If you have Windows 7
Ultimate or Windows 7 Enterprise, which provide the Boot from VHD (Virtual Hard Disk) feature, you can install Windows 8 on a VHD.
In this edition of the Windows Desktop Report,
I’ll show you how to prepare and configure your Windows 7 system to
dual-boot Windows 8 from a VHD. While I’ll be using the Windows 8
Release Preview for this article, I’ve heard that the procedure should
be very similar with the actual release version. Even so, I’ll revisit
this topic in the near future once Windows 8 is available to the general
public.
Prerequisite
For this article, I’m going to assume that you have already visited the Windows 8 Release Preview site
and followed Microsoft’s instructions for downloading and converting
the ISO file to a DVD in Windows 7. If you haven’t, you should do so
before you get started with this article. The process is pretty
straightforward and Microsoft has documented the steps you need to
follow.
Creating a System Image
The first thing that you’ll want to do is create a System Image from
within Windows7’s Backup and Restore. When you do, you’ll end up with a
complete image of your hard disk. That way, if anything out of the
ordinary were to occur as you follow the steps for creating a dual-boot
system, you will be able to return to your current configuration.
Furthermore, I recommend that you also create a separate backup of your
data. Maybe just make copies of all your data files on CD/DVD or on an
external hard disk. While it may sound like overkill, having an extra
backup will give you peace of mind.
To create a system image, you’ll need to have a CD-RW/DVD-RW drive,
an external hard disk, or access to a network drive. To access Backup
and Restore, click the Start button, type Backup in the Search box, and
press [Enter] when Backup and Restore appears in the result pane.
Once you have Backup and Restore up, select the Create a System Image option and choose your backup location. As you can see in Figure A, I used an external hard disk attached to this system.
Figure A
On my test system, I’ll use an external hard disk to create my system image.
As you can see in Figure B, on this test system
there is only one partition. To initiate the operation, just click Start
backup. On my test system with a 500GB hard disk, it took just over an
hour to create a System Image on an external hard disk.
Figure B
Creating a System Image on an external hard disk is easy.
When the System Image is complete, you’ll be prompted to create a System Repair disc, as shown in Figure C. This is the disc that you will use to boot your system and restore your system image in the event that you need it.
Figure C
When the System Image is complete, you’ll be prompted to create a System Repair disc.
Setting up a VHD
With your System Image completed, you’ll use the Disk Management tool
to create the VHD on which you will install Windows 8. To launch Disk
Management, click the Start button, type Disk Management in the Search
box, and press [Enter] when Create and format hard disk partitions
appears in the result pane. When Disk Management launches, pull down
the Action menu and select the Create VHD command, as shown in Figure D.
Figure D
You’ll select the Create VHD command from the Action menu.
When you see the Create and Attach Virtual Hard Disk dialog box,
click the Browse button and use the Browse dialog box to create a folder
and specify a name for your VHD file.
As you can see in Figure E, I have created a folder called VHDs in the root directory and named the VHD file Windows8RP.vhd.
You will then specify a disk size and disk format. I have specified the
size as 50GB and set it up as a Fixed size. You can use whatever size
you want and choose Dynamically expanding format if you wish,
just be sure that you have enough room on the hard disk to accommodate
your VHD. (If you look back at Figure D, you can see that on my test
system I have 350GB of free space and specifying a 50GB Fixed size VHD
was an easy choice.)
Figure E
For my example VHD I choose a 50GB Fixed disk.
When you click OK, Disk Management will go to work creating the new
VHD file. As it does so, you will see the progress in the Status bar, as
shown in Figure F.
Figure F
Disk Management displays the VHD creation progress in its Status bar.
It will take a few minutes to create a Fixed size VHD file. When the
VHD is complete, you will see the new disk in Disk Management, as shown
in Figure G. Here you can see that my 50GB VHD is
listed as Disk 2 and will notice that it is also marked as Unknown, Not
Initialized, and Unallocated. Don’t worry; we’ll take care of
establishing the disk during the Windows 8 installation procedure. A
this point, you can close Disk Management.
Figure G
The new VHD will be marked as Unknown, Not Initialized, and Unallocated.
Installing Windows 8
Now that you have your VHD established, installing Windows 8 in a
dual-boot configuration should be a pretty straightforward operation.
Let’s take a closer look.
To begin, insert the Windows 8 Release Preview DVD and reboot your
system. After a few minutes, you’ll see the Windows Setup screen shown
in Figure H and will specify your language settings before clicking Next.
Figure H
The first step in the installation is to specify your language settings.
Once the initial steps are taken care of, you’ll see the Windows Setup screen shown in Figure I
and will click the Install Now button. However, keep in mind that we
aren’t exactly ready to install Windows just yet; you must first access
your VHD.
Figure I
While you will click the Install Now button, you’re not quite ready to install Windows 8.
When you see the next Windows Setup screen, you will immediately
press Shift +F10 to open an Administrator Command Prompt window as shown
in Figure J.
Figure J
When you press Shift-F10, you’ll see an Administrator Command Prompt window.
To prepare your VHD you’ll use the command Diskpart utility. Follow these steps:
Type the command:
Once the Diskpart environment is ready, you’ll use the select command to instruct Diskpart to access your VHD file as follows:
After you have selected the VHD file, you’ll use the attach
command to essentially connect the VHD to your system as follows:
This entire procedure is illustrated in Figure K.
Figure K
After each command, you should see a success message.
Once you are done, you can type exit to leave the Diskpart
environment and then click the Close button the close the Administrator
Command Prompt window. When you return to the Windows Setup screen, you
select the Custom option, as shown in Figure L.
Figure L
Make sure that you select the Custom Install Windows only option.
At this point, Windows Setup will prompt you to choose the location
to which you want to install Windows 8 and you can now select your VHD,
which will be designated as Unallocated Space and be the size that you
specified.
As you can see in Figure M, I have selected my 50GB
VHD. Keep in mind that when you select the VHD, you’ll see a Warning
message that says that Windows cannot be installed to this disk. Even
though Windows Setup displays this warning message, you can ignore it as
the procedure does indeed function correctly. In fact, the installation
procedure will progress quite rapidly and restart several times as it
completes the installation on the VHD - just like it would on a normal
hard disk.
Figure M
Select your VHD drive, ignore the warning message, and click Next.
As soon as you click Next, the installation will begin, as shown in Figure N. This part of the operation will take a while so go get yourself a cup of coffee.
Figure N
As soon as you click Next, Windows Setup will begin copying files to the new partition.
Dual-booting Windows 7 and Windows 8
When the installation is complete, Windows Setup will reboot your
system one final time and you will then see the new Windows 8 style dual
boot screen shown in Figure O. As you can see, Windows 8 will automatically launch in 30 seconds if you don’t choose Windows 7.
Figure O
The new Windows 8 style boot screen display for 30 seconds before launching Windows 8.
If you want to alter the amount of time before Windows 8 runs, you
can click the Change defaults or choose other options at the bottom of
the screen. There are actually a multitude of options that you can
change and I’ll cover all of them in a future article.
What’s your take?
What do you think about being able to create bootable Windows 7 VHDs
that run like a dual boot setup? Will this be something that you will
use to test Windows 8?