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New Virtual Hard Disk Wizard

  • Article
  • 07/03/2012

Applies To: Windows Server 2008

Page Details

Before You Begin

Explains the purpose of the wizard. You can create a virtual hard disk without working through the pages of the wizard. If you click Finish on this page, the wizard creates a dynamically expanding virtual hard disk with a storage capacity of 127 GB.

Choose Disk Type
  • Dynamically expanding virtual hard disks provide storage capacity as needed to store data. The size of the .vhd file is small when the disk is created and grows as data is added to the disk. The size of the .vhd file does not shrink automatically when data is deleted from the virtual hard disk. However, you can compact the disk to decrease the file size after data is deleted by using the Edit Virtual Hard Disk Wizard.

  • Fixed virtual hard disks provide storage capacity by using a .vhd file that is the size specified for the virtual hard disk when the disk is created. The size of the .vhd file remains 'fixed' regardless of the amount of data stored. However, you can use the Edit Virtual Hard Disk Wizard to increase the size of the virtual hard disk, which increases the size of the .vhd file.

  • Differencing virtual hard disks provide storage to enable you to make changes to a parent virtual hard disk without altering that disk. The size of the .vhd file for a differencing disk grows as changes are stored to the disk.

For more information about editing virtual hard disks, see Edit Virtual Hard Disk Wizard.

Specify Name and Location

Provide a name and location for the new virtual hard disk. If you plan to cluster the virtual machine that will use the virtual hard disk, specify a shared location.

Important
Do not create the virtual hard disk in a folder that is marked for encryption. Hyper-V™ does not support the use of storage media if Encrypting File System has been used to encrypt the .vhd file. However, you can use files stored on a volume that uses Windows Bitlocker Drive Encryption.

Configure Disk

Options for configuring the disk differ depending on the type of disk you select.

  • For fixed and dynamically expanding virtual hard disks, you can specify a size or copy the contents of an available physical disk.

  • For a differencing disk, you must specify the location of the disk you want to use as the parent virtual hard disk.

Completing the New Virtual Hard Disk Wizard

Displays the configuration details you selected for the virtual hard disk.

Additional considerations

  • The virtual hard disk is created when you click Finish to complete the wizard. Depending on the options you choose for the virtual hard disk, the process can take a considerable amount of time.

Additional references