Adding a Second Hard Drive to VirtualPC Step by Step

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December 18, 2006 — arcanecode

Microsoft Virtual PC defaults the hard disks for it’s virtual machines to 16 gig in size. For most instances that’s large enough, but you could have cases where you simply need more disk space. Or, perhaps you’d like to keep your demo or project code in a separate virtual hard disk than the main virtual disk your applications run on. Regardless of your reason, creating a second hard drive for your virtual machine is fairly easy.

A few up front points, in these instructions I’ll be doing what I believe to be the most common scenario for most folks and be using Windows XP for my guest system.

First, before you launch your Virtual PC click on it once and select the settings button. Now go to Hard Disk 2. Change the option button from “None” to “Virtual hard disk file”. Next, click on Virtual Disk Wizard.

The first screen is simply the welcome screen, just click next.

On the next screen it asks about disk options. Take the default of “Crate a new virtual disk” and click next.

You are now asked about what type of disk you’d like to create, a hard or floppy disk. Take the default of “A virtual hard disk” and click next.

Now you are prompted for the name and location. I stored this with my other VHD files, so enter the path and location you want and click next.

The next screen asks what type of drive you want to select. The default, “Dynamically expanding” is the default, and is what we’ll be using. This is a great option as it puts a small file on your drive and lets it slowly expand as you need it to grow.

“Fixed size” creates just what it sounds like, a fixed size hard disk. The one main use I could think of is to create a virtual disk the same size as a DVD. You can then store your files on it prior to burning to a DVD. Downside is that the drive always takes the same amount of disk space.

“Differencing” is a big topic, but in brief a differencing drive is based on another VHD file. Once you create a differencing drive, the original is locked and cannot be changed; all changes are written to the differencing disk. Why would you want to do this?

Well let’s say you were teaching a class and wanted to let the students work on labs. You’d create your base image with your software loaded, and then create a differencing disk. Your students would write their changes to the differencing disk. After that class was done all you have to do is create a new differencing disk instead of having to recreate your entire disk image.

Final is linked to a hard disk. It saves your info out to the real hard drive. This is considered an advanced option, and to be honest I haven’t experimented much with it so that’s all I’ll say for now.

As I said, we’ll go with the default for now, and pick “Dynamically expanding”. Click Next to continue.

Next we are prompted for the maximum size of the VHD. In this demo we’ll take the default of 16 gig and click next, however if you’d like to change it go ahead, enter the maximum number of megabytes you want, when you’re done click Next.

OK, you’re up to the final screen, this just asks you to confirm your choices. Click on Finish to complete the process.

You should see a small message saying you’ve created the disk. Just click Close to close this message.

Now that you’ve created your drive, you need to tell Virtual PC to use it. If you recall, in the settings window we’ve already selected the “Virtual hard disk file” option. Now click the Browse button and pick the vhd file we just created.

OK, now we’ve got Virtual PC all setup. Click on OK to close the settings, then click on Start to start the Virtual PC. Once you’ve logged in, open up a My Computer window. Here’s a snapshot of mine.

OK, I can hear you now. “Hey, I created another drive, where’d it go?” Well, it’s there, the problem is you haven’t formatted it yet so Windows XP doesn’t know what to do with it. Let’s fix that now.

Open up Control Panel, and go into Administrative Tools. Now double click on Computer Management. Now click on Disk Management under Storage in the tree. The minute you do, you’ll be presented with the “Initialize and Convert Disk Wizard”. After taking a look at the opening screen, click Next.

The next screen asks which disks you want to convert. Here, you see Disk 1 is selected, which is correct (your C drive is disk 0, then each additional drive is 1, 2, etc.) Click Next.

Now it asks about converting disks to Dynamic disks. Check this on, and pick next. (Note in the pic below I haven’t checked it on yet, you will need to.)

Finally, you are presented with the Finish window. Click Finish to complete.

Now the window shows Disk 1 as initialized, but it’s still not quite ready to use yet.

Hang on, we’re almost done. Right click in the Disk 1 area, and select New Volume. This launches the New Volume wizard. On the opening screen just click Next.

Now you are presented with the Select Volume Type. Simple is the only option enabled, so let’s just select Next.

The next screen is prompting you to see how much disk space you want to allocate to this new volume. In our case we’ll use all the space, so we’ll just click Next.

In the next dialog we’re asked what drive letter to assign to our new volume. You can pick any available letter, but I think I’ll just take the default of E and click Next.

Now the wizard will prompt about formatting. We need to format this drive, so we definitely want to do this. I did change the default volume label from “New Volume Label” to “VSDriveE” since I’m using this with a vhd I use for Visual Studio. However, you should name it something appropriate to your use. Other than that, I’m leaving the other options alone and clicking Next.

