If you create a system image file, you will end up with a large VHD file. This file could then be used to restore your entire system at a later point. This tool was so popular that they kept it in Windows 8 and Windows 10. If you go to the Control Panel, you’ll see one applet there called Backup and Restore (Windows 7). ..

This method of backing up your computer is great because you can attach a VHD file to any Windows 7, 8, or 10 computer and access the data just like a normal hard disk.

If you just need to copy some files over from your backup, it’s usually more sensible to just attach the VHD file to your PC rather than restoring the backup, which will wipe your machine clean first. ..

To attach a VHD file to your computer, follow these steps:

  1. Open Windows Explorer and navigate to the folder where you saved the VHD file.
  2. Right-click on the VHD file and select “Attach.”
  3. In the “Attachment Options” window, click on the “Options” tab and select “Mount as virtual hard drive.”
  4. Click on OK to finish attaching the VHD file. To create your own VHD file, follow these steps:
  5. Open Windows Explorer and navigate to the folder where you want to save your data. Right-click on any empty area of your computer’s hard drive and select “New Volume.”
  6. In the New Volume window, type in a name for your VHD file (for example, “My Documents”).
  7. Select the size of your VHD file (for example, 2GB).
  8. Click on Next to continue creating your VHD file. ..

Mount VHD File

To mount a VHD in Windows, you need to open Computer Management by clicking on Start and typing in Computer Management. You can also go to Control Panel, then System and Security, then click on Administrative Tools and then click on Computer Management. If you’re in icon view, just click on Administrative Tools.

Now click on Disk Management in the left hand menu and wait for the list of drives and partitions to show up. Next, right-click on Disk Management and choose Attach VHD. In Disk Management, click on the left hand menu and wait for the list of drives and partitions to appear. Next, right-click on Disk Management and choose attach VHD. ..

In the dialog box, click Browse, navigate to the location of the VHD file that you want to mount and then click OK. Note that unless you check the Read-only box, you can add, modify or delete files/folders from the virtual hard drive. This is really useful because you can attach your VHD file, add some more data that you want backed up and then simply detach it.

Once the computer has finished mounting the hard drive, you will see it display as another Basic disk that is colored a light blue. Windows should automatically give it a drive letter, but if not, you can right-click on the part at the bottom where it says Healthy (Primary Partition) and choose Change Drive Letter and Paths.

Once your virtual hard drive is attached, you can browse it, copy data back and forth, etc. ..

To detach the VHD, right-click on the grey area that has the disk name (Disk 2 in my case), volume type (Basic), size, etc. You’ll see the option Detach VHD at the bottom.

Create VHD File

If you’re using a free tool from Microsoft, you can convert your Windows machine into a VHD file. If you’re using Windows, you can create an empty one from within Windows.

To create a VHD file, click on the Create VHD button on the Attach VHD window. This will open a window where you can specify the size of the VHD file, the format and the location. ..

Choosing the VHDX file format is a good idea because it is less prone to corruption and can support larger disk sizes. If you choose VHD file format, it will recommend Fixed size. If you go with VHDX, it will recommend Dynamically expanding. I would leave those settings with the recommended options. Make sure to type in a value for the size of your virtual disk. You can change it to GB or TB if you like using the drop down. ..

In Disk Management, you will see another disk (Disk 2 in my case) that says Not Initialized and Unallocated. In the grey section for the new virtual disk, right-click and choose Initialize Disk.

Which partition format should I use? There are pros and cons to both MBR and GPT, so it’s important to choose the right one for your needs. MBR is more compatible with older versions of Windows, but GPT offers newer features and bigger hard disks. ..

Next, you have to choose the type of storage. You can choose either a hard drive or a virtual disk. You can also choose to create a RAID 0 array if you want. Now, you have to decide how many disks you want to create. You can create as many disks as you need, but it’s best to only create one disk for the new volume. Finally, you have to decide how much data you want to store in the new volume. You can choose anywhere from 1GB up to 10GB of data.

Choose a drive letter to assign to the partition. ..

The virtual hard drive can be used to back up files from your computer. By default, it is set to NTFS, but you can also choose FAT32 if you like. I recommend sticking with NTFS if you are using the virtual hard drive to backup files from your computer.

Now that you have completed the steps in this guide, your hard drive should be listed as healthy in Disk Management. ..

You can backup your computer by copying its data to a drive and then detach it when you’re done. This is the best way to do it, but it may not be the only way. You can also backup your computer by using a VHD as a storage device. If you have any questions, feel free to comment. Enjoy!