Does Windows Server 2012 no longer support BCDEDIT to boot from VHD?

Forums › Microsoft Windows › Does Windows Server 2012 no longer support BCDEDIT to boot from VHD?

lyonrouge

1993 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 20

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#110286 6-Oct-2012 16:46

I'm using Standard Edition in this example, however, I wouldn't think it was specific to this edition. I used to boot WS2008 and Win7 from VHD as "thin" hypervisor, i.e. the VMs had full access to the hardware, this trick doesn't seem to work in Win Server 2012?

Regs

4066 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 206

Trusted

Snowflake

#697856 8-Oct-2012 13:49

I haven't tried Win Server 2012 but I have installed windows 8 as VHD boot and run hyper-v on it no problems.

Win8/WS2012 have different boot layer - perhaps you need to use a diff BCDEdit, or perhaps you need to perform the install of the parent partition directly into a VHD using the supported method instead of messing around with BCDEdit after the fact?

Sales Engineer
Snowflake
www.snowflake.com

about.me/nzregs
Twitter: @nzregs

nathan

5695 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 1630
Inactive user

#701742 15-Oct-2012 19:58

can you explain a bit more about what you are trying, step by step and I will look into it

I have done several hundred BootVHD installs of Windows Server 2012, both Standard & Datacenter support BootVHD

BTW BootVHD is not any sort of thin hypervisor, no hypervisor involved, just Windows running off a Virtual Disk instead of native boot

lyonrouge

1993 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 20

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#701874 16-Oct-2012 08:15

Thanks for that, I had just assumed it was some form of virtualisation as it was using VHDs, I had never researched how it worked.

The plan was to have Win7 Ultimate and Windows Server 2012 Standard installed. So I build WS2012 VHD on one of my Hyper-V machines and copied it to the Win7 machine, then did what I normally do:
bcdedit /copy {current} /d "Server 2012 Standard"
bcdedit /set {66054000d-dd92-11dd-92a1-dc4419dac736} device vhd=[C:]\VHD\WS2012Std.vhd
bcdedit /set {66054000d-dd92-11dd-92a1-dc4419dac736} osdevice vhd=[C:]\VHD\WS2012Std.vhd
bcdedit /set {66054000d-dd92-11dd-92a1-dc4419dac736} detecthal on
Rebooted the machine, but no boot selection menu, just back into the Server. So failing that, I scrubbed the Server 2008 R2 instance and rebuilt as Server 2012 Standard, then tried the same method to boot a Win7 Ultimate VHD, again, no boot option, straight to the server. When I list the BCDEDIT, the GUIDs display as I configured them, but they are not available at boot time.

The machine has been scrubbed again for ESXi testing, but I can rebuild as Server 2012 relatively easily.

nathan

5695 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 1630
Inactive user

#702952 18-Oct-2012 14:02

this way should work, when I get some time I'll try to look into why your BCDEDIT isn't working

Start Installation

Format Media (if doing bare metal install)

You should be on the ?Where do you want to install Windows?? screen of the installation press Shift-F10 to drop to command prompt

Find installation drive (dir c:, dir d:, dir e:, etc)

Diskpart
Create vdisk file=e:\BootDemo.vhd type=expandable maximum=40000
Attach vdisk
Exit

Click ?Refresh? button

Select ?New Drive? and perform normal installation

Using this method, the BCD will be updated automatically

lyonrouge

1993 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 20

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#703990 20-Oct-2012 12:48

nathan: this way should work, when I get some time I'll try to look into why your BCDEDIT isn't working

Start Installation

Format Media (if doing bare metal install)

You should be on the ?Where do you want to install Windows?? screen of the installation press Shift-F10 to drop to command prompt

Find installation drive (dir c:, dir d:, dir e:, etc)

Diskpart
Create vdisk file=e:\BootDemo.vhd type=expandable maximum=40000
Attach vdisk
Exit

Click ?Refresh? button

Select ?New Drive? and perform normal installation

Using this method, the BCD will be updated automatically

I've wiped the drive clean, should I perform the steps above from the Win7 or WS2012 media?

nathan

5695 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 1630
Inactive user

#703993 20-Oct-2012 12:53

2012