How to create and use a virtual disk in Windows. Creating and using a virtual hard disk How to create a virtual disk drive on Windows 7

Sometimes PC users are faced with the acute question of how to create a virtual HDD or CD-ROM. Let's study the procedure for performing these tasks in Windows 7.

The methods for creating a virtual disk, first of all, depend on what kind of option you want to get in the end: a hard drive image or a CD/DVD. Usually, hard files The drives have a VHD extension, and ISO images are used to mount CDs or DVDs. In order to carry out these operations, you can use the built-in Windows tools or turn to the help of third-party programs.

Method 1: DAEMON Tools Ultra

First of all, let's consider the option of creating a virtual hard drive using a third-party program for working with drives - DAEMON Tools Ultra.

  1. Run the application with administrator rights. Go to the tab "Tools".

  2. A window with a list opens available tools programs. Select an item "Add VHD".

  3. The window for adding VHD opens, that is, creating a conditional hard drive. First of all, you need to register the directory where this object will be located. To do this, click on the button to the right of the field "Save as".

  4. A save window opens. Enter the directory where you want to place the virtual drive. In field "File name" you can change the name of the object. The default is "NewVHD". Next click "Save".

  5. As you can see, the selected path is now displayed in the field "Save as" in the program shell DAEMON Tools Ultra. Now you need to specify the size of the object. To do this, by toggling the radio button, set one of two types:
    • Fixed size;
    • Dynamic expansion.

    In the first case, the volume of the disk will be precisely specified by you, and when you select the second item, the object will expand as it fills. Its actual limit will be the size of the empty space in the HDD section where the VHD file will be placed. But even if you choose this option, you are still in the field "Size" you need to set the initial volume. Simply enter a number, and the unit of measurement is selected to the right of the field in the drop-down list. The following units of measurement are available:

    • megabytes(default);
    • gigabytes;
    • terabytes.

    Be careful when choosing the right item, because if you make a mistake, the difference in size compared to the desired volume will be an order of magnitude larger or smaller. Then, if necessary, you can change the name of the disk in the field "Mark". But this is not a prerequisite. After completing the described steps, to start forming the VHD file, click "Start".

  6. The VHD file generation process is in progress. Its dynamics are displayed using an indicator.

  7. After the procedure is completed, the following message will be displayed in the DAEMON Tools Ultra shell: "VHD creation process completed successfully!". Click "Ready".

  8. Thus, a virtual hard drive has been created using the DAEMON Tools Ultra program.

Method 2: Disk2vhd

If DAEMON Tools Ultra is a universal tool for working with media, then Disk2vhd is a highly specialized utility designed only for creating VHD and VHDX files, that is virtual hard disks. Unlike the previous method, using this option, you cannot create an empty virtual drive, but only create a copy of an existing disk.


Method 3: Windows Tools

A conditional hard drive can also be created using standard system tools.

  1. Click "Start". Right click ( RMB) click on the name "Computer". A list opens where you can select "Control".

  2. The system management window appears. In its left menu in the block "Storage Devices" go by position "Disk Management".

  3. The drive management tool shell launches. Click on the position "Action" and select an option "Create a virtual hard disk".

  4. A creation window opens, where you should indicate in which directory the disk will be located. Click "Review".

  5. The object viewing window opens. Navigate to the directory where you plan to place the VHD drive file. It is advisable that this directory be located on a different HDD partition than the one on which the system is installed. A prerequisite is that the partition is not compressed, otherwise the operation will not work. In field "File name" Be sure to indicate the name by which you will identify this element. Then click "Save".

  6. You are returned to the virtual disk creation window. In field "Location" we see the path to the directory selected in the previous step. Next, you need to assign the size of the object. This is done in almost the same way as in the DAEMON Tools Ultra program. First of all, select one of the formats:
    • Fixed size(set by default);
    • Dynamic expansion.

    The values ​​of these formats correspond to the values ​​of the disk types that we previously discussed in DAEMON Tools.

    • megabytes(default);
    • gigabytes;
    • terabytes.

    After completing these steps, press "OK".

  7. Returning to the main partition management window, in its lower area you can see that an unallocated drive has now appeared. Click RMB by its name. Typical template for this title "Disk No.". Select an option from the menu that appears "Initialize disk".

