Macrium viBoot
Macrium viBoot enables you, to instantly create, start and manage Microsoft Hyper-V virtual machines using one or more Macrium Reflect image files as the basis of the virtual machine storage sub-system.
At a minimum, viBoot enables you to boot into the images you have made using Macrium Reflect, for validation purposes, or to retrieve data from old applications stored on a bootable image. At an enterprise level, you could recover an entire network environment in minutes.
Macrium viBoot is built upon a new device driver that presents a virtual drive contained within a Macrium Reflect image file, as a physical hard drive to the Windows storage sub-system. By using this method, Macrium viBoot is designed to allow any Windows based virtualization software that can boot from a physical drive, to boot from Macrium Reflect images files.
Note 1: viBoot only supports Microsoft’s Hyper-V running on a minimum of Windows 8.0 or Windows Server 2008 R2.
Note 2: Users of the viBoot Technical Preview should delete viBoot created virtual machines as these are not compatible with the full release of viBoot.
Downloading and Installing
Macrium viBoot is now available to download from the following web page...
http://updates.macrium.com/viboot/v6.0/release_notes.html
Clicking on the above link will open the viBoot release notes, The most recent release and download link are at the top of the page,
Once the download has completed, please run vibootsetup.msi to begin the installation process. Please see Installing viBoot for more information.
Main Window
The Macrium viBoot main window allows you to see at a glance, which Macrium Reflect image files you have mounted (2), and which virtual machines are connected to those drives (1).
The “Virtual Machines” view (1), displays the name of the viBoot created virtual machine, the current state of the virtual machine (Off, Running, etc) and the current CPU usage of the virtual machine. Selecting a Hyper-V virtual machine in the “Virtual Machines” view (1) will update the “Mounted Images” view (2) to list the Macrium Reflect images that are being referenced by the virtual machine.
The “Mounted Images” view (2), displays the path of the image file(s) used to create the virtual drive(s), the physical drive number assigned to the drive by Windows, the partition type of the drive (MBR or GPT) and the drive capacity.
The "Log" view (3), shows a record of the actions taken by viBoot.
Macrium viBoot can only monitor the state of virtual machines and drives while it is running. Clicking the Windows close button will minimize viBoot.
Main Window Commands
Macrium viBoot menu:
| Menu Item | Sub Menu Item | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Virtual Machine | Connect | Connect to a virtual machine. |
| New... | Displays the viBoot Wizard which allows you to create a new virtual machine. | |
| Backup... | Backup a powered off virtual machine. | |
| Delete... | Deletes the currently selected virtual machine and allows you to backup any changes to the data that have been made. | |
| Start | Starts the currently selected virtual machine. | |
| Shut down | Shuts down the currently selected virtual machine. | |
| Turn off | Turns off the currently selected virtual machine. | |
| Pause | Pauses the currently selected virtual machine. | |
| Reset | Resets the currently selected virtual machine. | |
| Exit | Exit the Macrium viBoot application. | |
| Tools | Log | Toggles the display of the Log window. |
| Options... | Configure the virtual machine repository folder, and logging options. | |
| Refresh | Instructs viBoot to refresh it's view of the virtual machines and mounted images. | |
| Help | Contents... | Displays this help content. |
| About Macrium viBoot... | Displays the viBoot version and copyright notice. |
You can right-click on the virtual machine pane to display the "Virtual Machine" menu as a context menu.
Macrium viBoot toolbar:
 | New - Displays the viBoot Wizard which allows you to create a new virtual machine. |
 | Backup a powered off virtual machine. |
| Deletes the currently selected virtual machine and allows you to backup any changes to the data that have been made. |
 | Refresh the list virtual machines and states. |
 | Options - Configure the virtual machine repository folder, and logging options. |
 | Help - Displays this help content. |
Macrium viBoot Wizard
The Macrium viBoot Wizard will configure and start a Microsoft Hyper-V virtual machine from one or more Macrium Reflect image files.
The "Welcome" page provides a brief introduction and explains some of the limitations of virtualization.
Select Image Files allows you to add one or more Macrium Reflect image files to be used for the virtual machine.
The first boot-able disk will be marked as the boot disk. If there are multiple disks that are boot-able, these can be set to be the boot disk by selecting the disk and clicking the "Set as Boot" button.
Hyper-V VM Settings allows you to configure the virtual machine. The RAM and CPU are limited to match the host computer. If the number of processors is set to "Automatic", viBoot will interrogate the Windows settings from the image files to set the correct number of processors. A Virtual Switch of "<None>" ensures that the new virtual machine is not connected to the network.
Support and Feedback
Please register and post any feedback or questions using our viBoot forum here: http://forum.macrium.com/Forum17.aspx
If you are consistently unable to create virtual machines using viBoot, please try adding viBoot to your anti-virus/malware exclusion list or alternatively, disable your anti-virus/malware software completely.
Users of the viBoot Technical Preview should delete viBoot created virtual machines as these are not compatible with the full release of viBoot.
Delete Virtual Machine
Virtual machines can be deleted from viBoot when the virtual machine is turned off. When the virtual machine is deleted from viBoot the virtual drives will be dismounted and the virtual machine removed from Hyper-V. Prior to deletion viBoot allows the virtual machine to be backed up.
If a viBoot virtual machine is deleted from Hyper-V, the virtual drives will still be mounted. viBoot will list a virtual machine called "Deleted VM" that can be deleted/backed up, to dismount the virtual drives.
Note: When you delete a virtual machine the Macrium Reflect images used to create the virtual machine are not deleted.
Options
The “Options” button on the Macrium viBoot main toolbar, will display the “Options” dialog box. From here you can modify some of the behavior of Macrium viBoot.
The “Virtual Machine Repository” specifies the folder that Macrium viBoot will use to store Virtual Machine configurations and the virtual machine drive cache.
Macrium viBoot writes a log of actions taken by the application. This file is saved to "%LOCALAPPDATA%\Temp\Macrium". The log file is configured by the following options:
Log level - Controls type of information written to the log file:
- Critical
- Error
- Warning
- Information
- Debug
Maximum number of files - Number of log files to keep before purging. A value of zero will disable this check.
Days to keep - Log files older than the specified number will be purged. A value of zero will disable this check.
Maximum log file size(MB) - Maximum file size for the log file, before a new log file is created. A value of zero will disable this check.
Macrium viBoot demonstration video