problems using virtual hard disks (VHD) with XP, VHDMount

[Guest mad.scientist.jr@gmail.com]

I installed the latest version of Virtual Server w/VHDMount,

and the "take 2" registry Ben Armstrong posted on his blog

for quickly mounting VHD files

(see

 

http://blogs.msdn.com/virtual_pc_guy/archive/2007/06/20/double-clicking-on-a-vhd-to-mount-it-take-2.aspx

 

or

 

http://blogs.msdn.com/virtual_pc_guy/search.aspx?q=vhd&p=1

 

for all his VHDMount articles)

 

and am having a lot of issues.... I am hoping someone

will be able to point out something obvious I did wrong

so I can get this to work...

 

I tried created a VHD image using Microsoft Virtual PC 2007

(I have tried both dynamic and fixed-size) and

partitioned/formatted them with NTFS. I right-clicked on the

VHD file and selected "plug in".

 

NOTE: what I describe happens whether I use the right-click

options, or from the command prompt use

 

VHDMount.exe /p VHDFileName

and

VHDMount.exe /u /c VHDFileName

 

The first thing strange is the drive did not appear in

My Computer so I opened

Computer Management > Disk Management

and see the drive (shows up as Disk 6, I have a media card

reader that takes up 2-5) is there but offline/disabled.

When I right-click it for Properties, I can enable it from

the dropdown. Or I can goto Device Manager > Disk drives

and it is listed with a red X, and I can right-click and

enable it. At this point it gets a drive letter.

 

I never had any issue with the driver - although just to be

sure I tried following the instructions to update the driver

and pointed it to the .inf files in

 

C:\Program Files\Microsoft Virtual Server\Vhdmount\

 

(vhdbus.inf and vhdstor.inf) but Windows says these are

not drivers for the device. It seems to already have a

working driver for this.

 

In any case, once I enable the drive, I get a drive letter

and can then copy files to the partition... sometimes.

I have a few large folders with many files (almost 4 GB,

~14,000 files) and when I try copying the files with

Explorer, it starts to work, but then I get an error saying

Windows cannot complete the task.

 

So I have to use my file compare utility (Beyond Compare

2.x). Sometimes it works (sort of) if there aren't too many

files or the file directory structure isn't too deep.

 

But then when I am done, I don't seem to be able to unmount

the drive. I right click on the VHD file and select Unplug

(commit changes) and nothing happens - the drive letter

still appears in My Computer and Disk Management.

It is only when I disable the drive in Disk Management or

Device Manager that I hear the chime (the sound you hear

when you Safely Remove Hardware) and the drive letter

goes away. Then if I try to re-enable, Windows asks me

to reboot (really inconvenient), and usually the system

gets unstable.

 

But usually I don't get that far - usually Beyond Compare

locks up 1/3 or 1/2 of the way through copying the files.

At this point Windows gets very unstable, to where it is

totally unresponsive except for my being able to move the

mouse pointer. I am unable to kill Beyond Compare or

Explorer in Task Manager, open any Windows in Explorer,

or shut down the PC without killing the power, let alone

Unplug the VHD to commit the changes.

 

After much frustration I gave up and tried a 3rd party

program (WinImage.com) but it doesn't seem to work with VHD

files except for letting you read & copy files from

NTFS-formmated volumes (no write). Supposedly it supports

writing to FAT32 volumes, but I can't even get it to open a

FAT32-formatted VHD file, it thinks it's unformatted.

And it doesn't support mounting VHD files to a drive letter,

you have to use its interface, so I can't use Beyond Compare

or other utility with it.

 

I have seen people posting how VHDMount works so great for

them, I am wondering if there is anything obvious I am doing

wrong, or if it has to do with my antivirus

(McAfee's AOL edition), which does not seem to allow me to

make VHD files "exempt" from virus scanning.

 

Any help appreciated!

 

----------

 

Articles:

 

Double clicking on a VHD to mount it (take 2)

http://blogs.msdn.com/virtual_pc_guy/archive/2007/06/20/double-clicking-on-a-vhd-to-mount-it-take-2.aspx

 

Playing with the final version of VHDMount

http://blogs.msdn.com/virtual_pc_guy/archive/2007/06/18/playing-with-the-final-version-of-vhdmount.aspx

 

Using VHDMount under Windows XP

http://blogs.msdn.com/virtual_pc_guy/archive/2006/09/05/740763.aspx

 

 

 

Downloads:

 

Download Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 R2 SP1 today

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/evalcenter/bb738033.aspx

 

Download or Order Virtual Server 2005 R2 SP1 Enterprise Edition for

Free

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/virtualserver/software/default.mspx

 

WinImage utility

http://winimage.com/winimage.htm

[Guest Andrew E.]