  8. The disk initialization window opens. Here you just need to click "OK".

  9. After this, our element’s status will be displayed in the list "Online". Click RMB by empty space in the block "Not distributed". Choose "Create a simple volume...".

  10. The welcome window opens "Volume Creation Wizards". Click "Further".

  11. The next window indicates the volume size. It is automatically calculated from the data that we provided when creating the virtual disk. So you don’t need to change anything here, just click "Further".

  12. But in the next window you need to select the letter of the volume name from the drop-down list. It is important that there is no volume on the computer with the same designation. Once the letter is selected, press "Further".

  13. It is not necessary to make changes in the next window. But in the field "Volume Label" you can replace the standard name "New Volume" to any other, for example « Virtual disk» . After that in "Explorer" this element will be called "Virtual Disk K" or with another letter that you selected in the previous step. Click "Further".

  14. Then a window will open with the summary data that you entered in the fields "Masters". If you want to change something, then click "Back" and make changes. If everything suits you, then click "Ready".

  15. After this, the created virtual drive will appear in the computer management window.

  16. You can go to it using "Conductor" In chapter "Computer", where there is a list of all drives connected to the PC.

  17. But on some computer devices After a reboot, this virtual disk may not appear in the specified partition. Then run the tool "Computer Management" and go back to the department "Disk Management". Click on the menu "Action" and choose a position .

  18. The drive connection window opens. Click "Review…".

  19. The File Browser tool appears. Go to the directory where you previously saved the VHD object. Select it and click "Open".

  20. The path to the selected object will be displayed in the field "Location" window "Attach virtual hard disk". Click "OK".

  21. The selected drive will be available again. Unfortunately, on some computers you have to perform this operation after each restart.

Method 4: UltraISO

Sometimes you need to create not a virtual hard disk, but a virtual CD drive and run an ISO image file in it. Unlike the previous one, this task cannot be performed solely using tools operating system. To solve this, you need to use third-party software, for example, UltraISO.


We figured out that virtual disks can be of two types: hard disks (VHD) and CD/DVD images (ISO). If the first category of objects can be created both using third-party software and using internal Windows tools, then the task of mounting an ISO can only be completed by using third-party software products.

Good afternoon friends, today we will talk about how to make a virtual disk. All PC users know what an optical disk is and how to use it. Not everyone knows what a virtual disk is. An optical disk is a very convenient thing. Just 10 years ago, computer users stored the information they received on floppy disks. The capacity of such media is small - about 1.4 MB. On this moment Some people don’t really have a clue what it is, because... modern computers They are released without the so-called “Flopik” - a floppy disk drive.

Nowadays, users store information on optical disks. Unfortunately, in some cases this is inconvenient or not entirely appropriate compared to a virtual disk. Optical discs get scratched, break and are generally lost free space in the drawers of your computer desk. In addition, disks often get lost, and finding them takes a lot of free time. If the disk is lost or becomes unusable, this leads to the loss of your information, which is unacceptable. Most of us add a new, larger hard drive to expand our data.

This a good option, although information may be lost from there too. You can store information on Blu-Ray discs. This isn't a bad option either, although they can just as easily get lost or broken as optical discs.

But let's remember for a moment, you launch your favorite game or, and it completely refuses to work without the original disc in the drive. This occurs because the creators of optical or Blu-ray discs intentionally embed this function into discs to increase sales of your product.

IN in this case you will have to copy the disk as accurately as possible onto a blank and insert such a blank into the drive. Although, by the way, not every such recorded disc will launch a program or game.

How to make a virtual disk through Explorer

First, let's try to make a VZD, working directly through the computer system. This is done quite simply. Right-click on the “Computer” shortcut and select “Management”.

A new window will open. In this window, select “Disk Management”.

At the top of the main menu, click “Action” and select “Create a virtual hard disk.”


In a new window, we will indicate the location of the VZD by clicking the “Browse” button for these purposes.


We will see that we already have a disk selected. For me it is D. Your case may be different. Enter a name of this disk. For example, I will enter Virtual HDD, click on save.


At the bottom of the VZD management window we will see another disk that is not allocated (Disk 1). Right-click on it and click “Initialize disk”.


