Home
Microsoft 365
Linux
Windows
Powershell
Cloud Computing
    Citrix Xendesktop
    Citrix XenApp
Useful links
About
ajni.IT -
  • Home
  • Microsoft 365
  • Linux
  • Windows
  • Powershell
  • Cloud Computing
    • Citrix Xendesktop
    • Citrix XenApp
  • Useful links
  • About

Bring a Windows Server’s disk back to life with these two commands

October 18, 2021 by AJNI No Comments

If you have the misfortune of having to troubleshoot and repair boot issues on a virtual machine after a physical host crash, these two commands might help you.

First of all, try to get into the advanced settings on boot (it should be the F11 key), or after a while Windows (Server or 10/11) might automatically go into the menu when it cannot boot from disk. Alternatively a Windows ISO image can be used.

Once in the advanced settings, run the good old checkdisk command:

chkdsk /f C:

After completion, restart the VM and check if you are able to boot. If the issue persists, try restoring the registry database (once again through the advanced settings or a Windows ISO). A scheduled task regularly backs up the registry and puts it the folder C:\Windows\System32\config\Regbak.

copy C:\windows\system32\config\RegBack\* C:\windows\system32\config

Restart the VM and check if you are able to boot into Windows. If you still have issues, you should consider restoring from a backup (it sucks but sometimes it is unavoidable).

Reading time: 1 min

Linked Clones in VMware Workstation

July 13, 2020 by AJNI No Comments

A while ago I made a blog post about Differencing Disks in Hyper-V. If you mainly work with Hyper-V, you should check it out: https://www.ajni.it/2019/10/hyper-v-create-a-master-vhdx-to-save-tons-of-space/. VMware Workstation utilizes a similar concept, called Linked Clones.

Linked Clones use a read-only disk as a reference, changes made to the VM are written into a separate writable disk. This technique allows us to save disk space and create a lot of VMs. Changes, at least in the beginning after the OS installation, are very small.

Install Windows 10 or Windows Server along with VMware Tools and then Sysprep your VM.

Now the template can be "cloned"

In VMware, a Differencing Disk is called Linked Clone. Just like in a snapshot, a linked clone uses a base read-only disk and saves changes into second, writable disk.

Now a name for the new VM can be inserted.

After booting up the new VM, we can see that the writable disk only consumes 7MB. 4GB are used for the memory state.

This feature is awesome for home labs. You can create multiple VMs off of that single base disk. In a lab, changes are usually very small, so you can save a ton of space using this method. I would not recommend updating your system through Windows Updates or enabling Bitlocker.

If for some reason the base disk is corrupt or lost though, every VM will be affected.

Reading time: 1 min

Tip Of the Day

  • Printer Redirection on Citrix Workspace for Mac OS not working

    3 months ago

Keep in touch

Oh hi there 👋
It’s nice to meet you.

Sign up to receive my awesome blog posts in your inbox, every week.

Check your inbox or spam folder to confirm your subscription.

Recent Posts

  • Printer Redirection on Citrix Workspace for Mac OS not working
  • Migrate Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops database to new server
  • Remove printers or printer drivers in Windows 10/11 or Windows Server
  • Windows Server 2012 Domain Controller Reboot Loop
  • Update domain computer group membership without rebooting a client

Categories

  • Azure (12)
  • Citrix XenApp (11)
  • Citrix Xendesktop (7)
  • Cloud Computing (24)
  • Coding (1)
  • Hyper-V (8)
  • Linux (8)
  • Microsoft 365 (12)
  • Powershell (12)
  • Security (5)
  • VDI (7)
  • Virtualization (15)
  • VMware (7)
  • Windows (19)
  • Windows Client OS (19)
  • Windows Server (45)

Archives

  • February 2022
  • January 2022
  • December 2021
  • November 2021
  • October 2021
  • September 2021
  • August 2021
  • June 2021
  • May 2021
  • April 2021
  • March 2021
  • February 2021
  • December 2020
  • November 2020
  • September 2020
  • August 2020
  • July 2020
  • June 2020
  • May 2020
  • April 2020
  • March 2020
  • February 2020
  • November 2019
  • October 2019
  • September 2019
  • August 2019
  • July 2019
  • June 2019
  • May 2019
  • April 2019
  • March 2019

ajni IT © 2019