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+--- Thread: Multiple VHD on a single USB (/showthread.php?tid=410)
Multiple VHD on a single USB - Leopold - 10-27-2017
When I use WinToUSB and create a WinToGo USB drive from a Windows 10 ISO for example, I see that a VHD file is created on the USB drive from which the OS boots. Now my question is, whether we can add a few more VHDs to that same USB drive, so that we can choose which of the VHDs I can boot up from, at startup ?
For example, I want to create a bootable WinToGo USB of Windows 10 using WinToUSB. SO I get an USB containing a VHD file.
Now I can create another such similar WinToGo on a different USB drive, That drive will also contain another VHD file.
Now, I want to add that second VHD also to the SAME [first] USB that WinToGo that I made, and I want the bootloader to ask me at startup as to what VHD I want to boot from...
Can you please tell me how I can do this ?
EDIT:
I have already seen this thread... Hoping to see more clearer steps on how exactly it can be done .. Thank you
RE: Multiple VHD on a single USB - admin - 10-27-2017
(10-27-2017, 12:31 PM)Leopold Wrote: When I use WinToUSB and create a WinToGo USB drive from a Windows 10 ISO for example, I see that a VHD file is created on the USB drive from which the OS boots. Now my question is, whether we can add a few more VHDs to that same USB drive, so that we can choose which of the VHDs I can boot up from, at startup ?
For example, I want to create a bootable WinToGo USB of Windows 10 using WinToUSB. SO I get an USB containing a VHD file.
Now I can create another such similar WinToGo on a different USB drive, That drive will also contain another VHD file.
Now, I want to add that second VHD also to the SAME [first] USB that WinToGo that I made, and I want the bootloader to ask me at startup as to what VHD I want to boot from...
Can you please tell me how I can do this ?
EDIT:
I have already seen this thread... Hoping to see more clearer steps on how exactly it can be done .. Thank you
If you can assign a letter to the system partition on the Windows To Go drive, then you can create a multiple-boot Windows To Go drive with the following steps:
1. Create a Windows To Go drive using WinToUSB
2. Copy the VHD file which you want to add to the Windows To Go drive created in step 1
3. Attach the VHD file in Windows built-in Disk Management
4. Assign a drive letter to the boot partition on the VHD disk (In my case F: is the drive letter for the mounted VHD file.)
4. Use the following command to add a boot entry to the Windows To Go drive:
Bcdboot.exe F:\Windows /s E: /f ALL /v (E: is the system partition on the USB drive, F: is the mounted VHD file)
You can add multiple VHD files to the USB drive using this method.
RE: Multiple VHD on a single USB - Leopold - 10-28-2017
Awesome ! Thank you for the detailed steps !
Just one more question : Is it possible for me to make copies of the existing VHD and use them as separate instances, or it is required that each of the VHDs have unique GUIDs or something ? If they require unique GUIDs, could you please advise how it could be done ?
For example, I have a VHD on my USB WinToGo that is created using WinToUSB, that is names as WinToUSB.VHD and it is 14GB in size.
So can I simply make another copy of that same VHD and name it, say, WinToUSB2.VHD and keep it on the SAME USB drive and then edit using BCDBOOT, or do I have to do something to make the second VHD (WinToUSB2.VHD) also get another unique ID in some way ? Thank you.
RE: Multiple VHD on a single USB - admin - 10-29-2017
(10-28-2017, 11:12 AM)Leopold Wrote: Awesome ! Thank you for the detailed steps !
Just one more question : Is it possible for me to make copies of the existing VHD and use them as separate instances, or it is required that each of the VHDs have unique GUIDs or something ? If they require unique GUIDs, could you please advise how it could be done ?
For example, I have a VHD on my USB WinToGo that is created using WinToUSB, that is names as WinToUSB.VHD and it is 14GB in size.
So can I simply make another copy of that same VHD and name it, say, WinToUSB2.VHD and keep it on the SAME USB drive and then edit using BCDBOOT, or do I have to do something to make the second VHD (WinToUSB2.VHD) also get another unique ID in some way ? Thank you.
We've already tested it, there are no problems with multiple VHD files that have the same GUID.
RE: Multiple VHD on a single USB - Leopold - 10-30-2017
Excellent !
Thank you very much for the answer.