A window will open in which you can leave everything as default and click OK.


We will see the “Create Simple Volume Wizard”. Click next,


The “Volume Size” window will open, where we also need to click “Next”. We don’t need to change the drive letter, click “Next”. Let's move on to formatting the section, where we will leave everything as default. Click “Next”. All we have to do is complete our action by clicking “Finish”. Our virtual disk has been created!

How to make a virtual disk using DAEMON Tools Lite

You can also create a virtual disk with a virtual disk drive using third-party software. The most famous of these programs is Nero. This convenient program to create a virtual disk. But the problem is that modern version Nero is paid.

Therefore, we will talk about a free analogue of this program, which is called DAEMON Tools Lite. In my opinion, this program is no worse than the paid Nero in helping you create a virtual disk. This program can also be paid, but we are now talking about the free version with the word Lite at the end.

We launch the program and start creating an image, insert the disk into the drive. Click “Create a disk image.” Next, we indicate the drive from which we will save the image and indicate the path where we will create this image.

After this, we move on to motivating the image being created. To do this, we need to select the image we have selected, located at the bottom of the catalog window, there we select the virtual disk (the program creates it automatically) into which we are going to mount it. If necessary, you can create additional drive, click on the “Add virtual DT drive” button.

I hope you are now aware, “How to make a virtual disk? It's actually quite easy. All the best to you!

Another anecdote:


Creating a virtual hard disk in Windows 10 (VHDX or VHD) is the process of creating a file that can use the extension ".vhdx" or ".vhd" and acts like a physical hard disk, but with the difference that it is stored on an actual hard drive. Using any format (.vhdx or .vhd) for the virtual disk, you can store any files, including documents, images, videos, boot files and the entire OS installation. The only differences between the two formats are that the .vhdx file supports a maximum size of 64 TB, is resilient to power failure, and provides better performance. Typically, a VHD is useful for adding additional storage to a virtual Hyper-V machine, and due to its ability to support other OS installations, this storage virtualization technology can be used to create a dual-boot system without modifying an existing partition.

Working with virtual disks in Windows.

As more and more data began to be stored on a computer, tablet or phone, replacing filing cabinets, bookshelves, photo albums and CD holders, we quickly had to face the fact that there may not be enough space on the device for all information, including a collection of films or games. One solution is a hard drive. Virtual hard drive partitions take digital data storage to the next level. First, we'll look at what we're talking about when we mean a virtual image. And one of the most important points: The terms "virtual disks" and "virtual machines" can be used interchangeably. The digital storage space and high demand for it will continue to grow. Many web services that offer virtual imaging in the cloud come under scrutiny for their privacy policies. Unlike storing all your files on your own computer or a physical external drive, with a virtual drive you upload your files to a server. This means that technically you won't be the only one who has access to them.

A virtual disk is a type of logical partition that is used in virtualization solutions. It is similar to the regular one, but installed on a virtual machine or virtual server. Virtual image performs the same task as a hard drive for a computer, except that it does it for a virtual machine. It is created by the virtualization manager, logically dividing and distributing space among one or more virtual machines. A virtual disk can be used to install guest operating systems, applications, and virtual machine data. The capacity of the virtual drive depends on the basic capacity requirements of the physical drive. In memory virtualization, a virtual disk is a logically isolated drive on top of a storage network. Cloud storage solution installed on local computer, also used as a virtual hard drive.

Creating a laserdisc image

You can create a virtual disk image on Windows 7 using one of the many applications for working with images and virtual drives. Let's look at the process using PowerISO, WinISO and WinCDEmu as an example.

How to make an ISO image of a CD, DVD or Blu-ray disc with PowerISO

PowerISO can create an ISO file from a CD, DVD or Blu-ray by copying it step by step. All information, including download data, will be copied. You can launch ISO maker using the main program or the shell context menu. ISO file using the main program:

  1. Launch PowerISO.
  2. Click the "Copy" button on the toolbar, then select "Make CD/DVD/BD Image File..." from the pop-up menu.
  3. PowerISO will open the ISO Maker dialog box.
  4. Create and select a virtual drive containing the disk you want to copy.
  5. Click OK to start the ISO file creation process.

