Disk2vhd

Disk2vhd is a utility developed by Mark Russinovich for Microsoft Sysinternals which allows users to create a Virtual Hard Disk (VHD or VHDX) of their existing physical hard drive. The current version runs on Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008 and all later Windows client and server versions, including x64 systems; older releases also supported Windows XP SP2 and Windows Server 2003 SP1.

Disk2vhd is a free utility from Microsoft available from the Microsoft Sysinternals website. It enables users to create a Virtual Hard Disk (VHD) of their existing physical hard drive while Windows is running. The utility is mainly used for physical-to-virtual migration, for creating a virtual machine (VM) to run on a virtualization platform such as Microsoft Hyper-V or Virtual PC, and also for keeping a complete copy of a disk for backup and archival purposes.

Disk2vhd provides a simple and efficient way to create a virtual hard drive of a physical computer for easy transfer to a virtual machine.

Features:

• Create a VHD of the entire physical drive or just selected volumes.

• Runs on a live, online system - there is no need to shut Windows down or boot from other media.

• Uses the Windows Volume Snapshot service to take consistent point-in-time snapshots of the selected volumes.

• Creates one virtual disk file for each physical disk on which the selected volumes reside.

• Preserves the partitioning information of each disk, but copies data only for the selected volumes.

• Lets you capture just the system volumes and exclude data volumes.

• Choice between the classic VHD format and the newer VHDX format (the "Use Vhdx" option).

• VHDX files can be used on Windows 8, Windows Server 2012 and later versions.

• Compatible with Microsoft Hyper-V and Virtual PC virtual machines.

• "Prepare for use in Virtual PC" option that makes Windows XP and Server 2003 images bootable in Virtual PC.

• The virtual disk can be written to a local volume, even one that is being converted.

• Better performance when the VHD is saved on a disk different from the ones being converted.

• Shows the size, free space and space required for every volume before the conversion starts.

• Supports bootable VHDs: a VM booting a captured copy of Windows detects its new hardware and installs drivers.

• Missing drivers can be added through the Hyper-V or Virtual PC integration components.

• Created VHDs can be attached with Disk Management or Diskpart on Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 R2 and later.

• Supports command-line parameters for scripting.

• Command-line syntax: disk2vhd, followed by drive letters (or * for all volumes) and the name of the VHD file.

• Example: disk2vhd * c:\vhd\snapshot.vhd captures all volumes into the snapshot.vhd file.

• Portable single executable - no installation is required.

• Free to use under the Sysinternals license terms.

• Virtual PC supports virtual disks of up to 127 GB; larger VHDs are not accessible from a Virtual PC VM.

• Classic VHD files are limited to about 2 TB; VHDX supports much larger disks.

• Volumes with BitLocker enabled are not supported; turn BitLocker off and wait for full decryption first.

• Do not attach a VHD on the system it was created on if you plan to boot from it: Windows gives it a new disk signature and the VM will not find its boot disk.

• Physical-to-virtual migration of Windows is allowed for retail copies and Software Assurance customers.

• OEM copies of Windows XP, Vista and 7 may not be transferred to a virtual hard disk under Microsoft licensing terms.