This tool is awesome!
Creating a fixed size VHD in Hyper-V Manager can be a painfully slow process as it creates the disk. The larger the VHD, the more painful things get.
The following tool eliminates that:
We downloaded the tool and copied it onto the local workstation. We then ran through and created a 10GB fixed VHD using the tool. The creation process was virtually instantaneous!
The creation process:
- vhdtool /create TestVHD.VHD 10737418240
- Creates a 10GB fixed size VHD file.
We then opened the created VHD via Windows 7 Disk Management console, formatted it and ended up with:
Note that the file size needs to be in bytes. So, here is a handy converter:
Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book
*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.
Hi Phil,
ReplyDeleteThe reason VHD Tool is so quick is that it doesn't zero out the allocated space, unlike the Hyper-V Manager.
This means that you can lift the existing data off the physical disk inside the VM using something like a disk sector editor, or memory-mapped I/O. This can even be done if the VHD is quick-formatted.
So you need to consider when to use VHD Tool and when to use Hyper-V Manager. On a new system it's fine; on an existing system you should weigh up the risk of potential data leakage before using VHD Tool.