By Michael | Last Updated
VHD, the abbreviation of Virtual Hard Disk, which allows multiple operating systems to run on a host machine. Furthermore, VHDX is the new format of VHD. The maximum capacity it supports is 2048 GB while the VHDX is up to 64 TB. In this tutorial, we will show you how to create, mount, unmount and convert VHD/VHDX. Here is how to do:
You can set up a VHD or VHDX via Disk Management or Hyper-V Manager.
Step 1: Click on Cortana search box at the lower-left corner and type Hyper-V Manager then hit Enter to open it.
Step 2: Make sure you don't select any virtual machines. Click on ActionNew > Hard Disk then you only need to follow the wizard to finish creating a new VHD or VHDX.
Step 1: Right-click on This PC and select Manage.
Step 2: When the Computer Management shows you, expand the StorageDisk Management. Then click on ActionCreate VHD.
Step 3: Click on Browse to choose where to save new VHD/VHDX. After that, set up a disk size and choose disk format and type.
Step 4: Right-click on the new hard disk and select Initialize Disk.
Step 5: Right-click on the unallocated partition, select New Simple Volume.
If you want to move VHD or VHDX to other devices, you must mount or unmount for the first step. Here are two ways to mount or unmount a VHD or VHDX.
Step 1: Right-click on Start and select Command Prompt (Admin).
Step 2: Type the following command lines and press Enter at the end of each line.
diskpart select vdisk file="Your VHD file location" Then run "attach vdisk" to mount VHD/VHDX.
Similarly, you can run "detach vdisk" to unmount VHD/VHDX.
Step 1: Type Powershell in the Cortana research box then right-click on the result and select Run as administrator.
Step 2: To mount VHD/VHDX, you can run Mount-VHD –Path "[location of vhd]".
To unmount VHD/VHDX, you can run Unmount-VHD –Path "[location of vhd]".
Once you need a larger virtual hard disk, you can convert VHD to VHDX to save more information. On the contrary, when you want to compatible with previous Windows version, you need to convert VHDX to VHD. Here is how to do.
Step 1: Open Hyper-V Manager, click on Edit Disk on the right sidebar.
Step 2: When the Edit Virtual Hard Disk Wizard shows you, click Next button to continue.
Step 3: Locate to where your virtual hard disk is stored.
Step 4: Select Convert > Next.
Step 5: Choose the disk format.
Step 6: Choose a disk type for it.
Step 7: Configure where to save the new virtual hard disk. Click on Next to finish the process.
It will be easier to use PowerShell than Hyper-V Manager to convert. Let's get start.
Step 1: Run PowerShell as administrator.
Step 2: Run "Convert-VHD –Path d:\HyperV\test\MyVHD.vhd –DestinationPath d:\HyperV\test\MyVHDX.vhdx" to convert VHD to VHDX.
You can also run "Convert-VHD –Path d:\HyperV\test\MyVHDX.vhdx –DestinationPath d:\HyperV\test\MyVHD.vhd" to convert VHDX to VHD.
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