MS Virtual PC Does Not Boot from Converted VHD Disk
Hello,
i cannot boot from my converted True Image tib file.
- Using Acronis True Image to convert a backup archive (16 GB) to a virtual disk in .vhd format.
- Add the converted .vhd disk to MS Virtual PC machine
But now the MS Virtual PC machine does not boot, shows only a blank screen.
Vista Sp2
MS Virtual PC 2007 Sp1
True Image 2010
Please Help

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Thomas: That isn't surprising. Your TrueImage .tib file was created from a backup of physical hardware and would include all of the device drivers for the hardware in your PC.
Virtual PC needs different drivers for its virtual hardware, so when you try to boot the .vhd file, the required drivers are missing. You would get a similar result if you backed up computer A and tried to boot the image file on computer B, where the two computers A and B have completely different hardware.
If you want to test .vhd boot then you need to boot the .vhd file on the same physical hardware that the image was created from. Windows 7 is the first MS operating system that can directly boot from .vhd, so you may have to wait for Win7 to try this.
I have read articles about people who have successfully booted a .vhd file while running Vista, but to do it they had to replace the Vista boot manager file, bootmgr, with the version from Windows 7 Ultimate, and they also had to rebuild the Vista BCD to include an entry for .vhd boot. Each article that I've read was for booting a Windows 7 .vhd from Vista. What I don't know is if you can boot .vhd files of other operating systems (like Vista) or if .vhd boot is limited to just images of Windows 7. Perhaps someone else know this??
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bodgy wrote:...Acronis in a reply said that it was because I didn't have enough disk space on my booting drive, personally I'm not so sure.
Colin:
They may be correct. Remember that a .vhd file is compressed (in that it is only as large as the used space on the disk) and that when you boot, the .vhd needs to expand to the total size of the disk it was created from. For example, if you have a 50 GB Windows 7 partition with 10 GB of used space, the .vhd file will be about 10 GB. If this .vhd file is located on a partition and you boot it, the virtual hard disk will expand to 50 GB, so the partition containing the .vhd file must have 50 GB of free space or you will get a BSOD. Been there, done that.
In my tests I did not use TI to convert a .tib to a .vhd file. Instead, I used Windows 7 Backup to create an image in .vhd format, and then I booted the image directly.
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Thomas:
You can try this as a test. Create an image of a data partition using TI. Convert the .tib image to a virtual hard disk file. Mount the .vhd file in Virtual PC 2007. This should work.
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Hello K0LO,
I created the tib file on the same hardware as MS Virutal PC is running.
First step was to create a backup tib file via True Image 2010.
Second step was converting the tib file to a vhd file.
Third step was add the vhd file to MS Virutal PC
After this tried to boot with MS Virutal PC the created vhd file.
No error massage appears, only a black screen in MS Virutal PC and Virtual machine.
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Thomas:
Acronis probably designed their conversion routine to support Windows 7 virtual hard disk booting, so it's not surprising that one of their .tib files, after conversion, fails to boot in Virtual PC 2007.
Try with a non-OS partition. If you have a data-only partition, back it up with TI and create a virtual hard disk file from the .tib file. Then attach the .vhd file as a disk drive in Virtual PC 2007.
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I started the vhd file again with MS Virtual PC 2007 and tried to fix this problem with the Vista recovery boot CD.
After 20 min, the tool reported “there are errors on this Vista Installation and recovery tool can not repair”
So this is not working!!
Meaning you can not convert a backup tib file from Acronis to a bootable MS Virtual PC vhd.
This was one of the reasons why i bought Acronis True Image 2010.
Acronis should remove this from the feature list.
Always the same, we are beta tester.
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Thomas:
Again, I don't think it can work. Your host OS is Windows Vista. Vista's boot manager does not know how to boot from a virtual hard disk file. This is a feature that is brand new and was just recently introduced with Windows 7. Perhaps it would work if your host OS was Windows 7, but even that is in question since I'm not sure that Virtual PC 2007, a program that pre-dates Windows 7, would be able to handle it.
If you want to test the boot from vhd feature I think that you would have to test it on a PC running Windows 7 Ultimate.
Have you tried simply attaching the converted .vhd file as a disk drive in Virtual PC 2007? Can you browse the drive and see the files?
