Annoyance with ViBoot Losing VHD's, Visible but not Usable in Hyper-V

hanks said:

I was trying to export the viboot machine to another location and then import it as a pure Hyper-v machine. It didn't work...

I'm sure I did get it to work a while ago (It may have been Macrium 7.1 that I was using at that time) but I've just tested it and the export fails.

Bree said:

I'm sure I did get it to work a while ago (It may have been Macrium 7.1 that I was using at that time) but I've just tested it and the export fails.

@hanks, I've checked back on my posts from that time and it was indeed v7.1 I had, but I've also found that exporting the viBoot VM failed then too (albeit with a different error message). I did however find a way to make a new standard Hyper-V VM from a viBoot VM (and that one can then be exported, if you wish).

Bree said:

I find I cannot export any VM created by Macrium 7 viBoot. Using the Hyper-V Manager or Powershell the export goes to 99% then fails with:

Export-VM : Failed to copy file during export. Failed to copy file from 'C:\ProgramData\Macrium\viBoot\{1E1C75AE-0529-4535-BC46007B6006DF5E}\657FA20E53586408.01791D81.vhdx' to 'D:\VMs\Exported\viBoot_VM\Virtual Hard Disks\657FA20E53586408.01791D81.vhdx': There is not enough space on the disk. (0x80070070).

The 'not enough space' error doesn't seems to be the true reason for the failure. The destination drive has 130GB free, more than enough. Also, similar VMs that are not made by viBoot export without a problem to the same destination.

I have found a workaround (of sorts). Open the Settings for the viBoot VM. Edit the hard drive, Merge it to make a new .vhxd, then in Hyper-V Manager create a new VM using that new .vhdx as the virtual disk. This VM can be exported...

Export Hyper-V Virtual Machine in Windows 10 - Page 2 - | Tutorials


I've just tested that method today and successfully made a new VM from a viBoot VM.

Bree said:

@hanks, I've checked back on my posts from that time and it was indeed v7.1 I had, but I've also found that exporting the viBoot VM failed then too (albeit with a different error message). I did however find a way to make a new standard Hyper-V VM from a viBoot VM (and that one can then be exported, if you wish).

I've just tested that method today and successfully made a new VM from a viBoot VM.

I assume the 'new' Hyper-V would work OK with checkpoints? The ability to export is secondary -- I just want to be able to use checkpoints with viBoot machines.

hanks said:

I assume the 'new' Hyper-V would work OK with checkpoints?.

Yes, it's a completely normal Hyper-V VM, solely managed by Hyper-V Manager.

The new VM is fully independent of the viBoot VM you created it from. Once you have edited the viBoot VM's disk to merge it into a new vhd and used that as the virtual disk for the new VM you can delete the original VM in viBoot. You could also delete the original .mrimg (if you wish). The new VM doesn't need any of them.

Bree said:

Yes, it's a completely normal Hyper-V VM, solely managed by Hyper-V Manager.

The new VM is fully independent of the viBoot VM you created it from. Once you have edited the viBoot VM's disk to merge it into a new vhd and used that as the virtual disk for the new VM you can delete the original VM in viBoot. You could also delete the original .mrimg (if you wish). The new VM doesn't need any of them.

Thanks, it worked like a champ.

Most interesting thing I discovered: My native system occupies about 39 GB, the Hyper-V virtual image I created by merging is about 34 GB, but the virtual disk created by viBoot is 3.5 GB. I never realized that if I kill (or move) the original MR image the viboot machine dies (that's why my conventional data drive thrashes when I start the viboot machine -- all my other virtual machines are stored on a separate SSD). The viBoot vhd is not a 'stand alone' machine, it needs the original MR backup to function.

viBoot is great for 'temporary' machines, and thanks to @Bree and others I can make true Hyper-V machines from MR backups. Yea!

There is a problem with Bree's fix. If the Disk has a checkpoint, it will not allow you to edit it ????

storageman said:

There is a problem with Bree's fix. If the Disk has a checkpoint, it will not allow you to edit it ????

For all my vhd's with checkpoints, they can't be edited. If I remove the checkpoints you can edit. Not sure what the issue is?

hanks said:

For all my vhd's with checkpoints, they can't be edited. If I remove the checkpoints you can edit. Not sure what the issue is?

And there in lies the problem. I would have to do a re-update of 1903 to the original 1809 version. I guess I could do it, but its another step.