VHD

VHD

Virtual Hard Disk. A VHD refers to a file which contains the contents of a virtual hard disk.

Virtual Hard Disk files are used by Windows Virtual PC to hold the contents of the emulated physical disk used by that Virtual PC. They are also used by Windows backup (wbadmin) from Windows Vista and Windows 2008 onwards.

VHD files the the .vhd file extension.

VHD files can be opened (or to use the more technically correct term "mounted") using a Windows Virtual PC. A .vhd file can also be mounted using the "vdhmount" utility from Microsoft, which comes with Microsoft Virtual Server. Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 allow VHD files to be mounted via "Disk Management":  "Computer Management" → Storage → Disk Management, right click Disk Management and the option is there "Attach VHD" to mount a VHD file.

For more information see:

• www.microsoft.com/technet/virtualserver/downloads/vhdspec.mspx - Information about the VHD file format specification from Microsoft.
• http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc708295%28WS.10%29.aspx - Details about how to mount virtual hoard disks at the command line using the "VHD Mount" utility.
• http://arainia.com/software/gizmo/overview.php?nID=4 - Gizmo is a CD/DVD emulator but it also supports loading VHD as though it were a CD/DVD.