When I restart the 8.0 boots unless I manually select the 8.1 drive in bios. How can I alter the Boot menu to add the option to boot from either OS?
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Feb 18, 2013
Late last Fall I bought a new Desktop, an HP H81414, with Windows 8 installed with the intention of installing Windows 7 on an SSD. I migrated Window 8 to an SSD, removed that from the system, installed new SSD and put Windows 7 on it. Both worked fine. I wound up with 2 SSD's. capable of running on the EFI BIOS machine with Secure Boot turned off. I later bought a new laptop with Windows 8. I found the Win 8 with Classic Shell to be very acceptable.
What I would like to do now ,if possible, is to mount both SSD's in the HP case and switch to either one of them at boot.
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Mar 8, 2014
Client computer that shows black screen with text at boot up. Cannot boot into Windows 8 (8.1?)
This is what is on the black screen;
Your PC needs to restat.
Please hold down your power button.
Error Code 0x0000012a
Parameters:
0x0000000000000001
0x0000000000000046
0x0000000000000000
0x0000000000000000
After re-boot a message shows
Prepairing Auto Repair
Diagnosing PC
PC Did Not Start correctly either with 2 options - Restart and trying any of the Advanced Options
Restart option did nothing but restart this cycle of BSOD, etc. Advanced options to troubleshoot (Refresh, Reset, System Repair, Command Prompt are not available due to the following message:" You need to sign in as an administrator to continue, but there aren't any administrator accounts on this PC"
No system recovery disks or Windows 8 Installation media available.
PS :Cannot boot into Windows 8
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Sep 15, 2014
Earlier, about an hour ago, I left to go job searching, and left my computer in hibernate mode so I could bring it back up as soon as I got back. When I tapped keys on the keyboard, the computer powered up as usual, but it brought up the BSoD, stating it was missing files.
Prior to receiving this error, everything was working fine. I even set it to hibernate mode during the night, and it powered on this morning without any problems. I dunno if it's the multimedia keyboard I'm using or what that caused it.
I don't have an installation disc (since I bought it from Fry's Electronics about a year ago with 8 pre-installed), and neither do I have a recovery disc (since I didn't know how to make one.
Computer info: Windows 8 x64
Manufacturer: ASUS
how to fix the missing boot files, and how to do it without causing any data loss from either of my hard drives.
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Aug 22, 2014
Windows 8.1 failing to boot when any usb storage drive is plugged in during boot. My only solution is to unplug everything each boot unless I use my KVM switch which does not support usb 3.0.
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Feb 22, 2014
My Dell Inspiron 660 is 2 months old. It came with Windows 8 preinstalled. My problem: I am trying to change the boot order so I can boot from CD ROM as a first option. I have tried using the "F" keys on boot, but it just ignores me and goes on to boot up. I have also tried the "Advanced Options > UEFI Firmware Settings" in "Change PC Settings" and got the same results. I spent some time on the phone with a Dell tech. After trying all the things I had already tried, he and his supervisor decided I must have a bad Motherboard. Does this sound right? Is there any way to repair this problem?
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Jan 22, 2013
I formatted a HD that had the bootmanager on it. The Win 8 disc can't repair it. I'm also getting a message that my C: drive is locked.
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Apr 28, 2014
I had windows 7 running on my computer. When windows 8 came out I used a second harddrive as the windows 8 installation drive. Windows 8 automatically setup a dual boot system where every time I started the computer it took me a windows screen where I could select either windows 7 or windows 8. This has been going on since Windows 8 was released.
I decided it was getting old so I decided it was time to remove the old windows 7 harddrive. I tried doing it inside the windows 8 dual boot screen but could not find an option. So I decided to reformat the windows 7 harddrive. I did this in command prompt mode. After doing so when my computer restarted it said it could not find any harddrive to boot. Windows 8 is installed on the other harddrive, the one that was not reformatted. So how do I get it to start using that harddrive as the boot drive? I checked my bios and even physically disconnected the old HD that had windows 7 on it, but none of that seemed to work even though the Windows 8 HD is definitely in the boot order in the bios.
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Mar 15, 2014
My PC takes its sweet time to boot given the specs it has. (around 1.75 mins) Especially the "black" part seems to take so long. I've fastboot enabled and I use UEFI. how to make the PC boot faster ?
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Jul 23, 2013
I just bought a lenovo laptop, which came with preinstalled Windows 8.
When I turn it on the first thing I see is:
EFI network 0 for IPv4 (20-89-84-23-c3-45) boot failed
Checking media (Fail)
EFI network 0 for IPv6 (20-89-84-23-c3-45) boot failed
And then a blue screen:
Default Boot Device Missing or boot failed
Insert recovery media and hit any key
Then select boot manager to choose a new boot device or to boot recovery media
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Jul 11, 2014
I recently felt the urge to experiment with Linux and installed Ubuntu Mint and tried to set up dual booting.
