Boot to VHD backup plan

Question

I have a machine that I just reinstalled Windows and all of my applications onto... what a chore that is. I want to totally and completely avoid this from now on by creating an image.

My first thought was to see if it possible to copy a VHD file when you are booted into it since I am using Windows 7 Ultimate as boot-to-vhd (without a parent machine). Is this possible and if so, how could I accomplish this? Keep in mind, this is my personal machine and I'm trying to keep things inexpensive (a good script would work).

Thanks,

Josh

Answer 1

Microsoft TechNet strongly cautions against trying this.

Do not copy a .vhd file while it is in use by a virtual machine. The file system of the host operating system does not prevent you from copying a file in use; however, data will be missing from the copied file because data in the virtual machine's memory will not be copied. Do not copy a .vhd file that is used by a virtual machine configured as a domain controller; doing so can cause problems such as duplicate security IDs (SIDs) appearing on the network.