Boot from vhd and than create a snapshot

Sat, 04 Jul 2009 09:55:32 Z

Is there an option to create snapshots (like in Hyper-V) when you are running Windows 7 vhd harddisk native on the hardware? I can boot the Windows 7 vhd fine but I can' t figure out how to make snapshots (differencing disks) off of the vhd.

Boot from vhd and than create a snapshot

Sat, 04 Jul 2009 12:12:15 Z

You can create differencing disks when the OS in the VHD is not running (offline).

You have to use Diskpart to do that. This functionality is not available in the Disk Manager.

I have not done this myself yet, but I saw the functionality to create differencing disks while exploring Diskpart.

Ray

Boot from vhd and than create a snapshot

Sat, 04 Jul 2009 12:59:01 Z

Yes thats true, but how does the OS know to write to the differencing disk? In Hyper-V you can make a snapshot. That' s what triggers the wite action to the ddifferencing disk but how do you do that from native vhd boot?

Boot from vhd and than create a snapshot

Sat, 04 Jul 2009 13:40:19 Z

You cannot take snapshots the way you do with Hyper-V

The only thing you can do is create a child-vhd that is connected to a parent VHD, than run from the child-vhd and suggest that the parent is the snapshot. You can create a chain of vhds this way.

Ray

Boot from vhd and than create a snapshot

Sat, 04 Jul 2009 14:29:21 Z

Can you give me a hint as how to create a parent child VHD as you sugested.
Maybe it is not going to do for me what i was hoping for. I thought i make a snapshot than do some installation or somthing and if i like it i merge them if i don' t like it i discard the changes.