Create Iso From Vhd

 

How to Create a New VHD or VHDX File in Windows 10

Create Vhd From Physical Disk

Windows 10 supports virtual drives natively. It is able to recognize and use ISO, VHD and VHDX files. For ISO files, Windows 10 creates a virtual disk drive. For VHD and VHDX files, Windows 10 creates a new drive accessible via the This PC folder in File Explorer. Also, these files can be used in Hyper-V machines. Today we will review various methods that you can use to create a new VHD or VHDX file.

Requirements: - A VHD - An ISO of any Windows 7100 build (If the VHD is x86, the ISO has to be x86 also. Same thing goes for x64.) - GImageX - UltraISO Steps: 1. Start Right-click on My Computer Manage Disk Management 3. Click on More Actions and select Attach VHD, and locate your VHD 4. Open up GImageX 5. For source, select the drive.

  • Click OK to create and mount the VHD volume. The new disk will be listed in the bottom pane of the Disk Management console as an Unknown Disk. Right-click the Unknown Disk and select Initialize Disk, as shown here.
  • ISO is the most common disc image format for both CD and DVD. The content of the ISO is an exact copy of the content of the original DVD or CD the disc image was created from. ISO files are used to create exact copies of CDs, DVDs or other media saved on discs like a CD-ROM.

The Virtual Hard Disk (VHD) file format allows encapsulation of the hard disk into an individual file for use by the operating system as a virtual disk in all the same ways physical hard disks are used. These virtual disks are capable of hosting native file systems (NTFS, FAT, exFAT, and UDFS) while supporting standard disk and file operations. The maximum size of a VHD file is 2,040 GB.

VHDX is a new version of the VHD format which has a much larger storage capacity than the older VHD format. It also provides data corruption protection during power failures and optimizes structural alignments of dynamic and differencing disks to prevent performance degradation on new, large-sector physical disks. It supports for virtual hard disk storage capacity of up to 64 TB.

Windows 10 supports two virtual disk types:

  • Fixed—The VHD image file is pre-allocated on the backing store for the maximum size requested.
  • Expandable—Also known as 'dynamic', 'dynamically expandable', and 'sparse', the VHD image file uses only as much space on the backing store as needed to store the actual data the virtual disk currently contains. When creating this type of virtual disk, the VHD API does not test for free space on the physical disk based on the maximum size requested, therefore it is possible to successfully create a dynamic virtual disk with a maximum size larger than the available physical disk free space.

There are a number of methods you can use to create a new VHD or VHDX file in Windows 10. After that, you can assign it to a virtual machine or mount to the running system.

To Create a New VHD or VHDX File in Windows 10

  1. Press the Win + X keys together the keyboard.
  2. From the menu, select Disk Management.
  3. In Disk Management, select Action > Create VHD from the menu.
  4. Click on the Browse button to specify the desired VHD(X) file location.
  5. Enter a file size you want to create a VHD file of.
  6. Select the file type (VHD or VHDX).
  7. Select Fixed size or Dynamically expanding according to what works best in your case.
  8. Click OK and you are done.

Voila, you just created a VHD file. The disk will appear in the Disk Management console.

There are alternative options that you can use to create a new VHD file.

Create VHD(X) File using Hyper-V Manager

  1. Open the Hyper-V Manager app (Win + R > type virtmgmt.msc into the Run box).
  2. Select a server on the left.
  3. On the right, click on New under Actions, and select Hard Disk.
  4. Click Next in the virtual disk wizard dialog.
  5. Select VHD or VHDX for the disk format.
  6. Select Fixed size or Dynamically expanding for the disk type you want.
  7. Next, specify the directory path and the file name for your new VHD file.
  8. Select Create a new blank virtual hard disk and enter the desired disk size in GB.
  9. Verify that everything is correct, and click on Finish.

You are done.

Now, let's look on how it can be done with PowerShell.

Note: These PowerShell commands work only when the Hyper-V feature is enabled.

