Native boot vhdx AND hyper-v access to the same vhdx file?


  1. Posts : 9
    Windows 10 Pro
       #1

    Native boot vhdx AND hyper-v access to the same vhdx file?


    Question, thinking about setting up a Win11 vhdx on Win10.

    Would like to end up in a situation where I can be in the host O/S (Win10 Pro) and be able to access the guest as either dual boot or in the same session as the host via hyper-v. Does anyone run a setup like this? I understand it's a bit wonky, but it would be great if I can have one physical box do the job of two (or more as would probably have a few guests).

    Pretty confident I can dual boot or access via hyper-v, not sure about flipping between the modalities at will. For example I'd want dual boot into the guest if I want it to have full access to the hardware instead of getting a share of the resources.

    One possible gotcha would be a SKU mismatch (Win11/10 Enterprise images on top of Win10 Pro). Otherwise seems like it should work, but also seems far out of design, especially when it comes things like device management and VPNs? Use case is separating out contract work into unique 'machines' as the guests with the host being my personal instance of Windows. Keeping different identities, apps, VPNs, management, etc. separated by vhdx would be useful if I could do all this in one box. And of course I am pretty sure the easier answer is get a second box
      My Computers


  2. Posts : 18,432
    Windows 11 Pro
       #2

    If the computer is booted from the VHDX file it will be "in use" and not available to Hyper-V to be used for a VM. You cannot boot a VM from the same VHDX file that the physical host computer is booted from.
      My Computer


  3. Posts : 9
    Windows 10 Pro
    Thread Starter
       #3

    Sorry, not that scenario.

    Host O/S on bare metal, Win10 Pro.

    Can I have a guest VHDX (or multiple) that I can alternatively dual boot or even access as VMs from the Win10 Pro host? Any big gotchas in this scenario in managed environments?
      My Computers


  4. Posts : 15,498
    Windows10
       #4

    BugoffBug said:
    Sorry, not that scenario.

    Host O/S on bare metal, Win10 Pro.

    Can I have a guest VHDX (or multiple) that I can alternatively dual boot or even access as VMs from the Win10 Pro host? Any big gotchas in this scenario in managed environments?
    Sure, I do this all the time. The important thing is that the vhdx file contains its own EFI partition, so it will boot in Hyper-V.

    The easiest way to do that is to install guest OS in hyper-V first.

    An alternative is to clone the host os and all partitions to the vhdx file. To do this the vms and vhdx files should be on a separate drive. If you only have one drive, partition it and put vms and vhdxs in a separate partition.
      My Computer


  5. Posts : 9
    Windows 10 Pro
    Thread Starter
       #5

    Cool, thanks, will give it a shot!
      My Computers


 

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