However I seem to have only suceeded in preventing Windows booting at all. I cannot get into the recovery drive to undo my wrong doing.
How can I reset the windows boot manager without access to windows or recovery partitions?
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Apr 27, 2014
.I have an HP Pavilion Slimline PC desktop. It does not allow me to boot from CD/DVD drive or USB connection. Windows 8.1. I wish to be able to use the boot options cd/dvd and all the USB options. I can't use any of the options. I list bios setup options and suggestions given to me from articles but I'm not sure I'm afraid of error. I don't have that much experience in bios setup.
Articles have said in BIOS setup Security is to be disabled. I suppose Legacy remains disabled(?). It is suggested that I shutdown and reboot.
BIOS Setup > Storage > Boot Order has this list:
UEFI Boot Sources
Windows Boot Manager
USB Floppy/CD[code]....
At bottom of this Boot Order Window are the options: F5=disable Enter=drag F10=accept ESC=cancel
Windows Boot Manager at the the top stops all other options.beneath it. How does that 'drag' work. Don'tr I have to move 'Windows Boot Manager' to the bottom?
And move ATAPI CD/DVD drive to the top? of this UEFI boot sources list?
Is it true that if there is an error in the BIOS Boot Setup and Windows 8.1 does not boot, the BIOS Setup will come up instead so one can do a fix?
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Jun 8, 2013
I am dual booting Windows 8 and win7. I actually have Windows 8 installed on its own hard drive and win 7 installed in its own hard drive. The win7 hard drive has been in use for the past 2 years and I have had Windows 8 running for about a week now. I purchased another hard drive for Windows 8 and left the old Win7 as it was.
I also have 3 other hard drives in the system. Everything is formatted NTFS.
So my system is as follows
Drive C - Boot Drive - I physically swap out the dedicated hard drive for Win 8 or Win 7
Drive D - internal 250 GB sata drive
Drive F - internal 250 GB sata drive
Drive H - internal 250 GB hard drive.
I have been running this config for about 2 years under Win7 with no problems.
The problem that I have now is when I swap the boot drive and boot up a different OS than last time (Like booting Windows 8, powering down system, swap boot drive, boot Win7) the system always says that there are problems on the 3 non-boot drives. It runs chkdsk(it least that is what it look like) and processes the 3 non boot disks one at a time which take about 10-12 minutes for all 3. Most of the time it finds no problems, but about 1 out of 5 boots will find a problem with one of the disks and then fixes it. The disks seem to be OK while I am running. I then power down and swap boot drive and reboot the other os and we start all over again. I am powering the system completely down for each reboot to make sure that the disk cache is flushed.So far the disk problems have been fixed by chkdsk at boot, but I am sure the day will come when the disk cannot be fixed and I will loose data.
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May 29, 2014
I had an issue with my Windows 8 where I was forced to reinstall it. I have completely wiped my SSD and reinstalled Windows 8 on it. However, now it will not let me pick my boot order. It is forcing me to use Windows Boot Manager as my Boot Option 1. If I use anything else, I just get a black screen with a blinking line cursor.
It didn't use to do this before I had to reinstall. I'm not sure how to fix this. It also will not let me choose F11 boot options, it always is forcing me to use Windows Boot Manager.
How do I make it so I can boot from whichever boot order I want, instead of using Boot Manager?
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Feb 13, 2014
I have Kubuntu 13.10 and Windows 8.1 installed on separate drives on my computer. Dual-booting through the Linux bootloader works fine, as in I can boot either Windows 8.1 or Linux without incident. However, whenever I boot Windows, it resets itself to the highest boot priority, and always re-adds a boot entry if I remove it. My question is, how can I get it to stop doing this? I can temporarily fix it through Linux, but I'd really like to stop it permanently, as it's starting to become a pain.
EDIT: It turns out my problem was related to a duplicate entry for Ubuntu. If you're having this problem and have tried to install Linux a couple of times, check to make sure that you only have one entry for it.
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Feb 21, 2013
I'm running Win 8 Pro which is installed on my SSD and I need to remove my secondary drive and connect it to another PC. When I do this, I get a boot error. Why an error shows up especially when it is not a boot drive.
Error and My Disk Management information is attached as an image to this message.
C: is the SSD and K: is my PATA drive which I want to move.
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Nov 15, 2013
Last night my computer died. Bought it a few months ago and now it's not working.
The problem I got was Exiting PXE Boot ROM. I found these suggestions and followed these instructions: Message during startup: Exiting PXE Boot ROM. However, after changing from ACHI to IDE, my computer now won't start at all.
It doesn't even boot up to the boot screen.
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