ISO file via shell context menu:

  1. Open My Computer and select the drive you want to copy.
  2. Click right click mouse on the selected drive, the shell context menu will appear.
  3. Select the "Make Image File" menu.
  4. The ISO Maker dialog box will open.
  5. Select the output file name and set the output format to ISO.
  6. Click "OK" to start the process.

WinISO can meet your needs for working with all image formats such as .ISO, .BIN, .CUE, .NRG (Nero), .MDF, .MDS, .CCD, .IMG and .DVD.

  • Step 1. Install and launch the software. Firstly, download WinISO for free from the official website, install and run it. After installation, launch the program.
  • Step 2: Click the "Tools" button. Click the “Tools” button on the toolbar, and then “Make image from CD/DVD/BD”. Or you can simply click "Create". Creating a virtual disk for Windows 10 is done in a similar way.
  • Step 3. Selecting and setting the recipient. A dialog box will appear. Select the drive containing the CD/DVD/BD and at the destination select required format output, then enter "File Name". After this, you can click the OK button to start creating the ISO file.

You can optimize the storage of data, applications, and anything else that can be burned onto a CD/DVD by creating ISO images and storing them on your hard drive. Installing a program from an ISO image is much faster than using a real optical disc. Double-clicking an image to mount it is faster than inserting it into the drive, and searching for the correct image with using Windows Search is much more convenient than searching for the desired CD on the shelf. To create an ISO image using WinCDEmu, follow these steps:

  • insert the CD you want to rip into the optical drive;
  • open the “Computer” folder in the “Start” menu;
  • Right-click the CD icon and select Create ISO Image.
  • Select a file name for the image. This is similar to saving a newly created document or image. Click "Save".
  • Wait until the image is created. Once it's created, you can remove the physical CD from the drive and mount the image whenever you need it.

Virtual hard disk

In Windows 7, Microsoft introduced new way Reserve copy of your data called “Backup and Restore”. It allows you to backup all your data to another location and provides the ability to create a system image. A system image is a large document with a VHD extension. It can be used to restore the entire system. In Windows 7, the image creation program was so popular that it remains in Windows 8 and Windows 10. There is a tool in the control panel - Backup and Restore (Windows 7). The convenience of backing up your computer using this method, in addition to the ability to completely restore it later, is that you can transfer the file to any Windows 7, 8 or 10 computer and access the data in the same way as from a regular hard drive. So if you only need to copy a few files from your backup, it's much easier to make a virtual hard disk using a VHD rather than restoring backup copy, which will first completely delete the data and then copy the data saved in the image.

Mounting VHD

To mount the image in Windows, click “Start” and type “Computer Management” in the search box. You can also go to Control Panel, then System and Security, then click Administrative Tools and then Computer Management. If you're in Icons view, click Administration. Now, in the menu on the left, click “Disk Management” and wait for the list of disks and partitions to appear. Then right-click Disk Management and select "Mount VHD". In the dialog box, click Browse, navigate to the location of the file you want to include, and click OK.

ATTENTION. If you do not select the Read Only checkbox, you will be able to add, edit, or delete files/folders from the VHD. This is really useful because you can attach your file, add some more data that you want to copy, and then just extract it.

Once the system finishes mounting, you will see the drive appear as a new device in My Computer. Windows will automatically assign a drive letter. Otherwise, right-click on Primary Partition and select Change Drive Letter. To remove a VHD, right-click on the gray area with the drive name and select "Eject VHD".

You can save a copy of the operating system and all personal data in a document using a free Microsoft tool. Go to Computer Management, click Disk Management, and then right-click Disk Management. Instead of selecting Mount, click Create VHD. This will bring up a window asking you to specify the document size, format, and location. It is recommended to choose the VHDX file format as it is less susceptible to hacking and can support big sizes. If you select the VHD file format, it will recommend a fixed size. If you select VHDX, you will be offered dynamic expansion. It's better to leave the default settings. Be sure to enter the size of your virtual disk. You can change it to GB or TB in the dropdown.

