Managing Disks
Virtual Disk Management Tasks
- Windows 7 introduces native support for working with Virtual Hard Disks (VHDs). New to Windows 7 is the capability to create and attach (or mount) virtual hard disks (VHDs) and treat them like a removable disk without the need to use virtualization software such as Microsoft Virtual Server or Virtual PC.
- A VHD is a type of file that contains everything a physical drive
offers-file system, structure, and so on. You can load nearly any type of operating system into a
virtual disk, and load multiple virtual disks on a single physical host.
- Virtual disks can help you
save money and effort as an alternative to installing multiple hardware drives in a computer.
Regardless of the ability to create and use VHDs directly in Windows 7, you can also run Virtual PC
if you want.
- You can work with a VHD in much the same way as you work with other disks. Your
computer can boot off a VHD. You can write data to and read data from a VHD.
Additionally, you are able to take a VHD offline or put a VHD online by right-clicking
the disk entry in the Graphical view and selecting Offline or Online, respectively.