Finally we’re nearing the end. The next screen is the “Completing the New Volume” wizard. Here we are simply confirming our choices. Take a quick look, if all looks well, click Finish.

While it formats, it will show you the progress in the status window, as you see below.

OK, that’s it, you’re done. Close the Computer Management window, then the Administrative Tools window. When you return you new computer, you will see your new drive, ready to go!

Well there you go. Seems like a lot of steps, but it took a lot longer for you to read this than it will take you to actually do it. If you do create new drives, drop a comment and let us know what creative uses you use your second drive for.

Posted in Development, Tools, Virtualization, VirtualPC. 98 Comments »

amit chawathe Says:
January 14, 2007 at 4:05 am

thank you
helped in the middle of the night, when hope was dim )

greasy chip butty Says:
March 2, 2007 at 3:18 pm

excellent – i have been scratching my head for 2 days – doh!

i was using windows 2000 as my virtual pc but the method was practically the same – cheers

Johnny T Says:
March 7, 2007 at 7:38 am

This was gr8, been wondering how to do this for ages. realy dou moment when i found out it was this easy.

thanks

nikitonipongo Says:
March 28, 2007 at 2:37 pm

Lifesaver, awesome job
Gracias

Divs Says:
April 26, 2007 at 4:18 am

Thanx dude…….u saved me frm a big headache. Urs shld b first hit. Keep posting more abt virtual m/c scenarios…..:)

VV Says:
May 1, 2007 at 12:55 pm

Great job!
By any chance, does anyone know how to expand the size of a Virtual Hard Drive?

slands10 Says:
June 27, 2007 at 3:06 am

Same as above – cheers!

Adam Says:
September 1, 2007 at 1:19 pm

Thanks a lot, that was a great help!

drat80 Says:
October 11, 2007 at 7:31 pm

Now that’s what a pro does. thanks for the help!

sam Says:
October 31, 2007 at 7:44 am

this is a great post and was incredibly helpful!
thanks!

Marcel Says:
December 22, 2007 at 1:49 pm

Did it in a few minutes with these great instructions with clear pictures. Good work.

Microsoft Virtual PC 2007 is FREE ! Says:
January 6, 2008 at 10:01 am

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AC Says:
February 1, 2008 at 6:30 pm

thanks so much!!!

uday Says:
February 28, 2008 at 2:06 am

awesome, u helped me, u saved my time. thanks for sharing ur knowledge

Differencing Disks in Virtual PC 2007 « Arcane Code Says:
March 4, 2008 at 7:05 am

[...] expanding, and it’s what you’d want to use if you are installing an OS from scratch or are creating a second hard drive for your virtual machine. Fixed size would be used if you are creating a disk for something like a USB drive and want to [...]

Dave Williams Says:
March 13, 2008 at 3:18 am

Excellent article. Saved the day!!!

Teezoy Says:
March 19, 2008 at 5:54 pm

The Question is how to Expand current drive. Not ADDING an addtional drive. How can we expand that Single Drive (C) without using a 3rd party like Partition Magic?

arcanecode Says:
March 19, 2008 at 10:56 pm

Teezoy – I don’t know of any way built into VPC to do that. That’s why when I create a virtual drive I just set it to the max size (I think 130,577 or something close) and set to dynamically expanding. That way it’ll grow as needed.

Ashay Says:
March 26, 2008 at 12:50 am

Thanks for such a nice documented steps.
It helps a lot.

venky Says:
April 2, 2008 at 6:14 pm

Thank you very much…
Really helped me a lot.

Jan Doggen Says:
April 3, 2008 at 12:44 am

Teezoy,
You can’t do that. The only way to enlarge your HD is to make a second larrger disk, then use a disk imaging tool to copy disk 0 to disk1, then in VM settings remove the first HD and put the second HD in its place. You can Google for more info.

Huge Says:
April 9, 2008 at 5:36 pm

Thanks! It bothers me days to see the second drive.

Michael Paladino Says:
April 13, 2008 at 7:24 pm

Same as the others. Thanks for the article. It really helped me out of a bind, and I couldn’t find the information anywhere else.

Shantanu Mishra Says:
May 3, 2008 at 1:54 am

Great Tutorial
Nice easy step by step illustration
I was stuck after I created the drive and was unable to locate the newly added drive

Monica Says:
May 20, 2008 at 10:19 am

You totally and completely rock. I have been banging my head against a wall for 2 days prior to finding your tutorial

Justin Smith Says:
May 30, 2008 at 3:14 pm

An addendum, I did find that you have to shutdown the session running inside Virtual PC in order to make these changes.

