Boot from VHD

[Midas]

Follow-up post for some minor issue.

I get a warning message ("WARNING! This is NOT a standard Ventoy device and is NOT officially supported...") and a 10 second delay on boot, which I thought was by design.

Well, apparently I did something that triggered this message, judging from the info at https://forums.ventoy.net/showthread.php?tid=612 (and at http://reboot.pro/topic/22277-ventoy-ope...ntry216140 and following).

 I haven't figured out what it was yet -- if you do, please let me know.

[agnivo007]

@Midas/@LongPanda Just a question, respect to the guide posted:

Do I need to have a full working windows install on the computer (on a different hdd of course)? I need to boot off an external disk with ventoy and the vhd made through virtualbox on a pc with no existing windows install; it has linux. Is that possible through ventoy and vhd-boot plugin?

Also is Windows 10 LTSC 2019 iso supported for making the vbox vhd file? I need to cut all possible bloat and want to stay with official MS releases, not some modified ones available on the net, so chose this one.

[Midas]

Do I need to have a full working windows install on the computer (on a different hdd of course)? I need to boot off an external disk with ventoy and the vhd made through virtualbox on a pc with no existing windows install; it has linux. Is that possible through ventoy and vhd-boot plugin?

Bear in mind that installing Ventoy to HDD will erase everything previously on it, be it either Linux or Windows.

Apart from that, if you already have a bootable VHD, I see no reason why it would be required to have another OS installed -- the idea of using Ventoy to boot from VHD being exactly to work around this.

Also is Windows 10 LTSC 2019 iso supported for making the vbox vhd file? I need to cut all possible bloat and want to stay with official MS releases, not some modified ones available on the net, so chose this one.

While I personally haven't tested that particular Windows version, I also see no reason why you wouldn't be able to use it for this purpose -- me, I have successfully used both Windows 10 v1909 and v2004...

[agnivo007]

@Midas OK, thanks for the reply above. However, maybe you thought something differently. I understood your point, here's the rephrased question with more info:

Say, I have a USB3 HDD case with a blank HDD in it. Then, I install ventoy on it, copy over the vhd and required files and take it to a system that does NOT have any version of windows installed on any of its disks. Will I be able to just plug it in, choose to boot from it in bios boot menu and it works normally? Or does it need other support files from existing windows installation on the PC to successfully boot off the vhd? (What I know is, windows's officially supported vhd boot through its own managed bootloader requires an existing install and files on the particular system; ventoy's way may be different, hence the question.)

Another issue:
However, I normally use a GPT ventoy key and boot in UEFI mode on my different systems. Your guide uses the normal bios mode (no instruction of enabling EFI boot in vbox vm settings was given) for vbox image creation. So, will I be able to boot such a vhd on all my systems as I mentioned? Will this work on non-efi supported OS vhds like win7?

Thanks in advance.

[Midas]

I'm not an expert by any means, but the answer to your first question is if you're able to boot that computer from a pendrive LiveCD (please test this) than you'll be able to do the same with your external Ventoy HDD.

As for the second question and according to https://www.ventoy.net/en/doc_mbr_vs_gpt.html, if you setup your Ventoy for GPT it will boot both UEFI and BIOS.

I have not personally tested this: the reason my guide doesn't cover it is I try to steer clear of UEFI as much as I can due to bad past experiences...

[agnivo007]

OK, this worked for my extusb hdd mentioned above:
ventoy as mbr, ntfs partition having vhd, vhd of win10 ltsc 2019 installed as regular mode (no efi support enabled) in virtualbox, vhd created in fixed disk mode, using win10 based vhdboot image, usb drive booted from EFI boot menu of laptop.

Now I might try other combinations... especially if dynamic size vhd works or not is the question. Works for anyone?

[LeoMajor]

Hope there is no rule here of necroposting and resurrecting ancient posts. HeH

First of all, Hi :-h, i'm new here and i come across this app/tool in my search for a way of booting OS off a USB device.

So the story is like this:

I had to do "sum" hocus-pocus mubo-jumbo to recover my pc from a "not-working" state to a "exact-copy-working" state.

In my search/research i found out that it had bootmgr messed up pretty good.

Anyway ... hastily and quickly i build up 2 physically bootable usb. One with AOMEI and one with Linux Puppy/LUPU.

They did the trick. Don't remember what i used for what, but i think i used them both.

Anyway, i managed to make a VHD copy of both, they boot up like a charm in virtual box as a standalone boot medium (i think i can call it) and searched/researched again a way to boot them both as VHD from the same USB. Then, this is how i come across this app.

This morning/last night, i found out about grubfm_multiarch.iso, so i swinged a shot at it to see if what i have in mind would work.

And Lo and behold, AOMEI partition worked like a charm. Exept the part that on a real pc, can't use the mouse. It's irrelephant right now...

But, with Linux Puppy/LUPU, i still have some issues, don't know if i can do something to it, or i need something else...

And i was curious what do you, experts out here, have to say about this.

This is the newest error that i get:

   

[Tokener]

Dear Sirs

Thank you very much for sharing Ventoy Tool

I tried booting Windows10 22H2 VHD by using ventoy_vhdboot.img



Windows is starting up to this point:


Stop Code: VHD BOOT INITIALIZATION FAILED

I guess ventoy_vhdboot.img needs some update.



On the WEB site there is a statement that says:



... so I provide different versions ventoy_vhdboot.img for you to test.

... Easy to update ventoy_vhdboot.img separately

... Easy to customize ventoy_vhdboot.img



My questions are:



- where are the "different versions of ventoy_vhdboot.img" located?

- how do I customize ventoy_vhdboot.img?



Best regards  T.

[nguyen ha thai trong]

Dear Sirs

Thank you very much for sharing Ventoy Tool

I tried booting Windows10 22H2 VHD by using ventoy_vhdboot.img



Windows is starting up to this point:


Stop Code: VHD BOOT INITIALIZATION FAILED

I guess ventoy_vhdboot.img needs some update.



On the WEB site there is a statement that says:



... so I provide different versions ventoy_vhdboot.img for you to test.

... Easy to update ventoy_vhdboot.img separately

... Easy to customize ventoy_vhdboot.img



My questions are:



- where are the "different versions of ventoy_vhdboot.img" located?

- how do I customize ventoy_vhdboot.img?



Best regards  T.

If the file size is not too large, please share the link I tried with ventoy and then answer the problem you are having

[Tokener]

Dear nguyen ha thai trong
thank you for your friendly response.

If the file size is not too large, please share the link I tried with ventoy and then answer the problem you are having

can you clarify the details you want to know:
- size of what file?
- what link did you try with ventoy?

thanks in advance,   T.