re: MDOP 2009 R2 for Windows 7 is now available!

Jeff Scates — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 13:09:50 GMT

Can't wait to try this product out!!! Thanks for the opportunity!!

re: MDOP 2009 R2 for Windows 7 is now available!

ryanp@uinta.com — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 21:27:19 GMT

This may be the wrong area, but I would love to be redirected if so.

I have setup my laptop with Vista as the primary OS, and both Windows 7 Enterprise and Server 2008 R2 in VHD's. This has proven quite useful, however, when running ERD 6.5 it seems that I am unable to mount the VHD file during the OS selection part of the initialization, therefore, I cannot run OS specific tools (Locksmith, Hotfix Uninstall, etc.) inside the Windows 7 installation. I can still get into the command prompt at the System Recovery Options screen, mount the VHD from there, and get in to do file restores and such through the MSDaRT recovery tools.

There is a method I have thought of (not tested yet, should work though), which would be to use Virtual PC inside one of the other OS boot selections, mount the VHD as the HDD of a VM, and use the ISO to boot through virtual PC. I just wonder if there is a method during the OS selection screen that would allow either selection of the VHD as the disk to scan for the OS, or a way to get to the command prompt to mount the VHD and rescan for the Windows 7 installation at that point.

What is the best recommendation for this situation? Could it be considered to add the capability to access the VHD file directly through the ERD boot process for OS detection so we can use all of the ERD tools?

There has been some contemplation about using the boot to VHD method even as a solitary OS installed on the machine, for the benefits like single file - full computer backups or even other configuration opportunities (x86 and x64 installations both in the same PC, etc.) If this strategy was pursued, we would effectively lock out any simple usage of the ERD disk. It would still be possible, but there would either need to be some hard drive removing and transfering to pre-setup machines with Virtual PC, or even 2 OS's on each hard drive so you could boot into the other system to mount the VHD and the ISO in a virtual machine from it. Still, both options really deter from the usefulness of booting to VHD...

Anyways, I rant as most of us do from time to time. Please leave your thoughts or suggestions for being able to use Windows 7's boot to VHD and ERD 6.5 for the recovery environment.

Thanks!