Native boot VHDX from second drive

[Mikeparkie]

I had been dual booting two copies of Windows 8 prior to getting a new rig without any issues. Once I installed Windows 8.1 I can no longer natively boot a VHD from my D:\ drive. 
 
My PC specifications 
Intel i7-4770k
ASUS SABERTOOTH Z87
16GB KINGSTON HYPERX BEAST DUAL-DDR3 2400MHz
2GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 660 Ti 
120GB INTEL 520 SSD 
4TB WD CAVIAR BLACK WD2002FAEX
4TB WD CAVIAR BLACK WD2002FAEX (two way mirror = storage spaces)
15x BLU-RAY Writer Drive
CORSAIR 750W PRO HX750-80
Corsair H60 Hydro Series High Performance CPU Cooler
10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT 
Windows 8.1 Pro x64 

 

Here's what I've tried without any luck, using Microsofts documentation: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh825709.aspx

diskpart
select vdisk file=e:\game.vhdx
attach vdisk
list volume
select volume 8
assign letter=v
select disk 0
list partition
select partition 2
assign letter=s
exit

cd v:\windows\system32
bcdboot v:\windows

bcdedit /copy {default} /d "Windows 8.1 (Game)"

bcdedit /set {my new guid} device vhd=[e:]\game.vhdx
bcdedit /set {my new guid} osdevice vhd=[e:]\game.vhdx

bcdedit /default {my new guid}

*e: being the drive location in Windows PE

 

If I store the VHD in c:\game.vhdx it works, if I try put the VHD in another location e.g. on my second internal drive (D:\) then it doesn't work and I get the attached error.

 

So I need some help on how to add a VHD on a second drive?

 

Thanks in advance for any assistance. :D  

[Eric Veteran]

You may need to use the volume mount point rather than drive letter. The secondary drive's letter may not be assigned yet.

You can find the list of mount points by running 'mountvol /l' in a command prompt.

[Mikeparkie]

Thanks,

 

Heres whats available...

Possible values for VolumeName along with current mount points are:

    \\?\Volume{15a17701-8b3f-45a6-9abc-80c73aee3e62}\
        C:\

    \\?\Volume{09e09be5-326a-11e3-8262-74d02b2b6ebb}\
        D:\

    \\?\Volume{e4314894-5499-11e3-8256-74d02b2b6ebb}\
        E:\

    \\?\Volume{48a8f588-eff2-4128-8502-6bceb2e327ae}\
        *** NO MOUNT POINTS ***

    \\?\Volume{48ee6632-542f-11e3-824f-806e6f6e6963}\
        G:\

    \\?\Volume{48ee663c-542f-11e3-824f-806e6f6e6963}\
        H:\

    \\?\Volume{48ee663d-542f-11e3-824f-806e6f6e6963}\
        I:\

So what would the complete syntax need to be with my original, would I just add this after the original diskpart entry? 

MOUNTVOL [E:]\Game.vhdx

[Eric Veteran]

\\?\Volume{e4314894-5499-11e3-8256-74d02b2b6ebb}\Game.vhdx would be the absolute path.

[Top Qat]

I do this all the time with my various test environments. My guess is because it is part of Storage Spaces.

Does SS need an extra driver? This won't be loaded at the point the VHDX is mounted for booting (or attempted to mount).

[Aasum]

EasyBCD is free for home  use! It is what I use to add VHDs to my Windows 8.1 ProWMC boot menu.

[Eric Veteran]

I missed the Storage Spaces in the OP. I believe that uses dynamic disks so it's likely that's what's preventing it from booting.

Here we go:

What types of drives can I use with Storage Spaces?

You can use commodity drives attached via Serial-Attached SCSI (SAS), Serial ATA (SATA), or USB. Storage layers that abstract the physical disks are not compatible with Storage Spaces. This includes VHDs and pass-through disks in a virtual machine, and storage subsystems that layer a RAID implementation on top of the physical disks. iSCSI and Fibre Channel controllers are not supported by Storage Spaces.

From: http://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/11382.storage-spaces-frequently-asked-questions-faq.aspx

[Mikeparkie]

 

EasyBCD is free for home  use! It is what I use to add VHDs to my Windows 8.1 ProWMC boot menu.

 

I'm a long time user of this excellent tool, but hasn't worked on this occasion. 

 

I missed the Storage Spaces in the OP. I believe that uses dynamic disks so it's likely that's what's preventing it from booting.


Here we go:

From: http://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/11382.storage-spaces-frequently-asked-questions-faq.aspx

 

That looks like an answer, not the one I wanted but an answer all the same!

 

Thanks for all the input all!