Matt Says:
June 16, 2008 at 7:44 pm

Thanks so much dude!

SeanC Says:
June 30, 2008 at 11:17 am

Cheers, should have known this but late in the evening so missed part about formating

polo santiago Says:
July 5, 2008 at 3:22 pm

THANKS SO MUCH!!!

Nigel B Says:
July 15, 2008 at 6:52 am

THANKS! From Red Bull Racing F1 Team!!

Ravindra Joshi Says:
July 21, 2008 at 3:30 am

Thanks a lot!! Really saved lot of time by giving clear description and pictures. Awesome posting
Thanks again,
Ravindra.

Amy Says:
September 3, 2008 at 11:46 am

It’s a great article. It’s really helpful!
Thanks a lot

Rob Says:
September 4, 2008 at 2:44 am

Thanks, great article. Had me baffled for ages, why is there nothing in the virtual PC documentation!

Mik Says:
September 19, 2008 at 4:39 am

thank you!

Sachin Kainth Says:
October 2, 2008 at 8:29 am

This is the best article I have read in a long time. To the point and very helpful. I wish Virtual PC would at least hint to you that you that there are extra steps beyond the configuration steps in its console.

Thank you very much.

Ragnar Says:
November 12, 2008 at 10:48 am

Just what I needed. I have installed WHS as a VM with Windows Server 2003 as host OS. I will use the WHS for storage of all my data and to access them remotely.
A bit disappointed that the max disk size was only 130 Gig
Regards, Ragnar

Jesper Says:
December 12, 2008 at 2:11 pm

With me it only can create the new disc to a new parion instead of volume, but in seems to run correctly after…

When I chose the Disc Management the window you’re talking about does’nt show at my pc.

Can it be bacuse I have installed Home Edition as a Virtial HD?

KZ Says:
December 28, 2008 at 11:46 pm

If we don’t convert to dynamic disk, what will possibly happen? (Of course, a basic disk.) But, my question is – it’s still usable, rite?

Tiger Says:
January 6, 2009 at 7:40 am

Very helpful! Helped my XP Virtual PC to recognise the additional fixed size virtual hard drive I created using Virtual PC 2007 on Vista Premium! Many thanks.

RAL Says:
January 8, 2009 at 6:00 pm

Thanks. This was what I was looking for. Worked like a charm.

mir saman Says:
January 19, 2009 at 2:48 pm

thank you
it was great.

Pradeep Nulu Says:
January 24, 2009 at 9:15 pm

Thanks Much. It really helped!!

ZT Says:
February 6, 2009 at 12:16 am

Procedure is good. Thx.

Abhi Says:
February 10, 2009 at 1:54 am

it doesnt get better than this… thanks a ton

Esmee Says:
February 12, 2009 at 5:05 pm

this saved my butt. Thanks!

Gonçalo Says:
February 26, 2009 at 3:32 am

Aaawwweeesssooommmeeeeeeee…

Kiran Says:
March 13, 2009 at 1:38 pm

Thanks a lot.
Its working for Win 2008 VPC also

Roman Says:
March 19, 2009 at 8:40 am

Unfortunately – the limit for the disk is 64GB. We needed more, so we have to use additional disks. What so more – we have more flexibility with two smaller disk files than with one very big disk file. Thank you very much for detailed explanation. It helped me a lot.

veera Says:
July 12, 2009 at 4:03 am

oh. god. Excellant.. save my job.. Thanks a lot….

karliana Says:
July 21, 2009 at 9:38 pm

thx very much….

Venu Says:
August 8, 2009 at 8:49 am

You are a genious, you understand other peoples plight.

Navin Says:
August 25, 2009 at 4:36 pm

Very helpful. Helped me in getting my job done.

Anonymous Coward Says:
August 31, 2009 at 9:41 am

Thanks!
Helped me a lot!

Amanda Says:
September 2, 2009 at 10:23 am

Thanks! I was fumbling through the process of adding the 2nd drive and then it didn’t show up in my computer. You made my day with this.

step Says:
September 14, 2009 at 5:23 am

Thanks. Stopped me going in circles reinstalling the drive, been happening for the last 2 hours…

milsz Says:
October 1, 2009 at 9:06 am

Thanks! Gr8 helpful blog…

Roar Says:
October 21, 2009 at 7:29 am

Thanx alot!!

jeth Says:
November 7, 2009 at 8:12 pm

great guide! helped me big time.. thx!

