Booting Windows 7 or 2008 from a vhd on a USB drive

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after struggling for a week i managed to boot my machine from a vhd located on an external USB drive.

steps:

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1- prepare a vhd file that has windows 7 or windows 2008 (there are thousands of blogs on how to do this step)

 

2- copy the vhd to the local hard drive in any parition that has enugh space for the vhd to expand

 

3- boot from your normal windows (not the vhd that we just prepared)

 

4- right click my computer and select manage then go to disk management

 

3- attach the vhd after which it will appear as a normal disk drive volume

 

4- go to https://www.boot-land.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=6851 and download pwboot then copy it inside the vhd drive

 

5- shut down the current windows and boot your machine into the vhd (again there are many blogs explaining how)

 

6- run the pwboot (FROM WITHIN THE VHD IMAGE)

 

7- use bcdboot to copy the system files from the vhd to the physical USB drive

 

8- restart your machine

 

9- select boot from USB drive