Now another device will appear in disk management – ​​marked “Unallocated”. In the gray section for the new image, right-click and select Enable Disk. Then you need to choose whether to use MBR or GPT. For compatibility with Windows versions older than Vista, select MBR. For new features and larger hard drives, use GPT. Now right-click on the unallocated area and select New Simple Volume. This will bring up the New Volume Wizard. First, you must select the size of the new volume. This cannot be the size of the unallocated space.

Click Next and select a drive letter to assign to the partition. Then choose a formatting method. By default it is set to NTFS, but FAT32 can also be selected. Select NTFS if you are using virtual media to back up files from your computer. Click "Next" and "Done" and that's it! The new device will now appear in Disk Management.

Using a VHD in a virtual machine

The extension stands for virtual hard drive. This is a format that is structured to represent a standard hard drive and allows you to encapsulate the operating system and data into a single file. This document supports all standard operations. The document is located on our hard drive, but all content is written inside the document. All partitions, data, and the entire file system are saved in the document that is used for loading. Please note that the extension may include the operating system and/or data. The name can be selected during the setup process, but its extension will always be .vhd. You can create a new document using the available disk space.

The image looks like an unused hard drive. After creating a VHD, you can create one or more partitions in it and format them using a file FAT systems, ExFAT or NTFS. When it comes to size, a VHD can be fixed in size or it can expand dynamically. A fixed VHD has a predetermined amount of space that is reserved on the physical media. This reservation also includes white space. It takes longer to create a VHD, but it performs better because the whole thing is a single block. A dynamically expanding VHD allocates physical disk space as virtual memory is used by the virtual machine. This means that the size of the .vhd file grows as our virtual machine is used. Additionally, dynamically expanding VHD files do not become smaller when files are deleted.

The existing image can be mounted (mounted) so that it appears on our existing operating system. You can also mount the image as a readable disk. Thus, the contents of the image cannot be changed. Mounted images can be extracted (unmounted) or deleted. The advantage of using VHD is the ability to download and configure multiple versions of the operating system. When setting up multiboot using standard parameters, you need to create a new partition and install Windows there. When using images, a new VHD is simply created. This means that you can have one partition with multiple files (multiple operating systems). Installing a virtual disk also offers greater flexibility when it comes to disaster recovery. We can copy an image from one computer that has been damaged to another with similar hardware. Users will have access to the same OS and data as on the old computer.

Management Tools

You can use DiskPart, Windows Disk Management, WIM2VHD, and BCDEdit to manage VHDs. The Disk Management MMC allows you to create, mount, and extract images. WITH using DiskPart you can create, mount, extract, compress, expand and view image details. Common diskpart commands used for a virtual disk:

  • create vdisk – creates an image with a VHD file size expressed in MB (the file name must have the extension .vhd);
  • mount vdisk – mounts the image;
  • extract vdisk – extracts the image;
  • compress vdisk – reduces the image size;
  • increase vdisk – expands the maximum size available in the image;
  • vdisk details – displays information.

Included automatic Windows installations(Windows AIK) includes a WIM2VHD emulator utility that can be used to create an image from a Windows installation source. Using WIM2VHD, you can create a new image of the specified type and size, apply the WIM, use the Unattend file to automate the Out Of Box boot portion of Windows when you first launch the generic image, and apply updates to it.

Microsoft developers have added to Windows 7 the ability to create and connect virtual hard drives, without using a third party for this software. Today we will look at how to create a virtual hard disk, initialize it and connect it so that the OS recognizes it and displays it as a regular HDD partition.

The Windows 7 operating system allows you to create virtual hard drives without using third-party software for this. However, that’s not all, the “seven” allows you to make sure that the created virtual hard disk is perceived by the system as an ordinary one, one that is installed in a computer case.

So hard drive very convenient to use. Judge for yourself. Firstly, you can store files on it, both encrypted and in plain form, or OS backups. Secondly, you can install an additional operating system on it. Third, include it in home network and synchronize with other home devices.

Creating a Windows 7 virtual disk

So, to create and then connect a virtual hard disk that will be detected in Windows 7 as a regular one, open Control Panel. To do this, click on the “Start” button and in the menu that opens, on the right, follow the appropriate link.

In the panel that opens, go to the “System and Security” section, and then click on “Administration”. In a new window, open “Computer Management”.