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Thomas Linzmaier wrote:I started the vhd file again with MS Virtual PC 2007 and tried to fix this problem with the Vista recovery boot CD.
After 20 min, the tool reported “there are errors on this Vista Installation and recovery tool can not repair”
So this is not working!!
Meaning you can not convert a backup tib file from Acronis to a bootable MS Virtual PC vhd.
This was one of the reasons why i bought Acronis True Image 2010.
Acronis should remove this from the feature list.
Always the same, we are beta tester.
I too have just been suckered into upgrading because of this so-called "feature"!
Acronis - if you only half support something as important as this Make it very clear in *all* the promotional material!!!!
Now, where do I get my money back?
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Me Too.
I tried using several .tib's taken at different times from a laptop and converting them to .vhd's and then trying to get them to boot in MS Virtual PC on my desktop running Windows 7.
NO LUCK all I get is a screen of the Virtual PC but all is black except for a small flashing cursor in upper left hand corner that stays that way forever and cannot be used.
Does Acronis have a solution????
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Virtual PC 2007 is not supported (for booting a tib converted to a VHD). However, I see no reason why Virtual PC cannot mount a converted tib file as a virtual disk.
The following Acronis KB article has explicit instructions for using this feature: http://forum.acronis.com/content/3499
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Was successful in booting from a vhd file created by Acronis 2010 in Windows 7. Just follow the directions at this web site: http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/2953-virtual-hard-drive-vhd-file-c…
You need to put the vhd file on your C drive and be sure that you have at least 4 TIMES the size of the vhd file in space available on your C Drive or you will get a blue screen.
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It appears to me there are two distinct forks of this thread whose only commonality is VHDs:
- "Native boot" to VHD.
- VHDs, and the use of TIH 2010 to do restores to them, and have a virtual machine boot from them.
The first is currently available as a feature *only* for Windows 7, and even then it is limited to the "Ultimate" consumer/enterprise versions, and Server 2008. It is a combination of the Win7 bootloader and the Win7 OS that makes this new magic happen. You cannot, for example (in any *supported* way), convert a Vista OS .TIB archive into a VHD and have it "native boot", even if the native hardware has Win7 installed. The Acronis information that I have read mentioning "boot to VHD" has also mentioned that this is a Windows 7 only feature limited to Ultimate and Server 2008.
The second can certainly be done, but there are caveats. The largest to overcome is what Kolo has already covered. You cannot take a .TIB archive of different hardware (say your notebook PC), convert that directly to a VHD, and have it boot in a virtual machine, because the "hardware" is different. The VM's virtual devices for disks, BIOS and busses are likely not the same as those of the notebook PC's. It would be like taking the system disk out of your notebook PC, connecting it to your desktop PC, and expecting it to boot. The odds are very good that it won't work.
Having said that, I have done exactly that scenario, but it was by using the Acronis "Universal Restore" Plus Pack option, which strips device driver information from your archive OS, and essentially re-builds the HAL upon restore. Again, if your rescue media doesn't have all the device drivers that the *now different* hardwares needs, the restored system will not boot. The fact that it is a "virtual" disk and machine makes no difference. Also, even when the restore is successful, you will likely have to re-activate Windows, because the new hardware platform is not the same as it was when the OS was first installed and activated.
Another scenario that looked to be in the thread was a "restore" of an OS that's already running on the VM? In other words, you have Vista already installed and running inside a Virtual PC 2007 VM, and you want to restore that OS to another VHD and have it boot in the same VM? Doing this should be no different than doing it on "real" hardware. From within the VM, you backup and restore just as you would with your desktop machine. You should be able to use the Acronis "TIB->VHD" utility to convert your *VM* OS TIB archive into a VHD, attach it to the VM as the boot disk, and it should boot, as long as apples remain apples.
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Thanks Garry for a good explanation
It gives me a pointer to playing around with Universal Restore in a Virtual Box environment. I saved my Vista installation as a TIB before I upgraded to Win 7 Home Premium and I want to see if I can get it to boot in Virtual Box.
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I use the "attach vhd" feature built into Windows 7 to have access to a vhd file which was converted by Acronis 2010 from my last backup of my Vista setup all the time. I attach it and play Alice, Suffering, and Left4Dead right from the virtual attached vhd.
(Just informational for people who want access to their old Vista setup from Windows 7, but I guess everyone knows this already.) :)
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