

Virtual hard disks can be formatted using the same file systems as physical hard disks. Snapshots allow an administrator to restore a VM to a previous configuration using an alternative virtual hard disk file. Some backup applications have an instant recovery feature that uses snapshots of a virtual hard drive to rapidly restart a VM. Hyper-V and VMware both use snapshots - and differencing disks - to capture the state of a VM. However, virtual hard disk files are also sometimes used by snapshot tools, backup applications and archival products. Virtual hard drives are most commonly used by VMs to store operating system and application files, as well as data.
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Virtualization management software uses a differencing disk to track changes made to a base virtual hard disk file. Differencing disks are most commonly used in the creation of snapshots, which are point-in-time representations of a virtual disk file. For example, a 100 GB dynamically expanding virtual hard disk might initially consume 5 MB of physical disk space, and then gradually grow in size as data is added.Ī differencing virtual hard disk is a virtual hard disk that has a parent-child relationship with another virtual disk or physical disk.

For example, a 100 GB fixed length virtual hard disk file would initially consume 100 GB of physical storage space.Ī dynamic or dynamically expanding virtual hard disk initially consumes a very small amount of physical disk space - typically less than 1 GB - and grows as data is added to the virtual hard disk. A fixed virtual hard disk file is a file that claims the maximum possible amount of physical disk space at the time of creation. There are three main classifications of virtual hard drive files - fixed, dynamic and differencing. For example, VDI, VMDK and VHD are all supported by Oracle VirtualBox. Some virtual hard disk file formats are supported by multiple vendor products. Virtual Hard Disk (VHDX), used by Microsoft.Virtual Hard Disk (VHD), used by Microsoft and Citrix.Virtual Machine Disk (VMDK), used by VMware.Virtual Disk Image (VDI), used by Oracle VirtualBox.It's usually possible to differentiate between virtual hard disk types by examining the filename extension. There are a number of different types of virtual hard disks.
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The Windows OS is natively able to mount a VHD- or VHDX-based virtual hard drive file in the same way that any other type of removable media can be mounted and accessed by the operating system. In some cases, however, virtual hard drive files are used for archival purposes because of the file's portability. Virtual hard drive files are normally attached to virtual machines (VMs), and function as system or data drives for the VM. Like a physical hard drive, a virtual hard drive file contains a file system, and it can contain an operating system, applications and data. A virtual hard drive file is a container file that acts similar to a physical hard drive.