Create New VHD(X) File Using PowerShell

  1. Open PowerShell as Administrator.
  2. Execute te following command to create a fixed size VHD file: New-VHD -Path 'Fullpathtovhdfile' -Fixed -SizeBytes <size>.
  3. To create a dynamically expanding VHD, issue the command New-VHD -Path 'Full path of .vhd or .vhdx location' -Dynamic -SizeBytes <size>.
  4. Substitute Fullpathtovhdfile with the actual full path of the .vhd or .vhdx file where you want to store it.
  5. Substitute <size> with the maximum size (ex: '1GB') you want for the .vhd or .vhdx file. This can be expressed as in MB, GB, or TB.

Also, you can use the DiskPart tool to create a new VHD(X) file in Windows 10. Here's how.

Create New VHD or VHDX File with DiskPart

  1. Press Win + R shortcut keys on the keyboard to open the Run dialog.
  2. Type diskpart into the Run box and hit the Enter key. Confirm the UAC prompt.
  3. Type the following command: create vdisk file='Fullpathtovhdfile' maximum=<size> type=fixed. This will create a new fixed size VHD.
  4. To create a dynamically expanding VHD/VHDX file, execute the command: create vdisk file='Fullpathtovhdfile' maximum=<size> type=expandable.
  5. Substitute Fullpathtovhdfile with the actual full path of the .vhd or .vhdx file for where you want to store it at.
  6. Substitute <size> with the maximum size you want for the .vhd or .vhdx file in megabytes. E.g. 1024 for 1GB.

You are done.

Regardless of the method you used to create a VHD file, you need to create a file system on it in order to store some data on it, e.g. install an operating system or just copy some files. Here is how it can be done.

To Create File System on VHD or VHDX File,

  1. Press the Win + X keys together on the keyboard. See the list of shortcuts with the Win key available in Windows 10.
  2. From the menu, select Disk Management.
  3. If you do not see you VHD in the list, then select Action > Attach VHD from the menu.
  4. Browse for you VHD file and click OK. Do not check the 'read only' option.
  5. The VHD file will appear as a new drive in the list.
  6. Right-click the attached VHD file, and select Initialize Disk from the context menu.
  7. Select MBR or GPT for the partition style and click OK.
  8. Right-click the unallocated space on your virtual drive and select New Simple Volume...
  9. Select the partition size, file system, and specify the volume label for the new partition.
  10. Now your VHD file is ready for regular tasks.
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Convert Vhd To Iso Image

Alternatively, you can create the file system for your drive with DiskPart.

Create File System on VHD or VHDX File with DiskPart

  1. Press Win + R shortcut keys on the keyboard to open the Run dialog.
  2. Type diskpart into the Run box and hit the Enter key. Confirm the UAC prompt.
  3. In the diskpart prompt, type and run the command select vdisk file='Full path of .vhd or .vhdx location'.
  4. Type and run the command attach vdisk.
  5. Create a new partition on the VHD using the following command: create partition primary.
  6. Format the partition using the command format fs=FILE_SYSTEM_NAME label='disk label of your choice' quick.
  7. Substitute FILE_SYSTEM_NAME with either FAT, FAT32, or NTFS. NTFS is strongly recommended.
  8. Replace 'disk label of your choice' with some meaningful name, e.g. 'my first VHD'.
  9. To make the partition you have created on VHD visible in File Explorer, issue the command assign. Windows will assign any available drive letter automatically to the partition.
  10. Instead, you can execute the command assign letter=<Drive letter> (e.g. assign letter=Z) to make Windows assign a specific drive letter to the partition on your VHD.

You are done. The drive is now visible in File Explorer and is ready for use.

That's it!

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Main advantages of using ISO image

It is very important to create backups of your operating system in case of computer issues.If the backup is ISO image format, then it is super convenient to restore or employ on otherdevices. When your system crashes or data get lost, you can quickly roll back to the statewhere the ISO was taken.

Compared with other image backup format, ISO image format backup has quick a fewadvantages.

