Windows 8 In Depth

Creating a Virtual Hard Disk

You might find that you have a need for another hard disk on your PC. For example, you might need a second drive to install another operating system and dual-boot between Windows 8 and the other OS. Or you just might want the drive to store personal files. However, what happens if your PC has no open ports for an external hard disk, and you don’t have the expertise or a free drive bay to install an internal hard disk? What if you simply don’t want to shell out the bucks for a new hard disk?

In all these cases, you can bypass the need for a physical hard disk by creating a virtual hard disk, instead. Windows 8 treats the VHD exactly like a physical hard disk, so whatever operations you can perform on a physical disk ...