In this episode of Defrag Tools, Chad Beeder and Andrew Richards discuss Virtual Hard Disk (VHD) files. We first dive into what a VHD is, how you can boot from a VHD by configuring bcdedit settings, and we see how they look in Disk Management. We then use Sysinternals Disk2VHD - a quick and easy way to make a VHD from a Physical drive. We also discuss the Volume Shadow Copy Service. Additional Resources:Sysinternals Disk2VHDScott Hanselmen - Guide to Installing and Booting off a VHD Timeline:[00:00] Building 20 and the Channel 9 Studio[02:12] bcdedit - Booting from partition (physical disk) - osdevice|device: partition=C:[04:37] "Choose an operating system" - Physical and Virtual boot devices[06:48] VHD files - *.vhd and *.vhdx[07:45] Fixed Size and Dynamic Size (file grows to the specified size with use)[09:27] Disk Management - diskmgmt.msc or Win-X-K[10:35] bcdedit - Booting from virtual hard disk - osdevice|device: vhd=[D:]\vhd\win10.vhd[11:55] Larry Larsen visits (briefly)![12:45] Windows 10 lets you open the VHD; mounts to the next drive letter. Use Eject to dismount.[13:37] Disk Management - look like a normal drive (note the different icon)[14:37] How to install Windows to a VHD - Scott Hanselmen blog[15:13] Windows USB/DVD Download Tool[16:18] Use diskpart or Disk Management to make the VHD file[16:55] Use diskpart to attach (mount) the VHD file during Setup[17:55] Why the Boot from VHD approach?[19:50] Downloading Sysinternals Disk2VHD[19:50] VHD downside - if they don't get booted often, you need to apply lots of update[19:50] Windows 7 and 8.1 Convenience Rollups[23:18] Running Sysinternals Disk2VHD[25:13] Volume Shadow Copy Service[28:12] (Andrew: Can't find the article I wrote on bcdedit settings - sorry)[28:41] Windows XP Mode in Windows 7 -- was just a VHD running virtually[30:47] Questions? Email us at [email protected]