Dual booting from Windows 7 hard disk and a Windows 7 VHD file

I have Windows 7 Enterprise edition installed on my laptop on the real physical hard disk. Now I want to create a vhd partition on the c:\ root directory and be able to dual boot into my real machine or a vhd that also runs Windows 7. Is this possible at all and if, yes how. If I try to do it, the installation on the VHD says that it is going to rename some operating system files that it found on the C:\ drive.

Solution 1:

Scott Hanselman has a great write-up on this:

http://www.hanselman.com/blog/LessVirtualMoreMachineWindows7AndTheMagicOfBootToVHD.aspx

I think the only risky operation is that you will be mucking with boot loader, but it seems to be pretty close to a "just works" operation.

Haven't tried it myself yet (don't have the space).

Solution 2:

EasyBCD 2.0 has a new feature to support VHD booting. It's far easier to use. See the release notes here for more info.