1. The ISO image itself is bootable so you can use it to restore your PC when you have bootissues.

2. It is easy to deploy on another PC.

3. It does not rely on backup tools or cloud.

4. You can view its content by mounting it as a virtual drive. (in Windows 8/8.1/10, youdouble-click it to mount it).

5. You run the ISO image on a virtual machine.

Create Windows 10 ISO from the current installation

Windows 10 has built-in feature DISM that allows you to capture Windows image under recoveryenvironment. To use it, you need a Windows10 recovery media or installation disk. With that prepared, you can follow the stepsbelow to capture Windows10 recovery image .

1. Boot your PC from the recovery media or installation media.

2. If you boot from the installation disc, then you can press Shift + F10 at Windows Setupscreen to bring out command prompt. If you boot from recovery media, then selectTroubleshoot > Advanced options > Command Prompt.

3. Type the following command and press Enter.

“dism /Capture-Image /CaptureDir:C:/ImageFile:D:windows10install.wim /Name:windows10/description:2018-01-10

Note: the drive letter may change under recovery mode, so the Windows installation drive maynot be C: drive. You need to replace location path “D:windows10” in ImageFile switch withthe target location path where you want to save the custom image. You may also need toreplace drive letter C in capturedir switch with Windows system partition.

This process might take a while and you cannot turn off the PC during the time. This imagefile can be used to reset Windows 10 PC. To make it as a bootable ISO image, follow thesteps below:

4. Open Windows 10 installation disc in File Explorer. Copy its contents and paste to afolder on your internal or external hard drive. For example, copy them to a folder named“iso-files” located on D: drive. You can also mount a Windows 10 ISO and copy itscontent.

5. Copy the custom image install.wim created before to the Source folder and replace theoriginal one.

6. Download and install the latest Windows Assessment and Deployment Kit (ADK) for Windows10. You only need to select Deployment Tools to install.

7. Run the command following command on an elevated command prompt.

oscdimg.exe -m -o -u2 -udfver102 -bootdata:2#p0,e,b[path of theiso-files]bootetfsboot.com#pEF,e,b[path of the iso-files]efimicrosoftbootefisys.bin[path of the iso-files][new location to save the iso image of the current windows]

The command is kind of complicated. To make it easy, you can also use free tool as Folder2ISOto create an ISO image out of the folder you created in step 4.

Create an ISO image in Windows 7/8/10

In Windows 7, you can use built-in feature Backup and Restore to create image backup of yourWindows 7 of hard drive. You can restore it or mount it as a virtual drive. However, it isVHD formatted instead of ISO.

For regular users who do not need to backup data constantly and do not have many data to bebacked up, Windows 7 Backup and Restore is enough. For users who need advanced backup andrestore experience, you can use free backup software AOMEI BackupperStandard.

You can use it protect any volumes detected by Windows instead of only NTFS, and you can havemore scheduled backup tasks instead of only one.

To create image backup from your operating system with AOMEI Backupper

1. Get it from DownloadCenter or button below, and then install this free backup software.

Download Freeware

Win 10/8.1/8/7/XP

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2. Select System Backup under Backup Tab.

3. To make the steps easier, the program will automatically include required partitions for afull system restore. Just click to pick a destination location to store the imagebackup.

4. Click Schedule to configure when you want the backup to run if needed.After that, click Start Backup to start the backup.

After the backup is done, you can createa bootable media with a USB drive or CD/DVD. In the event of system unbootable, you canuse it to boot all versions of Windows 10/8/7 to restore your PC.

Final words

As mentioned, backing up your computer is important. You can create ISO image from youroperating system or create custom system image backup with AOMEI Backupper. All in all, theusage of ISO image is wider, but you need much more effort to create one. What’s worse, youneed to this all over again if you want to update the ISO image.

If you use AOMEI Backupper, you can set up a scheduled backup and it will automatically keepyour image backup up to date. With its incremental and differential backup feature, you canhave multiple image backup versions with a little disk space.

If you want to protect unlimited computers within your company, you can pick AOMEIBackupper Technician. With the inbuilt AOMEI Image Deploy tool, you are also allowed todeploy/restore system image file on server-side computer to multiple client-side computersover network.