James's Blog

Being able to mount VHD files from Virtual Server as volumes so you can access the file systems locked within could be very useful for virus checking, just grabbing the data out without having to run up the machine etc. Although it works there are some annoying steps you have to go through on Windows XP to make it work. The issues are well covered here:

http://blogs.msdn.com/virtual_pc_guy/archive/2006/09/05/740763.aspx

http://community.bartdesmet.net/blogs/bart/archive/2006/09/02/4385.aspx

Here is a copy of the VHDMount usage:

C:\Program Files\Microsoft Virtual Server\Vhdmount>vhdmount /?
Command line utility to mount a Virtual Hard Drive (VHD) file as a virtual disk device.

Usage:
VHDMOUNT /p VHDFileName
VHDMOUNT /m VHDFileName [DriveLetter]
VHDMOUNT /u VHDFileName | All
VHDMOUNT /q VHDFileName | All

/p Plugs in the specified VHD file as a virtual disk device without mounting the volume.
/m Plugs in the specified VHD file as a virtual disk device and mounts the volume.
/u Unplugs the virtual disk device for the specified VHDFileName.
/q Returns the disk name of the mounted virtual disk device for the specified VHDFileName.

VHDFileName - VHD file name including full path.
DriveLetter - Optional parameter for /m option. If drive letter is specified the volumes are mounted starting at the spefied drive letter. If drive letter is not specified it is automatically assigned.
All - Applies the operation on all mounted virtual disk devices. This parameter is applicable for /u and /q.