In the “Computer Management” window that appears on your screen, sequentially, as shown in the figure below, expand the menu on the left side of the window and right-click on “Disk Management”. In the appeared context menu Click on “Create Virtual Hard Disk”.

Next, in a new dialog box, you will be asked to determine the location for the virtual hard disk; to do this, click on the “Browse” button. Also in the same window, give the new disk a name, for example, “vhhd”. Specify the desired size of the future disk, and activate the “Fixed size” radio button in the “Virtual disk format” section to speed up its operation as much as possible. Complete the disk settings by clicking on the “Ok” button to start creating a VHD file with the specified amount of virtual space by Windows 7. Virtual hard Windows disk 7 will be created.

Initializing the created disk

We created a Windows 7 virtual hard disk, it can be seen and accessed from the “Computer Management” section, but so far the system does not see it, and, therefore, neither do we.

So that it starts to appear as a regular HDD in Explorer or another file manager, it needs to be initialized (connected). To do this, in the “Computer Management” window, right-click on its icon and in the context menu that appears, find and select the “Initialize disk” line. Then agree with everything that the system offers you by clicking “Yes”.

Once the virtual disk has been initialized, you should begin creating a simple volume from it. To do this, right-click on the disk and select “Create a simple volume” in the context menu that opens, then follow the prompts and instructions of the creation wizard.

That's all. We created a virtual disk and connected it, now you can use it like a regular hard disk.

The only thing else worth paying attention to is how to disable it and, if necessary, remove it.

Removing a virtual hard disk

If over time you no longer need the created virtual disk, you can easily delete it. Open the “Computer Management” window as described above. Select the virtual hard disk, right-click on it and select “Detach virtual hard disk” from the context menu. In the dialog box that appears, check the “Delete virtual hard disk after removing the disk” checkbox. The disk will be ejected and the VHD file will be deleted.

A lot of users personal computers on the Windows platform, people often ask questions - what are virtual disks and how to create virtual disk. To increase the awareness of our readers on these issues, in this article we will try to fully cover the topic using specific examples.

Also in our article we will look at what is virtual hard disks and where they are used. After familiarizing yourself with the material, our readers will be able to easily create virtual hard drives and image disks in ISO format, as well as mount them onto a virtual device and burn them to DVD without any problems.

Virtual optical drive and its applications

The main purpose of a virtual disk drive is mounting images optical disks. To understand in detail why it is needed, we will look at an example where an image of a disk in ISO format will be mounted on a virtual DVD-ROM. For this example, we will use the Windows 10 operating system.

A nice thing for owners of computers with the Windows 10 operating system is that it already has a virtual DVD-ROM installed. Therefore, Windows 10 owners will not have to use third party programs for mounting images.

To mount an optical disk image into a virtual DVD-ROM, we need the image itself. For example, we will use image with operating Linux system Ubuntu. You can download the image of this operating system on its official website http://www.ubuntu.com. In our example we will use the image 64-bit Ubuntu version 15.10, which has a size of 1.1 GB.

Having downloaded the image, you can begin to mount it directly. To do this, right-click on the image file to open the context menu.

The mounted “virtual disk” can be opened and all its contents copied.

As you can see from the example, we mounted an image from the Ubuntu OS on a virtual DVD drive. Essentially, we were able to do almost what we do with a regular and optical disc when we insert it into a DVD drive and open it, only in our version all the components are virtual.

Creating a laserdisc image

In the previous example, we looked at how to open an image disk in a virtual DVD drive. Now let's deal with the situation when you need to create an image of an optical disk. To create an image, we will need the DAEMON Tools Lite program, which must be downloaded and installed. It is also worth noting that in addition to creating different image formats, DAEMON Tools Lite can also mount a huge number of formats into its own virtual DVD drive. After installing the program DAEMON Tools Lite In Explorer you will notice a new drive named ""

This “” is precisely the drive of the program in question DAEMON Tools Lite. In this example we will create an image of the original installation DVD-disk with the Windows 10 operating system. To make an image from the installation DVD with ten, insert it into the DVD drive. Now let’s run the utility and go to the “ New look».

In the utility window we find the button “ Create an image from disk" and press it. These actions will take us to the image creation window.

In this window, you can select the DVD drive from which the ISO image will be created, and also select the location to save it.

