As a follow up to the Virtual Hard Drive walkthrough this is the basic steps to install Windows 7 to a VHD.

  1. Type in the Windows search cmd.exe
  2. Right click on cmd and select “Run as Administrator” and then Yes on the following prompt
  3. Type diskpart then hit enter
  4. Type in the following command create vdisk file=c:\VHDs\VHD1.vhd type=fixed maximum=16000 and then hit enter
  5. After waiting for a few minutes the following will be displayed “Diskpart Successful created the virtual file”
  6. Boot off of the Windows 7 install disk
  7. After  the Windows 7 is fully booted in to it’s PE environment accept your  language settings and click OK
  8. Now hold down the Shift key + F10 to open a command prompt
  9. Type diskpart and then hit enter
  10. Type select vdisk  file=C:\VHDs\VHD1.vhd and then hit enter
  11. Type attach vdisk and then hit enter
  12. Close the command prompt window and then proceed normally with the Windows 7 installation
  13. At the drive selection screen select the 16 GB drive that you just created
  14. Ignore any warnings  and continue through the rest of the process