Did you know you can make virtual disks on Windows? It’s a cool and underused feature that has been available in the OS since Windows 8. Perhaps you have seen files on your system with the VHD or VHDX extension with a hard drive icon on a PC you’re using. Those are virtual drives, which users create for various needs, and you can also make them. I often use them to share files from my host PC to a virtual machine (VM) using Hyper-V or VirtualBox. Virtual disks also offer portability so that you can move them between systems. In addition to virtual environments, they are helpful for developers, home lab enthusiasts, and IT administrators.

A virtual disk is just that — a drive you create on Windows that acts exactly like a physical disk. You can store files and folders on them just like an actual drive. You can save documents, videos, pictures, etc. You can even install an entire OS like Windows or Linux on them using virtualization or native booting (physical). However, the performance and functionality will vary depending on your system’s resources and host OS.

4 Simplicity

Virtual hard disks are easy to create

Creating virtual disks is easier now with Windows 11 23H2 or higher. While you can still use the traditional method to create a VHD in the Disk Management utility, Microsoft added an easier way. Open the Settings app and navigate to System -> Storage -> Advanced storage settings -> Disks and volumes.

Once there, click the Create VHD button or Create Dev Drive if you are a developer. A window will open so you can name your VHD or VHDX, a location, disk size, format, and choose a fixed or dynamic type. A fixed size stays what you set it at, and a dynamic size will expand as needed to meet the storage needs. Click the Create button, choose GPT as the partition style (MBR is for installing an OS), and click Initialize. Confirm the label, choose an unused drive letter, select a file system like FAT32, NTFS, or ReFS, and click the Format button to complete the virtual disk creation.

I would be remiss if I didn’t cover the difference between a VHD and VHDX. The VHD type was the first virtual drive format. It only supports 2040GB and works well for extra storage in VMs. VHDX is the newer format that supports up to 64TB and is suitable for servers in IT environments. It is also effective during power-failure events, so you don’t lose data.

3 Secure your folders

Use a VHD and BitLocker as a password-protected folder

You can’t password-protect and add encryption to a folder on Windows unless you zip it first. While that protects your data, it’s inefficient since the folder must be zipped and unzipped whenever you want access. Instead, you can use the built-in virtualization feature to create a virtual disk to protect folders. While you are making a virtual drive, it works like a password-protected folder.

Open the Settings app, create a VHDX, and set it as dynamically expanding if you plan to add files to it regularly. Once your drive is created, you need to add BitLocker. Like a physical drive, follow the same steps to add BitLocker encryption. Once it is created, you must enter your password each time to access it.

2 Network access

Share a virtual disk over a network

Sometimes, I create a virtual drive to share files with other computers on my network. For example, it’s efficient to share files from my primary system upstairs in my office to another device in the basement. Remote access to my data or other VMs doesn’t require physical media like a flash drive. It also allows me to add files from different devices on the network to the virtual drive. Of course, other ways exist for sharing data, but not all files are saved in the same location.

1 They are cost-effective

A virtual disk is cheaper than buying a physical one

While SSDs, USB drives, and physical hard drives are affordable these days, saving money is always good if you have a home lab or are in charge of a corporate network. In addition, less hardware means fewer points of failure. Unless, of course, the drive you created the VHDs on fails. That’s why it’s essential to use best practices for data and system backups.

Using virtual hard disks (VHD or VHDX) is useful

The Hyper-V hypervisor virtualization feature built into Windows allows you to create a virtual drive that you can use in many different ways. The ability to password-protect your essential data and the cost-efficiency benefits alone make me a fan. Also, thanks to the new capability from the Settings app, I don’t need to dig into Disk Management to create VHDs anymore.

Virtual drives allow portability and flexibility in a large-scale environment, are easy to share on a network, provide efficient backups and security, and are cost-effective. However, there are some limitations, like slower performance compared to SSDs and limited native boot support for Windows. With the above benefits outlined, you should create VHDs and see what’s possible.