I'm attempting to mount a Windows Image Backup .vhdx file and give it a drive letter so that I can retrieve a file or two out of the backup. It has worked fine in the past, but now I cannot make it work with either of two backups from two separate systems.
In the past, I simply used Win10's Disk Management console to attach the VHD and assign a drive letter. If Disk Management failed anywhere along the line, I'd have to use DISKPART to do it at the command line. There are many guides for this, including this one: https://www.ubackup.com/articles/mount-windows-image-backup-vhd-4125.html
But now, even DISKPART cannot assign a drive letter to this VHD, because it reportedly has no volumes defined in it, and selecting the volume seems to be a requirement.
DISKPART> select vdisk file="\\rackstation\WindowsImageBackup\Jim-XPS\Backup 2021-05-18 205737\75a7e1c1-db22-4315-9afe-3852852949c8.vhdx"
DiskPart successfully selected the virtual disk file.
DISKPART> detail vdisk
Device type ID: 0 (Unknown)
Vendor ID: {00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000} (Unknown)
State: Attached not open
Virtual size: 1889 GB
Physical size: 598 GB
Filename: \\rackstation\WindowsImageBackup\Jim-XPS\Backup 2021-05-18 205737\75a7e1c1-db22-4315-9afe-3852852949c8.vhdx
Is Child: No
Parent Filename:
Associated disk#: 1
DISKPART> list disk
Disk ### Status Size Free Dyn Gpt
-------- ------------- ------- ------- --- ---
Disk 0 Online 1907 GB 11 MB *
* Disk 1 Online 1889 GB 131 MB *
DISKPART> detail disk
Microsoft Virtual Disk
Disk ID: {ABA28F86-D470-4402-9F03-9D1AA051BC33}
Type : File Backed Virtual
Status : Online
Path : 0
Target : 0
LUN ID : 1
Location Path : UNAVAILABLE
Current Read-only State : No
Read-only : No
Boot Disk : No
Pagefile Disk : No
Hibernation File Disk : No
Crashdump Disk : No
Clustered Disk : No
There are no volumes. **[ <== WTH?! ]**
DISKPART> list vdisk
VDisk ### Disk ### State Type File
--------- -------- -------------------- --------- ----
[redacted list of other VDisks (#0 and #1) that are no longer attached, showing state of "Added", and lacking the asterisk you see below, left of "VDisk 2", denoting that it is "selected"]
* VDisk 2 Disk 1 Attached not open Expandable \\rackstation\WindowsImageBackup\Jim-XPS\Backup 2021-05-18 205737\75a7e1c1-db22-4315-9afe-3852852949c8.vhdx
DISKPART> assign letter M
There is no volume specified.
Please select a volume and try again.
Note that "list volume" returns a list of the volumes on Disk 0, rather than the selected Disk 1 (= VDisk 2), and "select volume [#]" does select the chosen volume, which then changes the selected disk to Disk 0 ! See below:
DISKPART> list disk
Disk ### Status Size Free Dyn Gpt
-------- ------------- ------- ------- --- ---
Disk 0 Online 1907 GB 11 MB *
* Disk 1 Online 1889 GB 131 MB *
DISKPART> list volume **[in spite of Disk 1 being selected, this will list volumes of Disk 0 because Disk 1 has no volumes]**
Volume ### Ltr Label Fs Type Size Status Info
---------- --- ----------- ----- ---------- ------- --------- --------
Volume 0 C OS NTFS Partition 1888 GB Healthy Boot
Volume 1 ESP FAT32 Partition 190 MB Healthy System
Volume 2 WINRETOOLS NTFS Partition 990 MB Healthy Hidden
Volume 3 Image NTFS Partition 16 GB Healthy Hidden
Volume 4 DELLSUPPORT NTFS Partition 1392 MB Healthy Hidden
DISKPART> select volume 0
Volume 0 is the selected volume.
DISKPART> list disk
Disk ### Status Size Free Dyn Gpt
-------- ------------- ------- ------- --- ---
* Disk 0 Online 1907 GB 11 MB *
Disk 1 Online 1889 GB 131 MB *
So, what gives? How do we mount the VHD files created by Windows Image Backup now? And is this a known bug of DISKPART? I can see where this silent switching of the selected disk could really screw the pooch if you were doing something destructive to your "selected" disk.
