VHD

A while ago I described how to compact an Ubuntu VHDX running on Hyper-V using the sfill command. Running sfill, however, can take hours. Luckily, there is a much faster alternative.

Virtual hard disks have the same tendency to grow in size as regular disks have to fill up. Deduplication is a great way to battle this, but unfortunately it is not available for Windows 8 Client Hyper-V. I know that hacks are available describing how to transfer the relevant DLLs from Server 2012 but I value my data too much to try that. The only thing left in order to regain valuable (SSD) disk space is to compact the VHDX. That, however, is more difficult than it should be.

In the first article of this mini-series I described how I prepared my work laptop for the installation of Windows 7 x64 beta 1 into a virtual hard disk (VHD) file. This post covers the installation itself.

After reading a lot about the speed and stability of Windows 7 (beta 1), I decided it was time for me not only to use it for real work, but also to move from 32-bit Windows to a 64-bit installation. This mini-series serves as a documentation of the steps I took and the lessons I learned.