RE: problems using virtual hard disks (VHD) with XP, VHDMount

 

Virtual Server & Virtual Desktop are not in topics at this site...Sure

Virtual

Desktop wasnt what you wanted to install.Try TechNet pages on the subject,

you'll find it

here:http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/virtualization/cc510362.aspx

 

"mad.scientist.jr@gmail.com" wrote:

> I installed the latest version of Virtual Server w/VHDMount,

> and the "take 2" registry Ben Armstrong posted on his blog

> for quickly mounting VHD files

> (see

>

> http://blogs.msdn.com/virtual_pc_guy/archive/2007/06/20/double-clicking-on-a-vhd-to-mount-it-take-2.aspx

>

> or

>

> http://blogs.msdn.com/virtual_pc_guy/search.aspx?q=vhd&p=1

>

> for all his VHDMount articles)

>

> and am having a lot of issues.... I am hoping someone

> will be able to point out something obvious I did wrong

> so I can get this to work...

>

> I tried created a VHD image using Microsoft Virtual PC 2007

> (I have tried both dynamic and fixed-size) and

> partitioned/formatted them with NTFS. I right-clicked on the

> VHD file and selected "plug in".

>

> NOTE: what I describe happens whether I use the right-click

> options, or from the command prompt use

>

> VHDMount.exe /p VHDFileName

> and

> VHDMount.exe /u /c VHDFileName

>

> The first thing strange is the drive did not appear in

> My Computer so I opened

> Computer Management > Disk Management

> and see the drive (shows up as Disk 6, I have a media card

> reader that takes up 2-5) is there but offline/disabled.

> When I right-click it for Properties, I can enable it from

> the dropdown. Or I can goto Device Manager > Disk drives

> and it is listed with a red X, and I can right-click and

> enable it. At this point it gets a drive letter.

>

> I never had any issue with the driver - although just to be

> sure I tried following the instructions to update the driver

> and pointed it to the .inf files in

>

> C:\Program Files\Microsoft Virtual Server\Vhdmount\

>

> (vhdbus.inf and vhdstor.inf) but Windows says these are

> not drivers for the device. It seems to already have a

> working driver for this.

>

> In any case, once I enable the drive, I get a drive letter

> and can then copy files to the partition... sometimes.

> I have a few large folders with many files (almost 4 GB,

> ~14,000 files) and when I try copying the files with

> Explorer, it starts to work, but then I get an error saying

> Windows cannot complete the task.

>

> So I have to use my file compare utility (Beyond Compare

> 2.x). Sometimes it works (sort of) if there aren't too many

> files or the file directory structure isn't too deep.

>

> But then when I am done, I don't seem to be able to unmount

> the drive. I right click on the VHD file and select Unplug

> (commit changes) and nothing happens - the drive letter

> still appears in My Computer and Disk Management.

> It is only when I disable the drive in Disk Management or

> Device Manager that I hear the chime (the sound you hear

> when you Safely Remove Hardware) and the drive letter

> goes away. Then if I try to re-enable, Windows asks me

> to reboot (really inconvenient), and usually the system

> gets unstable.

>

> But usually I don't get that far - usually Beyond Compare

> locks up 1/3 or 1/2 of the way through copying the files.

> At this point Windows gets very unstable, to where it is

> totally unresponsive except for my being able to move the

> mouse pointer. I am unable to kill Beyond Compare or

> Explorer in Task Manager, open any Windows in Explorer,

> or shut down the PC without killing the power, let alone

> Unplug the VHD to commit the changes.

>

> After much frustration I gave up and tried a 3rd party

> program (WinImage.com) but it doesn't seem to work with VHD

> files except for letting you read & copy files from

> NTFS-formmated volumes (no write). Supposedly it supports

> writing to FAT32 volumes, but I can't even get it to open a

> FAT32-formatted VHD file, it thinks it's unformatted.

> And it doesn't support mounting VHD files to a drive letter,

> you have to use its interface, so I can't use Beyond Compare

> or other utility with it.

>

> I have seen people posting how VHDMount works so great for

> them, I am wondering if there is anything obvious I am doing

> wrong, or if it has to do with my antivirus

> (McAfee's AOL edition), which does not seem to allow me to

> make VHD files "exempt" from virus scanning.

>

> Any help appreciated!

>

> ----------

>

> Articles:

>

> Double clicking on a VHD to mount it (take 2)

> http://blogs.msdn.com/virtual_pc_guy/archive/2007/06/20/double-clicking-on-a-vhd-to-mount-it-take-2.aspx

>

> Playing with the final version of VHDMount

> http://blogs.msdn.com/virtual_pc_guy/archive/2007/06/18/playing-with-the-final-version-of-vhdmount.aspx

>

> Using VHDMount under Windows XP

> http://blogs.msdn.com/virtual_pc_guy/archive/2006/09/05/740763.aspx

>

>

>

> Downloads:

>

> Download Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 R2 SP1 today

> http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/evalcenter/bb738033.aspx

>

> Download or Order Virtual Server 2005 R2 SP1 Enterprise Edition for

> Free

> http://www.microsoft.com/technet/virtualserver/software/default.mspx

>

> WinImage utility

> http://winimage.com/winimage.htm

>

>

>

>