Microsoft in the Enterprise

Create a virtual hard disk

By Ed Bott

If you want to add a hard disk to your PC, you need to open the case and fuss with cables.

Unless that new disk is a virtual hard disk (VHD), that is. A VHD is just another file until you double-click it. Then it mounts in File Explorer (Windows Explorer in Windows 7) and looks exactly like a regular hard disk, with its own drive letter. You can create subfolders in a VHD, add and remove files, and even encrypt it using BitLocker.

To get started, open the Disk Management console (Diskmgmt.msc). In Windows 10, you can right-click Start and click the Disk Management shortcut.

Open the Action menu and then click Create VHD. Choose a location for your VHD file, select a size, and specify whether it's a fixed size (it will use all the space you allotted to it) or dynamically expanding (the VHD grows as you add files).

Don't close Disk Management yet. You'll need to initialize the new disk, create a simple volume, and give it a drive letter. But when that's done, you have a VHD that you can use to store any type of files. And you can move that entire drive to another PC just by moving or copying the VHD file.

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