JackMDS, I understand where you stand and I don't think VHD will replace programs like Ghost for it's not easy to set it up. At first, I didn't even want to give it a try because it looked damn difficult but once I was done setting it up, it made night-and-day differences. All they need to is follow instructions and the benefit they could obtain, once done, outweights the pain of learning-curve.
Anyway, my concern is your spreading misinformation. This is much worse considering you're seen as an expert, not to mention your being "Super Moderator." People will mostly believe what you say even if plain wrong as in this case. This reminds me of frustration I always get when I visit numerous graphics forums. There're always these experts who insist Adobe CS4 uses CUDA tech. and that advanced drawing functions wouldn't work on ATI cards. I tell them that just isn't the case but guess who majority of people belive? The experts; the biggest problem is when I point out how they're wrong. It becomes a fight over experts' ego rather than simple facts.
Anyway, you never answerd my questions. Instead of answering it, you always bring up other issues. At first, you clearly stated 'boot from VHD is a nice gimmick; you run your computer as VPC and thus there comes hardware limitations.' When I pointed out how you were wrong, you don't say anything about it. Instead you bring up this 'I do it for average-Joes. I don't want them to mess up' notion.
I can't argue with that because it's your opinion. I, too, don't recommand it to so-called noobs. However, saying it's not safe because there's a high possibility that things can go wrong is different than saying 'This is VPC. It comes with all sorts of hardware limitations and your GPU will be emulated as aged S3 graphics card.' Tell them the truth and let them deal with it.
You see, I don't personally recommand lapping CPUs and if someone recommands it, I might say 'be careful with that. If done wrong, you can get even worse results. If done wrong, you might even kill the cpu.' This is an opnion. What if I say 'Don't do it because no matter how well you do it, your quadcore will become a dual core. I know much about about dualcore design. Dualcore is this. Dualcore is that. I knew more about dualcores than even Intel guys.'?
Same goes for 'what if your physical HDD dies' notion. I don't know why it was so hard for you to think it, but you can just save VHD on other physical HDD as you'd do with other forms of image files. I told you Windows 7's own OS backup solution uses VHD; would you not recommand it for it's based on VHD?? Is it not safe because if 'you convert the file format, you can't boot from it'? Is it not safe because 'if your physical hdd dies, it'd die with it'?
Again, again, and again. please stop talking about VPC. You don't need to explain how you have alll the knowledge on VPC, even more than TechNet presenter. I can tell you're an expert on VPC because everything here comes down to VPC and this is the problem: as VHD is widely used as a part of VPC solution, you think VHD is tied to VPC. The notion that VHD does work on its own just doesn't seem to make sense for you.
Stop for a moment and think about what you wrote above. I tell you VHD is not tied to VHD so many times. I ask if you get it. After all that, out of nowhere, you talk about 'There was a TechNet seminar. People knew nothing about VPC even the presenter. I was the only one who knew much about VPC. It's still the case.'
Okay, I get it. You=VPC expert. Make your own VPC thread if you want to talk about VPC. I tell you again. This is about VHD; not VPC.
Please stop spreading misinformation and take your time to re-educate yourself on using VHD without tying it to VPC. If your ego is not satisfied, keep it mind I'm a total noob, compared to you, when it comes to VPC and I respect you on VPC and many other matters. It's just that I was fortunate enough to learn about VHD as it is for I lacked knowledge on VPC.