Shayne Says:
November 21, 2009 at 12:36 pm

Anyone know of a link that can show me how to do the exact same thing with Windows 98se? I cant see the new disk in DOS, so i cant fdisk and format it.

Pankaj Says:
November 26, 2009 at 1:11 am

Thanks this is a good doc

xm8 Says:
December 4, 2009 at 1:30 pm

thanks, that helps a lot.

aki Says:
December 28, 2009 at 9:32 pm

Walaweh! A great document. just simply helps me a lot.

Jacques D. Says:
January 11, 2010 at 4:33 pm

A great document! Helped me tremendously!!
Thank you!

Leo Says:
January 18, 2010 at 7:04 am

I am trying to make a file server and i have installed win 2003 server on my VM. To creat a file server I need 4 virtual HDD. in the Virtual Machine Console there is HDD 1/2/3 how do i add the 4th Virtual HDD to complete my File server Lab. Please help.

Paul J Lay Says:
February 6, 2010 at 5:27 pm

Very good walk through. Couldn’t find better information anywhere else. This was the first time I needed to do this since the old FDISK days. Thanks for helping me out.

Eileen Says:
March 4, 2010 at 11:46 am

saved my bacon! thanks. first disk not enough room for databases needed to restore. now for each database (all over 100 gig) I have a new drive for. again, THANKS!!

Muammar Says:
March 13, 2010 at 6:19 am

You just saved my day:)
Thanks mate!!

Juha Says:
March 24, 2010 at 7:42 am

Thank you sooo much!

Al Says:
April 1, 2010 at 3:28 pm

Thanks for this !

Rizki P Says:
April 6, 2010 at 2:50 am

Good article bro… Thanks so much..

James E Says:
April 14, 2010 at 2:42 pm

May you live long…greetings and hailing from Calabar Nigeria…..You saved me so much

mohammed Says:
May 17, 2010 at 12:12 am

Thanks dude,it was really a great help.

azad Says:
June 18, 2010 at 5:04 am

very helpful -

XZeeR Says:
June 20, 2010 at 9:37 am

thanx alot , very useful and easy to read guide

Matt Says:
July 13, 2010 at 10:50 pm

Excellent! Great article

sam Says:
September 10, 2010 at 6:39 pm

Muchas gracias por la publicación
Thanks a lot for your article (in spanish)

RSG Says:
September 20, 2010 at 8:40 am

Good job! This was a great help to me as I needed a specific drive letter to match the paths that I had defined in the configuration files for an application that I had planned on porting over to the virtual machine. I was told (and think, instinctively knew) that I could add an additional HD to my virtual server but the process was not as intuitive as I would have imagined. Needed a quick guide. Did a Google search first thing this morning; found this how-to and had my new, formatted drive up and running within 1/2 hour.

Thanks!

Todd McDermid Says:
September 22, 2010 at 1:25 pm

For those wanting to do the same task in Windows 7 that has Virtual PC “built-in” – follow the instructions here: http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/5291/how-to-create-a-virtual-hard-drive-in-windows-7/

bal Says:
October 15, 2010 at 12:15 pm

found this very informative and easy to follow instruction

many thanks

Tom Says:
October 19, 2010 at 11:50 am

Thanks, this helped me a lot!

BBD Says:
October 31, 2010 at 10:56 am

Really useful many thanks. FYI I’m using the second drive for SQL.

AX Says:
November 11, 2010 at 6:53 am

It’s a great job, thanks a lot!

steve Says:
November 17, 2010 at 12:52 am

good job, no wonder i cannot find my 2nd HD , because i need to go to XP and format it

Ravi Kanth Says:
January 1, 2011 at 8:02 pm

Nice article….

Luis Says:
January 14, 2011 at 11:11 am

It works
Thank you so much

Ken Rae Says:
February 28, 2011 at 10:28 am

running win vpc on windows 7, using win2003 server OS inside and fantastic job.
thank you – Ken Oxford UK.

Ned Says:
March 25, 2011 at 11:35 am

(*****) Works like a charm!

Mark F Says:
March 28, 2011 at 4:35 am

Thanks for this. Without it I could have wasted hours waiting for the penny to drop.

PrenomsGarcon Says:
April 19, 2011 at 6:19 am

Great poost!

Nomes Bebes Says:
April 19, 2011 at 6:19 am

Nomes Femininos Says:
April 19, 2011 at 6:24 am

nombres nino Says:
April 19, 2011 at 6:33 am

Ben Says:
May 4, 2011 at 10:24 am

Arcane Thanks for this post, again you have helped me out again. As for Teezoy, you cannot expand a virtual hard disk once you create it. It behaves just like any other hard disk.