The program for creating a virtual disk. Emulation of CD and HDD

Operating systems, starting with Windows 7, are equipped with a program for creating a virtual hard disk. When you use it, there are no difficulties, because the OS defines such a device as an ordinary "hard drive". Creating a virtual hard disk can be useful to conveniently demarcate HDD space, 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 with the image in the same way as with a conventional hard disk. The closest parallel can be done with virtual drives of ISO-disks, however, unlike them, new images can be written to the image and the old one deleted. Also virtual HDD allows you to encrypt your content, this is useful if the information should not be accessed by strangers. 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 is made in Windows 8 - mounting can be done by double clicking on the file. It does not need to perform additional settings and assign a drive letter manually.

Disk Management

To create a virtual disk, you need to run a special utility "Disk Management". Just click on the icon, going to the panel through the "Start" menu.

Creating a VHD

In the opened utility, click on the top menu "Action", in the opened list select "Create virtual disk". In the same list, you can see the message "Attach a virtual disk", it will be useful if you already have a VHD file and want to read its contents.

After clicking on the item that implies the creation, the wizard, so familiar for Microsoft products will open. Here you will need to choose where to save the VHD file and how much it should be limited. Also, you need to decide whether to dynamically create a partition 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 can start installing additional drivers.

Initialization

The next step is to right-click on the disk that was just created and click on the "Initialize" icon. After clicking the program to create a virtual disk will offer you to choose which partition table will be used on the partition - GPT or MBR. If the volume is larger than two terabytes, choose the first option, if less - the second.

Creating partitions

The final stage of 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 occupies the entire HDD space. If necessary, you can make several sections. Immediately in the window you can set a letter for everyone.

After the completion of all operations in the Explorer window, the icon for the new hard disk will be displayed. 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 the data is stored on it.

Daemon Tools

Each user has different 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-ROM. The same information will be stored on the HDD. Thus, you can solve several problems - improve the durability of a physical CD, use a disc, even if the drive fails, completely reduce the noise of a real disk drive when reading data. In addition, access to information will be at a higher speed.

Creating an Image

But to make an image, you must first download the program to create a virtual disk for Windows 7. It calls 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 by clicking on the icon in the tray.

Here, click the "Create Image" button, and then specify the location where it will be stored, name it. Type it is desirable to leave the standard - ISO. Otherwise, in the future, it may be difficult to work with this image. After setting the parameters, click the "Save" button. If it is important for you to save as much disk space as possible, select the checkbox in the "Compress" checkbox. After clicking on the label "Start", then the program for creating a virtual disk will do everything itself.

To open a virtual disk, you need to double-click on the icon of the file into which it was saved. You can go in another way: open Daemon Tools, go to the tab "Virtual Drive", and click on the item "Mount". After that, the standard dialog for selecting a file opens, here you specify the image that you want to mount.