how to create windows 8 vhd and add it as additional boot operating system

VHD or Virtual Hard Disk is a hard disk (virtual) that contains an operating system that resides in a folder in your computer or add-on storage device. storage device. This example will show you how to create Windows 8 VHD file using Windows 7 Diskpart Tool: To Create a Windows 8 VHD: 1) Open the command prompt in Administrator mode (right click and run as administrator) 2) Type diskpart and hit enter 3) tye create vdisk file=c:Win8.vhdx maximum=20480 type=expandable, this creates 20GB VHD file in C drive 4) Type select vdisk file=c:win8.vhdx to work on the created VHD file 5) Type attach vdisk, ignore an alerts that would ask you to format the disk 6) Type Create partition primary 9) Type Assign letter G:, choose any available drive letter for your VHD drive 10) Type format quick label=Win8-VHDX, after this step, you should have G drive show up on your computer drive list 11) tYPE exit to exit to the command prompt 12) type dism /apply-image /imagefile:E:sourcesinstall.wim /index:1 /ApplyDir:G:, note: replace the E: with your Windows 8 location and replace G: with your VHDx drive creaed in step 9 13) Go back to DiskPart by typing diskpart in the command prompt 14) Type select vdisk file=c:win8.vhdx 15) Type detach vdisk to unmount the virutal drive from your system That is set, your VHDX file that contains Windows 8 is created and ready to be deploy to any computer. See the instructions bellow to modify the boot options of your computer using the BCDEdit (Boot Configuration Data) . 1) Open the command prompt in Administrator mode (right click and run as administrator) 2) Backup computer boot configruation before make any changes by typing this command bcdedit /export c:Backup-Boot-Config - this will create backkup of your boot configuration 3) Edit the existing boot store by typing bcdedit /copy {current} /d "Windows 8 Native VHD", this will create new boot entry by copying the existing entry 4) Copy the boot identifier created above includeing the braces {....} and type bcdedit /set {....} device vhd= [c:]win8.vhdx, replace {...} with your boot idnetifier. 5) Type bcdedit /set {....} osdevice vhd=[c:]win8.vhdx, repace {...} with your boot identifier. 6) Reboot the computer and you should boot option to boot to Windows 8 VHD in addition of your regular operating system Command Prompt result from the above BCDEdit instruction C:Windowssystem32>bcdedit /export c:backup-boot-config The operation completed successfully. C:Windowssystem32>bcdedit /copy {current} /d "Windows 8 Native VHD" The entry was successfully copied to {61c685ad-b3e1-11e4-b86b-b77e16e0a215}. C:Windowssystem32>bcdedit /set {61c685ad-b3e1-11e4-b86b-b77e16e0a215} device v hd=[c:]win8.vhdx The operation completed successfully. C:Windowssystem32>bcdedit /set {61c685ad-b3e1-11e4-b86b-b77e16e0a215} osdevice vhd=[c:]win8.vhdx The operation completed successfully. C:Windowssystem32>