Operating systems, starting with Windows 7, are equipped with a program for creating a virtual hard disk. When using it, there are no difficulties, because the OS defines such a device as a regular "hard drive". Creating a virtual hard disk can be useful to conveniently delimit the space of an HDD, organize file storage, and even install an operating system.
The virtual partition is created as a VHD file, after mounting (this operation can be performed without installing additional software) the system works in the same way as with a regular hard disk. The closest parallel can be drawn with virtual ISO drives, however, unlike them, new information can be written to the image and the old one can be deleted. Also, the virtual HDD allows you to encrypt your contents, this is useful if outsiders should not have access to the information. After installing the operating system on a virtual partition, it can be easily and quickly transferred to another computer.
Built-in program for creating a virtual disk
There are no differences in creating a virtual HDD between the seventh and eighth versions of Windows. The only innovation that has been made in Windows 8 is that mounting can be done by double-clicking on the file. In this case, you do not need to perform additional settings and assign a drive letter manually.
Drive management
To create a virtual disk, you need to run the special utility “Disk Management”. Just click on the icon by going to the panel through the Start menu.
Create VHD
In the utility that opens, click on the "Action" top menu, in the list that opens, select "Create Virtual Disk". In the same list you can see the inscription “Attach a virtual disk”, it will be useful if you already have a VHD file and you need to read its contents.
After clicking on the item that suggests the creation, a wizard will open, so familiar to Microsoft products. Here you will need to choose where to save the VHD file and how much to limit it. Also here you need to decide whether to create a partition dynamically or leave a fixed size. After clicking on the “OK” button, a new disk will appear in the manager. At the same time, the program for creating a virtual disk may begin installing additional drivers.
Initialization
In the next step, you will need to right-click on the disk that was just created and click on the “Initialize” text. After clicking, the program for creating a virtual disk will prompt you to choose which partition table will be used on the partition - GPT or MBR. If the size of the volume is more than two terabytes, select the first option, if smaller - the second.
Create Partitions
The last step in preparing a virtual HDD is to create partitions and connect them to the operating system. As before, right-click on the disk and click on "Create Volume". If you specify the size that the system recommends, the program for creating a virtual disk will create a partition that takes up the entire space of the HDD. If necessary, you can make several sections. Immediately in the window you can set a letter for each.
After completing all the operations, the icon of the new hard disk will be displayed in the explorer window. All operations with it can be performed exactly as if it were a physical HDD. But remember that in fact the VHD file is stored on a real volume, which means that all data is placed on it.
Daemon tools
Each user has various CDs (with games, programs, video files). Any laser disk is suitable for creating its image or, in other words, a virtual disk. The image file will contain all the data on the CD. The information will be stored on the HDD. Thus, several problems can be solved - to improve the durability of the physical CD, use the disk, even if the drive fails, completely reduce the noise of the real drive when reading data. In addition, access to information will be carried out at a higher speed.
Image creation
But in order to make an image, the program for creating a virtual disk for Windows 7 must first be downloaded. It is called Daemon Tools and is distributed free of charge. To start the process, open the program window by clicking on the icon on the desktop or on the tray icon.
Here, click on the "Create Image" button, and then specify the place where it will be stored, give a name. The type should be left standard - ISO. Otherwise, difficulties may arise in the future when working with this image. After setting the parameters, click on the “Save” button. If it is important for you to save as much disk space as possible, select the "Compression" checkbox. After clicking on the inscription “Start”, then the program for creating a virtual disk will do everything itself.
To open a virtual disk, double-click the icon of the file in which it was saved. You can go the other way: open Daemon Tools, go to the “Virtual Drive” tab, and click on “Mount”. After that, the standard file selection dialog opens, here indicate to the program the image that you want to mount.