Share via

Boot from VHD on a Bitlocker enabled host...not happening

  • Article

This should have been obvious to me, and whoever you are searching for this, but apparently it's not possible to have a host OS that's bitlocker enabled and use the boot from VHD.

https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd799282(WS.10).aspx

Bitlocker cannot be used to encrypt the host volume containing VHD files used for native VHD boot, and bitlocker cannot be used on volumes contained inside a VHD.

Just thought I'd share this with you, world.

If you're looking for insight into how you can create a quick VHD here's my process. First you'll need to download and install the following:

I've got a script that helps me create new bootable VHDs:

@Set SrcDrv=F:\@Set sku=SERVERSTANDARD``@Set Wim2VhdPath=C:\VHDs@Set vhdpath="c:\vhds\Win2008R2x64-fixed.vhd"@Set disktype=Fixed@Set size=/size:12000``CSCRIPT %Wim2VhdPath%\WIM2VHD.WSF /WIM:%SrcDrv%\sources\install.wim /SKU:%sku% /VHD:%vhdpath% /disktype:%disktype% %size%

At this point, go to disk management (right-click Computer, click Manage) and attach the new VHD. Afterwords, you'll run the following script to create the boot entry using BCDBOOT. Open a command prompt as Administrator and run the following command:

bcdboot %drive%:\ windows

Voila! You should be able to reboot and select your new bootable drive. If you want to change the boot settings, you'll need to do so using BCDEDIT

Comments

  • Anonymous
    October 08, 2009
    Ran into this when someone asked if they could use Windows' complete backup/restore with a BitLocker enabled laptop ... of course the answer was no.

  • Anonymous
    October 26, 2009
    would be cool if that was possible, but wouldn't be secure...