Mounting VHDs with Windows 7

 

Mounting VHDs with Windows 7

In Windows 7 / Windows Server 2008 R2 VHD support is now part of the platform.  This means that you do not need to enable Hyper-V to mount and manipulate virtual hard disks.  You can mount virtual hard disks directly on your Windows 7 / Windows Server 2008 R2 system in two ways.  The first is to use the Disk Management UI:

1. Open the Start menu
2. Right click on Computer and select Manage
3. Expand Storage and click on Disk Management
4. Click on the Action menu and select Attach VHD
5. Enter the Location and name of you virtual hard disk (there is a browse button you can use)
6. Click OK

And you are done - simple!  To unmount the virtual hard disk you just need to right click on Disk entry for the virtual hard disk and select Detach VHD.

The other option is to use diskpart.  To do this you will need to:

1. Open up an administrative command prompt.
2. Run diskpart
3. Type in SELECT VDISK FILE=insert your VHD file path and name here
4. Type in ATTACH VDISK

When you are done you can unmount the VHD using the DETACH VDISK command under diskpart.

Cheers,
Ben

Published Thursday, February 05, 2009 10:27 PM by Virtual PC Guy

Virtual PC Guy's WebLog : Mounting VHDs with Windows 7