How to mount a VHDx or VHD file on Linux?

Question

How to mount a VHDX or VHD file on Linux?

I mean attaching a virtual hard disk as a block device and using external tools to read these devices.

The file system is not mounted inside. I do not need to mount the file system, but deal with it as if it were on a real hard drive.

I read the guestfish , but could not find how to do this.

Answer 1

You can use libguestfs-tools to achieve this.

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• First you need to install it on Ubuntu / Debian-like Linux, which would be the following:

   sudo apt-get install libguestfs-tools 

• Then you can mount almost anything you want:

   guestmount --add yourVirtualDisk.vhdx --inspector --ro /mnt/anydirectory 

  This is just an example of a read-only extraction point.

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Tips:

• Run it as a regular user, i.e.:

   guestmount ... 

  Instead:

   sudo guestmount ... 

• Switches; Quotes from the man page :

   --add 

  Add a block device or virtual machine image.

   --inspector 

  Using virt-inspector (1) , check the drives that are looking for the operating system and mount the file systems, since they will be installed on a real virtual machine.

   --ro 

  Add devices and install everything read-only. Also disable writing and make the disc read-only in FUSE.