We will also select the image ISO format and confirm the creation by clicking the Start button, which will start creating a DVD image with Windows 10.

After creation, we will receive an ISO image file named “J_CCSA_X86FRE_RU-RU_DV5.iso”, which can be mounted or written to a regular disc and installed a new Windows using it.

The example shows how easy it is to burn an image for a virtual DVD-ROM using DAEMON Tools Lite. In the same way, you can record images for all licensed Windows drives, be it XP or Vista. In addition, you can record images of games or software that will not run without a disc. In addition to the program DAEMON Tools Lite I would like to recommend other popular utilities that can create and allow you to open images of optical disks:

  • Alcohol 120%;
  • Gizmo Drive;
  • WinCDEmu.

It is especially important to use these utilities on an OS that does not have built-in virtual DVD drives, for example, in OS Windows XP. In addition to XP support, each of these programs, including DAEMON Tools Lite, will be able to burn ISO images to DVD disk. In addition to support ISO format, these utilities can mount other formats, including their own, and they can be written to regular discs.

Virtual hard disk

A virtual hard disk is quite often used by IT specialists, as it allows them to solve many problems with backup, virtual machines and testing of various operating systems. Virtual hard disk is a container file that simulates the file structure of a hard drive.

Since such a disk is a file, it is therefore usually stored on a physical HDD or SSD. Starting with Windows 7, users now have the ability to create and mount a hard disk directly in the operating system.

Let's look at an example of creating a virtual hard disk using Windows 10. First, let's go to the " Execute"using the key combination Win + R and type the following command in it: diskmgmt.msc

This command will take us to the Disk Control Panel.

To create a new virtual HDD, you need to go to the " Action / Create virtual hard disk", which will open a window to create such a disk.

Starting with Windows 10, it became possible to create a disk with the format " VHDX" Unlike the "VHD" format, the " VHDX» can create containers up to 64 terabytes. Let's make our 100 GB virtual hard disk in the new format " VHDX", and also set the switch to dynamic creation mode, in which our disk will grow as it fills.

After setting the parameters of our hard drive, press the OK button, which will allow you to write it to the specified folder on the screw. Once created, the output will be a virtual hard disk named “virtual disk.vhdx”. From the image below you can see that our disk was automatically mounted, but it is still not visible in the system.

For the system to see our VHDX disk, it must be initialized. This can be done by right-clicking on the VHDX disk and selecting “ Initialize disk».

In the window that appears, do not change anything and click OK.

Now the simplest thing left is to choose for our disk file system and a letter. To do this, go to it and select the item “ Create a simple volume».

After this, a wizard will launch in which you need to assign a drive letter and select a file system. After completing the wizard, the virtual hard disk will appear in Explorer.

The example shows that creating a virtual HDD means The OS is very simple, so we hope that you will no longer have the question of how to create a virtual hard disk. I would also like to note that with the created VHDX disk you can do the following operations:

  • Encrypt it using BitLocker;
  • Install an additional OS on it;
  • Move and open it on another computer;
  • Connect it to a virtual machine.

For computers based on the operating system Windows systems XP, which is still quite popular, does not support VHD drives. But don’t be upset, because in the utility we reviewed earlier DAEMON Tools Lite there is support for VHD disks and it Fully compatible with Windows XP.

Using a VHD disk in a virtual machine

Let's create it using VirtualBox programs virtual machine based on the Windows XP operating system. At the stage of creating a virtual machine for XP, you will be asked to create or attach a virtual hard disk, which will be used to install Windows XP on it.

At this point we can attach the VHD disk that we will create with using Windows 10. Therefore, we will try to attach our 30 GB VHD container, which we made in the top ten. After creating the virtual machine, you can view the attached VHD disk in its settings.

If there is little space in the virtual machine on XP, you can always attach new VHD virtual hard disk. Besides, you can connect containers with various file data to the virtual machine for XP. In the same way, you can use virtual machine from other software products. For example, VHD containers can be installed on VMware Workstation products.

Bottom line

From the material reviewed, it is clear that the use of virtual drives and hard drives helps solve many problems much better, especially since even a novice PC user can figure out how to create them. We hope that our material will help our readers better understand the question of how to create a virtual disk and how to use it for work.

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