Creating Virtual Hard Disks with Windows Virtual PC

Existing Virtual PC 2007 users who start using Windows Virtual PC may be startled by the lack of an obvious “Virtual Hard Disk wizard”.  But do not fear, the virtual hard disk wizard is still there – it is just hidden.  Or more accurately – it has been placed into more appropriate workflows.

The first place where the virtual hard disk wizard appears is when you are creating a new virtual machine.  If you select to Create a virtual hard disk using advanced options in the new virtual machine wizard you will seamlessly transition into the new virtual hard disk wizard:

createVHD1 createVHD2

The second place where the virtual hard disk wizard appears is from the virtual hard disk settings page, if you click on the Create… button:

createVHD7

Now, you may be wondering what to do if you want to create a virtual hard disk that is not associated with a virtual machine?  The answer is that you do not use Windows Virtual PC!  With Windows 7 virtual hard disk management is now part of the core operating system.  You can create virtual hard disks using either Disk Management or DiskPart:

createVHD8 createVHD10

Cheers,
Ben